Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has accused National of shifting its position on immigration provisions linked to a proposed free trade agreement with India, saying voters are uneasy about the issue.

In an interview with Chris Lynch Media, Peters said National had reacted to public concern. “They have found out from the polls that people are deeply disturbed about this issue, and covertly behind closed doors they’re changing without having even told me, a coalition partner,” Peters said.

Peters, last week said “the immigration policy settings are being made more restrictive in a way which targets India and India alone.”

Peters said he was shocked by a paper he received on the matter and questioned whether India had been told about the change in approach.

“We’ve got to talk about our nation’s reputation to treat another country like that. There is a serious concern, especially a country like India.”

Peters said the proposed agreement lacked balance. “For New Zealand, we get something in the distant future, well, sometimes never, or provisional on later decisions, whilst they get everything on day one. There’s no balance to it, no symmetry.”

He also raised concern about investment obligations in the deal. “The Government, New Zealand’s got to find 34 billion New Zealand dollars, or 3 billion US dollars for the Indian economy and use its best endeavours,” Peters said. “Otherwise, the Indians can maintain certain measures if we don’t use our best endeavours.” Peters said the wording of the agreement mattered.

The New Zealand First leader also hit back at National minister Simeon Brown, who warned voters that backing New Zealand First could put Labour back into government. Brown, who was made National’s campaign chair for the 7 November election earlier this year, has been leading the party’s attack lines against its coalition partners as polling tightens.

Brown said on X that New Zealand First had put Chris Hipkins and Labour into government once before and could do it again, adding that the only vote that guaranteed a National government was a party vote for National.

Peters rejected the claim. “In 2022 we made it very clear we’re never going to go with Labour. He knows it’s four years old now, he knows it’s duplicity when he says something like that, but then again, here’s the point, desperate people say desperate things and they’re desperate.”

On the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild, Peters defended the council’s $15 million contribution, despite public pushback over whether Christchurch ratepayers should also contribute.

Christchurch City Council voted in May to put up the extra $15 million, on the condition that the Crown and the Anglican Church match it.

The project’s cost has been revised to $219 million after earlier blowing out to $248 million, and work has been stalled since 2024 over a $45 million shortfall. National and Labour have both said they won’t commit further government money, with the Crown’s contribution to date sitting at $25 million.

“No, no, the arrangement as it is, the one I got asked to be part of, is that deal. We’ve put up 15 million,” Peters said.

“Christchurch will never be the same until that cathedral was rebuilt. Why? It’s just not a cathedral, it’s not a building, it’s a statement about the Canterbury region, and indeed the South Island.”

Peters said the project should have been finished long ago. “Those things in a symbolic way mean more for a country than mere bricks and mortar. That’s my point. And it should have happened a long, long time ago.”

He said the South Island was outperforming other parts of the country. “Canterbury is a critical part of the South Island. The South Island’s a critical part of New Zealand’s economy. In fact, it’s booming in the South Island far better than it is in the North Island at the moment, and maybe we’ve got a lot to learn from it.”

Peters also said Christchurch should have been hosting the Commonwealth Games. “You guys should have been halfway through the Commonwealth Games at the moment, because of your new building. The National Party blew that as well.”

He said the idea had been raised after Melbourne withdrew. “I spoke to the mayor. He was all for it, and I said, ‘We can get 400 million from Melbourne, because Melbourne’s quit and pulled out.'”

On Lyttelton Port, Peters questioned the unsolicited proposal involving DP World and three Ngāi Tahu rūnanga, saying the issue was not simply who owned the land. The consortium, which calls itself Tōnui, brings together Dubai based logistics giant DP World with Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke, Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri Rūnanga and Te Taumutu Rūnanga.

Its proposal, submitted to Christchurch City Holdings Limited in June, would see CCHL retain ownership of the port’s land while a jointly owned company takes over operations under a long term lease. The Maritime Union has opposed the move, warning it would put a strategic public asset at risk.

“Every time we move cargo in this country, it is an added value component. It’s transport. Now, is that added value component going to our economy or to some foreign economy?”

Peters said the South Island could lose control of a critical economic asset. “The added value component of transport critical to the South Island, critical to Lyttelton, will go to, guess what, a foreign owned enterprise being exploited by Māori.”

He said the rūnanga involvement gave the proposal public legitimacy. “They’re going to get an ongoing commission for having given the deal credence of respectability. That’s why they’re adding their names.”

Peters said the proposal risked dividing the local community. “What you’re doing is you’re splitting your fellow Māori and European in that Christchurch area. That’s what you’re going to do.”

The New Zealand First leader also criticised media coverage of The Opportunity Party.

The party is campaigning on a land value tax of 1.75 percent on urban land and 0.5 percent on rural land, which it says would fund a means tested “citizen’s income” replacing welfare payments including superannuation.

“This is a commentary on how leftist the so called independent media are,” Peters said. He said TOP’s tax policy would hit older homeowners.

“The first taxation will send everybody over 65 broke because they’re going to pay a land tax while they’re occupying their house.”

Peters said TOP was not a centrist party. Peters also questioned the party’s candidate selection, referring to a former Green Party candidate who later joined TOP. “They’ve got prostitutes for candidates that the Green Party wouldn’t have. Now, if the Green Party won’t have a candidate, they’ve really gone wrong,” Peters said.

“They’re left wing, and seriously left wing.” He dismissed recent poll coverage and said New Zealand First would prove critics wrong.

“We’re going to turn these polls into confetti. Stand back and watch.”