PRESS RELEASES

 

“Losing Our Birthright”

Rt. Hon Winston Peters Leader NZ First
24th July 2010

Public Meeting, St. Patricks Hall, Panmure, Auckland
Sponsored by MountainsideFM 88.3FM

It’s good to be back in Panmure and thanks for coming. 

Panmure once had a bottle neck of traffic crossing the old bridge to Pakuranga until a new one was built in the early seventies.   That I remember with affection because I worked on the new bridge and for a while was the Laborers’ Union Delegate during the summer holidays.  It helped pay the costs of law school.   The day after becoming the union delegate the Italian company offered me a job in the office.  I declined knowing that on day one I’d be in the office, and the union would need a new delegate, and on day two I could be fired from the office.   The companies appalling industrial practices would continue.  Sometimes you can smell a rat a mile off.

But we’re here today to talk about the serious threats we face to our land, to our beaches and to New Zealand assets.

The course of New Zealand history is about to change or more correctly, revert back to further attempts at past failed policies.   

We are gradually losing our sovereignty and the right of New Zealanders to own our land, our shores and our economy.  Unless we act soon future generations will curse us for what we let this National-led government do to our country.

SELLING OFF OUR LAND
First – much of our country is being sold off to overseas interest’s right under our nose.

Foreign interests are speeding up their campaign to gain more than a foothold over the dairy industry – the jewel in New Zealand's economic crown.

For years NZ First has been warning New Zealanders about the dire consequences of unchecked foreign ownership of land and other strategic assets.   Sadly those warnings have gone largely unheeded.

Now it seems that the collapse of the Crafar dairy farms empire has finally brought it home to people just how urgent the issue of foreign ownership is.  The Crafar fiasco means that 16 farms in just one sale could easily end up being owned overseas.   They will be added to all the other land alienated from local ownership.

More than 150,000 hectares has been lost to foreign ownership over the past five years alone.

Why is this wholesale alienation of so much of our country happening? 

We should put no confidence in the Overseas Investment Office, which sounds important but is really a handful of people with a large rubber stamp.

Land ownership is not a two way street.
For example:             Japanese can buy our land but we are not allowed to buy theirs.
Chinese can buy our land but we are not allowed to buy theirs.
They are not to blame, we are.

Where is our Prime Minister on this critical issue?   Well, he has said he is “concerned”.  Fantastic!.  What leadership!   The Government has no actual policy – just some mumbled words – a bit of spin but no commitment or determination to stop much of our country being sold.   This level of irresponsibility borders on economic treason.   Selling our land to absentee foreigners, in nearly all the examples available, creates nothing – it adds no value, it does not lead to more jobs.   What it does mean is that much of the fruit of our land – the profits – goes abroad.   This is not an economic policy – it is madness.

Look at the countries where there is large scale foreign ownership.   Without exception they are economic basket cases and their people exist to serve their foreign masters.

The foreign ownership of NZ companies and land is a great hole in our economic bucket.   Just twenty five years ago 19% of our share market was foreign owned.   Today that 19% has become 70%.   Unless we stop this we will be strangers in our own land.   And our children and their children will curse the silly, naive generation who sold their legacy because, as the numbers show, the loss of our companies and land to overseas ownership is ongoing and regressive.  If we do not draw a line and stop this creeping alienation the fate of so many of us is assured – as landless and share less peasants.  There will be more and more Crafar scenarios and company takeovers in the future unless action is taken now.   Chances are you, the public, will never hear about them.

NZ First has always fought the takeover of New Zealand and when we are back in Parliament we will change government policy and start taking our country back.   We will impose strict limits to absentee foreign ownership of land and company share ownership, and use the Superannuation Fund to start buying strategic assets back.

FORESHORE AND SEABED
Now to the foreshore and seabed, a priceless jewel now owned by all the people of New Zealand in the form of the Crown.

You see our sovereignty over our waters is about to change as well.  So much nonsense has been spouted on this issue that the facts have been drowned by political spin doctors and separatists with a keen eye on the main chance.  The most basic fact of all is that today the foreshore and seabed is owned by the Crown on behalf of all New Zealanders.   This has always been the legal situation and confirmed by acts of Parliament.

Let us be very clear.   The 2004 Foreshore and Seabed legislation did not take one square metre of property off anybody - it simply confirmed that ALL New Zealanders owned the foreshore and seabed.   This ownership extended to everything – including mineral rights – and any benefits commercial or otherwise were supposed to go to the people.

The foreshore and seabed legislation does not include the fish in the water.  They are covered by Fisheries Law.  They are a separate issue.

But soon the foreshore and seabed will belong to “nobody”.   New Zealanders will lose much of their birthright in a cynical ploy to keep the National government in power.  Gradually this part of New Zealand will be opened to claims of customary title and general Treaty claims.  The Maori Land Court can make customary title into freehold title.

The purpose of the Maori Land Act, which the court administers, is to "promote the retention of (Maori) customary land in the hands of its owners, their whanau, and their hapu, and to facilitate the occupation, development, and utilisation of that land for the benefit of its owners".  That is fine for the land.

But what do proposed changes mean for the Foreshore and Seabed?  
Proposed changes which the National Party never mentioned before the last election.   
Proposed changes which the Maori Party in 2008 never campaigned on.   
It means that existing Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed will pass into the history books.   Much of New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed will be effectively privatised and pass into the hands of one group of New Zealanders – courtesy of the Maori Land Court.   It is the biggest change to publicly owned property in our recent history.   Where customary title is not granted, coastal Maori may gain control by rights of veto or access.

And sadly – there's more.

What happens to the wealth of minerals, oil, and gas below the foreshore and seabed?

The National Party is dreaming if they think their changes will not eventually lead to much of the foreshore and seabed being controlled by coastal corporate Maori and warring iwi factions who will spend the next hundred years fighting over it and lodging countless Treaty claims.   If the current trend is not checked we can see a day in the future where many New Zealanders will be working for foreign owned farms, foreign owned businesses and for Maori corporate coastal interests.

The Great Migration from New Zealand will continue.   Thousands of ordinary New Zealanders will go on fleeing to Australia or beyond, leaving behind groups of foreign owners and Treaty travelers.   Look at the latest figures showing Kiwis fleeing to Australia in droves.

This issue is not the fault of ordinary Maori.

In just 20 years the majority of Maori fishing benefits have already passed into Non Maori hands. 

If you are Maori, put your hand up.
Which one of you got even one snapper from the process?

You have been deceived and lied to about ownership of the foreshore and seabed.

There has never been a court ruling that said Maori owned the foreshore and seabed.  Nearly all of our countries 200 mile limit came to us by International Treaty.

The court judgment in the Ngati Apa case, in Marlborough, said that some Maori might have a case but it could not think of any case that might succeed.   Ngati Apa’s case should have been fixed.  But not this way.

Ordinary Maori will get nothing from the new property grab – the spoils will go to the unelected leaders and fatcats.

Do not think for one minute that public access to the beaches, the foreshore and seabed will not change.   It will change under race-based private ownership.  There will be no public consultation.   There will be nobody representing the public interest at the Maori Land Court.

And another fact that everybody keeps brushing under the carpet.   The Maori Land Court judge who first came up with this ownership is now a high up official in the Maori Party and its main adviser on the foreshore and seabed.

New Zealanders protested against mining in our conservation estate.   National's proposals for mineral exploitation in our state parks are dwarfed by the race-based privatisation of our foreshore and seabed.

You are simply not being told the truth about this issue.   Because there is a worst case scenario that nobody dares talk about in public. And that is who will eventually own the foreshore and seabed.

If a government is stupid and treasonous enough to allow the sale of prime dairy farms to Chinese interests, it will most certainly allow chunks of the coast and seabed to be sold off.

Once it is privatised it will be gone forever.   And only Maori will be permitted, under law, to take part in this privatisation.

NZ First regards it as our duty to keep reminding New Zealanders about these issues.   Let's keep them out in the open so that everyone knows what is going on.

And we must again remind you to look at what governments do and not what they say!   Since this National-led government and its cling-ons came to power it has thrown open the doors to separatists and Treaty travellers.

Look at the record. On Waitangi Day this government allowed the Maori Party's separatist flag to fly alongside the New Zealand flag.   A Maori Flag that less than 1000 Maori got to have a say on.   Thousands of New Zealanders – of all races - who died under the New Zealand flag to uphold freedom and democracy are trampled on by political expediency.

Then, the National government allowed the Maori Party co-leader to sneak off to the United Nations to sign a declaration on indigenous peoples' rights.   Previous governments had been advised not to sign this declaration because it opened the door for separatist decisions at every level of government.   The National Party never told you of this before the last election. 

And you might have noticed it is busy lighting fires under other issues to provide a smokescreen to cover its infamy.   John Key and his henchpeople are happy to have the media and the public arguing about the venue for the Rugby World Cup because it takes the heat off more important issues.

THE AUCKLAND SUPERCITY- PRIVATISATION
Within a few weeks nominations will close for the Auckland Super City.   When the Super City starts in October, 70% of its real business will be controlled by, not the new Super City, but appointees of Government.   That’s why the man in the yellow jacket has gone quiet.  He and John Key are counting on you not knowing until it’s too late.

This change is not about democracy but about the assets which the Super City will then own. Those assets are well in excess of $30 Billion.   You own them now, but will you own them in the future?

Take your water supply for example.   Changes to the Local Government Act 2002 now ease the way to privatise Water Services by changing the provisions for Contracting Out and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).   They are occurring in a vacuum of information and in the absence of an independent investigation in to the pricing practices of NZ’s seven private water supply contracts.   Contracting out is extended from 15 years to 35 years and councils are no longer required to control the management of the service. 

What this means is:

1. Benefit of ownership and control disappears from the real owner, you the ratepayer, for half a lifetime
2. Ownership transfer in all but title will occur
3. Councils will have shed or lost capacity, experience and skills to confront a private contractor price gouging, to construct a case in contract law to break the contract, and to provide the personnel to again run the supply themselves.
4. Privatised objectives are reached in secret.

 
Is this just words without substance?  Answering that question is not difficult. 

New Zealand’s recent Experience of Privatisation is not good.

1. Take Power. The rising cost plateau promised in the 1998 changes in fact resulted in costs sky rocketing
2. Take Telecommunications.  Since privatisation in 1990 New Zealander’s have been the victims of 20 years of price gouging
3. Take Banking.  Since the sale of BNZ, a tax payer owned bank in 1992, bank costs have sky rocketed
4. Take Railways.  New Zealanders were robbed on the sale of a then profitable NZ Rail in July 1993, and victimized again when the soon bankrupt service had to be purchased back in the name of the tax payer.
5. Take Air New Zealand.  A similar story.  Privatised, then soon belly up, and again rescued by a buy back by the tax payer.

A local government New Zealand representative has described water control as “a bit of a non issue”.   Really?  Which planet has he been living on because it can’t be this one.   Worldwide from Australia to France this form of water control has seen numerous disasters with rate payers and tax payers having to bail out the operations and buy back full ownership.   In every case at significant loss.

However, the real issue for all politicians and public servants is this. 
If privatisation is your pleasure then why not ask the owners to decide. They happen to be the rate payer, tax payer and most certainly neither Mr Hide nor My Key.  In short, why is this issue not going to a local referendum rather than decided behind closed doors which has always been an invitation to corruption?

Make no mistake NZ First is coming back to stop this nonsense but it won’t be until next year.  Until then we must keep on mobilising the people of New Zealand and Auckland to stand firm against the theft of their heritage.

This disastrous history of change began 25 years ago when Parliament abandoned people in favour of blind ideology.

We urge you – whatever your political beliefs – not to let this government go on taking your future away.

Past generations kept our coastline and sea for us, kept control of our economy for us, built and kept our assets for us. kept alive the hope that we might one day be a united country able to confront and match the best in the world.   kept these things for future generations.

Today here in Panmure, less than 3 months from the local body elections, and less than one year from the next general election surely we cannot accept anything less

ENDS
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“WHAT JOHN KEY'S LETTER DID NOT SAY”

Nelson Suburban Club, 9th July 2010, Time; 2pm
Rt. Hon Winston Peters Leader NZ First

Thank you for your invitation to speak here in Nelson.
It is a chance to talk about some of the issues you face but the main topic is a letter that you received recently.  It was written by a team of spin doctors, signed by the Prime Minister John Key, and paid for by the taxpayers.   It outlines in glowing terms the financial heaven you will all be living in after tax cuts and an increase in super on the 1st of October.  In fact – from that letter we could think that you will never have it so good!  The letter speaks glowingly of the Budget. Surprise surprise!  Apparently the tax system is being changed, reduced across the board, becoming fairer and people are being encouraged to save.
And it says....”We are boosting New Zealand Superannuation and the Veterans” Pension to FAIRLY compensate for the GST rise.”   The boost actually is just over two percent.    Like – you are getting 2.02 percent to compensate for the GST rise?
We don’t know how this princely sum was calculated.
Hold on....
The 2010 Budget states quite clearly that prices will go up just under SIX percent as a result of the Budget itself.   And remember – inflation will add more – so you could be realistically looking at price increases of eight to ten percent.   Power bills are going up, rates are increasing and the situation is looking grim for elderly people on fixed incomes.   Because – and this is very important – the prime minister's spin doctors forgot to mention that the way superannuation is calculated has already been changed to actually reduce it.   As a result of that change you are already losing more than two percent.   And on top of that you are always playing catch up with the pension.
Now the prime minister said in his letter he was going to be fair.   This is how fair he is going to be.    His take home state paid prime minister's salary will go up roughly $300 a week as a result of the tax cuts.  That is just below the amount that a single pensioner gets to live on.   That is fair according to the prime minister.
Now, this may scare you but whatever understanding or expectation you have about your pension, don’t take it for granted.
New Zealand superannuation is an entitlement and right now throughout the developed world governments are lighting bonfires under entitlements.   Globally, in the developed world, we are witnessing the passing of what might be called “the age of entitlement” and the emergence of the era of austerity.   Like back in the days of the Great Depression.    So if you currently receive a state pension or you expect to get one, take nothing for granted.    Do not assume that superannuation is somehow sacrosanct.
To understand why New Zealand First puts so much emphasis on the need for great vigilance over superannuation, we need to look at what is happening out there in voodooland.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 triggered the global financial crisis – and – we are not out of the danger zone yet.    The response to the crisis has taken a number of distinctive shifts.
The first response was the phase of the “open cheque book” when governments spent unbelievable sums saving institutions deemed too big to fail.   The order of the day was – spend – spend –spend.   Of course that could not last – a point of fiscal saturation was soon reached.   Now, in the face of massive government debt, predictably the pendulum has swung 180 degrees.    In contrast to that initial splurge, the mood has switched to restraint, cost cutting and austerity.
The recent G20 meeting of world leaders in Toronto made it very clear the way the wind is blowing.    The gods of the financial markets are disenchanted with debt and the market will punish any country seen as failing to bring its fiscal house into order.    Debt reduction is the order of the day.   Already in some countries, such as the UK, they are talking openly about cuts so profound as to change Britain’s “whole way of life.”    The recent British budget was the most draconian peace time budget ever and there is now talk of a worst case scenario of government spending cuts of up to 40 percent in some areas.
Back here in New Zealand let's go to another part of the John Key letter.   And I quote ... “the...government is careful to spend money wisely and we are on track to rein in growing debt”.   Let us repeat that last bit... “we are on track to rein in growing debt”.    Translation ....we are going through a slash and burn exercise over social spending (but I am fortunately getting an extra $300 a week).
The slash and burn exercise will follow the report of the Welfare Working Group which was set up in April and is supposed to report in December.   It was established to undertake an expansive and fundamental review of New Zealand’s welfare system. The group’s primary task is to identify how to reduce long-term welfare dependency.  
Superannuation is supposed to be outside the scope of the Welfare Working Group but one of the advisers to the group – a Professor Peter Saunders of Australia who holds very strong views on welfare has let the cat out of the bag.  In his notes for a welfare forum only last month he said that any review of the welfare system should include pensions.   Remember, this man was appointed by the Social Welfare minister.   He also said ...
“to the extent that cost is driving the concern to reform welfare, it is impossible to exclude two other major sets of payments from our overview. (pensions and family support)
Even when age pension payments are means-tested, as in New Zealand and Australia, they remain hugely expensive, and with an ageing population there is a clear need both to re-think the retirement age .... and to encourage or require workers to set aside a portion of earnings on their own personal accounts..... Personal savings accounts are potentially an important instrument for increasing people’s sense of responsibility for their own welfare, not only when it comes to retirement planning, but also in areas like further education and training, unemployment insurance, short-term sickness cover and health.”
So there you have it. The issues that John Key's letter did not talk about.   The end of any sort of pretence of a fair deal for all New Zealanders.
He used the words “means tested”. Superannuation in this country is not means tested. Do we detect a freudian slip?
Of course, everyone recognises that government spending should eliminate waste but here in New Zealand we can weather any storm if we are sensible and fair.
It is not fair for the elderly to suffer a real drop in income and a cut in services while the prime minister gets an extra $300 a week.
There are strong forces in this country and overseas that want the government to both cut pensions and lift the age of entitlement.   In our opinion the ground is already being prepared for this.
And it is important to look at what political parties actually DO rather than what they SAY.    Over the past thirty years National has a track record of reducing superannuation payments.    In the early nineties the Bolger government failed to meet its election commitment and left Labour's infamous surtax intact.   Worse than that National put the surtax up and at its most onerous imposition it reached 92 cents in the dollar.   It lifted the age of eligibility and reduced the level of payments through a variety of mechanisms.   New Zealand First abolished the surtax as part of the coalition agreement in 1996.   But in 1998 the Shipley government with a certain finance minister called Bill English reduced super to 60 percent of the net average wage. (NZ First got it back up again to 66 percent in 2006)
And don’t forget – in its very first Budget last year National stopped contributions to the Cullen fund.   We supported the establishment of this fund to soften the impact of the retirement of the baby boomers.  National stopped contributions. That should make every person nearing the age of 60 or more very, very afraid.
So make no mistake National will eventually reduce superannuation payments, lift the age of eligibility or reintroduce some draconian cost cutting measure against the elderly.   The only question is the method.
Internationally, all sorts of measures that were until very recently deemed to be ‘unthinkable’ or ‘politically impossible’ are emerging as real possibilities.    In Greece, the Government is proposing to cut the basic state monthly pension by 10 percent.   That cut will be in addition to a freeze on pension cost of living adjustments and raising the retirement age.
Austerity - that is now the context - the climate in which decisions affecting public pensions are being made.
We would like to think that decisions affecting matters like superannuation would be taken with due regard for compassion, decency and fairness.    What we fear will happen will be a softening up campaign.   Deficit reduction and fiscal consolidation will be the order of the day.    There is likely to be a lot of coded messages and signals – lots of talk about ‘unsustainability’.
Do not expect John Key or his ministers to say openly that they consider those on the state pensions to be a burden on the taxpayer.   Initially, that will only be insinuated and implied.    And reductions in the value of your superannuation do not have to take the form of outright cuts.   It will be undermined for example, by allowing its real purchasing power to be eroded.    There are a whole host of sneaky, underhand, technical ways your superannuation can be ‘adjusted’ to cut its real value to the retired.    Alternatively cutbacks could be pushed through under the cover of a ‘crisis’ or ‘emergency’    Remember that in our system all it needs is a simple parliamentary vote to change superannuation.
Inevitably, once governments start talking of reducing the size of public spending then realistically nothing can be off the table.   We have not arrived at such a point yet – with an election in sight next year - but it could occur at short notice.
So the fundamental issue New Zealand faces is this:   Do we move forward making rational responses to the economic circumstances that confront us or do we abandon the principle that we are all in this together and allow some groups, such as the retired, to be marginalised?    Sadly this is already happening.
There is more sneaky stuff going on behind the scenes.   Like cutting services to the elderly.   District health boards are reducing home help because of financial restrictions imposed by the government.   This government always likes other institutions to do its dirty work.   That way it can say that the district health boards cut the service – and not the government.   But all around the country, vulnerable old people are being exposed to severe impediments to the state of their wellbeing.   It is a known fact that our senior citizens do best in their own homes and they should be allowed to stay in them as long as possible.   Our seniors also don’t want to be a burden on society.   But in many cases their families have had to move elsewhere – even overseas – to get jobs.   So, a few hours help a week for those who need it is an important and inexpensive social service.   It is better than a fall – a broken hip – and months in hospital at huge expense!   But as John Key said recently – and did not include in his letter - do not be envious about those achievers getting big tax cuts.
Now what can you do about all this?
New Zealand First has always been the only party standing with senior citizens against the forces of economic expediency and self interest.
Just by making this speech today we are warning this government not to hurt the lives of people who have made their contribution and deserve dignity in retirement.
So, be aware, be vigilant, look out for each other and make sure you vote New Zealand First next year.
When the big battle comes we will be on your side.
We always have been.
ENDS

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EDUCATE NEW ZEALANDERS FIRST SAYS PETERS

18 June 2010

New Zealand First has called on the government to ensure that young people qualified for university study are not cast aside in favour of fee-paying overseas students.

