14:11

Winston Peters is a controversial figure who has been accused of racism, including by the Greens’ Metiria Turei and ACT’s David Seymour, who called him “a terrible guy”.

When serving as foreign minister in a confidence-and-supply deal with the 2005 Labour government, he caused waves on the international diplomatic scene for his sharp and acerbic comments.

In 1996 he campaigned to close New Zealand’s borders to what he called the “Asian invasion”, and since then he has continued to call for a crackdown on immigration, which he says is the cause of New Zealand’s housing and social problems.

He has frequently bemoaned diversity – “We have now reached the point where you can wander down Queen Street in Auckland and wonder if you are still in New Zealand or some other country” – and labelled New Zealand “the last Asian colony”, saying he was disturbed that Asian people would one day become a majority of the population.

Peters also has a longstanding dislike of journalists, accusing them of being “brainless meerkats”.