Wednesday, 14 January 2026 09:45

Famous last words

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: With Winston Peters playing politics with the PM's Indian FTA, all eyes will be on Labour who have the casting vote.

Your old mate reckons Chris Hipkins can't credibly block a deal as good as this one, but he'll have to eat humble pie to vote 'yes'.

During an election debate, Hipkins once laughed at Luxon's promise to secure an Indian FTA within his first term in government.

He later accused the PM of reversing our nuclear free stance by negotiating with India and said he didn't want an FTA achieved at the expense of "selling out large parts of New Zealand's economy".

And on Labour's recent "disappointment" that Luxon's deal excludes dairy, when last in power, Labour trade spokesman Damien O'Connor admitted getting "huge volumes of dairy" into India was "never realistic" during their term.

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