This follows a report that places at many popular universities will be restricted next year to students who gain top marks at high school - a move which could stop up to 3500 young people studying where they want.
From next year admission rules at Auckland, Massey, Victoria and Otago universities, will become tougher as the institutions raise entry standard levels in all of the courses they offer.

Rt Hon Winston Peters said today that it would be of serious concern if qualified students missed out on tertiary study because they had an “absolute right” to gain qualifications.

“New Zealand desperately needs a well educated and trained workforce. Our whole future depends on the young people of today getting the very best educational opportunities.

“It does not make sense to train and educate overseas students while our own bright young people are condemned to waiting on tables, cleaning motel rooms or making overseas visitors cups of coffee.

“If students do not make the grade, then they should not receive endless educational opportunities but those who are qualified and prepared to work should get every chance.”

Mr Peters pointed out that the present Minister of Tertiary Education proved that he could succeed at university, given a chance, and he should look at his own case before condemning bright young people to a life of servitude.

ENDS   

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“Actions Speak Louder than Words”

Rt. Hon Winston Peters, Leader NZ First
Address to: Hibiscus Coast Grey Power AGM,
St Johns Catholic Church Hall, Centre Way, Orewa
2pm 28 May 2010,

Thank you for your invitation to speak to you. 
For many years now Orewa, as a venue, has had a political ring to it ever since Sir Robert Muldoon launched the political year with his January Rotary Club speech.  Years after Sir Robert’s annual performance here another National Party leader kicked off his campaign for higher office with a speech to the same Orewa Rotary Club on 27th January 2004. 
With barely an exception his party celebrated that speech and committed themselves to making its’ themes a political reality.  It’s important that 6 years on we remind ourselves of what that leader said here and put that political template against the present reality.
Dr Brash spoke of “the essential notion of one rule for all in a single nation state”.  He set that aspiration against a “racial divided nation, with two sets of laws, and two standards of citizenship, that the present Labour Government is moving us steadily towards”.  He evoked Hobson’s expression “he iwi tahi tatou.  We are one people”.  He said “ I believe in plain speaking”. 
Further, he said “in parallel with the Treaty process and the associated grievance industry, there has been a divisive trend to embody racial distinctions in to large parts of our legislation, extending recently to local body politics. In both educational and healthcare, government funding is now influenced not just by need – as it should be – but also by the ethnicity of the recipient”.
Don Brash bemoaned “radicals who claimed that sovereignty never properly passed from Maori in to the hands of the Crown, and thus ultimately in to the hands of all New Zealanders, Maori and non Maori”.  He said such radicals were living “in a fantasy world”.
That Orewa speech criticised the State Owned Enterprise Act 1986 and in particular the revised Section 9 which states that “nothing in this act shall permit the Crown to act in a manner that is inconsistent with the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi”. He deeply regretted those Governments both Labour and National that had included references to the “principles of the Treaty” in legislation and even the Cabinet Manual requiring Ministers to prepare bills that complied with these principles. He agreed with those at that time who had pointed out that those principles were nowhere defined. 
Dr Brash assured his audience when he said “we need proper leadership on the issue and the next National Government will provide it. One principle above all others guides my thinking: The Treaty of Waitangi should not be used as the basis for giving greater civil, political or democratic rights to any particular ethnic group”.
On the Foreshore and Seabed proposed law he was highly critical arguing that “the simple option was to legislate to establish the Crown ownership that almost everyone believed already existed.  Instead, the Government has come up with a convoluted notion called ‘public domain’. On the face of it, it sounds good.  But it leaves room for much more than just limited recognition of ‘customary rights’, and in fact embodies vast powers, including the right to a Maori veto”.
Dr Brash shared his nightmare with the good people of Orewa foreseeing resulting corruption, Maori gaining a new role in the management of the entire coastline, taxpayer funded consultants, lawyers and hui to ‘build capacity’ to take part in this process.  The nightmare included: “it is astonishing that the government could establish such a conflict-ridden model.  It is an absolute recipe for disaster”......... “it is unconscionable for us to be taking that separatist path and this Labour Government deserves to be defeated on that basis alone”.
He promised to “remove divisive race-based features from legislation”, and “special privileges for any race” and the “basis for government funding based on race” and “remove the anachronism of the Maori seats in Parliament. 
Dr Brash’s audience were imbued with the glowing prospect of Hobson’s, now Brash’s dream “we really will be one people”.
No doubt all of you here remember that speech.  It galvanised the media not because anything he said was original but because he had said it.  The speech was given enormous publicity.  In other words a country at the crossroads had miraculously discovered a new flag bearer.  Hereafter, under a National Government it was going to be “Kiwi not Iwi”, “One Law for All” and any other slogan that the National Party’s Australian spin doctors could inoculate the population with.
I said at the time that it is one thing to steal a man’s horse outside a saloon but quite something else staying on its back riding out of town. 
There is nothing so antiseptic as the words “I told you so”. But ladies and gentlemen, I did. National went all the way to the 2008 election repeating Dr Brash’s mantra even under its new leader Mr Key. 
A year later in 2005 Dr Brash titled his speech, same club, same venue “ Whatever happened to Personal Responsibilty” Obviously that question  must be foremost in the public’s mind today as under National it remains demonstrably unanswered.
That was the promise but what is the performance.  We’ve had lots of pre sales talk and no after sales delivery.  It’s like a very bad second hand car purchase experience.
Since Nationals coming to power NZ now has two flags, one for Maori, chosen at 22 hui at which less than 1000 people attended in total, and another flag for the rest of us. 
We’ve had an insulation program for Maori homes on the East Coast and Northland, two of the warmest areas in New Zealand, whether you are Maori or non Maori. We’ve got a new Whanau Ora Social Welfare delivery system, which its’ Minister said would be for Maori only but which Mr Key says it is for you as well.  We have the prospect of local body special Maori seats if as Mr Key says “that is a local body’s choice”.
And now under National’s proposals the 200 mile exclusive zone of the Foreshore and Seabed is to be despite Dr Brash’s warning designated “Public Domain” with nobody owning it.  In other words the Seabed and Foreshore Act of 2005 which settled the matter to the satisfaction of coastal Maori so much so that even the Maori Party between 2005 and 2008 refused to campaign on it for fear of electoral retribution form Coastal Maori such as Ngati Porou.
We are next year to have a Rugby World Cup with no less than three television stations, two taxpayer funded, giving free to air coverage and one other channel providing blanket coverage as well.  In an editorial, October 21st 2009 the New Zealand Herald described the deal as “a winner for all involved”. ...“three free channels plus Sky equals saturation”.  Really.  The taxpayer has stumped up over $37 million per annum for Maori TV and for this Rugby World Cup deal a further $3 million.  Maori TV’s rugby audience will be 40, 000 at most and probably much less.  At 3 million for Maori TV Rugby World Cup coverage that’s $75 per viewer. So you tell me: what’s free to air about that?
Just in case your head is not spinning enough already, in the last budget we are to have two release from prison units for Maori because the Government says that by some penal magic it is a sounder way to go.  As with the other race based initiatives under this Government no evidence what so ever is provided to support the policy.
Conclusion.  The irrefutable conclusion of all this is that New Zealand faces a bleak prospect of division and disunity.  That prospect is bad for you regardless of your ethnic background.  Hundreds of millions more dollars are going to be spent under this administration in an endeavour to placate a Maori Brown Table elite while the mass majority of Maori, particularly those at the bottom, will get nothing.  In the 21st century when we as a country should be striving for unity and the strength to face together an increasingly difficult world as one country, we will not be. 
Is there any wonder that politicians are held in such low esteem by the public for if keeping ones promise is, as Dr Brash said, a personal responsibility as well as a political one then this National administration has failed miserably.  It had no reason to do a deal with a race based party which believes implicitly in Maori having the rights to “be a self governing and independent state”......... “that sovereignty was never ceded in the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi”.
Remember, this was all about leadership, a test which the present administration massively fails.
Our Prime Minister was a currency trader.  His idea from his training is to cut a deal, any deal, regardless of principle or stated policy. Like the moss eradication aid “just spray and walk away”.
It is to be hoped that over the next 12 months all of us here today will seriously reflect on what is going on in the Beehive and clarify in our minds what is meant by the word ‘Nationhood’.  That after all was the title of the Orewa Rotary Club speech of January 2004.  When you get that clear I hope you will vote accordingly.
After all as the good book says “By their deeds you will know them”
ENDS

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“Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas”

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Leader NZ First

Tauranga Electorate AGM, Wesley Church Hall 13th Ave, Sunday 23rd May 2010, 1.30 pm

 

There is an old Latin saying “radix malorum est cupiditas” or as originally written in the bible -"the love of money is the root of all evil".   All we can say today is – many centuries after those words were written - nothing has changed.  The leaders of this country love money – particularly other peoples' - and there is no doubt that a serious evil is befalling the land of the long white cloud.   You only have to look at Bill English - who delivered the Budget this week on behalf of his currency trader leader.

Comment on Thursdays Budget has been nothing short of remarkable in its sanguine positivism. However the devil in this budget is not in the detail but in the economic reality of NZ’s place in the scheme of things.
One commentator claimed “it has turned those muddy economic waters into wine by constructing a clever package of significant tax cuts when the government’s books are written in deep red”.  “National is now camped around the $40,000 – a – year salary level – roughly the boundary between low and medium income earners”. 
And that is about it really. New Zealand’s continued slide into the unwelcome realms of a low wage economy will proceed unabated devoid of any lighting rods for real, productive, sustainable economic growth. Pre Budget rumours having in the main been set aside the comentariat heaved a collective sigh of relief, for themselves, but hardly for their country. To say that NZ has weathered the storm better than most suggests that the recent economic storm is over. It most certainly is not.
Examine the tumbling Dow Jones Index these last few months, remind yourself of the borrowing of $250 million NZ needs each week, look at the extraordinary high level of NZ public and private debt, the gap between our imports over our exports, recall NZ’s sad dependence on borrowing other countries money, and the conclusion is truly sobering.
Of course, everyone wanted a tax cut.
Set against increasing GST, a forecast inflation rate of almost 6% and increased costs across the board, tax cuts for most are an illusion. Far more than 50% of earners don’t get the average wage, and our falling behind Australia will only worsen.
Inflation, without deflation means that 6% inflation is not, as some blithely argue, a ‘one off’. The rising cost of this inflation will be permanent. Families with two young children will be much worse off as will Superannuitants.

Nothing in the Budget helps either the young or older generation. A few dollars extra a week in superannuation will not compensate for higher GST and an explosion in the cost of living. Power bills will go up. So will your doctors bills – and your rates and everything else.   Elderly people have made their contribution.  They are entitled to some comfort and peace of mind.  Why should they be worrying how to make ends meet?

No amount of verbal gymnastics will change that. And failing to pre-fund the Cullen Fund means that the mass majority of today’s voters are staring down the barrel of retirement insecurity like never before. Sooner rather than later most will come to bitterly regret it
The trouble with this government and most of Parliament for that matter is that for twenty five years they have never understood that more important than tax cuts or tax equality, is what is left in a voters pocket after tax.   This is the international comparison against which NZ so sadly fails.   Going down the low wage path means that compared to leading First World Nations, Kiwis have much less in their pockets each pay day than their overseas cousins.   Bragging about NZ tax rates, whilst our children shoot through to other countries for much higher wages is meaningless.
Beating Australia to a 28% company tax rate will not persuade one overseas company to come here, or one NZ company not to leave for elsewhere.   A 25% company tax rate would.
Whacking exporters, who risk so much abroad, with the same tax rate as domestic companies won’t turn around our poor export performance.   A maximum 20% tax rate for exporters would.
And fiddling with Research and Development, Plant and Equipment depreciation rates reveals a lamentable grasp of how dependant New Zealand is on export wealth in our export dependent economy.   Until an exporter sells product offshore to bring home greater wealth for all to share then the Family New Zealand’s prospects will remain mediocre. The tourism industry has the same effect and result - it’s just that it works differently when you are exporting scenery and culture.    50 years ago, Parliament knew that. Today, it doesn’t.
Moreover, NZ exporters suffer from a failed Reserve Bank Policy. NZ has the most volatile currency, that is movements up and down, in the world. How can a successful export industry cope with that?  The results show that it cannot and the government refuses to face this blunt fact.
That just leaves one more blip on the economic horizon for the 2010 budget calculations to be seriously out. The consequences will be serious. There is already a $500 million hole in Treasury’s calculations. The Emissions Trading Scheme $2 Billion cost appears to have been lost in the excitement as well. There will be no bank evasion tax windfall this year to unexpectedly boost the books. And all the while interest rates are going back up
Who remembers the 1990 budget? That year Treasury forecast a surplus of $89 million. It turned out to be a deficit of $3.2 Billion. Steady as she goes with borrow and hope is not what NZ needed
And pandering to the Maori Party with a toxic mix of separatist policy glue might please the Maori brown table, but not their supporters. Read Hone Harawira’s 18th May Northland Age column. To quote “The Waitangi Tribunal hearing staged over four weeks running through to October 2010.  The main issues being considered are: how Ngapuhi and the Crown understood Te Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti: the relationship between Te Whakaputanaga and Te Tiriti and the commitments Ngapuhi and the Crown were agreeing to when they signed both documents.  At more than 120,000 members and clearly the country’s biggest iwi, Ngapuhi is challenging the Crown assertion that they ceded their sovereignty, and are laying down the case that Ngapuhi retains the right to be a self-governing and independent state.  At the heart of the Maori argument will be the historical evidence showing that in signing Te Whakaputanga (the Declaration of Independence), Ngapuhi clearly recognised the importance of their sovereign authority, and that that sovereignty was never ceded in the signing of Te Tiriti (The Treaty of Waitangi) in 1840”.
So there you have it. Maori retain “the right to be a self governing and independent state”
This limb of this governments support base hasn’t many months to go before it is brought home to them the cost of voter betrayal. Meanwhile another limb, the yellow one, is declaring its’ hand in a similar desperate struggle for survival. For both, of course, it will be too late. As it may be for this government despite its present state of euphoria
Watch now as Government readies us for even greater immigration and the standard opening of a Pandora’s box of privatisation of public owned assets, first, in Auckland, and then across the nation
Just to refresh your memory - Bill English got the taxpayers to give him tens of thousands of dollars to live in his own house in Wellington and now he and the currency trader are going to receive thousands more in tax cuts.   Funny how the overseas owned media don’t talk any more about the double dipping by the double dipper from Dipton. These people love your money.   And so do their supporters waiting in the wings to get their hands on all the state assets that are going to be flogged off unless there are some changes to the political make up of the government.

Surely the Budget and the comments since from English are the final incontrovertible proof of why New Zealand First represents such a danger to the asset sellers.

The tactic is obvious – Kiwibank is first up – and that will be used for the public debate while all the assets of the state owned power companies and the other rich pickings are sold – and most would end up in foreign hands. One question screams out for an answer.  Why has NZ’s P.M. spent so much recent time in discussions with Macquarie Bank?

When you think of the sacrifices that generations of New Zealanders made to build this country you can only weep at the entangled economic treachery of those in the Beehive. The day after the Budget Bill English admitted their next term privatisation plan.  But he says he will ask you first.  Yeah right.  Are Aucklanders getting a local referendum on their $28 Billion assets?  Of course not.

Nowhere in history has a country thrived when most of its assets are in foreign hands. There is something that has not been explained to you in the avalanche of propaganda that came with the budget – and has continued to pour out ever since – and it's this.

How can people at the top - like Bill English and John Key get hundreds of dollars per week extra – and announce proudly that EVERYONE is better off.

Remember the tax changes are fiscally neutral – that means the tax take will be the same. So if you give some people at the top a lot more – the ones at the bottom must get less.  It's the law of financial gravity and it is hard to understand how anyone can swallow the unadulterated nonsense poured out by the boys in the Beehive.

Puts you in mind of a man called Bryers and Blue Chip that was chosen by the local National Party in Tauranga to have naming rights to our local stadium.  When it all went belly up the local ratepayers ended up buying it.  Tauranga investors in Blue Chip lost everything and Bryers got a $37,000 fine and a week’s community service.  Much of our recent history shows how much of our financial sector simply stinks.

It's like George Orwell – of the novel “1984” fame, said:  “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”.

New Zealand First is needed in parliament more than ever.

The fate of the country rests in our hands because we are the one party prepared to say NO to another fire sale of state assets, and the courage to stop it happening.

