Winston Peters has a record of attention seeking grandstanding, especially during election campaigns, so this news should be viewed with that in mind.
In Winston’s world journalists are only reliable when they suit his purposes.
It’s hard to know what he is trying to achieve unless it is discredit the Government he is Deputy Prime Minister of.
Obviously the current Covid outbreak came from somewhere, and a quarantine breach is an obvious possibility, but going public via Australian media is a bizarre way for the Deputy Prime Minister to deal with this information if it is accurate, and nuts if it is false.
NZ Herald: Winston Peters claims Covid-19 cluster linked to quarantine breach
The Deputy Prime Minister Peters reportedly told ABC 24 News he was given the information by a New Zealand journalist, who he said was “usually very reliable”.
“It wasn’t an official, I found out from somewhere else, but I think there’s been a breach inside our quarantine system.
“I think, when that comes out very shortly, in a matter of maybe less than a day, we’ll find out that was the case. But you don’t always find out from your officials.
“You don’t always find out from the experts. It’s something you sort of find out by contact with other people.”
“I don’t know where this quarantine breach may have happened, but I think you can eliminate it being some new strain of Covid-19 that hitherto my country hadn’t seen.
“In Melbourne’s case, of course, it was – how shall I say it without being too critical? – pretty slack oversight and supervision, where it was put in the hands of private industry, which was a disaster. In our case, we got the army in early enough to know that that wouldn’t have been the problem. But there’s been a breach, and we’ll find out in a matter of hours, or within a day.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said they have not seen what Peters had said, but “no connection between managed isolation and these cases has been established at this point”.
If someone from National tried a stunt like this right now they would be hammered by media and by opponents.
The ABC interview is here:
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/afternoon-briefing
This social media campaign today looks like a joke:
Your NZ 
John J Harrison
/ 13th August 2020I cannot abide this MP.
But in this case I believe he is telling the truth.
It most certainly did not come in on a frozen pack of peas.
The disease was never “ eradicated “ as two passengers had it on arrival in SYD from AKL and neither her nor Bloomfield could provide an answer as to how that happened.
Ardern will try and deflect , frown and wave her hands but she will have to eventually admit that her “ lockdowns “ are ineffective and ruiness for our once thriving economy.
Like all socialists she will NEVER admit that she was wrong in her dictates.
Blazer
/ 13th August 2020You would not know a Socialist if they knocked you out..cold.
Tell me what you believe in…and how it has shaped your life.
Jack
/ 14th August 2020Still not retired Mr Blaze?
I got knocked out cold by Socialists more times than I could count.
Trouble is, they’re only socialist in spirit when it suits them. The rest of the time they hate to be wrong and will do anything to protect their individual ‘integrity’. Those are the secret socialists.
So with Socialists it’s always a double whammy. Their love is for crowd acolade and their disrespect is toward the servant hearted individual.
Waking up is one way to begin reshaping your life.
It seems to me that Ms Ardern is dishonest. She appears to have too much to lose – a Socialist.
Duker
/ 13th August 2020Key had the same trait of ‘never admitting he was wrong’….does that make him a socialist?
Jack
/ 14th August 2020Yes, the secret kind
John J Harrison
/ 13th August 2020Blazer, you have mistaken me for someone who takes you seriously.
Blazer
/ 13th August 2020Not at all….the irony is that you take yourself ..seriously.
Jack
/ 14th August 2020Perhaps JH is that kind too!
Lots of irony with Socialism.
I like the middle Kiwi ground. Sharing, caring, quiet working hard, not needing the crowd’s approval… B….
Un-ironic Socialism is not too serious…very Kiwi too.
I took you seriously B…for once…
Pete George
/ 13th August 2020This is better journalism: Nearly two-thirds of Auckland’s COVID-19 border, isolation staff had never been tested a week ago
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/nearly-two-thirds-of-nz-s-covid-19-border-isolation-staff-had-never-been-tested-a-week-ago.html
Duker
/ 13th August 2020Gorman has been a constant critic, not usually right either.
Patzcuaro
/ 13th August 2020It beggars belief that they werent being tested weekly
Patzcuaro
/ 13th August 2020This is scandalous, National should get its teeth into the lack of testing of quarantine staff and forget about the conspiracy theories.
Pete George
/ 13th August 2020Duker
/ 13th August 2020The next few days will show whether he was hot air or the strident criticism of him was unfounded and Peters will get some abject apologies?… That’s fair isn’t it.
Sachdeva should know about journos having some very good confidential sources ….but only the media are allowed to use them, anyone else can’t interfer with the ‘special people’ prerogeratives with getting a serve .
Geoffrey
/ 13th August 2020Prediction. PM will call out Peters only if the election has NOT been postponed. Peters’ VOTE is needed, even if he says stupid things, for as long as this administration remains in office. If the parliament is dissolved at the expected time, Peters will be consigned to the scrap heap of curiously powerful but in effective MPs.
Peters is a trougher of the first order and his manipulation that allowed this totally unprepared collection of parties to govern is a damning indictment of MMP
Blazer
/ 13th August 2020Peters is easily the most influential NZ politician in the last 30 years..bar none.
Pete George
/ 13th August 2020Really? What significant policies the have been implemented has he been responsible for? Or do you mean influential in preventing things from being implemented?
Helen Clark has been far more influential, as has John Key.
In the current term Jacinda Ardern has influenced the world far more than Peters, despite him being Foreign Affairs minister.
Patzcuaro
/ 13th August 2020Maybe for the racing and fishing industries but that is about it.
Geoffrey
/ 13th August 2020Lots of influence: no real effect.
Duker
/ 13th August 2020No real effect?
John Key
Bill English
Stephen Joyce
Paula Bennett
Nikki Kaye
And all the dead wood from national in the past 3 years….the list of those who gone and no one remembers they were there is even longer
Pete George
/ 14th August 2020All of them have been more influential and achieved more in Government than Peters this century, some of them substantially so. You haven’t backed up your claim, instead you have done your usual and diverted to dissing your favourite political targets.
Geoffrey
/ 13th August 2020I thought the discussion was about WP and his lack of contribution to the common good.
Duker
/ 13th August 2020Influential politicians …virtually all are inconsequential.
Look at English , very long career, personal ambition is his only achievement, Not too different to Peters in many ways who would get the Peter Sellers award for Being There