17 June 2002

Stopping Our Sleepwalk To The Third World: Fixing Three Things In Three Years

Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Election Campaign Opening Address

Baycourt, Tauranga

12.15pm Monday 17 June, 2002

Over the years it has been a privilege to serve as your MP and to have the strong support from the people of Tauranga and Mount Maunganui and the region.

Working together we have been able to achieve much for our city and country.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a sitting MP should stand on his record.

The city knows what has been achieved for increased funding for local schools, health facilities and by legislation for bridges and roading.

Through electorate clinics thousands of people have been helped in a more personal way.

This is not to recite a litany of accomplishments - the facts speak for themselves -and please pick up a copy of some of these accomplishments when you leave the hall. When our desperate opponents ask “what has your MP done for the electorate?” please tell them. There is too much happening in this city for a novice to start now, learning on the job at your expense, or an academic pushing policies totally out of touch with us and the ordinary New Zealander.

What can be said without dispute is that when New Zealanders from Bluff to the Cape are asked what constituency your MP represents they know the answer and it is immediate - “it’s Tauranga!” Likewise they know who Tauranga’s MP is.

And the citizens of this city know that, re-elected, the promotion of the interests of this electorate will go on with the same conviction and commitment that I always have.

And that is why, if you vote in the Tauranga electorate we are asking you to cast your constituency and party vote in favour of Winston Peters and New Zealand First.

This is a great city and a great constituency.

Politically it is the most important constituency in New Zealand.

How Tauranga Votes on 27 July will greatly influence the outcome of this election and through you the future of our country.

If ever there were a constituency where every vote counts - both constituency and party vote - this is it.

And Labour and National know it.

They know that New Zealand First stands for key issues.

They know we always have.

They know that New Zealand First represents the real interests of hundreds of thousands of forgotten New Zealanders.

They will do all they can to extinguish our voice.

That is why Tauranga electors can expect an onslaught of propaganda by the political establishment over the next 6 weeks.

Ladies and Gentlemen we have one of the shortest electoral cycles in the world but now we face a winter election that cuts that shorter still.

Anyone who saw the discomfort on Helen Clark’s face last Tuesday, as she sadly sought to justify Labour’s decision to call an early election could see she did not believe a word of it.

She knew Labour’s excuses were spurious and blatant political opportunism.

A cynical attempt to manipulate a snap election to suit Labour’s ambition to rule alone.

The strategy is patently obvious - close down democratic scrutiny, ambush the electorate and grab total control of Parliament.

The setting differs but Labour’s desire to rule alone is born of the same paranoia they accused ad nauseum Muldoon of.

But New Zealanders are not that gullible

Just remember what happened the last time Labour or National monopolised Parliament?

The havoc they wreaked on our country we are still trying to recover from.

That was why the people of New Zealand voted for MMP - to stop unbridled power, to stop public asset sales- between them Labour and National sold $18b of assets, to stop hospital closures - between them Labour and National closed down 72 hospitals, and Helen Clark closed 29 by herself, and to stop mindless interminable restructuring that saw huge benefits under Labour and National for the few at the great cost of the many.

Look at your interest and credit costs, your electricity and transport bills these last sixteen years and say it isn’t so.

New Zealanders will smell the proverbial rodent lurking around this election.

We have been down this road before - because this election looks like a con job where Labour wants to hustle back into power before anyone really notices what they are up to.

Labour’s social policy plans can’t face a long election campaign - something is not being said - there is a hidden agenda.

And isn’t it a paradox how many third world countries have one-party governments?

That’s why we are having a snap election.

In this campaign we will remind you how serious the economic position in this country is. Look no further than the comparison between what each New Zealander, man, woman, and child, exports and that for each Singaporean or Irishman. Each Singaporean exports $(US)34,000 per year, each Irishman $(US)19,000 and each New Zealander way less than $(US)4,000.

That’s why we can’t pay for our old, our sick, our teachers and our students, our defence on our borders, and safety in our streets.

We’re sleep-walking to the third world.

Look at the international comparisons of similar countries in population and resources and say it isn’t so.

People ask: “Why have you been quiet lately?” That’s true. But the reason is that this election is part of an historic political sea-change that occurs in New Zealand once every fifty to sixty years.

National is in deep trouble and faces again its worst defeat in its history.

You see National has long forgotten what its name means and their policies betray what the word “national’ once stood for.