Foreigners are already trying to grab our dairy industry.  On the 10th of May I released information about a “tangle charade” surrounding the Crafar farms purchase by UBNZ Funds Management Ltd, in reality a Chinese entity.  Last night on television news and more than a year after the 18th of May 2009 purchase the receivers confirmed the purchase agreements had been accepted subject to OIO approval.  The receivers said they were “ambivalent “about the purchaser’s reputation.  That is hardly the word for it.  The facts behind this deal are a tangled commercial charade that is against New Zealand’s interest and reputation. And yet the Government has done nothing to stop this duplicitous activity.

We have enemies at home who want to sell us – and we have foreigners who want to buy. 

Again last night on TV3 news we learnt that $37 million medical treatment debts owned by foreigners using our hospitals have been written off and a further $10 million is outstanding but looks to suffer the main fate.  This whilst waiting lists for Kiwis to get treatment get longer.  Again Government has failed to protect New Zealand’s interest and allowed tax payers to be taken for a ride. 

“Millions of dollars embezzled by the former head of China’s first publicly listed rail company in one of the communist country’s biggest corporate frauds might have been laundering through New Zealand. 

The Chinese government is attempting to retrieve money and assets invested in New Zealand as part of what it believes was a “trans national money laundering scheme” run by Liu Guiting, who gained New Zealand residency in 2002 under the investor category by depositing $2 million in an ASB bank account.  He also bought an apartment in Auckland and hotels in Rotorua, through companies controlled by his wife and daughter, who live in Auckland.   Guiting is serving two life sentences in China but carried out his embezzlement for years following his New Zealand residency “. This from today’s Sunday Star Times.

In short, the Government has put New Zealand’s interest last.

Over the next year we will be going the length and breadth of this once great country to spread our message and to meet with people who share our vision of unity and prosperity for everyone.

Our people are our greatest asset. We live in a wonderful resource rich country.

It's time to go back to sound policies which look after our people and to preserving and protecting our country.

Let's fight against the philosophies of greed and separatism that will tear us apart.

After all, we're all in it together.

ENDS

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“Some are more equal than others”

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Leader NZ First
Address to: Political Study Students: POL 111, Victoria University, Wellington
18 May 2010

Good morning and thanks for the invitation to speak to you.

It's always interesting to talk about politics and there are many important issues we could devote our time to today.

Perhaps we should briefly mention at the start the reported policy of Victoria University to restrict the numbers of New Zealand students attending courses to gain a university qualification.   You no doubt already know what limits are placed on the fee paying overseas students, if any at all.   We are not against exporting education. We have done it for many years and part of this was a programme of aid to countries like Malaysia under the Columbo plan.   During my term as Treasurer we reached an agreement with the Chinese government over education visas and a key part of that agreement, at their request, was to ensure that the students returned home when their education was complete.   In Beijing, I gave a guarantee that would happen.

New Zealand First is alarmed our own students might miss out on a tertiary education to make way for overseas fee payers.   Our obligation is to educate and qualify our own best and brightest so they can go on to better themselves and to lead this country back to its rightful place in the scheme of things.   We will be taking a very hard look at this situation when we return to Parliament next year – that's a promise.

There are other matters of concern for students of politics that we could also raise today. 

For example we could bemoan the death of democracy in Canterbury, where a coup led by some in the dairying industry has toppled the elected members of Ecan – the local regional council.   We don't like these coups in places like Fiji and we do everything we can to restore democracy there but apparently it's a different story in our own back yard – or cow yard as the case may be.   It would have been better to rely on the good sense of the people of Canterbury to sort out their regional council. If the operative law was defective we should have fixed it.   The action of sacking elected councillors is a direct challenge to our long established democratic traditions.

Nor is it right to see democracy perverted in the Auckland region, which will lead to the systemic asset stripping of ratepayers by individuals and groups who are only accountable to their neo-liberal mates.

And in the world of corporate finance we have watched impotent statutory authorities stand by whilst the elderly are robbed of their life savings by unscrupulous individuals in finance companies.   These shysters have maintained their lavish lifestyles while investors go on the breadline.

It's a sorry state of affairs and it brings us to the topic chosen for today’s address which is “some are more equal than others”.

Some of you have heard of an individual called Eric Blair who wrote great works of political satire under the name of George Orwell.  One of these was called “Animal Farm”, which should be compulsory reading for any student of politics.  Hands up those who have read it please.   The complete phrase is “all animals are equal and some are more equal than others”.   The theme and general message of Animal Farm are timeless and universal. Today we will talk about them in relation to some of the myths that prevail about Maori and how some Maori are more equal than others under the political arrangements made to govern this country.

Despite some popular opinion, the bleatings of the separatists and the wailing of Treaty travellers, most Maori are leading perfectly normal lives in New Zealand.   Most have jobs, work hard, pay their taxes, bring up their families, enjoy a bit of sport and don’t get too screwed up about life.   They enjoy, in the main, pretty good relations with non-Maori and they do this to the extent that there are a lot of mixed marriages in New Zealand with a large number of olive skinned offspring.

We are constantly hearing about the large number of Maori in prison – against a back drop of another simple fact which is that most Maori are not in prison!   It is true that too many young Maori males have fallen on the wrong side of the law, but if you look at a lot of these cases you will find that they have committed stupid crimes while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The gangs are something far worse but their origins of alarming growth stem partly from economic and social conditions last century when many Maori lost their jobs as part of economic restructuring in industries like the freezing works and government departments like the old Ministry of Works.   Most Maori thoroughly disapprove of criminal gang activities and frown on their swaggering, in your face, patched presence.

So, you might ask what is the problem?

The problem is that New Zealand is heading down a road that will surely lead to separate states within a state –and a form of race based governance – unless we have the intestinal fortitude to stop it.

You see, there is a common mistaken belief that Maori are one large indigenous block of people sharing the same beliefs, aspirations and practices.   Nothing could be further from the truth. Maori share a common tradition and culture but have vast differences of opinion over most other things – just like everybody else.   In fact in the Far North where my ancestors created mayhem for the colonists we fought among ourselves when we could not find a common enemy.   It was just what we did and still do to some extent.   You could say we are just like our cousins in Scotland and Ireland!

So let's look at what Maori are entitled to in New Zealand?

They are entitled to full citizenship of their country.   They are entitled to adequate housing.   They are entitled to a good education.   They are entitled to good healthcare.   They are entitled to jobs with a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.   They are entitled to a future.   They are entitled to practice their culture and maintain their traditions.   They are entitled to have serious past injustices addressed.

These are simply the rights of full citizenship and they are rights that all of us should take as granted and we should have the maturity of nationhood to help sort out some of the wrongs of our colonial past.

But now comes the tricky part.

There are some Maori who believe that they are entitled to more rights and privileges than anybody else.   They belong to a class that has been bred to believe that they, and they alone should have unfettered access to the pockets of taxpayers.   They manage to achieve this by manipulating the system, guilt-tripping white liberals and waving their own version of the Treaty of Waitangi.   They are the gravy train riders, the dippers into the public purse, the Browntable, who ride on the backs of ordinary New Zealanders – both Maori and non-Maori.

These people now have their own party in Parliament – it's called the Maori Party but it no more exists for ordinary Maori than the National Party.    They convince ordinary Maori that they are victims of white oppression and that they, and only they, can correct these injustices by receiving vast sums of taxpayers’ money which somehow never gets filtered down to those who really need it, but in whose name and numbers they purport to act.   They have convinced themselves and a number of other Maori – who have never read any of the court judgments over the issue – that they own the foreshore and seabed.

The government has made a serious mistake over this.  Its proposal that nobody should own the foreshore and seabed out to the two hundred mile limit is a legal nonsense.   And then, to grant all sorts of rights and rights of veto, plus the prospect of freehold ownership to some Maori only is grossly irresponsible.

The legislation New Zealand First passed with Labour guarantees customary rights to Maori and a shared governance over specific areas of the foreshore and seabed such as on the East Coast with Ngati Porou.   It avoids the term customary “title” because in some cases the Maori land Court can convert customary title into freehold title and we were not prepared to let that happen.   This legislation also guaranteed unfettered access to waters around NZ for all New Zealanders because they all owned it in the name of the Crown.  The existing legislation works and it has probably saved Maori millions of dollars in legal fees!

The latest case of interest was when Dr Pita Sharples of the Maori Party sneaked off to the United Nations and made New Zealand a signatory to the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.   This, in part, recognises the rights of indigenous people to self-determination, to maintain their own languages and cultures, to protect their natural and cultural heritage and manage their own affairs.   That's when the government really started coming unstuck because it became clear that it was creating an expectation among Maori that Maori would be free to set up their own states within the state – in effect.

So two things have happened.

John Key and his cabinet ministers have been going around the party faithful warning them that some racial issues are coming and they need fixing.   However, the party faithful have told John Key to think again – and that is why Tuhoe – the children of the mist – are mystified about their knock back over ownership and governance of Te Urewera National Park.   The deal is off.   Tuhoe are upset and the prime minister is scared to go there in case, in his words, he forms the main course in a hangi pit.   So there you have it.

National bends over for one pet policy of the Maori Party after another and yet when a genuine issue like that of Tuhoe turns up they back flip.  They can’t work their way through it.   Tuhoe, cut off, isolated and forgotten must surely now realise that the Maori Party’s numerous unreasonable so-called ‘policy wins’ has now seen them sold up the creek.   This is the first, of soon to be many Maori, to learn where support for the Maori Party really gets you.

Meanwhile back on the gravy train all tickets are now being clipped with Whanau Ora – which is the Maori Party version of that old card game “Happy Families”.   Apparently if someone is playing up, or having a rough time within a family, Whanau Ora treats the entire family through some Maori provider in a holistic way – whatever that means.  Welfare provision costs taxpayers huge money.   Why would you duplicate a system that already exists for everyone and create a separate one exclusively for Maori?   It's not as though Maori don’t use the present system.

The real social problem that has to be addressed – and one which Maori leadership fails to grasp – is the proliferation of single parent Maori homes without a male partner and a generation of children brought up under this system.   The answer is not to keep pouring another set of welfare dollars into perpetuating this social nightmare - it is to do something for the women.  The best method is to educate and mentor them out of it.  It is pointless to set up yet another set of social service providers because we already have them.

Social welfare in this country works.  It has worked for the massive majority.   Over the generations social welfare has taken people out of nikau palm huts with dirt floors and placed them in first world houses with first class amenities.

It might surprise you students to learn that New Zealand was once the social laboratory of the world.   Sociologists and political scientists came here to study the elements of a world leading nation.   We looked after our children, our young people and our families and it was done without anything called Whanau Ora.

However, if the objective is to replace Social Welfare then the legs of its credibility must first be kicked out. 

Enter the Maori Party with the preposterous claim that it is all one great failure.   No evidence of this is provided.   The Whanau Ora report is filled with empty rhetoric without any element of rigid analysis or research.   It contains just one theoretical example worthy of the Tui ads.

A solo mum suffering from a failed family life magically has her destiny turned around with the help of the same family that failed her in the first place.   It appeared all she needed was a tax payer outsider to enable her family to work positively for her.   Mysteriously the architect of her demise becomes the architect of her recovery.   Yeah right. 

That’s what happens when leadership has a soft heart and a head to match.

There was a conversation in a Porirua bakery when this policy was announced.   A Maori woman came into the bakery while the owner and a customer were discussing Whanau Ora.   She wanted to know what they were talking about and when it was explained to her she wanted to know whether she could get a job there and how to apply for it!   In short, she did not want a handout, or a team of highly paid fern-waving holistic do-gooders in her face – she wanted the dignity of a job so she could pay her own way.

Whanau Ora is just another way for the professional gravy train riders to advance their own radical agenda.   The poor have become cannon fodder for their cause.  

When the National party entered a coalition arrangement with the Maori Party, the people were given some surprises.

• National gave no indication before the election that it would fly the flag of the Maori Party on Waitangi Day.   A flag chosen at 22 Hui where less than 1000 all up attended.
• It did not say it would create a position of “no ownership” of the foreshore and seabed but with customary title available – and the possibility of freehold if the Maori land court so ruled.
• National certainly did not say it would sneak off in the dead of night and sign the UN declaration that creates avenues for separate development – just like during the bad old days of South Africa.
• And just think for a minute – if the Labour Party had proposed Whanau Ora - the National Party would have screamed separatism and racism until they ran out of breath.

 

The conclusion you can reach from that outline is that there are new partners in crime ruling the New Zealand political scene – neo-liberal National and corporate Maori.   They have forgotten about those people at the bottom of the heap – the ones the Maori Party are supposed to represent.  The increase in GST, the change to the tax system, cutbacks in government expenditure will hurt, most of all, those people on low and fixed incomes. Many are Maori.   They must find it bewildering to learn that they are actually going to be worse off at a time their representatives in Parliament are crowing about the gains they are making.  But the gains are for those at the top of the heap.

This is where New Zealand First enters the scene.

In another life, when I was appointed Minister of Maori Affairs – it's 20 years ago now – the Maori Development Act was passed.   It is as relevant today as it was back then – let me quote:

Particular responsibilities of Ministry of Maori Development

(1) The responsibilities of the Ministry of Maori Development include—

(a) Promoting increases in the levels of achievement attained by Maori with respect to —

• (i) Education:
• (ii) Training and employment:
• (iii) Health:
• (iv) Economic resource development:

The whole idea of Maori development is just that. It is about the future of ALL Maori – not just the select few.   It means breaking away from this creation of handsomely paid professional victimhood.   Maori are not victims and it is irresponsible to keep pinning that label on a people who succeed above expectations when they get the education and the opportunity to show what they are made of.   The “golden age” for Maori will not come from Whanau Ora, flapping a separatist flag or fighting over a beach at low tide.   It will come from within the schools, the universities, the trade training centres and the development of the resources within the land and sea.   It won’t rely on a Treaty. It will rely simply on the hard work and commitment of people equipped with a team spirit, wonderful sense of humour and who grab life with both hands.

ENDS
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CHINESE FARM PURCHASES A “TANGLED CHARADE”

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
10 May 2010

Rt Hon Winston Peters has revealed new information about the Chinese interest in the Crafar farms and other properties, which he says threatens New Zealand's international commercial reputation and the local dairy industry.

He pointed out today that the original purchases were being made without approval under New Zealand law and the “tangled” commercial circumstances could affect New Zealand’s reputation in foreign markets.

Mr Peters said he was in possession of documents and information that gave him cause for great concern.

“At the centre of the transactions is one set of information for New Zealand eyes and a different set of information for the Hong Kong and mainland China market. 

“The earliest farm sale agreements involved all the Crayfar brothers' farms and are dated 18 May 2009 – five months before the Crafar farms were placed in receivership by South Canterbury Finance, Westpac and Rabobank. These three finance institutions were not aware the Crafars had sold their Fonterra shares worth $NZ60 million, which represented further security for them.

“Most public is the presence of one May Wang who headed the purchase operations in five packaged agreements all dated 18 May 2009 for a total of $NZ226 million. However, the government valuation was $NZ320 million and it is most surprising that the purchase price was $NZ94 million less!

“The buyer was UBNZ Funds Management Limited or its nominee. 'Or nominee' is important because there had to be an on sale. The buyers never had the money. One of their principal shareholders was Jin Hui Mining, a worthless entity run by Jack Chen, a New Zealand resident.

(1)
“The end buyer was to be Natural Dairy and having reached first base May Wang, Jack Chen and others have been in Hong Kong and Mainland China seeking a float for farm purchases.

“Their blogs (within the investment market) of December 2009 and January this year said this float was seeking $NZ500 million and later claimed success in attracting well over $NZ250 million to their New Zealand representatives' account. 

“Their lawyer Kerry Knight (Knight Coldicutt principal) said (25 March 2010) that money was needed for the Crafar acquisition but they would continue to raise funds to buy more farms and production facilities.

“The blogs, both in Hong Kong and mainland China, describe the Crafar purchase as a fait accompli.  However, a disgruntled New Zealand land agent informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange of the disparity between the total purchase price, $NZ226 million, and the float target of $NZ500 million. This alarmed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which began investigating.

“Meanwhile so-called connections of Natural Dairy have been in the deep South to buy farms unconditionally, but subject to Overseas Investment Office approval.  What is not publicly known is that they have also been in Kaipara and KeriKeri in the Far North seeking 'cluster' farm purchases.

“These proposed purchases are desperately needed to replace any failure of the Crafar deals. The ramifications of such failure for Wang and Chen are extremely serious in China.

“In Northland, their legal representatives have already sent sale and purchase agreements through Barfoot and Thompson for farm purchases but these agreements are all loaded with conditions to be satisfied before they become unconditional. 

“Now, New Zealand names such as Sir Ralph (Ngatata) Love and Keith Rushbrook (former KPMG partner) appear on a further entity called UBNZ Assets Holdings Ltd, a holding company for UBNZ Trustee Ltd (registered office Queen St, Auckland) and Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings Ltd out of the Cayman Islands. 

“UBNZ’s registered office is on the same floor as Goldmate Group Ltd, a Jack Chen company, which also owns shares in Chinese Business Roundtable Council Investments Ltd. However all the Chinese Business Roundtable Council Investments Ltd meetings are held at 32-34 Mahuhu Cres, Auckland – also the registered office of NZ Natural Dairy (the supposed non-Cayman Island connection).

“If the Overseas Investment Office approves, Natural Dairy will buy 100% of UBNZ Holdings and then own the farms.  Reuters reported share trading in Natural Dairy being stopped on the Hong Kong market because of a 'major acquisition pending', namely the purchases of UBNZ, the farming entity.

“In the Far North the purchasers have gone with the local Mayor and the council's traffic engineer to view land designated commercial at Ngawha Springs, which is owned by the council, and then to a farm fronting a lake near KeriKeri Airport.  At a local farmer’s lakeside property, two hectares of land is to be cut out and sold to UBNZ at an 'extraordinarily' high price.
(2)
“This land purchase is vital to the plan. It is under the OIO five hectare approval threshold and proximity to significant volumes of water is needed for a milk solids to powder plant operation. The buyers were promised resource consent approval 'within 20 working days'.

“Only last week Bayley’s Real Estate heads were in Asia looking for deals on the Crafar properties although the original Chinese investors in the float are not aware of this. Acting for Receivers, KordaMentha, Bayleys are seeking buyers for the Crayfar brothers' farms in  receivership.”

Mr Peters said there were other disturbing aspects to this saga. 

“Everything in this story is an abrogation of the government's responsibility to protect New Zealand resources. The planned operation is in clear competition to Fonterra and it places valuable dairy farmland in foreign hands. If allowed, this move would represent the beginning of the end for the local dairy industry yet Federated Farmers leadership has astonishingly been supporting these deals.

