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Prefer Newsroom on Google Zain Syed is effusive. The big man approaches Winston Peters, firmly grasps his hand, and wishes him well for the election. Syed is in the Sylvia Park shopping centre concourse looking after his two sons, aged 4 and 2, while his wife browses the clothing labels at the nearby Mirrou boutique. He hasn’t yet confirmed who he’ll vote for, but is planning to read NZ First’s manifesto. “We need to do something, especially about the economy of this country, right? And they have to come up with a very solid plan to move forward – because a lot of people are moving out of New Zealand. ## read more Election 2026 ### NZ First donor seeking major kina quota increase Election 2026 ### Labour outflanks NZ First with a promise for a minerals future “This is not a good sign – we need young people to live here. We can offer them something professionally, so they can develop their skills and career here rather than going overseas.” Pakistan-born Syed and his family have already voted with their feet. The family moved here from Melbourne this year, for his career in hotel management. They like it here and are considering settling and staying; the Australian citizens are looking forward to voting at their first New Zealand elections. If NZ First returns to government, this could be the only time they get to vote here. Peters says the party would change the electoral law to ensure that only New Zealand citizens have the right to vote. Is Syed concerned at that? No. “That’s entirely up to him,” he says. Despite controversy around his immigration policies and racist comments – Peters told MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to “go back to your own country” and that the Chinese “lie like a flatfish” – the NZ First leader receives only warm reactions from shoppers of every ethnicity and nationality at the country’s biggest shopping centre. Zain Syed greets Winston Peters: ‘We need to do something, especially about the economy of this country, right?’ Photo: Jonathan Milne Want to stay across stories like this? Start your day with Newsroom's top stories and analysis in your inbox. Join For Free The 81-year-old walks the kilometre-long mall, from The Warehouse at one end to the Baby Factory at the other, on a busy Thursday afternoon. Backed by candidates Craig Stobo, David Wilson, Vicky Hau and Keegan Langeveld, Peters stops and chats when people approach him, and admired the wares in shiny shop windows. These windows reflect a less lustrous reality for the retail sector today, and the cost of living challenges facing the community more widely. Data from Paymark’s payments network, published this week, shows transactions are down 1.3 percent, year on year. Retail NZ says there will need to be a significant lift in consumer confidence to boost the sector as the country heads into the crucial Christmas sales period. “These figures reinforce what retailers have been telling us: households remain cautious and there simply isn’t a lot of spare money available for discretionary spending,” says Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young. According to the NZIER quarterly survey of business opinion, also published this week, new orders and sales were down the September quarter, and so too profitability. Cost pressures remain “intense” for the retail sector, but weak demand means retailers are unable to fully pass on higher costs by raising prices. Nowhere is this more stark than in Auckland, where spending has dropped for the second month in a row. Though Aucklanders’ household incomes are among the highest in the country, their salaries and wages are immediately soaked by higher rents or the costs to service their mortgages. Stats NZ estimates Auckland’s population at 1.84 million, projected to top 2 million by 2033. That growth is now driven by international migration, with 43 percent of Auckland’s population born overseas. At its pulsing heart is the giant Sylvia Park shopping centre in the suburb of Mt Wellington, at the nexus of New Zealand’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. Howick, Ellerslie, Otāhuhu, Māngere, Onehunga, Mt Roskill … This melting pot mall has something for everyone: hotpots and hearty stews at Biang Biang, noodles and laksa at Hawker & Roll, khao soi curry at Aroy Thai, and spicier options from Eat Indian and Mumbai Express. A third of residents in this central strip of Auckland are Asian, twice the national average. More than a quarter of residents here are Pasifika, two-and-a-half times the average. At this week’s TVNZ leader’s debate, Labour leader Chris Hipkins had criticised National’s Christopher Luxon for failing to sack Peters over comment they both agreed were racist. It seems that’s only firmed up Peters’ view that he too should have a podium at the major leaders’ debates; that he too is a contender for prime minister. “Well, look, we’ve had since 1993 an option called Mixed Member Proportional, which means it’s no longer first past the post,” he tells Newsroom. “So why you’ve got those two leaders in a debate is beyond me. It’s defying the electoral system. It’s defying the political system of our country.” With