Winston Peters Speech; New Zealand First Fighting Separatism by Stealth

Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
25 JULY 2017

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY

Waikato Campaign Launch,
Monday 25 July, 2017
7pm
Morrinsville Rotary Club
Campbell Park
Thames Street
Morrinsville

NEW ZEALAND FIRST FIGHTING SEPARATISM BY STEALTH

It is a pleasure to be here in Morrinsville to launch New Zealand First’s campaign for Waikato and to introduce the New Zealand First candidate for Waikato, Stu Husband.

Stu Husband

Stu is a man of many parts and a man with broad life experience.
He is a Waikato regional councillor representing the Waihou constituency.
He chairs the integrated catchment management committee and is on the dairy and beef committee.
He sits on the joint Thames/Coromandel civil defence and hearings committee.
Earlier in his working life Stu was a Mt Eden prison officer during which time he survived a brutal stabbing and later he worked as a firefighter.
He has known the ups and downs of life.
In 2013, a TB outbreak devastated his herd of cows but he recovered from that setback and was instrumental in creating new systems around TB for his local community which were eventually adopted and used by Federated Farmers.
Stu is now owner and director of Bellevue Dairy 2015, and currently farms on a 120 hectare farm in Morrinsville.
With his farming background, local government and business experience and his desire to represent the rural sector, Stu is an ideal fit for New Zealand First.
We believe he is also the best candidate for the Waikato electorate.

Two speed economy

In our Campaign for the Regions we travelled all over New Zealand.
We saw the economic potential of this country.
But it is clear to us, that given our resources we are under-performing.
We can do better.
We must do better.
The two-speed economy where regions have to scramble along the best way they can while the government pursues its globalist policies and is obsessed with Auckland has to end.

Auckland v The Rest

It is a reality that our provinces are the economic lifeblood of this country.
Approximately 1.72 million Kiwis do not live in the big cities.
It may have been Nick Smith’s plan to redraw the map to make it Auckland and the rest of us.
Because that is how it is now.
All we hear about are Auckland’s problems.
But it is our provinces which also hold the key to improving our productivity and standard of living.

Reserve Bank Act

The financial system of this country is affected by the value of New Zealand’s dollar which plays economic and political favouritism.
The over-inflated value of our dollar heavily favours foreign banks, insurance companies and currency traders, which explains why our NZ dollar is among the most highly traded in the world.
Waikato is a big loser from the over-valuation of our dollar.
New Zealand First says we need an exchange rate that serves real economic goals like strong and growing regional exports.
We say the Bank’s outdated focus on inflation must be ditched.

Nanny state
National’s nanny state is also tying this country up into knots.
Earlier in the year we heard the government was considering an end to the Kiwi tradition of Bring You Own (BYO) at race meetings,
There’s no end of this sort of baloney.
A restaurateur we’ve spoken to was advised that fresh fish intended for sashimi must first be frozen at -20 degrees for seven-days.
Late last year, artisan cheesemaker Biddy Fraser-Davis was caught with massive compliance costs and so were market stallholders in Northland and around the country.
These food control plans work for the big producers not the small ones.
New Zealand First will get National’s nanny state off your backs.

Warning over water

Earlier in the month New Zealand First came to Hamilton as part of our Campaign for the Regions national bus tour.
We said the Waikato Regional Council was voting to give water allocation and trading rights to Waikato iwi while ordinary Maori were missing out.
For that we got blasted.
We were said to be misinformed and unreasonably politicising water interests.
But what have we learned since?

NZers being taken for a ride

On 10 May, 2017, the Prime Minister, along with Ministers Smith, Flavell and Bridges all went to Te Puni Kokiri in Wellington, to meet with the Waikato Regional Council’s Chair as well as representatives of Tainui, Raukawa, Tuwharetoa, Te Arawa and Maniopoto.
The agenda was water allocation and water ownership.
According to the relevant Iwi at this meeting, who owns the Waikato and Waipa Rivers was never resolved.
That means we have not, and will never get, ‘full and final settlement.’
National wants water resource rentals.
The recent Tuwharetoa Deed of Settlement legislation establishes a new statutory body called Te Kopua Kanapanapa.
This is a brand new tier of local government, which will be legislated for as a committee straddling Waikato Regional Council and Taupo District Council.

RMA

Last January at the Orewa Rotary Club, we warned that National was caving into the Māori Party's "brownmail".
Dr Nick Smith accused us of scare mongering but then put "Mana Whakahono a Rohe: Iwi Participation Arrangements" into the RMA.
These Mana Whakahono a Rohe arrangements mean an unelected "bro-rocracy" get a say on not only district and regional plans, but consents and compliance too.

NZ Pure Blue

New Zealand First challenges South Waikato Iwi to deny they’ve been promised huge wads of cash from the Chinese-backers of NZ Pure Blue.
So much so it has apparently swayed them over plans to extract up to 2.5 billion litres of water per-year from Putaruru’s iconic Blue Springs.
We challenge Raukawa to deny it is in line for six-figure ‘Koha’ each year from NZ Pure Blue.
What is South Waikato District Council getting?
It has gone as silent as a church mouse.
How come the full force of the RMA was thrown at the Hawkes Bay Ruataniwha Dam, but when it comes to the iconic Blue Springs in Waikato, 6.9 million litres a day, 2.5bn litres a year, can be taken for the payment of a pathetically small fee and huge ‘Koha for Consents?’

Nightmare about to be repeated
Under National, ownership of the water is to be shared between the Crown and iwi.
It’s already been agreed.
The evidence is here in the Waikato.
This will spread through the country.
On the foreshore and seabed, the National Party opened up a nightmare of over 500 claims.
That nightmare is about to be repeated with water.
One party stands against this separatism by stealth, as it does against the two-speed economy, and the ever increasing incursion of the nanny state into the affairs of ordinary New Zealanders.
It is New Zealand First.

ENDS

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