Their supporters here and across New Zealand are in disarray as they witness political representation filled with globalists and acolytes of One World Order. And National’s policies and recent record in Government is no different from Labour’s. You can’t expect New Zealanders to see any difference when National has the same policies and when National has taken millions from the same financiers who gave millions to Labour to get the same policies.

Millions to Labour when Margaret Wilson was its President and millions to National when Michelle Boag was Fay Richwhite’s publicity person. It is all true, it is all out now - and we all know it.

New Zealand First has been quietly getting ready for this election. We have known that New Zealand needs a responsible opposition party, as we have been since 1999, supporting sound policies and opposing destructive ones. We have known that National is no longer a real opposition party but a collection of carping, jealous politicians without principle or integrity, merely envying the power of their opponents.

But Labour is not going to get enough votes to govern on its own and the election will come down to this.

Does New Zealand want the real second horse in this race to be the Greens?

- a prospect which by their own admission will make Government impossible within a year. A party for example which joined National and Act to oppose the only New Zealand savings fund since 1975. A party which opposes trade, wants you to walk to work, and thinks El Quaeda is the innocent party.

Does New Zealand want control by the Greens? We think not.

New Zealand needs a responsible and experienced third party to provide, as we have done when called upon for two and a half years, a fair and balanced check on Government.

This election needs a theme - and New Zealand First will give it one.

This election is about the rights of ordinary Kiwis:

- The right to walk down the streets of this country in safety.

- The right of all New Zealanders to stand together as equals.

- The right to stop being swamped by a flood of immigrants

Because ladies and gentlemen these things matter:

- Safety from crime and violence,

- Being one people

- Control over who becomes a New Zealander

These issues define a nation.

They go to the very core of what this country is about.

New Zealand First sees these basic rights as threatened

And make no mistake the New Zealand we value is under threat from:

- rampant lawlessness

- a Treaty industry that foments racial division and discord

- a flood of immigrants totally without parallel in any first world country

Unless we act now the New Zealand we cherish - a special place - a decent place - a fortunate and blessed place -a land of fair minded and tolerant people - will be irrevocably lost. Mistakes here are permanent. If we carry on this way they can’t be fixed.

In this campaign New Zealand First will bring one quality lacking in our political opponents.

We bring plain speaking and common sense.

We will be sounding the alarm at how the basic rights of New Zealanders are under attack

And our message is to all New Zealanders

Because a strange paradox applies in this country

Often it is those who have most recently settled here who see most clearly what is at risk.

Over the coming weeks New Zealand First will be releasing detailed policy on a full range of issues that matter to New Zealanders.

But today we are going to focus on the three key themes of our campaign

Three areas where we will fight for the rights of every New Zealander and fix them over the next three years. The first is:

Law and Order

We say it is a basic right of every New Zealander to live in safety and security.

Because a life that has to be lived in the shadow of fear is intolerable in this country

The Government can play with words on levels of crime but ordinary New Zealanders have no illusions

This has become a crime ridden, ill disciplined and violent society

New Zealand must be the only country where delivering pizza is a high-risk occupation

Must we stand passively by while this descent into lawlessness continues?

New Zealand First says - No!

We offer no glib solution

But unlike our opponents who think solving growing lawlessness is about getting the ideology right. The New Zealand First approach is based on common sense.

- we will use all the weapons in the armoury to fight crime

That means action on:

Prevention - to address the underlying and root causes of delinquency

Apprehension - that means having the police numbers and with the powers and the equipment they need to do the job

Just punishment

Rehabilitation

The plain fact is that too many in our society turn to crime - and all the sociologists, policy analysts and criminologists combined are not going to stop that.

This Government has been big on research, discussion and consultation about crime.

But law and order is not an academic exercise -

- It is fear of going out on the streets at night

- It is senseless random violence

- It is about burglaries being so common that police can no longer investigate them

We have to stop this break down of civil society now!

The ACT party won’t. We saw its Leader on television last night: the crims in prison will be saying “if he can’t pronounce “prioritise’ then he won’t be dealing to us.’

New Zealand First will go right to the heart of why so many of our young people drift into crime

New Zealand cannot allow its young people to grow up without jobs, self-discipline or direction - that is a recipe for disaster

For that reason we will introduce military or community service training for the young unemployed and for some first time offenders, to foster discipline and self-esteem and bring order into their lives

We know it is an idea the chattering classes will dismiss with contempt.

They are scornful of anything that smacks of the direct approach - their preference is “therapy.”