“As a side issue, the Chinese government thinks New Zealand has First World statutory systems.  Their leaders will be acutely aware of the Chinese investors’ interest.  Chen’s company operations in China have already been under serious investigation. So have May Wang’s operations in New Zealand.

“These dealings should never have got off the ground. They make up a tangled commercial charade that is against New Zealand's interests and reputation. If the government had any thought for our short and long term social and economic interests it would have stepped in a long time ago,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

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WHANAU ORA NATIONAL'S FEEL GOOD SOP TO THE MAORI PARTY

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Leader NZ First
6 May 2010

 

The Leader of NZ First, The Rt. Hon Winston Peters has described today’s funding announcement of $134 million to Whanau Ora as National’s feel good sop to the Maori Party.

That is $34 million each year for four years.

First, reducing the finding to a fraction of the Maori Party demand is John Key’s way of limiting the harm Whanau Ora will do.

Second, hand picking 20 Maori Providers severely limits its coverage.

Third, this experiment merely duplicates existing services and using the word ‘holistic’ doesn’t save it from being a separatist race based delivery.

Fourth, like the Tobacco Tax this is a case of dropping as much bad news before May 20th Budget Day.

Fifth, spending $20 million over four years researching, evaluating and monitoring the scheme is one more Bureaucratic Sandbox.

There are many Maori Institutions which work well but this will not be one of them.

“Claiming that this represents a major shakeup of Social Welfare is just more nonsense” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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NEW MINISTRY OF “PAKEHA AFFAIRS”?

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Press Release
13 April 2010

Rt Hon Winston Peters has suggested that a new Ministry of Pakeha Affairs be set up to counter the separatist race-based policies and programmes of National and the Maori Party.

Mr Peters told a Grey Power audience in Christchurch this evening that throughout his political career he had always campaigned for one law for all and for every New Zealander to be treated equally but the situation had changed dramatically in recent years.

“The Maori Party flew its separatist flag on Waitangi Day, the foreshore and seabed is being opened to seizure in the guise of customary title, and now millions of taxpayer dollars are to be siphoned off social services for the race-based Whanau Ora programme.

“Whanau Ora is supposed to mean 'healthy families' but we believe that in practical terms it actually means 'a new gravy train' for the Maori Party and its supporters.”

“Whanau Ora is belatedly being touted as  available to all New Zealanders – irrespective of race - but it is actually sold to Maori as a bold Maori-based welfare initiative. It is certainly not an inclusive programme.

“Perhaps the time is ripe to set up a counter programme called 'Pakeha Aura' – so the group that make up the majority of the population have their own system as well.

“Maori have always done well when facing challenges on equal terms with everyone else.   No country in the world has ever progressed its people by setting up separate systems for them and treating them differently,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

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SUPERGOLD CARD HEALTH BENEFIT ANNOUNCED

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Press Release
13 April 2010

New Zealand First has pledged to extend the SuperGold card benefits to help meet the health costs of the elderly when it returns to Parliament next year.

Rt Hon Winston Peters told a Grey Power audience in Christchurch this evening that the cost of medical care was a big item for many elderly people and that too many avoided going to the doctor for checkups.

“We will bring in a scheme allied to the SuperGold card that will provide one free health check a year with your GP and we will cap future doctors' visits at ten dollars. The scheme will fit in with those already available in some areas.

“We believe that this policy will actually help reduce the overall cost of health because problems will be picked up before they get serious.”

Mr Peters said there would be other initiatives coming for the elderly and these would be released next year.

He said moving the SuperGold card into healthcare was a logical extension to those benefits available now.

ENDS

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“Malice In Blunderland”

Rt. Honourable Winston Peters
Address to Grey Power AGM
College House, Ilam University Christchurch
Tuesday 6pm 13th April 2010

Thank you for your kind invitation.  Tonight is a good time to look forward and touch on a few things worth looking forward to – and also about some of the strange things happening here.  To quote Alice in Wonderland – things just get curiouser and curiouser.  So – with due respect to Lewis Carroll – this speech tonight is titled “Malice in Blunderland”.

Over the past few days, you have been hearing from government ministers.  They have carefully explained how well they are treating the elderly and how much better off you are going to be when the tax system changes - and you start paying more tax.  In fact, you have had your heads filled with figures for some months now about how well off you are going to be.  The facts unfortunately are different – you will not be better off.

This is why:

There has been a change to the way superannuation is calculated.  Your own experts have already worked out that you are already losing as a result.   Superannuation levels are always playing catchup.   They reach 66 percent of the net average wage briefly (and then fall below that amount for the rest of the year). But as we mentioned they are below 66 percent anyway.   Further, despite all the talk of achieving parity with Australia, in real terms the net average wage is not rising so pensions will effectively fall again.  Official papers not yet released say that those on super and on low incomes will be hardest hit by the forthcoming tax changes.   That is because the overall tax take by the government will not change but those on the highest incomes are going to get tax cuts. Someone has to pay for these tax cuts.  It's as simple as that.

You've been promised an extra two percent by John Key – but GST is going up two and a half percent – do the maths on that!

Worse, electricity prices are soaring from government demanding a bigger return.

For home owners the rates are going up – by five percent or more in some cases.

And while price rises are hitting you from all sides, services are being cut.

For example, district health boards are cutting back on home help services to the elderly as they try to live within tighter budgets.  This is a foolish short-sighted move because these services actually help keep older people out of hospitals.

Make no mistake the razor gangs are back. Just like they were in the early nineties.

Benefits are being cut.   Solo mothers and other beneficiaries are being told to go and work at non-existent jobs and since this government was elected tens of thousands of jobs have disappeared.

The prime minister's answer - build a bicycle track from somewhere to somewhere else.

New Zealand appears to be governed by a system best described as “seat of the pants”.

One of the most curious things we saw recently was a proposal to make New Zealand an international retirement home.   Although there are an increasing number of our own elderly people with genuine needs the government wants to import thousands of old people from other countries.  We know this sounds odd – but it's true – the government is happy to penny pinch and cut back on our own elderly but will be rolling out the red carpet for wealthy foreign retirees.   This idea was floated and rubbished the last time National was on the Treasury benches but it has resurfaced – just like many of the other policies of the nineties.   New Zealand will be struggling to meet the challenges created by our own ageing population.   Why would we want to import thousands of people to create even more strain on our social services.  Elderly New Zealanders have raised families, paid their taxes, and made their contribution so why should we flood the country with elderly immigrants who have contributed nothing to our economy? 

It's interesting to note that American researchers (University of Michigan Richard E Nisbett) have now found out something that we have known for a long time.   The research says older people are indeed wise, both in knowing how to deal with conflicts between people and accepting life's uncertainties and ever-present change.   It is not a question of how many facts someone knows, or being able to operate a remote TV channel-changer, but rather how they deal with disagreements among people and  their social wisdom.    Older people are also more likely to recognise that values differ among people, that things change over time and that other people have a point of view.   This documented research shows, perhaps, that we should have fewer bright young things in Parliament and more white hair and wisdom. 

Separatism

The wisdom of Solomon is needed to deal with the renewed problems over the foreshore and seabed issue before it threatens to engulf us in a tidal wave of separatism.  The area in question is from the high water mark to the 200 mile exclusive zone.   Now there is some vague suggestion that it be designated ‘public domain’ with nobody owning it.   However, that same area is being claimed by the Maori Party to belong to Maori.   Under present law it belongs to the Crown on behalf of ALL New Zealanders.

This matter was started by Maori land court judge Ken Hingston deciding that the Maori land court could rule on the foreshore and seabed and customary title.   Now he is highly placed in the Maori Party. 

Under existing law the Maori Land Court can convert customary land titles into freehold land which can be on sold.   There is no clear way to counter this - that we have seen – in the new proposal released by the government.   If this proposal – or something like it – becomes law there will be a stampede of iwi and hapu to the courts to claim Maori customary title to the coast and the sea out to the 200 mile zone.   There will be hundreds of court cases. 

There are large gas and oil fields off the coast worth billions of dollars.   Any use of these resources should be for the benefit of all New Zealanders – not just some.

New Zealand First insisted that the word title be removed from the original foreshore and seabed legislation for the very reason that holding title means ownership.   We could see the writing on the wall. We had to ensure that ALL New Zealanders owned it – not just some based on race.

Everybody in the Beehive connected with this issue is spinning like a top but it is plain that the existing legislation is better than anything in the latest proposals.  Even the prime minister is keeping the existing legislation as a fallback position.

Whanau Ora

And speaking of race issues the government has moved its agenda of separatism from the foreshore and seabed to a social programme called Whanau Ora.

Whanau Ora literally means “healthy families”. In practical terms it means “gravy train”.

The Whanau Ora taskforce suggested money currently spent by health, education, justice and social development agencies be pooled into a Whanau Ora trust.   This trust would in turn set up regional panels that would fund a single agency or person to work with families facing problems.   Eventually hundreds of millions of dollars will be siphoned off the budgets of mainstream social services and handed over to Whanau Ora for disbursement.

There are some good Maori organisations– like the Maori Women's Welfare League – which we ensured got funding when I was their Minister.   But Whanau Ora has the potential to turn into a disaster at huge expense to taxpayers.

The public discussion about this has avoided the real issue.  That is the cultural collapse in the Maori world and a significant family collapse in an increasingly mother led society of Maoridom.

If there are problems with social welfare, and health and education services let's fix them but there is no evidence that separatism will solve the problems facing Maori.

Many Maori are brilliant achievers but many unfortunately fail in educational achievement.   The problem is that too many Maori parents do not value education enough.   They do not seem to understand the link between academic success and moving up the employment escalator, a more fulfilling life and a better future for their families.

Some youngsters come here from Asian countries with barely a word of English and in a few short years they are topping our exams.   They are driven to succeed because their parents understand the need for a good education.

Maori are achievers in sport, music and in the armed services where they compete on equal terms.  The head of our armed forces is again a Maori.   Maori have always been leaders in our Army without separate race-based systems.

Go to functions involving former service people.   The first thing you notice is how well they get on together and how proud they are of the job they did serving their country.  They are not divided into Maori and non-Maori and would be deeply offended at any suggestion of different treatment on the basis of race.

Whanau Ora is belatedly being touted as available to all New Zealanders – irrespective of race.   Our response to that is – yeah right!   It's described as a bold Maori-based welfare initiative.  It is not inclusive.   Just remember that the minister in charge is Tariana Turia – and the department in charge is Te Puni Kokiri.

The Ministry of Maori Development was set up when I was Minister of Maori Affairs to provide oversight of the delivery of services to Maori, not deliver the services itself.

In all my years as a politician I have always stood for one law for everybody.  It is sad to have to say this but NZ is now well on the way to separatism.

The Maori Party flew its separatist flag on Waitangi Day, the foreshore and seabed is open to seizure in the guise of customary title, and now hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are to be siphoned off social services for the race-based Whanau Ora programme.

Maori have always done well when facing challenges on equal terms with everyone else.
No country has ever progressed by setting up separate systems for treating people differently.   However, the way things are going under the tawdry National and Maori Party deal we will soon have to set up a new Ministry of Pakeha Affairs with “Pakeha Aura” key to its mission statement.   Everybody else has got a Ministry, why shouldn’t you have one?

Serious Fraud Office

Another curious fact has emerged with the Serious Fraud Office.   It has a new director who is trying to quickly deal with criminal activity involved in shonky financial firms.

At least $3billion has gone missing and $3 Billion more is still at risk..

Many elderly investors entrusted their life savings to some of these finance companies and  some have lost everything.

The new SFO director is particularly concerned about the time delays in investigating some of these companies and their practices.

Well, we can give you one very good reason for time delays which nobody has mentioned publicly and it is this.  In 2008 when the SFO should have been investigating finance companies, some senior members of the Serious Fraud Office were involved in politics and a rearguard action to avoid being reorganised into the Police.   They wasted months in an investigation into my party, and turned up nothing.  But boy how they tried.

New Policy

Though New Zealand First is not in Parliament we continue to work for the elderly.

When we learned the Supergold card free off peak travel on public transport was under threat we sounded the alarm.   At first government denied it, then the transport minister Stephen Joyce had to admit it, publicly grovel, then pull his head in.  

New Zealand First will not only protect the concessions provided by the Supergold card but we will extend them when we return to Parliament next year.

We are announcing the first of these tonight.

The cost of medical care is a big item for many elderly people. Too many avoid going to the doctor for checkups.

We will bring in a scheme allied to the Supergold card that will provide one free health check a year with your GP and we will cap future doctors' visits at ten dollars.

We believe that this policy will actually help reduce the overall cost of health because problems will be picked up before they get serious.

There will be other initiatives coming and these will be released next year but moving the Supergold card into healthcare is a logical extension to those benefits available now.

And you won’t have to spend half a day filling out a form the CIA would be proud of.

Political Involvement

This week we have had some very curious statements from Labour, the Greens and from National's senior citizens minister.   Labour and the Greens are to hold an inquiry into the state of aged care and John Carter says he does not want Grey Power involved in it.

First of all I want to say that Labour and the Greens have been missing in action for a long time over the issue of caring for the elderly so we suppose it’s better late than never for them to wake up to the facts we've been pushing for years about the plight of our old people.

I am sure you remember which party actually picked up the Price Waterhouse Report on Age Care neglect and found the $390 million to address it.

And as far as Carter's remarks are concerned – the National party has continually proved that it is the natural enemy of the elderly.  The last party to slash super was National and it has the same minister of finance again.

Conclusion 

There is something missing in New Zealand politics at the moment.  You can sense it whenever some of these curious ideas come floating out from blunderland.  What is missing is the voice of ordinary New Zealanders - the people who don’t go along with separatist claptrap and dumb ideas like making this country an international retirement home, or selling our biggest farming operation to the Chinese.   We respectfully suggest that voice is represented by New Zealand First.

Our party is called New Zealand First because all our policies and positions place New
Zealanders First.

We are on the road back – and with your help–we can make a better future for us all.

ENDS

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SERIOUS FLAWS IN FORESHORE PLAN

Press Statement, 31- 3 -2010, Rt. Hon Winston Peters, Leader NZ First

Rt Hon Winston Peters has described the foreshore and seabed proposals released today as a “compromise that reflects the worst of all worlds”.

Mr Peters said the proposals go from all New Zealanders, in the form of the Crown, owning the exclusive economic zone right up to the high water mark, (with some already recognised exceptions,) to nobody now owning it!

“This is a ridiculous situation, and totally unacceptable to any First World government or legal system”.

“Those who were persuaded by National’s 'Kiwi not Iwi' argument have been totally deceived, as have the Maori people who have been told that this will restore their ownership, which legally  was never the case.

“As a result all New Zealanders now face the prospect of decades of court cases and uncertainty unless a future government fixes it up,” said Mr Peters.

Mr Peters said that the coastal tribes, as evidenced by Ngati Porou support for the previous law, and the wider New Zealand public are by this unholy compromise between John Key and the Maori Party the latest victims of naive, cheap politics.

ENDS  

 

“Back To The Future?”

Rt. Honourable Winston Peters
Public Meeting,Baycourt,38 Durham Street, Tauranga

9.30 am Saturday the 27th March 2010

 

We are approaching the half way mark of the electoral cycle.  It's a good point to reflect on where we are headed as a country.   New Zealand First sees this as a time when we all need to be especially vigilant, because we believe the need to protect what is worthwhile about New Zealand has never been greater.

But first some thoughts on the political scene.

We have a government intent on projecting an aura of coolness and normality.   The prime minister's whole public image is based on one theme – reassurance.  In a time of uncertainty he is programmed to be the calming influence.   He is portrayed as the grinning, all round good bloke telling us - fret not - all is well.   There are two points to make about that.  First, let me respectfully remind you that John Key is a front man.  He is the smiling face of a right wing government so do not be taken in.   Second, if what we have now passes as normal then it does not resemble normal as have understood that word.

So what does the new normality look like?
Well, right now many New Zealanders are being hit hard:

• Many young people are struggling to get a job –any job.
• Many small businesses are struggling to survive.
• Many thousands of Kiwis have had their savings wiped out.

It's 2010 but this National government has a distinctly “retro” – 1990’s - look about it.   Many of its policies reflect those of 20 years ago.   What are they doing in the face of the most profound economic crisis since the Great Depression?   You guessed it;

• Restructuring the public sector again without any particular method or measurable savings.
• Restructuring the health sector again – and creating another bureaucratic bailiwick called the National Health Board to rival the Ministry of Health.
• Putting everything up for sale from the conservation estate to citizenship.
• Throwing thousands of people out of work and then telling them to get jobs where there are none.
•  Setting up a monster called a super city in Auckland where the ratepayers get stripped of their assets and their democratic rights. 

It all has a familiar look to it. It’s like we have a Rip Van Winkle Government that's woken up after sleeping for the past 20 years!   Nowhere is there any hint of a strategic plan or logic to their tinkering and tampering.  They're like a bunch of kids who've broken into a lolly shop.

In many ways the proposal to start mining the conservation estate is a good insight in to the shallow thinking of this Government; just the latest example of NZ stumbling from one failed economic panacea to the next.

From right wing monetarist theory that was to make us “the financial capital of the world”, through to unparalleled immigration that would rejuvenate our society and now on to mining, the latest light bulb to explode in the minds of the New Right.

Look what happened in the recent rise in world dairy prices.

Government allowed our exchange rate to inexplicably rise as well which destroyed any gain in profits, growth or investment at home and this latest notion could be even worse.

Foreigners will reap nearly all the benefits, our exchange rate will rise again and domestic manufacturing and exporters will be hammered once again.

What a stark contrast, this Government’s enthusiasm towards mining with its’ indifference to manufacturing and exporting.

Spending tens of millions of dollars on free market negotiations whilst totally neglecting the fundamental settings required for manufacturers and exporters in this country.

Nearly every month we lose part of our manufacturing base whether it's washing machines or Moro bars.   Yet without a manufacturing industry in New Zealand we will be dependent on imports for even basic items.  Our children will be doomed to either going overseas or to a “waiting on tables” economy – and the chance of ever escaping foreign indebtedness will be lost.

So we have a government drooling over the prospects of a lot of international mining companies having the run of our conservation estate but blithely ignoring the far more serious need to sustain our manufacturing base.

Manufacturing is where the jobs are and the opportunity to build a deeper more sustainable economy.

What started out as the government's innocuous sounding “stocktake” of the conservation estate has morphed into widespread despoilation of our natural heritage.

This mining issue is significant – if they get away with raiding our protected national parks the next thing is they will go after other protected areas – like your pensions!

Beware!

Every time some long held expectation is abandoned it will only encourage them to make further assaults on the fabric of our society.  Is that alarmist?   We don’t think so.  National has a track record when it comes to breaking undertakings.

New Zealand First does not buy the government’s attempt to propagate a sense of calm complacency.  We don’t have a crystal ball but it is obvious that the economic outlook is fragile.

