Rt Hon Winston Peters -Budget speech

Well New Zealand – there you have it – you’ve just heard it - a battle of wits between unarmed opponents.

The two tired old parties have run out of ideas and to quote a US president, “they don’t have that vision thing!”

Budgets are supposed to be the time when governments account for their stewardship of the economy and outline plans for the future.

What we have heard today is the back end of a month of leaks and propaganda.

This is a budget to buy votes - not a budget to build a better future for New Zealand.

This is a pork barrel budget aimed at winning an election.

This budget is a cynical statement signed by a cynical government. And if a public company had published such a document – it would have been tagged by the auditors!

This is the budget of a government that boasts of a seven billion dollar surplus but appears to NOT have a seven billion surplus.

Where is the money? What does surplus really mean these days?

In the real world you’d say - the books have been cooked.

This duplicity simply would not be tolerated in any other developed nation.

Not only did it give false hope to the naïve in National, calling for extravagant tax cuts for their rich mates – it also gives ordinary people false hope that this budget will deliver something of substance to them NOW.

Sadly, this is not a budget for opportunity, it is a budget for opportunists – political opportunists.

The same slide to dependency will continue while the prospects for real growth and real returns diminish.

This government seems content to let our economy drift along aimlessly on the back of “people importing” and consumption rather than finding a secure path to prosperity.

This government does not guarantee better educational standards, health services, housing services or ensure that New Zealanders are in real First World jobs with prospects for a real future.

The working families of this country want hope – not slogans.

They want something back for their investment in this country.

They see a government that has taken them for granted for the past four years and is now saying “we’ll give you a little back – but only if you vote for us”.

Labour has lost the plot. This is taxpayers’ money they are dealing with.

It is hard earned money and ordinary people who pay First World taxes expect to get First World services in return.

Ask yourself these simple questions.

Will this Budget bring First World incomes from better salaries and wages?

No, - it tries to do this by welfare.

Does it seek to make New Zealanders independent and self reliant?

No – it corrodes self reliance and corrupts independence of will and action.

Is the Budget pro-business?

No – it simply doesn’t care about an environment to nurture and sustain business, and small business in particular.

Is the Budget pro-development and pro-infrastructure? No – it’s pro-consumption. Apparently we are supposed to eat our way to economic wealth?

Is the Budget pro education and pro student? No. In a society where tertiary students graduate sometimes owing $3000 of debt for each year they have lived it offers more of the same barren policies, only with rising living costs, much worse.

This is a high cost, high tax government taxing New Zealanders more than any government in our history.

People must be asking themselves – where is the real budget?

Well I’ll tell you were it is. It’s right here!

It was hidden in telephone books of hype and spin – but we have found it.

We have the hidden budget it right here and we will present part of it on behalf of the long suffering New Zealand citizen.

CHEQUES START

IMMIGRANTS AND OVERSTAYERS

There are tens of thousands of unwanted overstayers and at least one convicted million-dollar terrorist living here illegally at the taxpayers expense.

So our first cheque from the real budget goes to Ahmed Zaoui and all of his associates.

(PRODUCE FIRST CHEQUE)

As you can see it is a blank cheque. It’s for the lifetime support Mr Zaoui, Mrs Zaoui, Uncle and Aunt Zaoui and all the other Zaouis, their friends, relations, and all the other bogus asylum seekers, refugees and flotsam who’ve arrived over the past four years.

Labour says ”make our place your place – and don’t spare the expense!”

TREATY OF WAITANGI INDUSTRY The next cheque is for a one way ticket for the fat cats and their fellow travellers on the Treaty Gravy Train.

(PRODUCE SECOND CHEQUE )

You have made millions milking grievances, while genuine Maori claimants miss out.

Under both National and Labour you have made the cash, while the Maoris you claim to act for are lucky to get a kia ora.

We say, you might have a ticket to ride now – but the last train has just left the Waitangi station.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

Education is very important in New Zealand. It’s so important to New Zealand’s future that we are giving it away – and here’s the cheque.

(PRODUCE THIRD CHEQUE)

In keeping with its global vision, and on behalf of taxpayers, the Government is donating much of our tertiary education system to Asia.

Why have a hundred New Zealand graduates when you can have a hundred THOUSAND foreigners graduating, courtesy of the New Zealand taxpayer!

For those young New Zealand people trying to get an education the Government says TOUGH! Take out another student loan.

We say that education should be an investment and not a cost.

