The Deputy Prime Minister has pointed towards the US Presidential election as an example of why age is not important in politics.

Winston Peters will be celebrating his 75th birthday this weekend. However, the New Zealand First leader is not letting age slow him down, with all signs currently pointing towards another go at re-election later this year.

Peters told The Country's Jamie Mackay that the Americans show that age doesn't have to slow anyone down. 

"If you look at the American Presidential race, they're all older than me, and they're going flat to the bullets to biggest economy in the world.

Some of this ageistic behaviour on behalf of you and your colleagues in the media, you've got to get over. We all want to live for a long, long time." 

Both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, the Democrats vying to take on Donald Trump, are older than Winston Peters, at 78 and 77 respectively. Trump is 73, and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is 80. 

Peters, who was born shortly before the end of World War Two, talked with Mackay about how the Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest global threat he has seen in his lifetime. 

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