Speech: Peters - A Real Voice for Whangarei
Speech by Rt Hon Winston Peters
Pure
Cameron St,
Whangarei
1pm, 30th June, 2017
A Real
Voice for Whangarei
The
Chair of the Whangarei electorate, Noela Fidow, deputy chair
Ken Barber, Parliamentary colleagues, Tracey Martin and
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First members, ladies and
gentlemen.
It is a pleasure to be here in Whangarei to
announce our candidate for this electorate and to launch our
Campaign for the Regions Tour around the North and going
coast to coast from the North Island to the Deep South, all
the way to Invercargill and Bluff.
There are 86 days to
go in this campaign. Eighty-six days to get our message
through to voters of Whangarei, Northland, and indeed around
the whole of our country - our message is that with our
resources as a country we could, and must, do much better
than we are.
Our country has a history of having achieved
significant greatness of economic and social leadership
against the very best in the world.
That is not our
present record where manufacturing has been in decline,
exports against GDP in decline, and a two-speed economy
where the regions have been playing third fiddle to a myopic
preoccupation with big city politics and globalist
agendas.
Our commitment to the New Zealand people is in
our name, it is New Zealand First and New Zealanders
first.
In this campaign we know we are up against some
serious corporate money much of that from offshore, and
designed to buy the political system regardless of what the
mass majority of New Zealanders want or need.
This money
has gutted the National Party of all principle, and all
sincerity. They called themselves National back in 1936 to
differentiate themselves from global socialists. Back then
and for decades it was National with a capital ‘N’ yet
today, in all their simpering arrogance, the capital ‘N’
has gone from their name and they are the globalists.
The
very thing they set out in 1936 not to be.
No doubt they
have ordered in Fonterra tankers of champagne for 23rd
September.
Well we are going to ruin their party.
That
is one of the reasons why so many New Zealanders have given
up voting. Because they don’t think they can make a
difference.
Well, this campaign is to persuade them
otherwise.
That every town matters. That every business
matters. That every workforce wherever they might be matter.
That every province matters. That every region
matters.
We are not going to let vested interests
marginalise and cinderallarise the very heart of our
country.
If you look at New Zealand today and the
politics that governs it New Zealand is in a very parlous
state.
• Where money can buy citizenship, whether
one intends to live in NZ or not
• Where offshore
money can buy critical land and resources, whether it
disadvantages New Zealand or not.
• Where
political parties back mass immigration, regardless of
whether high skills are involved or not, regardless of
whether we have homes for them or not, regardless of whether
we have schools for them or not, regardless of whether we
have health services available for them or not. And
regardless of whether we have employment and First World
wages for them or not.
If you look at our biggest city,
there are stresses and demands incapable of being satisfied
wherever you look.
The very idea such an economic and
social result is defensible is preposterous and those that
would defend it need to be exposed for what they are. In the
next 86 days that’s exactly what we are going to do.
We
are here in the Whangarei, capital of the North, a city
being described by big city economists as a “zombie
town” and suffering from decades of deferential,
paternalistic neglect.
It has the greatest port in the
country, without a train to it.
And that is just one
example of central government’s neglect and a lack of
strong local representation in Parliament.
There are
numerous other examples. We are here today to announce New
Zealand First’s candidate for Whangarei, who has the full
backing of the New Zealand First caucus, the full backing of
the three New Zealand First MPs here today and the rest who
are about their work around the country.
Their backing is
encapsulated in a message sent to me this morning of support
and best wishes from the Deputy Leader of NZ First Ron Mark
and all our MPs.
Representation of an electorate like
Whangarei will not be easy and will need all of the
intelligence and experience and commitment of our
candidate.
This is no time to be looking around at
novices or an MP with training wheels on, but rather someone
who will hit the ground running, knows the system inside
out, and knows that we have to concertina, within a short
time, real milestones of achievement for Whangarei.
Our
candidate is a country boy, off a farm, who made the most of
educational opportunity to become a national and
international leader.
This candidate has a stunning
record but most recently has devoted his professional skills
to turning the natural resources of diverse Pacific peoples
into long term sustainable assets.
And that’s exactly
what we are going to do here in Whangarei with our neglected
asset base.
Ladies and gentleman, our candidate, is going
to be a real voice for Whangarei, he will speak to you now
– he is, the Hon. Shane Jones.
ENDS