So far New Zealand has been spared a lot of the fallout from the worldwide recession.

To their credit, the Australasian banks never did succumb to the madness that gripped their counterparts in the United States and Britain.

But there is no room for smugness.

Globally, the bailouts of the financial systems have cost billions.  It's going to take years, not months, to pay off the rescue packages and everywhere, including in New Zealand, governments are swimming in a sea of red ink.

You do not need to be an oracle to foresee tough times ahead.

So while New Zealand has not made the headlines like Dubai, Greece and Eire we are vulnerable.

This is yet another reason for people to stay alert.

In an environment dominated by debt and deficits it will be politics – not fairness or equity – that determines who wins and who loses.

So the recent threats to the Super Gold Card was just a straw in the wind of what lies ahead.

We are urging people to be alert.   Because these are areas where a lot is at stake – and where things can be lost by stealth unless we are vigilant. 

Health

New Zealand First recognises that heath spending cannot grow unchecked.   An ageing population will put more pressure on the health system care.   Productivity applies in health care as in every sector of society.  But great care has to be taken to improve health productivity without compromising the quality and quantity of health services.   Already we are seeing arbitrary cutting in the health sector.  We will be watching the health sector – because our health services are not so lavishly provided that bits can be chopped off without causing real damage.

Immigration

The absurd open door immigration policy must be ended – soon!   New Zealand is a land of paradox.   It is a country of opportunity – but only for immigrants. The sons and daughters of Kiwis know they face better prospects overseas.  At a time of high unemployment and cutbacks, dishing out New Zealanders' entitlements to more migrants and their families beggars belief

As everybody knows, New Zealand First is the only party with a commitment to a restrictive and rigorously administered immigration policy.

You might have heard of a recent case in which the Human Rights Commission was asked to clarify whether a Sikh student should be allowed to wear a ceremonial dagger to school.  A Sikh Society spokesman estimated more than 50 children and a few teachers wear the daggers.   He has been involved in discussions about pupils at schools in Auckland, Hastings, Hamilton, Tauranga, Te Puke, Wellington and Christchurch.  The knives are "not a weapon" and are only ever used to "fight for good", according to the spokesman.  He said New Zealand had become increasingly multi-cultural and schools had to understand the issue!
Excuse me!   It is outrageous that school children should be allowed to take knives to school in this country.  We have enough problems in schools without arming a group of students and for those members of the Indian community who insist on it – we suggest that they exercise their knife-carrying religious rites somewhere else – like back in India.

That's the problem with immigration in this country.  We bring in hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures and then have to put up with the cultural and religious baggage that some inflict on us.  They come here and expect us to fit in with them.

And now they have a new cheerleader – Pita Sharples from the Maori Party who says we don't treat Asian newcomers well enough.  We don’t care if he personally wants to perform a powhiri for each plane load, but this is the same Pita Sharples who is supposed to be representing Maori in this country.  Maori who are being hammered economically by the National Party behind Pita's back.

Democracy

And while we are on the subject, the Maori Party, which was democratically elected to Parliament by the way, is now questioning the democratic principle of one person one vote.  During a Race Relations Day speech last week Mr Sharples spoke of being saddened by the Government's decision not to include designated Maori seats on the Auckland super-city council.

He told Morning Report on Monday that the concept of one vote for one person is an artificial political concoction.

So Dr Sharples does not believe in the very system that made him a minister of the Crown.  It's like having an atheist as head of a church.  Does he want New Zealand's democratic system changed to match some tinpot African state – based on tribal lines – with perpetually warring factions?  Does he want selected Maori simply appointed to Parliament to avoid the hassles of the electoral process?

And how is it that tens of thousands of Maori are happy with one person one vote in Australia but according to the Maori Party, not happy in NZ? “That is Bovine Scatology”.

And while the Maori Party wallows in its separatist racist waffle, the needs of ordinary Maori are being ignored by the very people who are supposed to represent them.

Inequality

Only the wilfully blind would deny that there is growing inequality in our society.  This will have major consequences.

Inequality will get worse not better under this government – because the tax cuts will actually give nothing to pensioners and low and modest income earners.  The relatively wealthy will do well.

And competition from low wage economies as well as large scale immigration from the Third World is keeping wages down in this country.

However, if we start to take a common sense approach to immigration, foreign ownership and free trade; we could make real progress in tackling the problem of the working poor in New Zealand.

Foreign Ownership

Loss of prime assets to overseas interests carries massive economic consequences but is still largely ignored by the old parties and the foreign-owned mainstream media.

For example, the Aussie banks were not content with sucking billions in profits from New Zealand they then tried to fiddle our tax laws to their advantage. 

Doing something effective to stem the loss of prime assets to foreign ownership is important and urgent.

We are asking that the very first job of the shortly to be formed Productivity Commission should be to look thoroughly at the causes and consequences of foreign ownership and how we can reverse this disastrous trend.

The latest move by Chinese interests to grab a big chunk of our dairy industry should send shivers down the spines of every New Zealander.  It represents the biggest threat to our economic security since the social and economic disasters of the eighties and early nineties.  We are referring to Hong Kong-listed Natural Dairy, which is seeking to buy New Zealand dairy industry assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  It plans to buy $1.5 billion of dairy farms and milk-processing plants here which could be the start of an overseas buy up of the “crown jewels” of New Zealand's biggest export industry.  They plan vertical integration – short hand for exploitation and control of every aspect of the business, from production through to end sale.

And those apologists who argue “they can’t take the land with them” demonstrate a regrettable ignorance of both history and unbridled commercial imperialism.

Equally sad is the blithe unawareness of how the Chinese mind and economy works.  Far from respecting the Chinese as they claim, they reveal an appalling smugness of their lack of understanding which brings to mind the English saying “the malady of the ignorant is to be ignorant without knowing it.

Natural Dairy is aiming first at the farms owned by the Crafar family in receivership.  If by some stroke of madness, the government allows this to happen it will be the beginning of the end.

Overseas interests have been looking at our dairy industry for a long time.  If this bid is allowed others will follow.

New Zealanders will end up as dirt-scratching peasants in their own country, tugging their forelocks to overseas masters.

New Zealand First cannot stop this outside Parliament.  All New Zealanders who care about their country must fight this all the way to the General Election next year.

Housing
So far NZ has avoided a housing meltdown – our housing market has stayed relatively well ordered.   Unlike the USA there has been no housing crash in New Zealand – yet.
But never underestimate a National Government’s capacity to engineer a fiasco!

We do not think the government should sit on its hands if a large number of Kiwis are suffering.

So we would always support prudent, sensible and practical action in the housing sector whether in relation to the rotten buildings crisis or mortgagee sales forced on first home buyers.

If a problem in the housing sector is systemic it's head in the sand stuff to pretend the government does not have a role to play in fixing the mess because it actually caused it in the first place.

National even has the same cabinet minister throwing his hands up in horror at the problem, forgetting he was minister when building standards were thrown out the window.

Separatism

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Nowhere is that statement more apt than in the world of separatism.  Creeping, crawling separatism is alive and thriving here.

We helped put together workable – sensible – and just Foreshore and Seabed legislation – that served ALL New Zealanders.  That resolution has been cast casually aside by National and the Maori Party.  The whole performance of going over that legislation is pointless and divisive – and an unnecessary distraction from important issues facing this country.

And now we get another example of this creeping separatism in the Whanau Ora social services policy being concocted by the Maori Party and National.   Heaven knows what sort of a stew of backhanders, mates rates, nepotism and bottomless pit funding this will turn out to be.

Increasingly you are not treated as a New Zealander.   You are treated accordingly to your membership of a race based ‘community.

And a country that cannot agree on its own flag is hardly a model of cohesion

Only one party - NZ Party – has declared a clear line in the sand on separatism.   We are implacably opposed to separatism in all its many guises – because we see the damage going down that road will bring to everyone.

Conclusion

Whatever the political façade that is being presented, our view is that normality has not been resumed.

These are times when we all need to give a damn.

So I want to conclude my talk today with a request.

NZ First is asking New Zealanders to:

• Take an interest in politics – however distasteful that may seem.
• Be on your guard against spin and half-messages.
• Demand answers - and listen very carefully.

And when it's called for – be irate – be outraged!

New Zealand First will do our bit to continue to scrutinise what is going on. 

Working together we can keep our New Zealand intact!

ENDS

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“A Trip to the Third World – Watch Your Wallet”

Rt Honourable Winston Peters
Public Meeting
RSA Greymouth Branch
181 Tainui Street,
Greymouth

2 pm, Saturday the 6th March 2010

Thank you for your warm welcome.  It's good to be back on the Coast – among Coasters.

Today let us to start by asking a question – how do you describe a country in the following situation:

Most of its banks are owned somewhere else – just like New Zealand. No other developed country has such a high proportion of its financial system in foreign ownership.

The country has lost control of its strategic and prime assets. A great proportion of the productive economy is owned by foreigners.

There are few restrictions on foreigners gaining key assets -like energy and communications – just like New Zealand.

The main cities are full of immigrant taxi drivers – a form of disguised unemployment - like New Zealand. Wellington alone has 1700 cab drivers

The country has a chronic balance of payments problem –like New Zealand.

The telecommunications system is prone to breakdown and failure – even the emergency numbers - like New Zealand.

Regulation of the financial sector is a sick joke. Thousands can be robbed of their hard won savings by rascals who avoid being called to account – just like New Zealand.

The young, the educated, the talented and the enterprising see opportunities elsewhere – not in their own country – like New Zealand.

Nothing is sacrosanct – even the conservation estate can be plundered (often by foreign owned mining companies) – just like New Zealand.

It loses its commuter train services around the capital, leaving passengers to walk along railway lines – and once again just like New Zealand.

Makes political decisions about changing the electoral system behind closed doors – just like New Zealand.

Increases taxes on the poor and the elderly to give to the wealthy.

This is how you describe that country – and it hurts me to say this – you describe it as descending into the Third World.

That's right. 

This country - once described by that famous West Coaster Richard John Seddon – as “God's Own” is in a spot of trouble and nobody appears to be doing anything constructive about it.

If we look at the issues just outlined there is a common thread.   They could have all been eased or avoided if we had been prepared to make the right decisions at the right time and had owned our prime strategic assets.  No country has ever prospered when its resources have been controlled and exploited from abroad.   In the past few decades there never seems to have been a coherent plan to advance New Zealand's interests.   Successive governments have placed their faith in something called “the market” and that is supposed to have been the path to freedom and prosperity.   All we can say to that in 2010 is, yeah right!

The world has just been shaken by the biggest financial upheaval since the Great Depression of the 1930s and there are no prizes for working out who caused it.   You are right – it was the people who make up this thing called “the market”.   Hundreds of millions of ordinary people around the world have lost their jobs, their homes and their savings because of the actions of “the market”.

Now tell me – who controls all this?   Who has gained?   Who has been called to account?  What's happened to all the billions of dollars?

There are young men sent to prison in this country for robbing dairies of cigarettes and the contents of a shop's till.   Fair enough – commit a crime and do the time.   But what about the financiers and businesspeople who rob old people of their life savings?   They are still walking the streets, living their lavish lifestyles with family trusts that keep the wolf from the door.   They will not be worrying about electricity bills, doctors' bills or the price of food.

And that brings us to the government's planned tax changes.   These tax changes promise some kind of economic miracle.   It has never happened in the history of the world before - everybody is going to pay less tax, the same amount of tax will be collected, and we are all going to be better off!   Especially pensioners and the low incomed who are going to be thrown some crumbs from the Treasury table.

Let us talk about the facts of the matter.   First – it is not possible for everybody to be better off, and this is why not.   The total tax take is going to remain about the same as it is now.   This has been stated publicly several times by leading members of this government – the boys who make the decisions.   That means for John, on his ministerial salary alone, to get his expected tax cut of three hundred dollars a week, somebody has to pay for it, through higher personal tax or extra GST.   Twenty lower paid people are going to have to pay fifteen dollars more tax a week each to finance the Prime Minister's tax cut.

Here it is again – so you don’t miss it - the tax according to John Key changes will be  "neutral".    That means the same amount of tax has to be gathered.

If people at the top of the heap get a tax cut, it means those at the bottom will pay more tax - even if it is simply through higher GST.

Pensioners are going to be hardest hit – and the Government's own officials are aware of this.   That is why the Prime Minister has said there will be a two percent rise in superannuation.   But pensioners are already playing catch up because superannuation is always calculated on the PAST average weekly wage.

For example, from a reasonable commentary in the New Zealand Herald this week – it said ...and I quote:

”superannuation payments will rise slightly faster, by 2.31 per cent, because of the National Party's election promise to maintain the married rate at a floor of 66 per cent of the net average wage.

But the net average wage actually rose by 4.16 per cent, so all beneficiaries and superannuitants slipped slightly further behind those still in the workforce.”

We calculate that the forthcoming tax changes and the time lag for adjusting pensions will cost the average pensioner the equivalent of a day's food a week – about seven or eight dollars.   It also means that superannuation is actually falling below 66 percent of the net average wage.   People on superannuation, in the main, spend differently to most other people in the community.   They live on their pension and their savings (and don’t forget the withholding tax has gone up on the interest on their savings).   Also there will be a transition period when GST is increased.   Don’t tell us that some businesses wont use the chance to make a bit extra, thus throwing a further burden on those on low fixed incomes. 

You might not be aware of this but Treasury officials generally refer to superannuitants as the “unproductive sector”.  In most parts of the world, age is venerated because of the wisdom of experience and the value of the life contribution.   Here, in NZ the elderly make up the “unproductive sector”.   It makes you wonder if all these clever people at Treasury have parents or grandparents or whether they were spawned by a process of osmosis!

And to add injury to insult, a study is being carried out as we speak on cutting the transport concessions of the SuperGold card.   The Transport Minister Stephen Joyce has ordered this work to be carried out.   This study of course has never been announced publicly by the government.   John Key forgot to mention it in his recent speech to Grey Power in Auckland – or perhaps he was not aware of it.

This whole tax change business appears to be a giant “con” job because all the people engineering it – from the back rooms at Treasury to the board rooms in Auckland – are those who will benefit from it.   We are in some sort of strange parody of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham – except the poor are going to be robbed to pay the rich.

And speaking of parodies - let us now refer to one of New Zealand's favourite companies – Telecom.   This company has systematically looted New Zealanders' pockets ever since it was privatised by the Labour government in 1990.   Telecom spent a lot of money advertising its new XT mobile phone network. Remember that advertising?   You could ring up anywhere in the world if you were parked on top of a shipping container somewhere in the ocean. It was pretty fancy hi-tech stuff.   Trouble is most of us live on dry land in New Zealand and prefer to stay off shipping containers afloat in the ocean!   On land, the new network keeps breaking down.   To be fair to Telecom though – their mobile network works most of the time – as long as it's not an emergency call to one, one, one.   Telecom's Scottish boss got a three million dollar bonus for presiding over this debacle.   Perhaps he could be placed on one of these shipping containers and sent back to the UK.   We'd make sure he had an XT mobile phone to deal with emergencies.

And remember the railways?    As Wellington commuters wander along the railway tracks when their trains break down they should spare a thought for the last National government and another iconic New Zealand company called Fay Richwhite.   Between them they managed to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer assets to themselves and their mates.

And what about the people using electricity in Wellington.  Their distribution system is owned in China!

The problems outlined today could, and can be avoided by sound stewardship in New Zealand's best interests.  And by owning our own strategic assets.

The international financial disaster has shown that globalisation is an expensive mistake.   We are simply too small and vulnerable to throw open our doors for the wolves to come in and plunder.   Unfortunately we have a crop of highly paid politicians and bureaucrats who are interested in economic theories that should be kept in the textbooks on library shelves – not in the real world.

Last century New Zealand went through two world wars and a depression and we appear to have forgotten about past generations' struggle for peace and prosperity.

Our country is getting bogged down in arguments between economic theorists, capitalists and socialists instead of simply confronting the issues staring us in the face.

We are even heading towards a fight with the separatists who are trying to drag us back to some pre-European utopia where Maori created some kind of dusky paradise.

You'd think that in a country of only four million people we would try to pull generally in the same direction.

But no, the various factions head off in a direction of self interest that will make us all poorer.

Only one political party has ever tried to act in the interests of all – and that is New Zealand First.

We are on our way back – we want to work with and for you next year.

Until then – good luck!

ENDS

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“Signs of the Honeymoon Being Over”

Rt Honourable Winston Peters
Public Meeting
The Hub, 23 Gordon St, Dannevirke
2 pm, Sunday 14th February 2010.

Politics is frequently a very strange business.  No less so is popularity.  One doesn’t have to be a Kipling to understand that events are always in transition from somewhere to somewhere.  And knowing what the Government intends to do informs the populace of likely future events.  Between the Q & A TVNZ program on Sunday and the Prime Ministers opening address to Parliament this week, New Zealanders must indeed be confused as to what to expect and, more importantly, what is expected of them.

Reserve Bank Governor Bollards two admissions on Sunday were startling not so much for what he said, but that he said it.   To begin with Governor Bollard said there was no chance of New Zealand ever catching up with Australia in economic performance.  Astonishing really when 45 years ago our economy was stronger than that of Australia as was our currency and our then outlook.  He put it all down to Australia’s mineral wealth which must make Singapore and Taiwan wonder how they ever quickly took themselves from the third world to the first world. or how Scandinavians remain at the top of the first world despite none of these countries having the reputed advantage Governor Bollard suggests.

The second bombshell from the Governor was his open admission that our currency was too high.   That latter remark seemed interestingly to evoke no great outcry from any part of the population including our so called financial markets.   Now if a Treasurer or a Finance Minister had said that there would have been immediate bleatings from certain quarters that a senior politician was interfering with the financial markets.  Moreover, if the Governor of the Reserve Bank is bemoaning the level of our dollar which had fallen considerably before the Sunday program, New Zealanders much surely be asking themselves why he hadn’t spoken up a lot earlier when so much damage was being done to our exporters, and what anyone, including the Governor, intends doing about our bloated currency which is the most critical element in New Zealand ever achieving a lasting export led recovery.

For decades we have had virtually the highest interest rates in the OECD and the most volatile currency in the world in terms of movements upwards and downwards.   And all this time there has been no relativity between our real trade figures and currency trading figures -   All this in an immediate environment of global suffering and future debt resulting from the worst financial crisis since the great depression of the 1930’s.  It seems we Kiwis are destined to slave on regardless of the alarm bells indicating the serious wrongs in our economy.

After the Prime Ministers Tuesday speech thinking New Zealanders must have been even more confused as to where we now intend to go.  It appears we are about to experience another beloved ‘step change’, whatever that means, but that this step change is going to have one miraculous feature.Tax rates are going to change, GST is going to increase and yet nobody is going to be worse off.  Now the Department of Treasury must surely have advised both their Minister and Prime Minister that such a result is impossible.And that is why the Honeymoon is coming to an end.