It should be an investment and it should be an investment in New Zealand – not in Asia. LAW AND ORDER

There is another group in society who have been given a big boost by this Government.

(PRODUCE FOURTH CHEQUE)

The violent offenders, the drug dealers, the fraudsters, the predators in our society. And there are plenty of them.

This contribution is tangible support of this Government’s motto “Crime Does Pay”.

If by some freakish accident offenders go to jail, there is extra money available to pay for state recruited comfort women in the jails to provide all the comforts of home.

Jails used to be places to punish people - now they are state run motels with “a bit on the side, inside”.

There is no amount on this cheque but IT IS A PASS TO GET OUT OF JAIL FREE. (SHOW BACK OF CHEQUE)

HEALTH

We cannot let this opportunity pass without thanking Australia for trying to maintain a First World health system for New Zealand.

(PRODUCE FIFTH CHEQUE) – so our next cheque is made out to Australia’s health system.

It’s supposed to be a secret but the real reason the Government bought into Air New Zealand was to take all the cancer patients to Australia for treatment.

The cancer patients are going to be followed by the heart patients, then the ear, nose and throat patients, and then cataract surgery patients. In fact it is soon to become government policy for ALL sick people to go to Australia and New Zealand will be freed of all disease.

I bet Don Brash is mad that he did not think of that one first!

NATIONAL PARTY

But he and Simon Power have run up an account with Uncle Sam.

(PRODUCE SIXTH CHEQUE)

National have an account rendered to pay for nuclear policy and defence advice to Don Brash and Simon Power – and New Zealanders have to pay.

Don Brash and Simon Power would sell out this country.

The price to pay is New Zealand’s nuclear free legislation and our ban on nuclear ships. However this is a price that we are not prepared to pay and the cheque will be stopped tomorrow before Uncle Sam or Don Brash can cash it.

This cheque will be stopped, to borrow a secret phrase “before lunchtime”!

We say to National that that New Zealand’s nuclear free laws are not for sale

TRAFFIC TICKETS

And while on the subject of collecting ……let me present a cheque to the Police and Transport Ministers on behalf of all the motorists in New Zealand.

(PRODUCE SEVENTH CHEQUE)

This cheque is to pay for doubling the size of our police force and sending the traffic tax gatherers back to the Land Transport safety Authority for the rest of their days.

New Zealanders are sick of watching criminals winning while police hide in bushes on the side of the road with speed cameras.

After the next election police will wage war on criminals – not little old ladies going to church.

POOR OLD TAXPAYERS

We cannot let this occasion pass by without acknowledging each and every New Zealand taxpayer.

You work hard and pay your tax and hope that you will get a return on your investment in the state.

You expect to have:

a health service an education system a welfare system if things go wrong a roading system that carries cars a rail system that functions

You give your government billions of dollars and we say it is time that you got something back.

So here is a cheque for one trillion dollars -

(PRODUCE EIGHTH CHEQUE)

But wait – there’s a problem, some parties in this House want to give it to their rich mates, the fat cats, big business, the media moguls and the consultants, the tax dodgers and the lobbyists.

So bad luck ordinary taxpayers.

The needs of the rich and powerful are more important than ordinary people.

(Rip up cheque)

Mr Speaker, we say to the elderly people of New Zealand – shivering in their homes anxious about their safety, their incomes and their health care,

Hang on, help is on its way.

We say to the students leaving our universities with huge debts,

Hang on, help is on its way.

We say to the hardworking families, doing their best to bring up their children - and make ends meet – and now being forced to rely more and more on government handouts,

Don’t give up.

We say to the small businessmen and women who pay their hard-earned taxes while coping with every type of unnecessary compliance cost, Don’t throw in the towel, help is on its way.

We say to the exporters - the most critical part of our economic future - who get no help or even respect in their own backyard.

Don’t stop competing, don’t feel no-one understands your plight, hang on, because help is on the way.

We say to the tens of thousands of Maori who work hard and contribute to this great nation only to suffer the scorn and derision of some within this House as if they were somehow unworthy.

Be strong, don’t slip back now. Hang on, help is on the way.

We say to every New Zealander who is a patriot, who still believes in New Zealand even as we slide to the Third World.

Don’t abandon all hope, don’t abandon ambition.

Hang on, help is on the way, for in this Parliament there is a Party who understands your hopes and dreams, who believes that New Zealand’s former glory can be restored.

Don’t abandon the good fight because at next years election, this Party will become part of your Government, a Government for all New Zealanders.

© Scoop Media