New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says his party is preparing a policy aimed at ending what he calls the Waitangi Tribunal grievance industry, arguing elected governments should not be overridden by an unelected tribunal.

Speaking to Chris Lynch Media, Peters said previous attempts to limit the Tribunal process had failed and accused ACT of repeating an approach tried decades ago.

“We’re going to stop this right here, right now,” Peters said.

He said New Zealand First intended to release a policy setting out how it would deal with what he described as the wider Waitangi industry.

Peters said attempts under former Prime Minister Jim Bolger to bring the claims process to an end had not worked.

“Here we are, 12 years on. It hasn’t ended at all.”

He blamed lawyers and others working in the Treaty claims process for helping create what he described as a lucrative industry.

“You’ve got all these claims being made, which is being created by the industry itself, by the lawyers.”

Peters said ordinary Māori had not been the main beneficiaries.

“The people who would benefit would be the elite Māori in making their claims. They would use the names of the great number of Māori, but it would never get down to the ordinary Māori.”

“The government, whether it’s Labour, National, coalition governments, whatever the mandate is, for the time that they’ve got the mandate, they are the authorised, legitimate body. That’s the essence of democracy.”

Peters said an elected government should not be overridden by what he described as an unelected institution.

“Worse still, this is not a court. This is a mere tribunal.”

He also dismissed proposals from Te Pāti Māori to make Tribunal findings binding.

Peters said the issue went beyond whether Tribunal decisions were binding, arguing governments were being dragged into disputes and subjected to damaging publicity through the process.

The New Zealand First leader also defended his party’s policy requiring people to become New Zealand citizens to qualify for NZ Super from 2029.

Asked how much money the policy would save if permanent residents simply became citizens, Peters said saving money was not the purpose.

“If they become citizens, nothing. This is not about saving money.”

He said the policy was instead about the value New Zealand placed on citizenship.

“If you want to be a superannuitant here, then you have to become a citizen, and we’ll give you a grace period to become a citizen.”

Peters said people already receiving NZ Super would be able to retain it if they met the citizenship requirement.

On supermarkets, Peters strongly rejected the Greens’ proposal to bring at least 120 supermarkets into public ownership.

He described the proposal as “straight out communist nationalisation” and said the compensation being proposed would fall well short of the value of the businesses.

Peters said New Zealand First instead wanted greater powers for the Commerce Commission to tackle the supermarket duopoly and protect suppliers and growers.

“We were the first ones to say we’re going to smash the duopoly.”

He criticised previous Labour and National efforts to improve supermarket competition and said the Grocery Commissioner had been given insufficient power.

Asked about Christopher Luxon’s performance as preferred prime minister, Peters declined to assess the National leader.

“It’s not my business. It’s them to choose their leader. That’s the National Party who’s got to answer those questions.”

However, he criticised the way major election debates are structured, saying New Zealand First and other parties were being excluded despite New Zealand operating under MMP.

“We’re not allowed in the main debate.”

Peters said his party would spend the coming weeks campaigning for a much larger share of the vote.

“You’ve had Labour, National, National, Labour, Tweedledum, Tweedledee, Pepsi and Coke managing the decline of our economy.”

He said New Zealand First wanted to double the size of the economy by 2050 and was offering voters a different economic direction.

Peters also rejected National’s plan to give councils $385 million over four years from the International Visitor Levy, saying New Zealand First would continue to push for a bed tax instead.