EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY

Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Leader NZ First

Address: Palmerston North

Date: October 26 2011

Time: 1.30 pm

Venue: Freemasons Centre
Fitzherbert Ave Palmerston North

‘Election Looming – Key things to watch for’

All over the Beehive these days you can hear the sound of wings flapping as the chickens come home to roost.

Three years ago the financial geniuses who are trying to get re-elected to the Beehive were telling us how much better they would be at running the country, the economy and everything else.

Yesterday’s economic update from Treasury despite its usual optimism was one more wakeup call. Cast your minds back to 2009, 2010, and this year’s budget in May. Which one of those forecasts stack up.

Now just look at it – it’s a mess.

In economic terms, these guys could not pour water out of a boot even if it had the instructions written on the sole.

In real terms, over the past three years the very rich have got a lot richer and the poor have not only got poorer – but there are a lot more of them.

Last year the richest 150 people increased their wealth by 20 percent.

And very few of them paid any tax.

Some of the more honest and socially conscious like Trade Me founder Sam Morgan pointed out that it was wrong that he made millions tax free.

And yet – if you are a student and you walk the streets delivering pamphlets to letterboxes you pay income tax.

The real measure of a government is how fairly it treats its citizens.

All should be treated equally but as George Orwell once said some are more equal than others.

If you are a wealthy member of the National Party, well John Key Bill English and co are certainly the boys for you.

If you are a struggling family in Palmerston North, Rotorua or Hamilton, well they are most certainly not the answer.

And this brings us to the point of this election in four and a half weeks.

A number of events of the past three years have shown what happens when New Zealand First is missing from Parliament. When experience, determination and consistency is absent.

We would have fought tooth and nail against the GST increase. It is not fair to increase taxes on families and those on fixed incomes to finance big tax cuts for the rich.

The people who built New Zealand did it with hard work, ingenuity, foresight and a firm belief in the principles of a fair go for everyone.

And they believed, when they built power stations, ports, roads and railway lines that these developments would always belong to the people of New Zealand.

Both the National and Labour Parties of their better years would have been horrified to learn that a New Zealand government today was still planning selling off critical assets - like power stations and the control of the lakes and rivers that feed them.

They would have been appalled to hear the excuse that having run the country broke their only plan was to worsen the situation by allowing foreigners to take control of critical infrastructure and toll booth the people on the pathway to the future.

The people who built this country would also be shocked by plans to sell off vast tracts of prime dairy land to a company owned by a communist state.

Unfortunately the people in parliament running (or not running) the country for the past three years do not understand history.

Perhaps they were not interested in history at school.

But the history books are full of cases – sad cases - where a country’s assets and land were owned abroad, by absentee owners, living high on the hog from another countries incomes.

Just remember the history of Ireland. Look at the strife and misery caused by English ownership.
There are more Irish out of Ireland than in it. They left because there was no future for them in their own country. Does that have a familiar ring to it?

For more and more New Zealanders are being lured overseas by better wages, better conditions and a better future for their children. A huge exodus from New Zealand is annually leaving for elsewhere. They are not economists and commentators but mainly our young people who are ignoring all the flim flam of politicians and cheer leaders and just going. Their information is by word of mouth or from friends and relations and real career and job advertisements in overseas publications.

These New Zealanders, and you know many of them personally, are leaving despite John Key in 2008 election advertisements saying he was going to stop the mass migration with promises of a brighter future. Those same promises are on the hoardings all around your city. They have a familiar ring to them

However, this is no way to run a country. There is something wrong when so many citizens are fleeing.

And it’s not just wages and conditions. There is a real fear that the forces of separatism are becoming state funded policy.

And there are other developments equally as worrisome for example:

• There is a Constitutional Review Committee conducting a review right now for a new Constitution for our country.

Now, when did you ever vote for, or demand, a constitutional review for New Zealand?

• There is a new law made this year on the foreshore and seabed.

When did you ever vote for the foreshore and seabed around New Zealand to be privatised?

• The present Government ratified a United Nations charter on indigenous rights so that those rights could be super imposed over your rights.

When did you vote for New Zealand to sign up to a United Nations charter on indigenous rights?

There has been a lot of nonsense spouted by all manner of ‘gravy train riders’ about rights for Maori but the only Maori benefitting from these rights are the Treaty travellers and corporate Maori. Which among the army of ordinary Maori are getting any benefits? The claims are always made in their name because that means numbers but when the claims are met the numbers are always forgotten. If you’re a Maori in this audience put your hand up if you have got even one snapper or one millimeter of land in this new industry? You know that there are countless lawyers, consultants, and bureaucrats living it up on your claims but when has one of them talked about Maori housing, Maori health, Maori employment, Maori education or first world incomes for Maori?

Most Maori we know want a job, a warm house, food on the table, healthcare and education for their children and a decent paying job. Come to think of it, that’s what we all want but where is the ‘industry’ working on these problems for you?

Fancy words at the United Nations won’t deliver any of these things to anyone. But down the track they will creep into the justice system and into the courts.

And then they will no doubt find their way into legislation and this new constitution, with the Treaty as its corner stone, that the meddlers are launching themselves into.

And who is behind these changes? Give you two guesses. Mr. Key and the National Government.

New Zealand First has always had a strong representation of Maori candidates.

But we don’t stand in Maori seats because we do not believe in separate representation. The last thing we want is perpetual victimhood.

Conclusion:

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is an election looming and these are some of the key things to watch out for. Every one of them comes with a great risk to our economic and social recovery back to being the great country we once were. In other words we can turn around this countries fortunes and dramatically for the better. But not with the policies we’ve got now and in this election you have one great advantage. You’ve seen their future.

The question that you have to answer in just over four weeks time is, knowing what you know, can you really take these risks?

Do you really feel that lucky?

ENDS

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