Rt Hon Winston Peters

Cherrywood, Tauranga

10.00am Monday 22 July 2002

Black Widow At Large

There is a Black Widow at large on the hustings.

It has awakened for a mid - winter election.

Initially it hoped that we wouldn’t notice that there was an election.

That we would be taken by surprise and Labour would get to rule alone.

Then the pesky Greens stood up for their GE principles and the Black Widow began to eat its mate.

Then there was “Paintergate” and the nostrils flared.

Then we heard about the new petrol tax and the new health tax and the ears smoked.

Then the “little creep’ asked questions about corn crops and the toys were tossed.

And then New Zealand First, at last receiving some media attention, managed to get its message out and gathered support.

All too much for the Black Widow!

We know we are in for a week of accusations and aspersions.

And we know that you can’t go out and tell lies about your opponents.

We say to Labour, YOU stop telling lies about New Zealand First and we will stop telling the truth about you.

Let me first remind you about what the Party has achieved in its short political life and then let me remind you of what we stand for. Among a long list of achievements in our short time in Government we are proud to list:

- Free doctors visits and prescriptions for children under six which we have promised to extend to primary school aged children

- Lower interest and exchange rates which have been of enormous help to our exporters and the current government and which we have promised to address by amending the Reserve Bank Act and requiring a different monetary policy prescription

- 500 additional frontline police which we will add to immediately, and provide the powers and resources for our police to do their jobs

- pay parity for teachers which we could not get Labour’s agreement to after weeks of negotiating in 1996

- removal of the superannuation surtax and which we guarantee NOT to reinstate

- maintenance of retirement incomes which we have promised to increase to 72.5% of the net average wage at age 65

- nationwide targeted screening for hepatitis B, a first step in a preventative programme aimed at providing screening services to assist early identification of health problems

Other achievements that came about from having negotiated a comprehensive coalition agreement included:

- an extra $252m for elective surgery, funding for 32,000 more operations

- an increase to the minimum wage

- $1.5 b additional education spending over three years and $55m for early education

- $1.5b additional funding to strengthen public health over three years having removed the profit motive and replaced CHEs with hospitals

- free influenza vaccines for the elderly

- stopping the privatisation of strategic assets

When Jim Anderton wrote Helen Clark an open cheque in his indecent haste to get a Ministerial car he also wrote the Alliance’s death warrant.

And the Black Widow delivered.

We have all learned a great deal since 1996 but it is 2002 and beyond that New Zealanders are most interested in.

We all have our experience of what New Zealand is, a notion of what it has been, and our hopes for its future.

These hopes are not necessarily what the Black Widow wants.

You may not want:

- to legalise prostitution and soliciting;

- to decriminalise marijuana;

- legislation for gay marriages and adoptions;

- further tax rises on cigarettes, alcohol and petrol;

- large payments for prisoners and refugees;

- unplanned immigration of more than 53,000 per year;

- separate voting systems based on race;

- new petrol and health taxes;

- being told what to think and how to say it;

New Zealanders can be complacent, or they can use their party vote to stop the rot.

I don’t know why Labour keeps going back to 1996 - except they aren’t telling you the truth. THEY agreed with the timetable of negotiations, THEY never once complained about the timetable while they were negotiating. In fact it took them to the second to last day to agree to pay parity for teachers and only after we said we would not proceed without it. NZEI can confirm that they told Trevor Mallard that they were not prepared to defer that commitment.

And now, under the Employment Relations Act we have come 16 months and have 14,000 teachers remaining without settlement.

There is only one party that can, and will, stop that rot.

New Zealand First - we will continue to fight to protect our social fabric and traditional family values.

And what else will we do?

Ours is a simple message:

New Zealand First believes that New Zealanders are entitled to a political system they can feel confident about, and politicians they can rely on to represent them.

There should be an end to the aimless restructuring of government services, a removal of

unnecessary rules and regulations based on misguided political correctness, and a return to a public service ethic within the bureaucracy.

Spending will be directed to the provision of high quality education and health professionals and to improving free access to enhanced public education and health services.

And where will the money come from?

New Zealand needs a clear strategy to boost export growth and employment. We will implement a plan to treble exports in real terms, well before 2020.

Any person capable of work should be given the opportunity to do so and not relegated to welfare dependency.

Our citizens should be able to look forward to the certainty of a dignified retirement based on a fund that can be invested in our economy and infrastructure.

What political party could disagree with those things?

The Greens for one! They voted against any attempt to put in place a long-term savings strategy. And disastrously we have learnt in the last few weeks that Prime Minister Clark thinks that our long-term retirement security is based on bringing in 53,000 plus immigrants into New Zealand each year.

Well, we are currently paying the equivalent of a pension to school aged immigrants who are overcrowding our schools, especially in Auckland.

We are paying more than the equivalent of the pension to unemployed immigrants who have got here on family reunification tickets.

On television in the weekend a magazine item complained about the neglect of Asian unemployment, now at over 20%.

Over 20%? How can that be when the Immigration Minister is telling you that they are only bringing in skilled, job-placed immigrants?

That unemployment figure totally refutes the Government’s position on Immigration and alongside those adults out of work and supported by the taxpayer are thousands of children who are necessarily a charge on the State.

Seven out of ten immigrants are not constructively engaged in our economy except as consumers.

On top of that New Zealand has an English language qualification for all immigrants but no one is enforcing it.

Last week I spoke to a Chinese audience at a political forum. Such is the contempt the Government has for its own policy that two interpreters (Mandarin, and Cantonese) were required to interpret the messages of the various political parties.

We are paying to have our sick go to Australia for treatment while our health system comes under pressure from the migrant flow. We could be about to pay hundreds of thousands of pensions to refugees invited here by the Labour cabinet. We lose billions of dollars in lost productivity and extra fuel costs on Auckland’s grid-locked roads.

That is how we could pay a decent pension in the future, Ms Clark. By having a population policy that gives priority to immigrants who bring skills and talents that grow our economy, and by not being a soft touch for an uncontrolled number of migrants, many of whom are looking for a back door entry to Australia and have little interest in making a contribution to New Zealand.

Within the Asian community in Auckland are some responsible citizens who are urging new New Zealanders to invest in their new country, and to NOT park their money here for a while before taking it and the capital gains off shore. We applaud that but we worry how the situation could have been allowed to develop in the first place. And we wonder why no one wants to talk about it!

During the next three years we will focus on these three things:

1. FIXING OUR IMMIGRATION POLICY:

New Zealand First will end the flood of immigration and continue to oppose the use of

immigration as an excuse for our failure to train, skill, and employ our own people.

We will not tolerate New Zealand being a haven for queue-jumping asylum seekers. Only immigrants who can contribute to rapid export growth, our research and development, and/ or our educational capacity will be accepted.

Immigrants will be required to accept New Zealand culture and values.

The best deal for all New Zealanders, Kiwi-born or foreign-bred, is for there to be just one class of citizen. Wherever we were born, if we have been granted the right to live here, then we are New Zealanders first.

2. FIXING THE TREATY INDUSTRY:

While we are many peoples with different customs, languages, religions and cultures, we are all New Zealanders first.

During the next parliamentary term, New Zealand First will focus on pursuing policies that promote social cohesion and economic advancement.

We will put an end to the Treaty of Waitangi industry and cease its senseless calls to insert Treaty “principles’ into legislation.

The best deal for all New Zealanders, Maori and non-Maori, is for there to be just one class of citizen. For too long too many New Zealanders have been told that they are second-class citizens.

If we are to have one class of citizens then New Zealand must have one franchise.

The many of us who voted for MMP back in 1993 did so because of the betrayal of New Zealand’s birthright and assets by both Labour and National in the nine years before that.

And many of us took the view of the Electoral Commission that if MMP could demonstrate an ability to better guarantee Maori representation in Parliament then one day soon there will be ONE ELECTORAL ROLL for all New Zealanders.

In just two elections MMP has dramatically illustrated that. Those with Maori heritage in Parliament have gone from six in number to 19.

That is why New Zealand First is NOT standing candidates in the Maori seats.

We have plenty of New Zealanders on our list with an understanding of the needs and aspirations of Maori, who, like the Maori who make our All Blacks or Silver Ferns, are out to compete against the best in the world AS EQUALS and who don’t want special treatment which is a byword for marginalisation and cinderellaisation.

We recently pointed out specific examples of how the Treaty settlement process has developed a life of its own, where it has become a self-perpetuating money machine for the “settlement agents’ with little benefit to ordinary New Zealanders, Maori or non-Maori, claimant or taxpayer.

3. FIXING THE LAWLESSNESS AND VIOLENCE IN OUR SOCIETY:

It is time to mount a war against lawlessness by providing adequate police resources and powers.

By implementing realistic sentencing.

By instilling discipline in our young people through appropriate training.

By taking a very tough line on youth and repeat offenders.

And by aggressively targeting “entry level’ crime and by introducing criminal consorting laws so that gangs are outlawed.

Twenty years ago there were 5,000 gang members now there are 10,000: twice as many as there are Police.

And cities and towns like Palmerston North and Whakatane have whole suburbs living in fear of the next gang outrage.

Can we fix it?

Yes we can!

These are matters that cut to the heart of what it is to be a New Zealander.

In fixing these things we defend the rights of all New Zealanders irrespective of whether they come from Tauranga or Te Anau, from Whakatane or Westport, or originally from Hawaiiki, Hanoi, Holland, Hampshire, or Hokianga.

This election is about the rights of ordinary Kiwis:

- The right to walk 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

And it is about the right of all New Zealanders to be first class citizens of a first world country, and not consigning many to second class citizenship in a country sleep-walking to the third world.

So before New Zealanders answer Helen Clark’s call for a clear mandate¡K¡K¡K..before we are taken in by the Labour propaganda¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡Kbefore we are bullied by the Black Widow consider these things:

When were you asked whether you wanted to pay higher petrol taxes?

When were you asked how many immigrants you wanted to flood into New Zealand?

When were you asked if you wanted to have cannabis use decriminalised?

When were you asked about lowering the drinking age?

When were you asked about which Treaty “principles’ you want included in what legislation?

When were you asked about a health tax?

You know you weren’t asked - somebody knows better!

If you want someone to keep an eye on them, then give your Party vote to New Zealand First. Your country needs you!

And to the very special people of Tauranga I say, give your vote to Winston Peters so that I can keep them honest on your behalf.

ENDS

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