Ladies and Gentlemen

Ask yourselves:

Do you have the right to safety and security, should our old people and our children also be safe and secure?

Can we fix it?

If your answer is “yes’ then vote for the one party that will - New Zealand First.

Treaty of Waitangi

The second area of New Zealand First’s election campaign is to derail the

tribally divisive, racially divisive Treaty of Waitangi industry.

The Treaty should be New Zealand’s Magna Carta -our Gettysburg address

Instead it has been perverted and hijacked to the advantage of a few. I said it would be the day I first saw it and I’ve said it every year since. The critics know that - so why are they trying to portray that as something new.

There is an old fashioned word to explain the motivation of those who have thrived on the Treaty industry - a plain and simple word - and that word is greed.

Why bother to be enterprising, to take risks, to build something worthwhile?

The new way to wealth in this country is by joining the multi-million dollar grievance industry that has formed like a thicket around the Treaty.

If other New Zealand industries had expanded like the Treaty Industry we would be at the top of the OECD league tables. Now!

Over the past 15 years the Treaty has become a gravy train for a lucky few. A gravy train built by Labour when Prebble and Shirley were its Ministers. A gravy train with numerous carriages added on by National. Yesterday’s Sunday papers carried a full page advertisement from National promising “to settle past Treaty claims by 2008’.

In 1990 they promised to do all that by the year 2000. Now they expect you to believe that the co-architects of this mess can be trusted to sort it out. They can’t and they won’t. They haven’t got the understanding or the courage. They have no vision of a cohesive, united New Zealand and those few on this gravy train are in no hurry to have this lucrative train reach a destination!

The infiltration of so-called Treaty principles into every facet of New Zealand law and life is a racket.

What it means is that almost anything can be demanded, asserted or claimed, however spurious, if a tenuous link to the Treaty can be established.

And believe me many of the best legal minds and consultants in the country are devoting their time and energy and your money to doing just that!

You know that we have repeatedly challenged the Government to spell out what the Treaty actually means

To tell the country in plain English what these mystical Treaty principles are.

They cannot answer - they just assert -it’s a “living document.”

In other words, The Treaty means whatever we want it to mean

This is flim flam.

Our critics have dismissed New Zealand First’s warnings on the Treaty for years.

Many say: “Winston - we agree this Treaty Industry is pointless tokenism that squanders millions of dollars but does it really matter?

We challenge such complacency.

The Treaty is much more than just a geyser of taxpayer money - it is a dangerous, insidious and destructive cancer affecting the heart of our constitution and legal system

The Treaty Industry already resembles the Grand Inquisition - in its capacity to infiltrate and colour every aspect of New Zealand life - in its capacity to silence its critics - and to cast a blanket of political correctness over this country.

Whoever dares to criticise the Treaty is vilified.

Anyone in public life in this country is expected to genuflect to the Treaty.

In Government departments and agencies they are spending thousands of hours developing strategies and plans to uphold and implement its sacred but unknowable “principles”.

There are over 30 pieces of major legislation that refer to the Treaty or its principles -and in terms of secondary legislation there are many more.

The only result of polluting our laws with meaningless references to the Treaty is to sow the seeds of endless confusion and mischief making.

The Treaty is one of those issues like Law and Order and Immigration where the political establishment and their big city media mates close ranks. They are in an unholy pact to cover up what is really going on.

The real tragedy of the Treaty Industry is that it rides on the back of a genuine issue:

- the situation facing Maori.

One of the predictable tactics of our critics is to slander us with the accusation of Maori bashing.

That is a tactic Dr Goebbels would have been proud of.

The truth is completely different

Anyone who has the slightest concern for the situation of Maori can see that the Treaty Industry has brought the mass majority of Maori nothing. Not a snapper, not an inch of land, not a dollar in value.

What it has done is divert attention from the real issues - the educational, employment, housing and heath status of Maori.

And it is having the most pernicious and destructive effect on race relations - and it is Maori that have the most to lose from this deterioration

Ladies and Gentlemen

Is the Treaty Industry in the interests of this country?

Can we fix it?

If your answer is yes then vote New Zealand First .

Immigration

The third issue that will be central to our campaign is immigration

Let me put a couple of numbers before you

53,000

55,000

53,000 is the number of people who will gain permanent residence in New Zealand this financial year.

55,000 is roughly the number of children being born in NEW ZEALAND every year.

In other words almost as many immigrants are being granted New Zealand residency as are being born here.

