New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says years of politicians championing diversity have opened the door to migrants who reject the country’s core values.

Speaking to Chris Lynch Media in the final days of the election campaign, Peters was asked what he meant when he said unity, not diversity, was New Zealand’s strength.

Politicians had spent years “going on about diversity, diversity, diversity” and used it to justify an open immigration policy, he said.

“Many coming do not sign up to our flag, do not sign up to democracy, do not sign up to the right to worship the god of your choice, and they do not sign up to equality of women. Right away you’ve got people who should not be coming here on that very one basis,” Peters said.

Successful economies such as those in Scandinavia had different peoples but were bound by a shared cultural purpose of economic and social progress, he said.

New Zealand, by contrast, had become a country of “hyphenated New Zealanders”, Peters said, listing Scottish, Irish, Chinese and Indian New Zealanders.

He recalled New Zealanders greeting new arrivals almost as soon as they stepped off the boat by asking what they thought of the country.

“They were proud of what we’d got together and made,” he said.

All aboard for Christchurch

Peters also urged Christchurch commuters to back the new rail service between Rolleston and Christchurch.

“Get on the Common Sense Express. We’re going to run this train for you. Get on it,” he said.

The service would save commuters about 20 minutes compared with driving, he said.

Asked whether he was confident enough people would use it, Peters said: “Of course I’m not. But I’m going to give it a chance rather than waste all the money on a review and 30 years later tell you what we’re not going to do.”

He had told the mayor not to build a “Taj Mahal” of a station like Auckland’s, but something that would last.

Councils needed to agree to share the cost because the service only made sense for them, he said, and the rail operator had been told the trains must always leave on time.

The government wanted to extend passenger rail to Invercargill, and Peters said he was stunned to hear the city’s mayor had pushed back on contributing.

“We’re asking you for a million dollars to put a passenger service on to Invercargill and you’re not going to grab it with both arms? I can’t believe what I just heard,” he said.

Peters also had a theory for why the South Island was pulling ahead of the North.

“It’s colder down the South Island. They think more clearly in the cold than we do in the north. It’s that simple,” he said.

“Where’s the dignity?”

Peters took aim at rivals’ campaign stunts, including flipping burgers during a cost of living crisis, petting dogs for television and holding babies.

“Where’s the dignity? Where’s the position? We have principles,” he said.

He had told the mainstream media they had turned the campaign into a circus.

“You are responsible as much for this as the politicians who’ve got no class,” he said.

Peters also questioned a rival’s marathon claim, saying the distance had gone from the full 42.2km to 11km, and then 8km.

With four days left, Peters said New Zealand First had packed halls with tens of thousands of people and grown its social media following by campaigning the old fashioned way.

Relying on the mainstream media would have seen the party marginalised and shut out, he said.