New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he was milking cows before even beginning primary school.

Peters says he was farmed out to work for an aunt for a year and a half as a child, then worked for an uncle, while the family also milked at home.

“We used to have 283 cows, and the biggest suppliers to the Northern Wairoa Dairy Company in those days were 12 bales, and so you had to have 12 cups.

“The maximum you could handle is four cups each flat out,” he says.

Peters says the family were also the biggest suppliers to the Hikarangi Dairy Company while share milking in Jordan Valley.

“I’m not boasting about it, I’m trying to remind people that a hell of a lot of people look at you in your suit and they think you don’t know anything about farming.

“Well, I milked my share of cows, I can tell you now.”

Peters says the physical work extended beyond milking.

“I birthed calves when nobody else could put their hand up the back and get the calf, turn the calf’s head around, all those sorts of things you never forget.”

“Whatever I thought about farming was the best training for this job.

“Most people are night people or morning people, and some of them at 10 o’clock at night, it’s like a Le Mans start, can’t get home fast enough.

“Farming was a great background.”

Peters says cost of living, jobs and health are New Zealand First’s paramount concerns heading into the 2026 election.

“I’m not here enjoying myself, but I am on a mission, and we intend to take this election out in 2026.

“I try to tell them when we became the government, you’ve underestimated how bad the economy is.

“We should have deferred the tax cuts on the basis it’s far more serious than you think because in not doing that, we’re actually contributing to inflation now, and we do not want inflation.”

He says New Zealand First is the only party still holding public meetings.

“How can we possibly have an environment in 2026 where parties don’t have public meetings?”

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