National and Labour’s combined polling plummeting to unprecedented lows, and NZ First climbing to 12 percent in this week’s Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll, there has been talk that Peters could demand an 18-month stint as prime minister as a condition of a new coalition deal with Luxon. Peter Dunne, the leader of another centre party that worked with both Labour and National at different times, laid out the argument in a Newsroom column. He said NZ First was aiming for a position where Peters could become Prime Minister outright (unlikely) or demand that the role be rotated with National during the coming term. “The model is Ireland where in the current Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition the leaders of each party will serve three years – half the Parliamentary term – as taoiseach (prime minister).” But Peters won’t be drawn on whether he’ll seek such a deal in post-election negotiations, given the chance. “We have a campaign for the votes and the decisions before the election, not the ones after.” NZ First is characterised as anti-immigration – but that depends which migrants they’re talking about. While the party has been outspoken about Chinese migrants (“go back where you come from,” said Peters) and Indian migrants (“a butter chicken tsunami”, said Shane Jones) it is mostly supportive of Pasifika communities. That’s reflected in its newly-released party list. In the top 25 places included on the party’ media release this week were New Zealand-born Cook Islander Alfred Ngaro (ranked number 5), New Zealand-born Samoan candidate Esther Tofilau-Tevaga (18), New Zealand-born Niuean/Tongan Elliot Ikilei (20) and New Zealand-born Tongan Vicky Hau (21). They’re all contesting Auckland electorates. Peters and Jones have close connections across the Pacific; Peters has spent a great deal of time in the islands as a foreign affairs minister and in a personal capacity; so too his deputy Jones who was appointed Pacific Economic Ambassador by the John Key government. They’re particularly close to the Cook Islands, where both men holiday. Napoua Teurukura is from Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. On seeing Peters, she rushes to embrace him. They share the same philosophy, she says afterwards. When she was just 16 years old, she left school and got a job at the Cook Islands Ministry of Works, to support her grandparents. She moved to New Zealand as a 19-year-old for work. She got a job at the Ford Motors assembly plant. Now she’s 62, and looking forward to getting her SuperGold card in a few more years. “Our main focus is our elderly. You know how, when we grow up, they look after us. I think it’s about time for us to look after them,” she says. “And then when this guy stands up, I say, ‘oh my God, somebody cares for our old people.” NZ First promises differing treatment for migrants from Asia, and the Pacific. Peters has announced the party, if elected to government, would crack down on most overstayers by deporting those who have been in New Zealand illegally and preventing them from ever being able to apply for another New Zealand visa. But for Pacific Island overstayers, he’d make an exception: they’d be given two years to apply to remain in New Zealand legally on a valid visa. Hau accompanied Peters on his Sylvia Park walkabout. At one point they came across Paul Hale, a childhood friend of hers who lives in Ōtāhuhu. He was on a day off, out shopping with his wife and three kids and one or two cousins in the school holidays. Paul Hale was on a day off out shopping with his wife, three kids and three nieces and nephews in the school holidays. Photo: Jonathan Milne Hau and Hale aren’t related, but they knew each other so well growing up that he calls her his little sister. “She’s got all me and my family’s votes, my extended family. We’ll be going for Winston and New Zealand First this year,” he says. He particularly likes the policy offering clemency to Pasifika overstayers. “Obviously, with me being an islander, to be honest, I’ve got a lot of family who are overstayers. They’ve been here since they were kids, but they just can’t find work or anything. So we’ve just been supporting them at home.” Vicky Hau, who’s the party’s Māngere candidate, says NZ First is garnering increased support from Pacific Islanders. NZ First’s Māngere candidate Vicky Hau says party’s proposed amnesty for Pacific Island overstayers is appealing to voters. Photo: Jonathan Milne “I think that they can see that New Zealand First has really bold policies that will really help with the cost of living and really help communities like Māngere, Ōtāhuhu and South Auckland. Pacific communities,” she says. “Absolutely, because of our chronic overstayer policy, where if you’re from the Pacific Islands, you have 24 months. We’ll give you an amnesty of 24-month period, where you can come forward and sort out your immigration status. I think that does appeal to a lot of Pacific Islanders.” **Newsroom exists because of readers like you. Help us deliver trusted, independent journalism that serves all New Zealanders.Support our work with a donation today.**

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