Analysis - This weekend's New Zealand First AGM has been about projecting unity, stability and common sense.
Recurring attacks on political opponents and allies alike, and the party's continued focus on its war on woke, may make that a difficult sell for some.
But with the party touting a record attendance of more than 280 delegates and a significant portion of fresh faces in the membership, the messages are clearly resonating with previously untapped corners of the electorate.
The challenge for the leadership will be in ensuring any new factions it attracts play nice. The tensions were on show during the remit debates, where party members vote on policy proposals for consideration to be taken to the next election.
Widespread groans were heard throughout the audience during a vote on one - to reconsider the practicality, effectiveness and cost of the Paris climate accord - as one member stood during one of the remit debates to say climate change was backed by science.
Another member argued the proposal was too weak, and should see New Zealand entirely withdraw from the Paris Agreement, winning loud applause and majority support from those in attendance - the amendment passing.
This was not the only example of some views being jeered at, mocked or shouted down - but the leadership kept a tight lid on such outbursts and kept the debates moving.
Despite leader Winston Peters' frequent criticisms of the mainstream media, his party prides itself on this "democratic" approach and the fact they - unlike other parties - allow media into the remit debates and the majority of the party conference.
The diversity of views was also apparent in the attendance of two former MPs from National and Labour respectively seemingly looking to jump to a new waka.
Stuart Nash - previously a Labour Minister - was a guest speaker, and made clear that although he had not joined as member he did want to return to unfinished business at the Cabinet level.
And he was supporting New Zealand First.
As The Post's Thomas Manch writes, Nash was always right-leaning when in Labour - and since leaving politics has been a vocal critic of his former party, joining the Taxpayers Union and strongly supporting the "golden visa" policy.
Nash says his support for New Zealand First is nothing personal - but that came seconds after describing Chris Hipkins' sacking of him from Cabinet after another misstep - when he was already on a "final warning" - as being "stabbed in the back".
The opposition at the time had been baying for blood, and argued Nash remaining an electorate MP was not enough and he should be ejected from Parliament.
Beyond his complaints about Hipkins, Nash mostly criticised every party in Parliament other than Labour and New Zealand First.
In contrast, Harete Hipango - formerly of National - confirmed she has joined New Zealand First and was attending the convention as a voting member. She said whether she might be considered to contest the election was a matter for the leadership.
Her own exit from politics came at the 2023 election when she was unable to win the Te Tai Hauāuru seat, coming third behind Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Labour's Soraya Peke-Mason. Hipango was National's first candidate for a Māori seat in 21 years, and the party has not held one since 1943.
Her tenure as an MP was not without controversy, though - her attendance at two anti-vaccination rallies during the height of the pandemic and having a staffer edit her wikipedia page were particular flashpoints - with fellow National MPs saying she could be more hindrance than help.
Peters had been adamant the New Zealand First AGM was to be about New Zealand First, and top-ranking MPs Jones and Casey Costello in closing remarks emphasised that members should remember to criticise the issues, not the people.
But the leader spent significant time in his public keynote speech on Sunday lambasting Chris Hipkins, Chlöe Swarbrick, Benjamin Doyle, Rawiri Waititi and Tākuta Ferris.
Jones seemed to stick to his own advice, and criticised his coalition partners' response to rising energy prices, saying he had put forward multiple suggestions on actions they could take beyond simply letting power markets decide the fate of mills and other industry around the country.
His solution - or one of them - appeared to be investigating additional generators for the Kinleith paper mill, powered with woodchips and other byproducts of paper production, but the potential cost to taxpayers and the details of how it would work beyond that were not entirely clear.
Peters also had a few policies to reveal. His big speech outlined plans to make Kiwisaver mandatory and increase employer and employee contributions to 8 percent, then 10 percent. The additional cost this would place on workers and businesses would be covered by tax cuts.
National this term has shown how expensive tax cuts can be. Asked to explain how this would be paid for, how much he expected it to cost, or the timeframes for rolling it out, he either could not or would not.
He also said the party would again campaign on all new migrants having to sign a values statement - not a new policy for New Zealand First.
Like the proposal to exit the Paris agreement, ACT has campaigned on it too - and as Peters was delivering his speech Brooke van Velden in a statement said work was already under way at the Department of Internal Affairs on that.
Asked to respond, Peters said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". He famously traded verbal barbs with David Seymour on debate stages in the 2023 election campaign.
While the call to unity makes perfect sense for holding the party together, the need to distinguish New Zealand First from all the other parties and Peters' signature combative style tend to undermine it.
He is also trying to blend "common sense" and "pragmatic" economic policies with the more anti-woke, anti-globalist, anti-trans and anti-vaccine factions he courted in the last election.
Winston Peters is predicting a massive political victory next year. It's then that voters will cast their verdict on his brand of pragmatism.
Successful policy remits from the AGM include: