Rt. Hon Winston Peters, Leader NZ First

Address to: Mana Tawa Grey Power
Porirua Club, 1 Lodge Place, Porirua

Date: 8 March 2011
Time: 1.45pm

“Protecting Our People”

It's good to be back in Porirua in the heart of the Mana electorate.

This is one of the most hospitable places in New Zealand.

It's been through some tough times but the people here are resilient and cheerful and there is a great depth of community spirit.

Some of the country's leaders should look carefully at places like Porirua to see how their policies affect ordinary people.

You have seen hundreds of local jobs lost over the years and the people who live in these suburbs have seen thousands of jobs disappear throughout the region.

The future might seem bleak at present but we are here today to give a message of hope.

That message is New Zealand First is on the way back and our party's total philosophy is to do what is right for New Zealanders.

At the outset let’s explain what our position is for the election this year.

If you don’t want to vote for National, vote for New Zealand First.

If you don’t want to vote for Labour, vote for New Zealand First.

If you don’t want the rest, vote for New Zealand First

If we have to, and if that is what NZ First decides, we will be pleased to sit on the cross benches guarding the interests of ALL New Zealanders.

We have done it before.

National and Labour can look after themselves.

We will support legislation that's in line with New Zealand First policies.

And we will support any policy or idea that's good for the country – no matter where it comes from.

We have done it before.

In return we will expect support for our initiatives.

This makes our position clear.

No pre-election deals, no nudge-nudge, wink-wink political horse trading before you the voters have spoken.

Those who argue for pre-election deals are trying to weaken your vote.

They seek to marginalize your role in democracy.

Don’t let them.

Instead of doing pre-election deals, we will concentrate on the big issues facing New Zealanders.

And let's talk about some of these big issues.

First of all – take nothing for granted over your superannuation payment levels.

At the moment there is a softening up process going on.

You are being warned daily that the country cannot afford to keep the retirement eligibility age at 65 and that the level of superannuation is unsustainable.

This is nonsense and here is the reason.

Most of the superannuation payments are used to buy those items necessary to live.
Items like shelter, food, power and the like.

Superannuation does not harm the economy it helps keep the economy ticking over.

We saw recently the prime minister blaming beneficiaries for not being able to live on their benefits.

A single pensioner living alone gets $667.50 cents a fortnight – that's $333.75 a week.

We suggest that the prime minister get out of his new taxpayer funded BMW and try to live on 333.75 a week.

He is shielded from the hard decisions that thousands of New Zealanders face every day.

Decisions like how many times they will be able to eat meat this week.

It just so happens that the National led government has overseen huge rises in the cost of living.

According to a Herald on Sunday investigation the prices of day-to-day food, groceries and accommodation are rising at almost their fastest rate in the past 20 years.
Wage levels are not keeping pace.
The paper reported that over the past twelve months prices for apples, carrots, mushrooms and potatoes have gone up by 50 percent or more.
Lamb and fish have also gone up more than 10 percent, as have cheese, milk and fruit juice.
The paper also reported that wages and salaries rose only 1.7 percent last year. And with unemployment also up, more people have to rely on benefits to pay the bills.
However the prime minister has suggested that people should budget better!
As Oscar Wilde once said – telling the poor to be thrifty is like telling a starving man not to eat so much!
Despite the doom and gloom for those at the bottom of the heap – those at the top are creaming it!
Recently the government gave its mates some big tax cuts.
Look for example, at the boss of the Australian bank Westpac in New Zealand.

His salary is $5.6 million dollars.

When John Key handed out his tax cuts – the bank boss got more than $5,000 a week extra.

That's right $5,000 a week extra because of Mr Key’s tax cut.

Now for the unfairness of it all.

National recently lifted the minimum wage by 25 cents an hour to $13 an hour.

That means someone on the minimum wage – and there are thousands of them – now receives just over $27,000 a year.

That amounts to about $437 a week take home pay.

So it's easy to see the people this government is looking after.

If you are a bank boss on $5.6million, helping cause a recession, you get an extra five thousand a week.

If you are on the minimum wage – you get an extra 25 cents an hour.

And hope you dont have too far to walk to the local foodbank.

This policy also hits the pockets of those people receiving the pension.

If pay rates are kept down, your superannuation payments are kept down as well.

As well, the method of calculation of pensions has been changed a number of times over the years.

For some reason, the calculation is always downwards and you are always playing catchup.

And let's face it a trip to the supermarket has become an expensive business.

The price of petrol for your car is now way over two dollars a litre.

The rates you pay the local council for a modest three bedroom house in this city is now about two thousand dollars a year – or forty dollars a week, and in some cases a lot more.

Your power bills are rising and so is the cost of your telephone.

But this government gives huge tax cuts to the rich and increases taxes on food.

This is the stuff of which revolutions are made!

There is no doubt that wages in New Zealand are low by international standards.

NZ First is working on a plan to lift wages to a level that families can live on.

Something has to be done to stop the steady loss of people we need in New Zealand.

Thousands of Kiwis are heading across the Tasman for a better life and better prospects.

Only a few decades ago people were coming in their thousands from Britain and Eastern Europe for a better life here.

Something has gone terribly wrong and we believe that most of our problems were caused by the the disastrous social and economic experiments of the eighties and early nineties.

Add to that our failure to establish a savings and superannuation regime to provide our own capital for investment.

It's part of the unfinished business New Zealand First will have to address when we are back in parliament.

We also have some unfinished business for senior citizens.

New Zealand First will protect the concessions provided by the Supergold card and we will extend them.

The first of these concessions has already been announced to Grey Power and that is the introduction of further help for medical care.

It can be expensive for people on fixed incomes and some older people keep putting off a trip to the doctor because of the cost.

We will bring in a scheme allied to the Supergold card that will provide one free health check a year with your GP and we will cap future doctors' visits at ten dollars.

This policy will actually help reduce the overall cost of healthcare because problems will be picked up before they get serious.

There will be other initiatives released later this year.

Moving the Supergold card into healthcare is a logical extension to the benefits available now.

We have to be careful about how we spend taxpayers' money but free medical checks and cheaper GP visits will actually save money in the long run.

And speaking of taxpayers' money, be warned here today that you are being softened up for big cuts in social spending.

The prime minister and his ministers have been running around telling anybody who will listen that New Zealand is burdened with debt and public assets have to be sold to repay this debt.

This is a giant porkie.

Public debt in New Zealand is not out of control.

Our problem is private debt.

Let’s repeat that – our problem is private debt and it involves the Australian owned banks who threw money around like drunken gamblers during the housing boom.

The debt was fuelled by the banks seeking to make greater profits.

The whole world wide recession we're in was caused by the banks and the finance industry.

So why should ordinary people bear the brunt of the recession?

Why should we sell PUBLIC assets to repay PRIVATE debt?

It is an asinine idea!

In case you haven't noticed a lot of things are happening at once.

The country is being bombarded by government ministers painting an alarmist picture of severe doom and gloom.

Make no mistake the razor gangs are back in action. Just like they were in the early nineties.

This time they are speaking from the safety of their new BMWs which were somehow bought by mistake, by people who forgot that they signed off the order forms, and accidentally did not read the memos.

They have one set of standards for themselves and another set of values for the citizens they are supposed to serve.

We need a strong force to protect ordinary citizens from the social and economic madness that prevails in political circles.

We suggest to you today that your protection is called New Zealand First.

Our reason to exist is to protect New Zealand and New Zealanders interests.

We believe we are all equal under the law and there should be equal opportunity for all.

This country once had a proud history of doing the right thing by its people.

We looked after our young, our old, and our sick.

We cared about our neighbour and we kept a firm but friendly hand on our young people.

There are many people in this room who remember the days when you did not bother locking your doors when you left your house.

You could walk down any street in New Zealand after dark and feel safe.

There was an accepted belief that everybody deserved a fair go.

If we dont go back to some of those traditional values we once shared there is no hope for us going forward as a nation.

A country in which the assets and wealth are held by a select few while other people struggle to survive is not the New Zealand that our parents believed in.

We are all in this together.

New Zealand's future does not lie in ripping up conservation parks, selling off public assets or flogging off the foreshore and seabed.

Our future is in the hands of our people and our ability to work our way through the difficulties we face.

We are confident New Zealanders can handle what fate befalls us and meet adversity with courage and optimism.

Like you, we want to make this country a better place.

And we want you to help us make that happen.

ENDS

© Scoop Media