GST is a tax on discretionary income.   It means that its’ effects are so much harsher for those modestly paid, buying essentials with little spare discretionary cash.  For the well off the effects are more benign because after the same essentials they have much more discretionary spending left.  Some commentators casually refer to the fact that our GST is considerably lower than the equivalent tax in other economies.  They fail to mention that in those economies cash in the pocket after taxation in a working week is twice that of the NZ taxpaying consumer.  In contrast the third world spends little time talking about taxation matters because when you are on one dollar a day taxation theories have long been irrelevant.

Mr Key’s speech this week is of concern because it demonstrates little understanding of NZ’s fundamental problems.   Low savings, low incomes, and low per capita exports.   And in an export dependent economy which we have been for centuries, such a disconnect whilst preaching international economic theories to New Zealanders means that NZ is going to continue its slide down the first world ratings and that Dr Bollards statement about NZ never catching Australia was right on the button.

Here in Dannevirke, in the heartland of NZs economic productivity, Tuesday’s message prospected little hope for an improved future and one doesn’t have to wait until budget day in May to work that out.

NZs savings are in decline and no number of free trade agreements is really going to change our export performance without drastic policy changes back home.

And we’re not going to find salvation in wholesale mining of the DOC estate.

Alongside these events our Primary Schools are to have new national standards.
No bad thing, but under a Minister who seems incapable of understanding her portfolio or the required assistance teaching professionals need to put these new standards in place.

2010 will be an extraordinarily interesting political year with all the signs of some hopeless compromises beginning to emerge.

A new semi official Maori Party flag and a social welfare devolution program under the flag name of the Maori Party called Whanau Ora.   All this has the hallmarks of the 1988 then Labour Party green paper for Maoridom in which $50 million was devolved to them, of which $20 million had gone missing straight through the dirt by the time National came to power less than 2 years later.  I know, because I was the Minister trying to find where the $20 million was at the then change of Government.

At the same time New Zealanders wait breathless for the Governments answer on the Seabed and Foreshore Act repeal.  Something has to take its place.   And the compromise that Mr Key has made with the Maori Party now in a grand alliance with the Act Party is staggering to say the least.   Not one millimetre of land changed hands when the Seabed and Foreshore Act was passed and tribes with traditional title such as Ngatai Porou heavily backed it.   All these changes are a forerunner to heartache.

And the Prime Minister winging away to Gay Parades isn’t going to help much either.

But to conclude with the premise of this speech of signs the honeymoon is over.

A number of conclusions can be reached already.   The major one is that a new government out of power for 9 years has just wasted more than a third of its term either doing nothing or proposing too often to do the wrong thing.

Politics can sometimes bluntly be described as the science of who gets what, where, when, why and how.

As NZ’ers quickly come to realise this in 2010 the political landscape is going to change dramatically.

ENDS

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Rt. Hon Winston Peters – Leader NZ First
Address to Political Science Students
Auckland University, 14 Symonds St, Auckland
11 am – 12 noon 29 January 2010

 “MMP – The Inside Story”

 

Thank you for the invitation to talk to you about politics.

It brings back memories of a few years ago, when a country boy started studying POLITICS 101.

It is a great pleasure to speak to you about some aspects of the journey started then.

Despite what some might tell you, politics is not one of those subjects which can be described with a simple formula.

In many years in politics one has found oneself in many roles – from deputy prime minister down – but the aim has always been the same and that is to improve the lives of ordinary people and to ensure a fair deal for all.

If you were to ask about the “brand” of my politics, it probably doesn’t fit into any of the boxes in your text book, because it is neither Left nor Right, whilst some have labelled New Zealand First Centrist.   But at its core are the very traditional New Zealand values that once saw this great country among the world’s leaders – hard work, fair pay, valuing our citizenship and building a sense of community.  We added our particular brand of Idealism as well.

And to confuse you even further – in a life before politics I have been a farmhand, labourer, freezing worker, union delegate, school teacher and commercial lawyer.   At the moment I work for a most reasonable boss – myself  – but with great prospects of getting an old job back next year.

Today – as requested - we're going to talk about MMP and a New Zealand First perspective.

You will have studied the background to MMP – or to use the correct term Mixed Member Proportional Representation.   New Zealanders voted for it because the two main parties, National and Labour in the 80’s and 90’s, would not stick to their pre-election manifestos. Worse than that, both came to power with an inner cabal cherishing hidden agendas.   Those of you old enough to remember 1984, will recall that Labour sprang a surprise social and economic revolution on the country, from which we have still not recovered....And in 1990 National continued that disastrous revolution – despite pledging to do something entirely different.   That was why the National Party and some of us parted ways – we had the temerity to suggest that we stick to our election promises and to criticise the leadership for deliberately not doing so.

A lot of obstacles were thrown in the way of MMP because the two old parties did not really want a bar of it.   The Royal Commission recommended that a hundred MPs in a new MMP system would work. We ended up with 120 because the two old parties reckoned that the 20 extra would put voters off the change.  In time, the Maori seats were supposed to go. We were all to be blended in – as we should be!   That did not happen either – more about that later.

New Zealand First was born from those who rejected the radical reforms of National and Labour and who wanted a party that represented ordinary New Zealanders – not overseas interests or those of a few ever mighty subjects. 

So, after the blitzkrieg neo-liberal policy destruction of Labour between 1984 and 1990 – and National until 1996, New Zealanders decided they wanted change.  They had experienced enough economic pain, while the promised land of freedom and plenty was still a pipe dream, and we had missed out again on winning the Rugby World Cup.

Enter New Zealand First, a First Past The Post party in 1993.

We were established to bring back some of the traditional values of New Zealand politics.  Our mission was to restore moderate capitalism with a kind, responsible face.  We wanted our businesses and exporters to prosper but we also wanted the state to abide by its long established social contract of caring for the young and the old and those who were down on their luck through no fault of their own.  That is why we brought in free medical care for the under sixes and fought for higher pensions for the elderly which had been stripped away through the economic reforms.

In 1996 we were forced to form a coalition with National. Labour simply did not have the numbers to survive a no-confidence vote.   This was never reported correctly at the time. The journalists, with two notable exceptions, refused to accept the arithmetic after the 1996 election.   With Labour we could not form a majority government without the Alliance – and Jim Anderton would not guarantee Alliance Party support.  So we went with National as that was the only way to guarantee stable government – at least mathematically.

Of course the personalities involved meant it was never going to be simple.   After nearly 50 years as the natural party of government in New Zealand, National hated sharing power.   In less than two years Jim Bolger was rolled by Jenny Shipley whose mission was to smash the centre-right coalition and to continue the neo-liberal experiment supported by the Business Round Table and any other stragglers they could cobble together.  So the assets sales started again, pensions were cut – and all the failed experiments of the recent past looked set to continue.

While in the public perception, New Zealand First took a huge hit, National had two disastrous elections in 1999 and 2002 as the public rejected their brand of radical ideology for a Labour Party that had learned its lesson of Rogernomics.   New Zealand First were not helped by individuals who cared more for themselves than the party and the principles we stood for – but that is sometimes the nature of politics.

We survived the 1999 election with five MPs thanks to 67 straight-thinking voters in Tauranga, and we spent the next three years regrouping to get 13 MPs in 2002.  We then tried to influence the then Labour government over issues such as rampant immigration, failing law and order and the freeloaders on the Treaty of Waitangi gravy train.  Labour kept us at arm's length until faced with riots over the contentious foreshore and seabed issue.  We publicly offered to reaffirm Crown ownership, the unfettered access right of every person to the foreshore and to protect the customary rights of Maori forever.  And that is what we did.  We did it in the face of National accusing us of giving everything to Maori and in the face of radical Maori accusing us of taking everything away from them.

And here we must point out, the media failed in every way to tell the people of New Zealand the truth about what was happening.  In the biggest misinformation campaign since the Treaty of Waitangi, from opposing ends of the political spectrum the radicals and extremists created a lie which has been allowed to fester.   This is worse than just being mischievous for political purposes, it is outright deceitful. 

You see the Ngati Apa case, which sparked this debate in the first place, never said Maori had customary title.  It said that perhaps in a few cases it might be able to be tested in the courts but it could not conceive of a successful claim.

The lie is that the seabed and foreshore was stolen, which begs the question – how could the Crown steal what it already had?  Not a single piece of property changed hands from one group to another when the act was passed – not one.  So where was the theft?  In the minds of the radicals and extremists, and those making political capital out of the confusion – that’s where.

But NZ believed that what could exist were customary rights – the right for iwi or hapu to continue their customary practices.  That is what we guaranteed in the existing legislation – because that is the part that matters to most Maori.  It is only the trouble makers who have perpetrated the lie that it was stolen and are reverting to the only language they know – grievance.

Now we come to the hard bit ahead.

When the foreshore legislation was passed National claimed that we were giving it away to Maori.  The Maori Party was claiming that it was stolen.  Now these two parties – from totally opposing points of view – claim they are going to sort it out.  You can almost hear the sounds of the pigs' wings flapping overhead!

Watch now how National is squirming over an issue they cannot compromise on.  They couldn’t give way on the Maori seats in Auckland and there are parts of the seabed and foreshore act they can’t back down on either.  This is why they are delaying the decision.  On this issue, what the Maori party want, National can’t sell to their constituents and vice versa.  There is no middle ground without one side taking a major hit.

This issue has highlighted an unforseen and unfortunate aspect of MMP.  At no stage did we ever expect that MMP would provide a continuing basis for race-based politics in New Zealand.  We were a country, justifiably or not, that prided itself on doing its best for both Maori and non-Maori and treating everyone equally under the law. We were not perfect but our record was better than most colonised nations.  Now we have the Maori Party with its separatist agenda with one of its MPs preaching an appalling message of hate against another race.  We also hear the same person talking about the Maori “nation” and some iwi have also taken up describing themselves as “nations”.  This, of course, is imported nonsense. We are in fact only one nation, and a small one at that.

Tribes with flags have the potential to tear this country apart unless there is some inspired leadership from both sides over the next few years and New Zealand politics has far too many people at the top who are not leaders but managers.

Flags are a powerful symbol.  Throughout the ages they have been rallying points in battles.  People have died for their flags. It was a great honour to carry them.  Now, the prime minister and his mate Hone Harawira have decided – at great expense - that the Maori Party flag should fly with the New Zealand ensign on Waitangi Day.  This news has insulted many New Zealanders – both Maori and non-Maori – and Maori leaders at Waitangi hosting the event won’t have a bar of it!  It is an example of the misuse of MMP. In exchange for supporting the destruction of ACC, National has given the Maori Party a day to fly their divisive flag.  A flag chosen at 21 hui where less than a quarter of one percent of Maori turned up and from submissions from Maori no more numerous that.  You've all heard or seen the British comedy TV show “the two Ronnies” - well we have our own comedy show starring the “two Hones”.  Hone, of course, is Maori for John – and the two “Hones” don’t give a “Heke” about who they insult on Waitangi Day.  Sadly that is what our country is being forced to endure over this issue – extremists and radicals, trying to pass themselves off as moderate and reasonable.

Meanwhile back to MMP and New Zealand First.

Between 2005 and 2008 we gave Labour supply and confidence while we saved the racing industry, improved pensions, introduced the SuperGold card for the over 65s and got our relations with the world’s only super power back to a sound basis of mutual respect.

At the same time we did our best to improve New Zealand's relationships elsewhere abroad – particularly with the countries bordering and within the Pacific.

So, over the years we in New Zealand First have tried to keep the values of the people who made many sacrifices last century to make this country a better place.

If you think we are making huge progress now as a nation, let me put you straight.  New Zealand was once regarded as the social laboratory of the world, underpinned with sound nationalistic economics.  We were admired for our enlightened social policies and our equality of opportunity.  These values are timeless and they are what matters.  After all improving peoples' lives should be the number one priority of politics.  We rejected the radical ideologies that have created so much disharmony and injustice abroad.  Yet these agendas have festered in certain domestic quarters for many years now and have bubbled to the surface again.  We saw some of this recently in the economic prescription of a failed politician who simply could not see that pure neo-liberal economics is a pathway to economic servitude for all but a small privileged elite. Or maybe he does know this – which makes he, and his ilk, even more dangerous.  It is not possible to govern a country while shackled to one particular political philosophy.

You have to look at what is in front of you and what lies ahead.  MMP has brought more points of view to New Zealand politics and wider representation.  It is still not fully understood – even by the parties in parliament and the media – because it is still too much about winners and losers and us and them.

Democracy can be very untidy at times.   But as Winston Churchill once said “nobody has thought of anything better”.

Democracy under MMP is patently, obviously more representative, abandoning minority government for majority rule.

The system of MMP in NZ can obviously be improved and hopefully as circumstances change in the future needed improvements will occur.  It’s a system capable of improvement unlike First Past The Post which was not and therefore never was improved.
ENDS

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Rt Honourable Winston Peters
Address to NZ First Tauranga Electorate
7 pm, Wednesday 9th December 2009.
St Johns Church Hall
Bureta Rd, Otumoetai

“The Road Back”

Tonight we need to talk about two topics:

What we are doing as a party to prepare for the next election, and why it is vitally important that NZ First returns to Parliament in 2011.

No political party wants to be out of office – and NZ First is no exception.   From last year we resolved to be back in Parliament at the next election.   We are using this period to rebuild, to make sure that the time is well spent and that when we go back into Parliament we do so with renewed vigour and commitment.

So what are we doing?

Well we are active on a number of fronts.

First - we are determined to avoid the errors of the last campaign.  To that end we have been carefully checking our processes and organisational arrangements to ensure that our house is entirely ship shape.    There will be no successful repeat of the attacks that derailed us in 2008.

Second – we are thinking through and developing our policies.   Our basic policy positions are well founded but it is important that we support and back up our policies with the best possible arguments and evidence.   That means taking the time to look at issues carefully and objectively. Unlike National or Labour, NZ First prefers to be guided by facts rather than rely on some pre-ordained ideological viewpoint.   When the facts change we are open to rethinking our point of view.

The third thing we are doing is connecting with New Zealanders at the grassroots level.  Over the next twelve months we will be working hard to get our message across in a number of ways.   For example, we will be improving our website as a channel of communication and dialogue with our members and the public.   And we are also getting out and about to meet with New Zealanders directly – and what we are seeing is very encouraging.

Our meetings are well attended.   Kiwis are keen to hear what we have to say because we are talking about the issues that they are actually concerned about.   And, as NZ First has always done - we will pull no punches – we will put our views forward fearlessly. We see that there has never been a greater need for straight talking.

This brings us to the second part of this talk tonight - why it is vital that NZ First returns to Parliament in 2011.

We need to be in Parliament because right now your voice and hundreds of thousands of others is not being heard.   The people our party was founded to serve – ordinary New Zealanders – have been abandoned by the other political parties.   Wherever you look the interests of ordinary Kiwis are being put at the bottom of the pile.  And that is why it is important that YOUR voice is heard in Parliament.   Because we represent the interests of real New Zealanders, NZ First is distinct from the other parties.

First - let me just spell out what we are not.

We are NOT a race base party – and have consistently stood against the encroachment of racial division in our society - in whatever form that took.   (And note that it took Mr Goff well over a decade to see the wisdom of our position).

We are NOT a mouthpiece of corporate interests and the globalisation agenda of big business.

Second - what we stand for is equally clear.

We stand alongside those patriotic New Zealanders committed to the values that built this country - so we do not consider love of country a crime.   We speak up whenever we see the interests of New Zealanders are being damaged.  And there are plenty of instances of this happening.

The other parties subscribe to political no go zones – taboo area which they tacitly agree must not be discussed.   NZ First has never gone along with this sort of duplicity and deception.  So, for example, we will continue to sound the alarm over the consequences of a lackadaisical approach to immigration.

Look how absurd things are in this country. There has been an enormous hue and cry over increases in ACC levies for motor bikes – but in contrast the huge impact of large scale immigration on the costs of our services goes unchallenged – except that is by NZ First.

People are not blind - all the nonsense that is written about the benefits of immigration is bogus.   It is bogus because it never includes the real costs that immigration imposes.

Go into the emergency department of any big city hospital and you can see the impact that large scale immigration imposes on our health system.   With our system of universal entitlements, people who gain residence can access our heath system – our education system – our unemployment benefit system, ACC and often housing assistance – and then of course eventually the national pension pie.

It’s like winning Lotto – without even paying the cost of a ticket.

That is the system that your taxes have paid for – but which well paid and well privileged politicians in the other parties treat like a free good.

It is outrageous to treat systems paid for by Kiwis – and which are already being rationed - in this sort of ‘help yourself’ fashion – and we will continue to say so.

When it comes to looking after the national interest, NZ First’s scepticism is a healthy influence to have in Parliament.

Let us look briefly at Dr Brash’s recent report on productivity.   That the report purports to be about productivity is a sick joke – its actually about the pauperisation and impoverishment of ordinary people.   But Brash’s report should not be seen in isolation.

John Key’s government knew beforehand exactly what they were paying for when they engaged Dr Brash.   Brash has forgotten nothing and learnt nothing from the days of infamy when Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson and their acolytes were decimating our economy and society.   No, there is an agenda at work here.  It seems incredible to us that so many people have forgotten that Don Brash was the leader of the National Party a very short time ago.   Many of the National MPs now in Government voted for him.  They are still there in their droves and it is simply not true that they are all born-again centrists.  They still think the same – and they think like Don Brash.   Brash’s report is actually part of the preliminary softening up process – it is part of the wider campaign to shift the economic climate in favour of a right wing –laissez faire market ideology.

Mr English’s budget next year will slash public spending -expect a whole lot of public sector cutbacks and consolidation.   A number of organisations and agencies will go – but this will still only be preliminary skirmishing.   The really draconian stuff will come later –for example the assault on the public pension will be the agenda for their second term.  That will mean all or a combination of:

• Raising the age of pension eligibility from 65
• Reducing the real value of the pension progressively by amending the indexing formula so that it is eroded faster by inflation
• Re-introducing some form of means –testing

And here is the rub.  If you think that smart young policy analysts in Treasury are sharpening their pencils in anticipation over how to cut pension spending you are probably not wrong   Although until the day before such measures are introduced they will be vehemently denied.   And then – hey presto - suddenly draconian cuts will be presented as urgent - unavoidable – imperative.

New Zealanders need a party in Parliament that is not going to compromise or undermine national superannuation.

Only one party offers that assurance – NZ First.

You do not need reminding that there are some big battles ahead – and you do not need to be psychic to see that national superannuation will be one of those battlegrounds.

As I have outlined today NZ First will be ready to do battle at the next election.

