Media Release: EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY
Rt Hon Winston Peters
Public Meeting: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall
489 Dominion Road, Balmoral, AUCKLAND
1.00pm Wednesday 24 July 2002

People Power
Santa’s In Trouble And Calls In Rudolf

How will history judge the 2002 Election?

Probably as a gamble that failed.

Labour, seeing the glittering prize of an outright parliamentary majority tried to ambush the electorate. It hoped to capitalise on its good fortune over most of its term of a low dollar, high commodity prices, and good growing conditions - all windfall factors that it had no part in making.

Central to their strategy was an assumption that a mood of complacency prevailed among the public – that as long as people did not look too closely the state of the nation appeared
benign.

Well very quickly some wheels fell off the Labour juggernaut and foremost of the events that scuppered Labour's grand plan was the speed with which New Zealand First mobilised its campaign and put its long-held policy positions before the public again.

There has been nothing faint hearted about our campaign and it has attracted Labour’s wrath.

Because Labour has not wanted to talk about

-the right of ordinary Kiwis to walk their streets in safety

-the right of all New Zealanders to stand together as equals

-the right to stop this country being overwhelmed by a flood of immigrants.

The fact is that these rights have been eroded to the point where urgent action is essential.

The New Zealand First campaign has been about big issues, key themes and fundamental beliefs.

We have reminded New Zealanders of the dangers of a single party in power and have pointed to the excesses of successive Labour and National governments as they sold $19b of our assets, closed 72 hospitals and restructured and ran down our health and education systems, and stripped our provinces of their wealth with idiotic monetary policies designed for their paper-shuffling financial backers.

So, as National and ACT became irrelevant to the outcome of this election Labour has engaged in an underhand advertising campaign that simply highlights its insatiable thirst for power and its lack of principles. Why they even ran an advertisement blaming Winston Peters for the American sharemarket collapse.

Is this the kind of leader and party you would trust your future with?

Instead of concentrating on the issues facing the country and giving voters a clear choice of policies, the campaign has degenerated into a mudslinging contest.

Politicians who waste public time and money slagging off their political opponents and who have the gross arrogance to tell voters who they should or should not vote for need to be given a clear message this election.

And that message – which the present government has forgotten – is that NEW ZEALAND IS A DEMOCRACY.

It is your right to decide who should have your vote and don’t let anyone take that right away from you.

You have the power to decide - not any politician - and certainly not the strategists employed by Labour and the Greens who have introduced a new level of gutter politics they have brought from Australia. We have news for them too – this is not the New Zealand way.

There is no place here for the vitriolic and in your face politics of Australia. The voters will tell Helen what to do, not vice versa.

When the media asked why Helen Clark was attacking me in Tauranga at the same time the CTU were attacking me in Rotorua, she said it was a coincidence.

Yeah right – and I just saw a pig fly past the window, in fact I saw a whole sty of them.

Remember what Labour did to the workers between 1984 and 1990 when Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble and Helen Clark and Peter Dunne sold taxpayer assets to their mates and threw tens of thousands of New Zealanders on to the industrial scrap heap?

The real reason that Labour and its cohorts are attacking me is because they want to govern alone – and their lust for unbridled power!

They under estimate New Zealanders - still suffering the after effects of one party policies implemented in the days when once a government was in it could do what it liked.

The Labour party is desperate to return us to those days. Don’t let them!

It is over to you to give the politicians a strong message that those days are over.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And the really sad thing is that National has failed to engage in any real policy debate either. And now we hear that the National party is trailing in Clutha-Southland, Mr. English’s electorate!

And so desperate are they that now Mr. English has conjured up the spectre of a grand coalition. Grandiose musings! Santa Claus, having run into heavy weather, calls on Rudolf!

Your choice of who is best placed to keep Labour honest becomes clearer every hour now! A vote for National or Act will not do that – it will do nothing!

New Zealand First has promised – whether in Government or out of it – to fix three things in three years.

It is not power we seek but results.

We will deal to crime.

A visible presence of the police on the streets and in local communities would go a long way to making our towns safer for all of us.

One of the complications in the statistics on crime is the large number of crimes committed by the mentally ill - when Helen Clark closed the mental institutions, which cared for these people, many were left to fend for themselves, something they are incapable of doing.

Every day the police tell alarming stories of such outcasts with nowhere to go - a problem, which no one is addressing and every week we hear of another sad case.

The police can’t deal with health and welfare problems and can barely cope with the crime wave sweeping many of our cities.

Is there any wonder that the most horrific murders are often committed by the mentally insane and those whose brains have been scrambled by the abundance of drugs on our streets. And the Greens want to make it legal and Labour will have a review.

We have a message for the violent offenders going around terrorising people and that message is that their days are numbered. And we will begin by targeting our young people. Yesterday I read of six drunken women who repeatedly beat and kicked a sick leopard seal. Who voted to reduce the drinking age?

And the youngest person in New Zealand’s history to be charged with murder (12 years 4 months at the time of the alleged offence) has gone on trial. And Labour tell us there is no problem!

