Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
14 APRIL 2016

EMBARGOED TILL DELIVERED

Speech by New Zealand First Leader and MP for Northland

Rt Hon Winston Peters

Kerikeri Grey Power,

Kingston House, Hone Heke Road,

Kerikeri

2.30pm, 14th April 2016

Historic Waitangi must be accessible for all – free

Defending your SuperGold Card

Kerikeri is a beautiful place steeped in history and a town with enormous potential.

It is often referred to as the Cradle of the Nation and for good reason.

This town and area are of great national significance.

In Waitangi, 23kms away, where our country’s founding document the Treaty of Waitangi was signed - we have a national scenic and historic treasure.

This part of New Zealand is, therefore, hallowed ground and Waitangi, as our most historic site, is a place all New Zealanders should be encouraged to visit.

They will be disappointed, however, when they arrive at Waitangi to learn that they will have to pay.

New Zealanders having to pay to view the site where this country’s founding document was signed is wrong.

It does not reflect well on us as a nation.

For example, if you visit the United States and go to Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the United States’ founding document was debated and approved you will find there is no charge.

Visit other historical sites overseas: the Bastille, battlefields at Gettysburg and Hastings.

And there is no charge.

So why is the Waitangi National Trust, which looks after the Treaty Grounds, forced to charge New Zealanders?

The answer is: Because central government will not provide funding.

When you consider that visitors to our national museum, Te Papa in Wellington, are not charged, you can only ask, why isn’t the same thing happening at Waitangi?

And it’s worth noting also, overseas tourists visiting Te Papa are not charged either.

But New Zealanders visiting our single most historical site in the country at Waitangi have to pay.

New Zealand First says this must be remedied.

With Waitangi, the government needs to show a spark of regard for our national heritage.

The government should ensure Waitangi is made more accessible for all Kiwis by funding the Waitangi National Trust so they do not have to impose a charge to visit the treaty site.

It’s not radical; it’s not a great amount – other countries with a concern for their national heritage do not think twice when it comes to this.

The road leading into Waitangi should also be made a Road of National Significance.

It should not be the responsibility of the local council to maintain it and that goes for the bridge leading to Waitangi as well.

The government should be paying for its maintenance.

New Zealand First is calling on the government to clean up its act about the birthplace of this country, to show some respect.

If it had been Wellington or Auckland there would be no problem over funding; there would be no charge.

But because it is in Northland they leave it to locals and the board to do the best they can and the board has no option but to charge visitors to the most historic site in New Zealand.

The Key government needs to do the decent thing.

We call on him and his government to make Waitangi free for everyone. Remove the cost, Mr Key, put funding aside in your Budget next month.

If you have a regard for our national heritage, you will do it.

These charges are a bad look – the government must front up and stop mucking around with the birthplace of this nation.

Cutting costs – SuperGold Card

Part of the problem, however, is the National government is looking all the time to cut costs.

We are seeing this now in one of the key features of the SuperGold Card – free off peak travel for seniors.

The government have capped funding and have shifted responsibility onto regional councils who fear having to top it up.

Ratepayers will be forced to pay for any shortfall in funding and it is likely to be only a matter of time before councils and transport operators pull out of the scheme.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a government that is happy to waste $26 million of taxpayers’ money on flag referendums which originated from an idea of the prime minister’s to change the flag and which ended an ignominious failure.

The government and their spin doctors brushed aside their humiliating flag defeat saying the whole debacle was worthwhile because we held a debate about our national flag.

New Zealand First says a debate, or talkfest, is not worth $26 million.

Not when you have people waiting months and years for elective surgery all over the country; not when you have pensioners worrying about how they will pay their power bills as winter approaches.

We have a government which is interested only in making the economy work for their rich mates.

That’s why we had our prime minister and his government deny New Zealand is a soft touch tax haven for mega-wealthy foreigners and money laundering criminals while experts both in New Zealand and overseas are saying the opposite.

The point is – the government is not interested in you if you are not a “wealth producer.”

In their eyes, if you are not a wealth producer, or a potential wealth producer, you are a drain on the state – like SuperGold cardholders.

New Zealand Superannuation

This brings me to New Zealand Superannuation.

More than 640,000 New Zealanders receive superannuation, which for a large percentage of our seniors is the cornerstone of their retirement income.

Super helps them live with dignity in their twilight years.

Superannuation is a scheme which respects our seniors.

Let’s look briefly at some of the history of superannuation.

In 1979 the National Government drew out the knife and made the first cut in what was then known as the National Superannuation Scheme.

Next, a Labour government brought in a surtax in 1985.

In the early 1990s a new National government used the sneaky excuse of a BNZ bailout to cut the pensions.

Firstly, they cancelled pension adjustments for 1991 and 1992 and from 1993 on, rates were to be adjusted by prices alone.

At this time wages were rising faster than prices, so this meant a downward trend in the relativity of the pension to wages.

Secondly, National lifted the age of entitlement from 60 to 61, to take effect from 1992, with an ongoing phasing up over the period from 1993 to 2001.

Thirdly, the taxation surcharge rate was increased from 20 percent to 25 percent and the income exemption lowered so more superannuitants were affected.

The Shipley government, with Bill English as Minister of Finance (and they’ve dusted him down and put him back there again) cut the rate of superannuation in October 1998 from 65% to 60% of the net average wage.

They used a new excuse this time – the Asian Currency Crisis.

Let’s note this: National was the party that increased the age of eligibility and lowered the level of entitlement.

In 2008, the National government suspended payments into the Cullen Fund which we opposed because we believed the fund strengthened our national pension capacity.

You are getting the picture. National’s track record speaks for itself.

Superannuation is like the SuperGold card – they don’t like it; they think of superannuation as a drain on the country’s finances.

That is why there has been a cry from National and their allies over recent times saying superannuation is unaffordable, that’s it’s a burden.

New Zealand First says it is affordable now and will be for the foreseeable future.

The cost of New Zealand Superannuation is relatively low by international standards at 4.7% of GDP.

This compares very well with an OECD average of around 7 %.

Because NZ Superannuation is taxable, its cost net of tax is around 3.7% of GDP.

Do not be taken in by the propaganda which emanates from the National Party that New Zealand Superannuation is unaffordable.

It is affordable well into the future.

But let’s be warned.

You must be aware New Zealand Superannuation is vulnerable to a government changing the rules at any time.

In the past, governments have shifted the goalposts when it has suited them.

They are capable of doing it again if given the opportunity.

And bear firmly in mind that one party – New Zealand First - is totally supportive of New Zealand Superannuation.

We have an unequivocal position that the age of entitlement remains at 65.

We do not support mean-spirited cost cutting policies which deny New Zealanders access to their own heritage and attack the SuperGold card.

And we are fully committed to defending National Superannuation.

We believe New Zealand Superannuation represents a contract between the State and New Zealanders.

That is a contract which must be honoured.

ENDS

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