Because holding on to and protecting what we have in this country cannot be taken for granted.

Together - with you help - we can build a better New Zealand.

NZ First is on the road back – come along with us!

ENDS

 

 

Rt Honourable Winston Peters
Address to Wanganui Grey Power
Central Baptist Church
Cnr Dublin and Wickstead Sts
Wanganui
1 pm, Thursday 12th November 2009.

“Integration or Disintegration?”

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today in Wanganui – or Whanganui – whatever or wherever this place may now be.  Whether with a W, or a Wh as in when, if it ends up being pronounce F, as so often in the last thirty years, then the debate is illusory.

I was going to start by telling a joke about the ugly face of capitalism - but Rodney Hide has already had enough publicity this week.  Suffice to say that Mr Hide is a Mendacious Cyberite who pied pipered a largely compliant media in 2008 and yet his every allegation was proven unfounded.   He probably spent most of last weekend mowing John Key's lawns.

And who could expect any different from Hone Harawira? He's programmed to behave like an angry aggrieved Maori.

And that brings me to the topic of my speech, which is about the increasing racial divisions in this once great country.

For most of New Zealand’s history the central theme has been one of integration – the forging of a unique national identity out of two very different cultures.   New Zealand has a proud record – a successful democracy based on two pillars –one Maori and one Anglo-European.   And that mix has been significantly added to and enriched by other ethnic groups.   But it is no exaggeration to say that at any given point, a society is either growing stronger, more cohesive and united, or it is going in the other direction.

Right now there are real grounds for concern about New Zealand’s future unity.

Of course we have a Prime Minister who is perpetually “relaxed”.   That must come from not bothering to think about where New Zealand is going.    Because even the most cursory survey shows that in New Zealand today the forces of disintegration are winning the battle against the things that unite us.   The sense of a shared destiny – a common future – the stuff that hold us together as a nation are being eroded and undermined at an alarming rate.

Three social and economic forces in particular are gnawing at the cohesion of New Zealand.

The first of these is the tolerance of what we can term “covert” racism.

John Key was in his usual ‘relaxed’ mode when he commented on Hone Harawira’s racist outburst - an outburst that disgusted every reasonable New Zealander.   Few thinking New Zealanders will share Key’s ready and casual dismissal of this event, because Hone Harawira made an outrageous slur on Kiwis most of whom do share his ethnicity but not his perverse views.

Hone Hawawira is no Peter Pan
Hone Harawira’s apologists – and this includes the Prime Minister – would have us believe Hone Harawira is a sort of Peter Pan figure – a naïve - well intentioned sort of guy, who occasionally crosses the line of good taste.   But New Zealanders know that Harawira’s outrageous racist remarks signal something very ugly.   They reveal his absurd sense of entitlement. In his world a Maori is entitled to flaunt conventions of behaviour and pick and chose what rules to follow or disregard.  Hone Harawira wants to interpret the rules as he sees fit.  And if anyone should disagree with this presumption then they are branded as racist.   This gives Mr Harawira a privileged status – because he places himself above and beyond the sanctions that apply to any other public figure.  He has cloaked himself in the rhetoric of Maori grievance – which he fuels and incites.   Well, if Mr Harawira wants to be with grownups he needs to act like an adult.   And it does not serve the good conduct of public life when outrageous racist behaviour is treated lightly.  He belongs in a gang somewhere - not in Parliament.

When an MP can vilify other New Zealanders on an overtly racial basis – and not be instantly dismissed from his party - we are in deeply dangerous territory, because nothing will speed the disintegration of our nation faster than a collapse into competing racial communities.

Although it has a facade of moderation, the Maori Party is a racist party - how could it be anything else?  Hone Harawira has revealed the depth of this racism – or his particular brand of it!.  And the fact that the Maori Party has failed to sack him makes the Maori party as a whole culpable.

When voters look at the planned electoral system, they should also give the legislators a clear message that they do not want any political parties based on ethnicity or religion.   We should beware of any ethnic or religious group that seeks power.   The world is cluttered with tragic examples of what happens when race and religion take over politics.   Remember Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda and other such ethnic and religious nightmares.   These are extreme examples but let's be real – the Maori Party is all about taking resources off non-Maori and grabbing social and economic control.   The outcome some fear could be the creation of a new Zimbabwe in the South Pacific.   To be fair, past injustices against Maori need to be resolved equitably by leaders of goodwill on both sides.   But, the racial chorus being sung by the Maori Party will not help this, nor will the barely disguised anthem of hate so many behind closed doors so frequently intone.  

And remember both Hawawira and Hyde are effectively First Past the Post MPs.

And given all this it is truly remarkable that National will repeal the foreshore and seabed legislation.    In a breathtaking backflip, National have reversed their position on this issue as I warned they would.   Now the threat of more racial strife looms over the seaside areas that we all regard as our birthright.   National opposed the foreshore and seabed legislation which vested ownership in the Crown and gave Kiwis unfettered right to the foreshore and seabed.   It also recognised and safeguarded Maori customary rights and went even further for tribes like Ngati Porou who owned land right down to the beaches.   National claimed we were being soft and had given in to Maori rights over other New Zealanders and voted against the legislation.   Now they are adopting a totally different position and this will become a festering racial sore that will infect the whole country.   The views of the rightfully entitled Maori are now spurned in favour of voices who never had a right pre or post European settlement.  Why? Because the inquiry into the legislation was stacked by the Maori Party leadership and geared for the outcome of title and financial compensation.   Make no mistake – we went through this issue with a toothcomb at the time.   There is nothing wrong with the existing legislation.   It offered far more to Coastal Maori than the then vague uncertainties of the existing law pre 2005.   And if, as National claims, their replacement Act will have no effect regarding access to all New Zealanders why is the law being changed?   This issue won’t go away.  Watch this space. 

The other force for disintegration in New Zealand is the worship of multiculturalism.   In recent years National and Labour politicians have made a fetish of diversity.   Under this view every culture is validated and encouraged.   But there is little interest in trying to hold on to what most Kiwis would consider their own value system and traditional national identity.   The result is that New Zealand is increasingly coming to resemble a set of separate but co-existing communities – an archipelago of ethnicities.   If asked, most New Zealanders would say this is an English (and Maori) speaking nation.   Yet you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise in certain parts of the country.

The Asian population is projected to hit 400,000 in Auckland within seven years.   It is growing at a much faster rate than Maori because of immigration.   Labour's Chinese MP Raymond Huo has pointed out that Auckland is the "seventh largest city with people of Chinese origin outside China" - in percentage terms.   He added that this trend will continue to accelerate because of current immigration policy.

This was the quote in the New Zealand Herald last Wednesday:  “Under the parent policy,  New Zealand Immigration defines a family's "centre of gravity" as "the number of their adult children lawfully and permanently in New Zealand being equal to or greater than those in any other single country", making it eligible for nearly every immigrant from China to sponsor his or her parent because of the country's one-child policy.

And Auckland University Professor of Asian Studies, Manying Ip, said many born under China's one-child policy were taking advantage of New Zealand's parent policy to sponsor their parents and even grandparents here.   She pointed out this was bringing new challenges in health, housing and socio-economic issues which will be better understood by members of the Asian community.   "Everything is legal, this is the New Zealand Government's policy and people are making full use of it.   "It is an inevitable trend, and it is up to everybody to get used to it. We cannot turn the clock back," Professor Ip said.

This is scary stuff. Like, who decided that New Zealand should suddenly become a rest home for the parents and grandparents of Asian immigrants?   Surely we should be looking after our own people?   Who is going to pay for this immigration madness?   Is this some bizarre part of a free trade agreement?   We export jobs and import Asian pensioners?

Labour and National have been wilfully blind to the extent and the consequences of large scale immigration into New Zealand.   They have been blind to what any thinking New Zealander knows - that there is a limit to how many new migrants we can absorb without risking the essential character, cohesion and identity of New Zealand.   In the midst of a recession – with over 150,000 unemployed - sanity would say put the brakes down hard on new migrant numbers.   But the plain truth is that neither National nor Labour have the will to act.   On immigration they share a common position that can be summed up in two words - avoidance and evasion.   They avoid discussing immigration – and when cornered will not give straight answers.

On the economic front too there are forces at work undermining our unity.   This is because globalisation is a game of winners and losers.   And yes - some Kiwis are winners from the globalisation agenda.  
But most are losers because:

• The wholesale transfer of New Zealand jobs overseas is gutting our manufacturing.
• So called free trade agreements that promise much are not benefiting ordinary Kiwis.
• Large scale immigration is for the benefit of big business because it drives down the wages and conditions of working Kiwis.

The net result of all this is that income and wealth inequality in New Zealand is widening rapidly.

Anyone who has eyes to see understands that the road we are on can only lead to further alienation, distress and disorder.   Forget about the fantasy of trying to match Australia’s per capita income by 2025.   With the present policy settings that will not happen.   The real issue is whether New Zealand as we recognise it will still be here in 2025!

What must be the first priority is ensuring the unity, coherence and stability of our country. And that means facing up to the social and economic forces of disintegration that are at work in New Zealand.

We say to the Prime Minister – snap out of your complacency -start showing some vision and some leadership.

For our part, New Zealand First will speak out against anything that threatens the future of our nation

Even – as looks likely – we have to do it on our own.

That is why our voice must be heard again in Parliament.

No one else is prepared to tell things as they are.

ENDS

 

Rt. Honourable Winston Peters address NZ First,
Dunedin 31st October 2009 , 6pm
Coronation Hall, 97 Gordon St, Mosgiel

“What result from the economic Experiment?”

A voice has been lost from the Parliamentary process, and every week that loss is felt more keenly.
Can you hear the silence?
Since New Zealand First left parliament, too many policies have not been rigorously questioned and too few warnings are being given about the consequences of legislation which has not been properly researched.
The return of New Zealand First to Parliament in 2011 will restore an essential element of democracy to New Zealand.
Those of us who grew up in New Zealand after the war, lived in a country that cared about ordinary people and who wanted to continue a tradition of looking after our own. 
When we were young everyone received good healthcare, shelter, good food and a free education.  We were proud of our country and ourselves knowing that we were world leaders.
We knew that governments tried to do the right thing by us.  We trusted those in power.
We knew about physical and financial security – even though we might have struggled to make ends meet on the home front.
There was a community spirit and we believed in the concept of a fair go for everyone. It was safe to walk down the street at night and few people locked their homes.
Nothing was perfect but this was a very good country for generations of New Zealanders to grow up in.
The system looked after us and we looked after the system.
Like a lot of other young people of my time, we made our way through university by working during the holidays.
We worked as freezing workers, laboured on bridge building projects and even worked miles underground on tunnelling schemes abroad.
Those jobs outside the lecture rooms were also an essential part of our education because we worked alongside good people willing to share their lives and experiences with us. 
It is a real concern that these people have since been disenfranchised.
Along with other vulnerable groups in the community, they have lost their voices in Parliament,
That is why New Zealand First must keep keeping on.
Our party is made up of people who know what life was like here before we were betrayed by politicians who sold us out in the name of progress.
These politicians were not satisfied with New Zealand's egalitarian way of life. 
They wanted a few winners and a lot of losers.
They sold our assets, fleeced the elderly and threw open the doors to our country.
Do not think for one moment that the fight between the overseas owned banks and the Inland Revenue Department is something new.
New Zealanders have been taken to the cleaners many times since the disastrous financial and social revolutions of the eighties and nineties.
The sell out programme was only halted when New Zealand First had the numbers in Parliament.
We are going to be needed again because we believe that this country belongs to us.
We must never allow some foreign boardroom to rule us.
Make no mistake.
The “For Sale” signs are all being dusted off and they will soon be hanging on the doors of the remaining assets owned by New Zealand taxpayers.
And to make matters even worse – the signs will also be going up on our conservation estates.
This government is changing the rules on exploration and mining in our national parks because it has promised the rights to plunder them to some overseas based corporates.
It's obvious, because at the same time it has been relaxing the rules for foreign investors to buy up chunks of New Zealand.
It is hard to understand how any member of parliament, of any political persuasion, could act in a way that is so clearly against the interests of New Zealanders.
It amounts to a form of economic treason.
Nothing is safe in the hands of these people and that is why it is so important for New Zealand First to be back in Parliament.
We need people there who are not afraid to fight for the rights and values of ordinary New Zealanders.
Some in the Opposition seem to have forgotten their job description.   OPPOSITION!!!
Somebody in the Opposition needs to feed them some raw meat and poke them with a sharp stick now and then.
Too many spend more time being reasonable about National's scorched earth policies when they should be ripping into them.
You would think the Maori Party would have some concern about their country and their people but they act like National Party stooges and all they do is follow the taxpayer dollars.
The Maori Party, should in fact, be renamed the “Koha” party.
To be fair though, they do share their spoils with social outcasts - like gang members.
They also believe in throwing millions of dollars of other peoples' money at the Rugby World Cup.
This will not help one Maori family and is solely aimed at enhancing the mana of the privileged brown few.
Ordinary Maori are still battling away, trying to bring up their families while being squeezed  from the top and the bottom.
We in New Zealand First are not trying to turn back the clock but we do believe that we are in danger of throwing away those things of value that former generations left us.
We forget that those people before us went through two World wars and a terrible depression.
They made great sacrifices and it would be a sad day if we forgot those men and women.
They did not know about globalisation, free trade deals, sub-prime mortgages and fly by night financiers who promised plenty but delivered only misery – especially to the elderly.  

At this stage we see our future as restoring faith in the democratic system and taking a long hard look at the way wealth is created in this country – and then sent overseas in the form of dividends, interest payments and other forms of so-called invisible payments.
We want that money spent and reinvested in New Zealand.
Our terms of trade with our trading partners are stacked heavily against us.
Countries like Australia pour billions of dollars of goods into New Zealand and we export a fraction of that amount across the Tasman.
They are walking all over us and in some cases refusing to take our goods.  Trade is a two way street and our friends in the land of Oz need to wake up.
Against this background, the government in its perverse wisdom has put Don Brash in charge of a group of people who are studying why New Zealand wages are lagging behind those in Australia.
Dr Don is in an ideal position for this task. As Reserve Bank governor he choked the lifeblood out of the New Zealand economy with usurious interest rates.
He will also be able to study the tactics of the Australian firms who are casualising or contracting out thousands of jobs in the companies that they own in New Zealand
They would not dare to use these methods to drive down wages in Australia.
They would have riots on their hands.
There will be nothing of value in Dr Brash’s study.
He is hardly likely to point out that the real reason for the growing chasm in Australia and New Zealand economic performance is the economic policies pursued by New Zealand under Douglas et al which people like him so foolishly supported.
We are also in a no win situation with our free trade agreement with China.
If you want to see an example of how this can happen go down to the local supermarket and buy some Terakihi fillets.
They are in the frozen fish section at Countdown.
The fillets are marked as New Zealand terakihi but they have been processed in China.
Think about it.
We catch a fish in New Zealand waters, send it to China to be filleted, packaged and frozen – and then bring it back here to sell in a local supermarket.
Surely New Zealanders could have processed the fish. 
Australia does not have a Free Trade Agreement with China.
New Zealand does.
Yet the most recent China Australia trade figures are $85.9 Billion dollars per annum.
These figures are massively in excess of New Zealand’s performance in real terms and demonstrate how illusory all the hype around this issue really is.
Why is there a deafening silence over these issues?
They are of grave concern to every New Zealander.
There is silence because New Zealand First has been sidelined.
But take heart.  This is a temporary state of affairs.
Soon we will be back making more impact than ever.
ENDS

 

 

Rt Honourable Winston Peters
Address to Kawerau & Districts Grey Power
Kawerau Concert Chambers
2pm, Friday 9th October 2009.

“Our Future”
What’s done is done.

Today let us to talk about some things that are important to the future of our country.

First, the rural sector.

It is a cliché, but also a truism, that agriculture is New Zealand’s economic lifeline.  
Ironically over the years we have become more dependent than ever on agriculture to sustain our standard of living.   If anything were to seriously damage our key agricultural exports our position would be bleak.

The crazy level of the NZ dollar – so called Free Trade agreements – and the total lack of commitment to protecting and promoting manufacturing have all had an adverse impact.

What remains of our manufacturing base is struggling.

And the much touted Brownlee plan for our National Parks to look for minerals smacks of desperation.

That will not reverse our economic fortunes – in fact it could easily end up damaging our image as a pristine tourist destination.

Foreign mining companies would set up here – strip out the mineral wealth – and leave us to pay the clean up bills. 

It is the hall mark of a Third World nation when nothing is safe.

No - we always come back to the agricultural sector – it’s our ace.

In an overpopulated world our high quality food will always have a market.  And that means we must hold on to our agricultural assets if we are to have any chance of a prosperous future.

New Zealand has already been comprehensively asset stripped.   As a result, $9 billion of net profits, dividends and other payments were paid to foreign investors in the year ended September 2009.   We are bleeding to death from foreign ownership - so we have good reasons to fear for the future of the rural sector as it looks to be the next plum ripe for the picking.  Smart investors overseas are already moving into NZ agriculture. And who can blame these canny people?   Foreigners can see the signs and trends; they understand that our agriculture has a great future so they are buying into – farms and vineyards, and kiwifruit orchards.  This steady loss of prime agricultural assets is going on largely unnoticed.

In NZ First we are particularly alarmed about the manoeuvring surrounding Fonterra and the ideas being canvassed to reorder its financial structure.   Fonterra’s structure is not cast in stone but extreme caution is needed.  Excuse our scepticism but we have seen enough examples in recent years of the havoc that ill considered financial restructurings can wreak.   Already the money men, consultants and lawyers are hovering around Fonterra.   Oh happy day! .What a fees bonanza it would be to abandon the basic cooperative structure that has served the dairy industry – and New Zealand – so well.

Similarly the Kiwifruit industry – a great New Zealand success story, is being stalked by the jackals.  For NZ to lose the benefits of single desk Kiwifruit exports for this $1 billion industry would be a catastrophe.   It would leave Kiwifruit growers as vulnerable as apple and pear growers became following the loss of the Apple and Pear Board.

Agricultural producers at the end of the supply chain are highly exposed and vulnerable – therefore we should be competing with the rest of the world not undermining our own prices – and cutting our own throats.

But the financial wizards who have created so much mayhem and who are now casting covetous eyes on Fonterra see only cash cows.

They smell great opportunities to loot our agricultural sector – irrespective of the damage that will ultimately cause producers and New Zealand’s national interest as whole.

NZ First will be fighting the next election.  We have to!   Because the 2011 election will be the last chance to save our country.   An overstatement?   An exaggeration?   Not at all.   What we value - what we cherish – what we hold most dear is at risk.