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

This Government, like National and the rest of those parties cravenly clutch at the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi to justify their policies. Every other party has either built this Pandora’s Box or uncorked its contents.

A Treaty which should bind a nation is now creating divisions amongst us by introducing political correctness and psychological mumbo jumbo. It means one law for Maori and another law for non-Maori, and for people like me – two laws.

We are all in this together and those people who perpetuate our differences and try to exploit them are the real racists in our society. South Africa threw out apartheid. We are writing it into legislation here.

In New Zealand today our opponents have given birth to two political systems with two sets of rules and two sets of standards that will lead to bitterness and distrust. Is this a legacy to leave our children and their children?

Do you want bureaucrats, consultants, lawyers and high paid spin merchants to set themselves up for life whilst 95% of Maori get nothing?

The divisive Treaty industry is the fastest growing gravy train in New Zealand and we are going to fix it.

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

We have been accused of bringing up immigration issues every election and doing nothing in between. It is a lie of course and didn’t they complain when we dramatically reduced numbers when we were in government? Today immigration is again rocketing up.

Every day more evidence emerges that indiscriminate immigration could destroy our way of life and our unique culture.

History resounds with examples of reckless immigration changing peaceful communities into warring factionalised battlegrounds.

In our major cities immigration policies are in danger of creating ethnic ghettos. It is all very well to say that many immigrants are well educated, and many are, but the majority are not, which is why seven out of ten immigrants are today consumers not producers in our society. On the weekend an Asian television news spokesperson was complaining about the neglect of Asian unemployment in New Zealand which is now 22%. That complaint gives the lie to the Minister’s assurances.

Auckland Health once had five interpreters and now has over 285. Why would they need that number when the Minister says they can all speak English?

Who will employ them when they can’t speak English? A lot of money is being thrown at “English As A Second Language” projects and thousands of generous volunteers give their time for free, but English is a complicated language to learn and it takes years to become proficient.

We are letting people in without any proper checks - in some cases we are deporting people from one airport while they come back in through another due to a loophole in our immigration system.

Instead of running up and down the country telling people how to vote, Helen Clark should be telling us how she is going to keep out fanatics from alien cultures.
Our critics smugly and ignorantly deride our statements. Under the heading “Asylum Seekers Eye New Zealand” the highly respected “Far Eastern Review” of 18 July 2002 reports in its “intelligence” section that “the smugglers are in the process of acquiring bigger boats that can reach the more distant New Zealand and carry hundreds of people”

According to Afghans in Djakarta the smugglers have begun to sell places on these boats for $3,000 per person. The weather in the region is still quite heavy, but the boats may begin to sail from Indonesia in late July/ August (page 10). Another article highlights the people smuggling trade. (p18). And Labour and the other parties say there is no problem.

In some parts of the world race relations are an explosive mix of religion, race and culture.

We don’t want to import these problems. Why should we?

Immigration is a thriving industry in New Zealand. There are all sorts of scams and rackets going on - one of the scams brought to my attention recently involves the sale of job offers at $10,000 a time so immigrants can get extra points to come here.

A man who was an immigrant told us about this racket. He said that within his community New Zealand’s Immigration Service was regarded as a joke. He has told the Immigration Service and he has told Labour, but both say there is no problem. We know there is – it is serious – and we will have a full investigation straight after the election.

In a blatant advertisement in an Auckland paper recently a Singapore company offered to lend a million dollars to would be immigrants so that they could qualify to come here under a business category.

This company offered to lend at least one million New Zealand dollars so that immigrants could come here under “the INVESTOR category”. The credit is offered for two years at seven percent interest.

It says “Credit is granted for the purpose of investing in New Zealand’s economy, enhancing future citizenship opportunities in New Zealand.”

That means these immigrants can borrow money and pretend to be wealthy investors and so qualify to come to New Zealand.

For $70,000 a year, they can get into New Zealand, then bring all the family and relations with them.

What right have these people got to sell our citizenship? And what is the Government or the Immigration Service doing about it?

As usual nothing – a corrupt department in total denial!

We New Zealanders have the right to choose who should come here, and in what numbers, and under what conditions.

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

We have concentrated our message on these issues and have avoided personality politics – quite simply New Zealanders expect their politicians to work together after the election and we will do that: in Government or out of it for the good of our country.

We supported Labour against the Greens, National and ACT on many other occasions in the past, but Helen Clark has conveniently forgotten this.

They are driven by power – New Zealand First is driven by principle.

We are here to fight for the rights of New Zealanders who want a better country for themselves, their children and their grandchildren.

Whether we are in government or not, we will deliver on our pledges: we will bring in tough measures to deal with crime and we will give the police the numbers and tools they need.

We will reinstate the first principle of justice.

There will be one set of laws for everyone. We are one people in one country.

And we will stop the immigration flood that threatens to overwhelm us.

Three things in three years.

I am asking you to give us your Party Vote.

Can we fix it?

Yes we can!

ENDS

© Scoop Media