Relative to our size, no country in the world involuntarily allows anywhere near that scale of influx.

New Zealand has the population of a crowded suburb in Shanghai - but we seem to believe we can run an open door immigration policy.

The fact is that immigration is out of control.

Already 1 in 5 New Zealanders was born overseas and that figure soars to 1 in 3 in our main population centre - the Auckland region.

That alarms New Zealand First - it ought to alarm all New Zealanders.

If you want an explanation for this disastrous situation -

look no further than who has been in charge of our immigration policy.

Under both Labour and National the New Zealand Immigration Service has been a by-word for incompetence.

Without thought, reflection or vision - and certainly without a mandate from the people of New Zealand - National and Labour have chosen to squander New Zealand’s birthright

Our proud New Zealand birthright - and they have been handing out citizenship like lotto tickets.

The administration of our immigration law has become a shambles

We know that there was an estimated 14,000 over-stayers under National which has become 20,000 over-stayers under Labour but even that appalling statistic does not tell the full story

Our immigration laws have become a mockery

Just this weekend the media carried reports of an Indian convicted, imprisoned and deported for sex offences who has bypassed immigration controls and returned to this country. The press reported that this individual returned to New Zealand using a false name and then married his sister in law. On the basis of this marriage he gained permanent residency.

Here is another illustration.

Wellington’s Dominion on 7 June reported that the Immigration Service had unsuccessfully investigated “numerous” alleged marriage scams, where family members gain entry to NEW ZEALAND on the basis of a purported marriage.

The paper went on to say that a South Auckland man - who incidentally was a Sikh - said he had notified Immigration and Government Ministers about eight instances of Indian immigrants marrying their own sisters or in-laws under different names to get them into NEW ZEALAND.

The Dominion also reported that the Immigration Service manager responsible said the department had investigated numerous complaints but had not found enough evidence to prosecute anyone in the past year.

And today almost a sixth of our HIV virus or Aids sufferers are African immigrants. We will go on paying for this sadly for the rest of their lives.

We do not condemn people for wanting to come to New Zealand

In their shoes who could blame them?

We do castigate the ineptitude of this Government and immigration officials for allowing rampant abuse of our law.

Compare New Zealand’s stance on immigration to that of Australia.

Everyone knows where Australia stands.

They have taken a stand and declared that Australia is not a soft touch.

Australia will decide how many and who will have the privilege of becoming new Australians.

In short Australia has a real immigration policy - seven times our size, they take in less than one and half times the number we let in.

Last year immigration was at the forefront of their election

And it will be the same here too.

Despite the wish of the political establishment to keep their heads firmly buried in the sand.

We will campaign on;

- A drastic cut in the number of immigrants

- Strict criteria for entry that require migrants to bring economic benefit to NEW ZEALAND

- An end to the shambolic administration that renders our immigration laws a farce

- Severe penalties for any who attempt to evade or circumvent entry rules

- A probationary period for all migrants of three years during which if they are convicted of a crime punishable by prison the right of entry will be revoked. And they will be sent home.

Immigration is out of control.

Can we fix it?

If the answer is yes then vote New Zealand First.

Ladies and Gentlemen -

The issues we are raising in this election will be relentlessly attacked by the political establishment for we are in one corner on these issues and the record of all the other political parties has been in the other corner.

These issues are not new to me or my party.

For 15 years my critics have called me a Maori basher and then a racist. Well if standing up for the ordinary New Zealander, Maori or European, is Maori bashing and racist., if standing up for our society, our values and traditions, and a cohesive united country is Maori bashing and racist or xenophobic then the plea is GUILTY.

The road that New Zealand First is taking is the opposite direction to where prevailing political correctness leads.

But we are told:

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven;

A time to keep silence - and a time to speak.

Ladies and Gentlemen if ever there was a time to speak out it is now.

New Zealand First makes three pledges to you and the people of New Zealand. We won’t fix everything but we will fix up three things in the next three years:.

We will

- restore safety to the streets of NEW ZEALAND

- derail the Treaty Industry

- put the brakes on senseless immigration

Three questions that we will be taking to the people of this country:

Do you want to live in safety and security?

Do you want equality for all New Zealanders?

Do you want an end to out of control immigration?

Can we fix it?

Yes we can!

Can we fix it?

Yes we can!

Can we fix it?

Yes we can!

That is the mission.

That is our mission.

ENDS

© Scoop Media