New Zealand has been a product of two cultures European and Maori.  We emerged from a fusion of two cultures to create – not a utopia – but a well ordered and successful democracy that was widely envied.   More recently other significant groups have added to our society.   Some say we are now a truly diverse and multi-cultural society.  But it is imperative that New Zealand starts to consider where we are headed demographically, because right now population is the elephant in the room.   Population is the critical issue that underlies all economic and social policy but which it seems must not be mentioned.

Well NZ First is not part of the conspiracy of silence.  On the contrary NZ First is the only party that puts population front and centre of its policy

Labour and National have a total phobia on population – and that reaches the level of paranoia when it comes to immigration.

The Greens are no better  – they presume to occupy the moral high ground on sustainability but studiously avoid the stark fact that the more people we have the more resources and energy usage that is required and the more pressure on the environment.

The ability of the other parties to develop all sorts of elaborate policy positions to skirt around the inconvenient truth that numbers of people matters is astonishing.

The business community – who basically set the agenda for immigration policy in New Zealand – are only interested in seeing more people arrive – as a source of cheap labour and as a source of sales. So there is no depth in their thinking.

And the NZ media show little interest in population issues.  But at 4.3 million we urgently need to think about the future population of New Zealand.

New Zealand has been built on a foundation of European institutions and values – and that of course allows great room for the role and contribution of Maori and other cultures.   But our Parliamentary and democratic traditions and legal systems are largely European in origin.  That is our heritage – and it’s a good one. That is what makes NZ a desirable place to live and why people want to come to NZ..  Because we are a stable democracy where the rule of law applies and where there is opportunity for all to succeed and live a good life.

But these attributes of our society are not immutable –they are perishable.  At the rate we are allowing immigration into New Zealand the demographic character and make up of this country are being transformed in a completely unthinking way.  The brakes must go on!

The demographic character of NZ is in jeopardy.   We need to allow time to digest the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have come to NZ in the past two decades – from all countries.  We need to pause and take a breather from this tsunami of migrants.   Because at the rate we have been transforming the demographic base will soon be at a tipping point.   We will wake up one day and wonder where our New Zealand went.   The NZ you and I were born and brought up in. T  he NZ that migrants actually came to this country for.   And at that tipping point a mass exodus could start to Australia – not just of young people – but all those people who want to live in a society where the basic institutions and values bequeathed by our forebears remain intact.

So what is behind our absurd immigration policy?   We know that the Immigration Service is possibly the most incompetent and dysfunctional government agency of all –( and that is saying something!)    But is the Immigration Service a disgrace or is the policy of successive governments a disgrace?   Immigration has been the subject of a scandal after scandal but the biggest scandal is the policy itself.   Officially 140,000 people are unemployed (and that figure significantly understates the real extent of those looking for work).   How can large scale immigration possibly be justified at a time of mass unemployment?

Australia’s response to the credit crisis was to cut back on immigration drastically.   Typically, we did nothing.   Even now we are allowing over 40, 000 non-NZ citizens to enter NZ on a permanent basis annually.  The reality is that we do not need immigrants to work as taxi drivers.   We do not need to import people to work at the check out counters of supermarkets.   We should not have young Kiwis being crowded out of entry level jobs by migrants.   Is it any wonder so many of our young people are heading for Aussie?   They despair at what is happening!    At least they know they are going to a European institutions based country. 

When it comes to immigration NZ is being taken for a sucker.  People are coming to NZ as migrants – but many use us as a transit camp.  These people stay just long enough to get permanent residency so they can bring their families over – often elderly parents – and then they move on to Aussie.  We are being left with the care of elderly parents – while Aussie gets the workers.   This sort of scam –and others like it - must end.

The slackness and complacency of our immigration policy is breathtaking – especially under a government that has a mantra about waste and inefficiency.  But as Mr Double Dipton himself, the Minister of Finance’s own conduct exemplifies, lecturing us on the need for frugality is a case of do as I say not do as I do.  For some bizarre reason the Government’s concern –if not obsession - with value for money does not extend to immigration matters.

Every person we allow into NZ as a permanent resident will sooner or later be a claim on the state pension system. And often they are claiming on our social welfare and health system within a very short time of arrival.  Thanks to a generous family reunification policy elderly people who have contributed little or nothing through our tax system will be eligible for a public pension.  This access to entitlement is never mentioned – it is part of the unacknowledged cost of immigration that is glossed over.   But the implications are important.  These people are feasting on your pension pie.  And they will be feasting on it for 10 – 20 or possibly 30 years.  The pension pie you and other Kiwis paid for.  We are simply not that rich that we afford that sort of largesse.  What right has any NZ Government to treat pension entitlements in this irresponsible and cavalier way?   And of course the pension pie is coming under a lot of pressure anyway because of the retirement wave of the baby boom generation.  As a Kiwi, try going to some other country and tapping into their pension system – I wish you luck!  You will be told where to go in no uncertain terms .

So here is the bad news.   The pension pie is finite – and it is already under pressure.  Having a whole lot of freeloaders feasting on it is inexcusable and has to stop.

Right now we have an immigration policy driven by the interests of Big Business – who only want cheap products and more domestic consumers - and Labour and National are desperate to appease those interests.

When NZ First returns to Parliament we will press for a drastic tightening of immigration policy – including a change in entitlement so that people who come here and leave parents behind will be stripped of their permanent residency. 

Our policy is that immigration should serve New Zealand’s interests.

Only NZ First will ensure that is does.

In 2011 you will get the opportunity to give New Zealand a rational immigration policy by putting us back in Parliament.

ENDS

 

 

Rt Hon Winston Peters
At NZ First A.G.M.
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
Sat 29th August 2009, 2.30pm

“Going Forward or Backwards?”

This is a crucial meeting in New Zealand First's history.
For the first time, we lost a fight. We've had to lick our wounds, keep away from the enemy and work out how to win next time.
It is inconceivable that we should give up. We are not a party of quitters.
The things we stand for are just as important today as the day New Zealand First was formed.  
So, at a time like this it is important we look at what course of action we need to take to best serve our country. 
To do this we must first look at the political context that New Zealand First finds itself in.
The reasons we had to be taken out in the 2008 election are now glaringly obvious.
We speak out on important issues and we do not fear confronting issues that make some people uneasy.
On a host of issues – like flying one flag, safeguarding the interests of seniors - immigration – the Treaty industry – privatisation, if New Zealand First is silenced the issue is silenced.
What's more we have a memory and we remember the damage caused by recent National governments.
They don’t want to hear the one party that could alert New Zealanders to polices that have failed in the past, but are now being regurgitated by born again ideologues in the Beehive.
Make no mistake, the spirits of rogernomics and ruthaniasia are alive and well.
You will remember that we also punched above our weight in parliament.
We were effective there because we put forward practical, non-ideological policies, and we held the other parties to account.
Both National and Labour and their hangers-on are deeply ideologically driven parties, although they pretend otherwise and try to camouflage their real intentions.
National and Labour are hard wired to their core beliefs
They are like those tropical land crabs that must return to the sea to spawn.
They always take the same route even if a motorway has been built in their path.
With land crabs their behaviour is understandable and unavoidable – it's part of their evolutionary hard wiring.
But political parties should come to the issues facing New Zealand with open minds, not minds that are fixed on certain goals that have little to do with the interests of ordinary folk.
Most reasonable minded kiwis believe in a fair go and the National led government will be called to account in due time.
But what can be said at this early stage is that already some significant trends are emerging and it is possible to discern a worrying direction.
Because right now there is a lot more going backward rather than going forward in the search for answers to the issues facing New Zealand.
Notice how that old familiar agenda is creeping back.
The rhetoric of the right wing has returned.
We are being lectured to again and the talk is of: productivity! - growth! – choice!
On one level these words are platitudes like motherhood or community spirit.
After all - who could be against productivity?
But these vague, all purpose, words serve as code for something else – an agenda that has to be shrouded in euphemisms.
That agenda has to be expressed in code because it favours the interests of the few at the expense of the many.
Our message is - be alert!

Privatisation

In another echo of the past, we are being softened up for privatisation so there can be a full scale selloff after the next election.
Make no mistake. Not only will the remaining state assets be flogged off, but the reorganisation of Auckland will also mean that ratepayer-owned companies will go as well. And it won’t stop with Auckland.
Have we learned nothing?
It beggars belief that a cash cow like Auckland airport could be again for sale to foreigners.
Exactly how that is supposed to be in the national interest is never explained by the zealots of asset sales.
Yet that is what the government has in mind in relaxing the rules over foreign ownership.
The message – the invite “Come on in – take whatever is left of the prime assets of New Zealand!”
In other countries this would qualify as economic sabotage – and we say – be outraged!
Because selling our assets has always been part of our economic woes problem – not the solution.

Super City

The haste with which the Auckland Super City is being introduced should also set alarm bells ringing.
Again there is more than a hint of the old right wing arrogance about the speed with which this huge change is being foisted on our largest city.
This is not being pushed through by champions of democracy.
The vision is one where a small cabal – an oligarchy of the chosen ones - will run Auckland to serve special interests – certainly not the people. 
The issue of Maori seats is a diversion to draw attention away from the undemocratic process and the plunder of ratepayer assets.
We say that Auckland's problems cannot be solved by creating what amounts to a “state within a state”.
It is divisive and will create yet another rift between citizens in the Auckland area and those south of the Bombay hills.
Foreshore and Seabed and the FLAG
Nothing could be more divisive than the foreshore and seabed issue.
National, in collaboration with the Maori Party, have reopened this festering sore.
Why? Which coastal tribe asked for this?
How can that possibly serve New Zealand’s interests?  Or is this another diversionary tactic?
We are in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Yet the government has chosen to poke a stick into a hornets’ nest to appease the Maori Party.
History tells us that appeasement seldom pays.
Because every concession emboldens those who are pressing their demands.
For the Maori Party every concession won – at whatever cost to other New Zealanders including most Maori – is a platform to demand more.
We predict John Key will come to rue the day he entered into a pact with the Maori Party - a party whose leadership is made up of Professional Maoris not Maori Professionals.
The Foreshore and Seabed issue had already been resolved as coastal tribes like Ngati Porou had so clearly accepted.
And on this subject of appeasement - why is John Key doing it again with the issue of One Flag?
It is dangerous for the future of this nation to create another flag.
The idea of this “official Maori flag” is taking us further down the road to two nations.
New Zealand First strenuously opposes this insidious creeping, crawling dissolving of the bonds – the symbols –that unite us as a nation.
Thousands of New Zealanders have died under our flag – and many were Maori.
Yet the Maori Party under the aegis of the Prime Minister is running around the country organising over 20 hui to choose a Maori flag to be flown on an ever increasing list of national occasions.
Tell me – who voted at the last election to set up a separate system for Maori?
Tell me where is the mandate for the Maori Party to choose any national flag, let alone a Maori flag?
And why this talk of Maori prisons, and separate university entrance criteria?
The only area where these separatists are prepared to tolerate a “One Country” concept is their fervent embrace of other taxpayers' dollars.
They don't discriminate where the money comes from.

Unemployment

If there is one area that calls for real innovation, real creativity and real initiative it is employment.
The prospects are that unemployment is going to be high for a prolonged time.
This will have grave consequences – social as well as economic.
Look at the Telecom engineers' dispute.
You pay the imported boss seven million dollars a year while he sacks the engineers and makes them pay to set up in business as so-called independent contractors.
It's simply a device to slash wages and make the contractors pay for it along the way.
This is an appalling situation, created by an avaricious company run by people who appear to be direct descendants of 19th century US slave-owners and the cruel industrialists of Dickens' England.
The much hyped Jobs Summit was a stunt – pitiful really.
There is nothing wrong with a cycleway – but the idea that it is an effective job creation scheme is risible.
And so are their other employment plans as more and more business cheerleaders now openly admit.
In fact it is an insult to the growing tens of thousands now unemployed.
The worry is that the National Government is taking an almost fatalistic approach as it watches the tsunami of unemployment engulf the country.
On this critical issue what is the Maori Party response?
Well it is simple – dish out revenge to the Labour Party for settling the grievance on which the Maori Party was formed.
And ignore rapidly rising Maori unemployment for boutique issues that will not economically help one Maori.
Soon, many of their constituents will be choking on their hangi in disgust.

Political Opposition

And what is the loyal Opposition doing while all this is happening?
The job of the Opposition is to question policies and hold governments to account.
To make ministers uncomfortable about decisions that cut back health or education services.
To oppose decisions that protect the greedy and not the needy.
To besiege an Energy Minister who during our coldest winter blithely accepts price gouging of consumers.
To use any constitutional means to thwart the Australian banks that are systematically
fleecing New Zealanders with usurious interest rates and tax fiddles that have sucked
billions out of our economy.
And what about the financial institutions that have gone belly up, causing grave hardship for tens of thousands of mainly elderly New Zealanders?
What is happening to all the cowboys like the Blue Chip brigade?
Well almost nothing! Virtually zilch when compared with the number that went down.
And whilst we are at it, how did this government give an extended taxpayer guarantee to “financial institutions” without asking for a share in return?
How did these institutions end up as leading 21st century social welfare beneficiaries without one dollar’s value of taxpayer equity in return?
This will go on for years unless there is a political party with the courage to stop it.
Let me tell you here today that we are not going to quietly fade away into the background while most New Zealanders are sold down the river.
With New Zealand First temporarily out of the picture tens of thousands of people have no voice in parliament.
That includes everyone at this venue.
The voice that says “hold on, why we are doing this?” is not being heard. 
But this is not the time for despair, nor doubt.
We are regathering and reorganising our army, ready for the big battle of 2011.
Over the next two years our task is to mobilise a political force to take back our country.
And this time there will be no mistakes, missed targets, or casualties from friendly fire.
We will head for the high ground – and we will take it!
“We’ll be needed then – more than ever”

_________________________________________

 

 

The Honeymoon is over.

12-7-09

My fellow members,

We have had time since the election to reflect on what went wrong.  It is now time to put it behind us and prepare NZ First for the battle of 2011.

Before we make a new beginning we want to use the hardest word in the English language - SORRY.   We acknowledge that we made mistakes. In keeping our eyes on the big picture, we failed to appreciate the importance of the details. We allowed our opponents to create a perception of wrongdoing, when in fact, no offences were committed. This will not happen again.

Our Annual General Meeting will be held in Hamilton on 29th August.  We want to thank members who have worked hard for us in the past and we want to welcome new talent and new ideas.

For the Key government the honeymoon is over.  It is hard to see any long term plan or financial strategy in place that will make things any better. Look at their record so far:

The much trumpeted Job Summit - created fewer than 500 jobs and since then people are signing up for the dole at the rate of 1000 per week.   The loss in tax revenue alone is a worry, but what about the cost of dole payments, loss of spending power, which impacts on retailers and small firms. Poverty causes serious social disruption and causes more crime. 

The global recession is forcing many of our younger, educated people with valuable overseas experience to come home but do we really want them working in cafes pouring coffee, or helping build cycleways?  Our future depends on them.  They need proper jobs so why is the government encouraging firms to retrench and reducing public services?

Cancelling night classes introduces a major obstacle to upskilling for thousands, reducing their chances of finding employment.  The devil finds work for idle hands. 

Every week something suddenly disappears without consultation - like the Social Welfare unit for reducing violence to children. The anti-smacking referendum money is a waste since Key has said he will ignore the result anyway.

ACC's provision of physio to those recovering from accidents has been reduced. It is not a glamorous service perhaps but one which helps thousands of people through effective rehabilitation.   We can't afford to let it go.  Those people will end up on invalid benefits when many of them could have returned to work.

Food - Why is it so dear? Where is it coming from? What are processors doing to it? The labels are impossible to understand and the prices are rising all the time.   Why isn't the government protecting our producers?  Other governments are looking after theirs.

Auckland the mega-city - Who wanted it?  OK there are too many councils but the chances of this one functioning is one in a million.  The real problem is that councils are being diverted from their core purpose of looking after the infrastructure and the environment. Prepare for sales of ratepayer assets in the near future.

Foreshore and Seabed.  The legislation was based on the premise that this is something we all own. Vesting it in the Crown protected it for us all and for future generations, whilst satisfying genuine Maori concerns.  No group can suddenly claim “title”.

Power prices are too high but the government wants more profits from electricity SOE's.

NZ First has always put people first, listened to their needs and tried to make NZ a better place. Every day the elderly, the young and workers benefit from what we achieved against all odds. The free travel in off peak hours for seniors is a great success. 

As an uncertain future unfolds, the need for NZ First will become ever more obvious.

That is why I am thanking those of you who have already renewed your party membership and asking those of you who are about to renew your subscription for another year to persuade your families and friends to do likewise. 

We need your help.

You and New Zealand need ours.

Yours sincerely

Winston Peters

 

MT ALBERT BI-ELECTION

MESSAGE TO OUR MEMBERSHIP

15 May 2009

Dear Members,

After careful consideration and consultation with many members, electorates and former MP’s including Winston Peters and Peter Brown, the Board has decided that it is not in the best interests of New Zealand First to stand a candidate in the Mt Albert by-election.

There are many reasons against standing and we can already see in the media build up to the event that there has been absolutely no discussion of policy. This by-election is basically a two –horse war and is simply not our fight.

Our main focus at this time is to rebuild our infrastructure and lines of communication so we are prepared for the next election.

We are currently working on establishing a new web-site with options for committees and members to log in and share information. Obviously some of our members are not computer literate; therefore we need Electorates to create telephone trees and news letters to reliably relay messages.

Now is the time for our Electorates to be pro-active in raising funds and broadening our membership.

Let’s keep our chins up and get pro-active. Our policies are working for New Zealand and this will become more obvious as time wears on.

Soon New Zealand will be calling for New Zealand First and Winston. When that time comes we must have our infrastructure in place so we are ready to answer that call.

Brendan Horan,
Media Liaison

24 July 2010
Speech
Losing Our Birthright

9 July 2010
Speech
What John Key's Letter did not say.

18 June 2010
Press Release
Educate New Zealanders First

28-5-10
Speech
"Actions speak louder than words"

23-5-10
Speech
“Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas”

18-5-10
Speech
Some are more equal than others

10-5-10
Press Release
Crafar Farms

6-5-10
Press Release
Whanau Ora

13-4-10
Press Release
New Ministry of Pakeha Affairs

13-4-10
Press release
Supergold Card Health Benefit

13-4-10
Christchurch Grey Power
Malice in Blunderland

31-3-10
Foreshore & Seabed

27-3-10
Tauranga Public Meeting

6-3-10
Greymouth

14-2-10
Dannevirke

29-1-10
Auckland University

9-12-09
Tauranga Electorate

12-11-09
Wanganui Grey Power

31-10-09
Dunedin Branches

9-10-09
Kawerau & Districts Grey Power

29-8-09
Going Forwards or Backwards

12-7-09
The Honeymoon is Over

15-5-09
Mt Albert by-election

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