{"id":554852,"date":"2026-08-01T15:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/554852\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:36:17","slug":"if-i-could-say-one-thing-to-winston-peters-it-would-be-please-dont-use-mean-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/554852\/","title":{"rendered":"If I could say one thing to Winston Peters, it would be: please don\u2019t use mean words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intellectual disability advocate Dianne Pelvin describes what it felt like to hear NZ First leader Winston Peters call the Greens \u2018retarded\u2019 this week<\/a>, and then double down when challenged on his use of the term.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 53. I have two brothers and a sister, and both my oldest brother and I have an intellectual disability. We were born with it, but we don\u2019t know what it is. I went through mainstream schooling \u2013 I wasn\u2019t put into a special school or special classes or anything, and neither was he. Same in high school. But I found it quite hard. I was bullied a lot, growing up. Not so much as an adult but I have heard of and seen other people with intellectual disabilities being bullied. That name \u2013 retard \u2013 it\u2019s not nice. It shouldn\u2019t be used by anybody. Not even a politician.<\/p>\n

When I was at school and kids used that word on me, it really upset me. It\u2019s not just disrespectful, it\u2019s like labelling someone. Nothing was done about it at school. Teachers looked the other way. I didn\u2019t really get bullied so much once I left. I didn\u2019t start working until 2000, and I did a lot of courses in between. I was accepted as an individual. Some of the adults were more understanding than children. Kids just see the surface and follow whatever they see other kids doing. Or see their parents do it and follow suit, so there needs to be more education everywhere.<\/p>\n

People say words can\u2019t hurt you. That\u2019s not true. They can. They can very much. They can be more hurtful than a punch in the arm or a punch in the face. When I heard someone [Winston Peters] that powerful use that word, I felt disgusted. Disgusted and upset. He should have been pulled up for it. He shouldn\u2019t get away with saying he didn\u2019t know better \u2013 he\u2019s been around a long time, he would have gone to school with people with disabilities at some point. It\u2019s totally disgusting. We are people. We\u2019ve got a disability, an intellectual disability, but we are people. Have you heard the phrase \u201clabels are for jars, not people\u201d? That\u2019s something we say a lot. Labels are for jam jars, not people.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been an advocate for over 20 years now. I\u2019ve seen some things improve. High school students are pretty good \u2013 I haven\u2019t heard them using \u201cdumb\u201d or \u201cretard\u201d. That word makes me feel like I can\u2019t do anything, even though I know I can. I can do stuff. I\u2019m talented in my own way. I held down a job at Idea Services doing advocacy for 12 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I live in an Idea Services flat in Christchurch and I support people to speak up and talk to their house manager or the other staff. I\u2019ve done a bit of teaching for people with intellectual disabilities. I used to teach an old gentleman computers but he\u2019s not around anymore. I\u2019ve been involved in projects with Donald Beasley Institute in Dunedin and have been on a number of committees and now am working for Idea again, for about three years now. In my new role I mentor a lot of people, I teach them to have a voice, I\u2019m on a number of committees and the chief executive advisory group, the disabled employee network. So I\u2019m busy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like. Unless you\u2019ve grown up with a sibling who has an intellectual disability, or a disability yourself, or you\u2019ve had an accident and ended up with one, you have no idea what it\u2019s like. It can be quite hard. A lot of people with disabilities don\u2019t hold a driver\u2019s licence. It\u2019s improving. We\u2019ve been advocating for accessible facilities too \u2013 making things easier to get into for people in wheelchairs so people can\u00a0 get around and take part in their community without needing support. I have seen heaps of improvement on that.<\/p>\n

If I could say one thing directly to Winston Peters, it would be this: please don\u2019t use any mean words like that. It discredits us. We\u2019re not retards. We\u2019re not dumb. We\u2019re people.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d ask him \u2013 how would you like it? To be labelled. To be labelled as a retard or dumb? You wouldn\u2019t like it. That\u2019s how I feel. And I know a lot of people with intellectual disabilities would agree with me.<\/p>\n

\u2013As told to Henry Oliver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Intellectual disability advocate Dianne Pelvin describes what it felt like to hear NZ First leader Winston Peters call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69,12242,2935],"class_list":["post-554852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nz-first","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}