Carter Chris: General Debates 
Carter Chris: General Debates 
[Volume:609;Page:6567] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 Leadership is about drawing people together not dividing them. Leadership is about inspiring a country to aim for a community that grows together; where people are valued not divided; where hatred is not fanned but acceptance tolerance and the celebration of diversity are positive ambitions for our country. Mr Peters has just spoken about South Africa. He said that our country was becoming like South Africa. Actually leadership in South Africa was about Mandela drawing races together. It was about stopping the division of people and it was about ending racism not promoting it. 
Mr Peters spent the previous election campaign dividing people in this country inspiring fear in migrant communities telling some people in New Zealand that they are not welcome and promoting dangerous stereotypes about people and he has continued to do so in this House. Mr English spoke earlier in this debate. He has recently scuttled off to Washington. What did he do while he was there? He talked to his friends there. He talked about how New Zealand has played a role in the Iraqi war that has not been very positive. That is the message he gave. In the last few months this House has been subject to all sorts of comments about how the Government’s foreign policy has compromised a supposed free-trade agreement with the United States. Mr English has not been loyal to this country. He has not promoted the interests of New Zealand. He has attempted to divide this community and divide our country internationally. 
Just a few days ago I returned from the fifty-fifth International Whaling Commission conference in Berlin. I was proud to speak on behalf of New Zealand about conservation. What I was doing was building on a tradition that this country has held on conservation for many many years under a variety of different Governments. In this Chamber there are former National Ministers who went to these conferences before me and we have spoken from the same lines. We have sung the same song and New Zealand has achieved credit for that. We have worked closely with like-minded countries and we have shown leadership in conservation. Members may contrast that with the behaviour of Mr Peters who goes around dividing communities and promoting anxiety and hatred in this country. He is fanning stereotypes about races. Members may contrast the behaviour at the International Whaling Commission conference where people were working towards saving whales with the actions of Mr English who has done nothing but denigrate our country denigrate this Government and divide us from countries that we have worked closely with in the past. That says a lot about leadership. It says a lot about leadership from this Government which seeks to draw communities together. 
Tonight at 6 o’clock I will have the privilege of launching an advertising campaign funded by McCann-Erickson here at Parliament. The campaign seeks to dispel some of the stereotypes that Mr Peters has promoted in this country. The campaign challenges people to think about the fact that New Zealand is now a country of many faces. It is composed of different people of different cultures and different ethnicities. What we say to those people is that every New Zealander is valued in this country and every New Zealander should feel safe. [ 
Interruption 
] We have heard some criticism from Mr Peters. He has called the campaign “Hug a migrant.” Actually if hugging a migrant leads to people feeling more comfortable safer and part of this country then I am happy to do that. The campaign is sending a message that New Zealand is a place where all New Zealanders should feel safe. It is a leadership role that this Government is prepared to undertake. It is a message this Government is prepared to send out. The Government is saying that every Kiwi in this country is valued. We are in fact all of us the descendents of migrants— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: No we are not. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: —some of whom came here a long time ago. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: No we are not. 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: Mr Peters is saying he is not the descendant of a migrant. [ 
Interruption 
] He is Scottish. How did his ancestors get here? They were of course migrants. Some of them came very early during the first Polynesian migration. Some of them came from Scotland much more recently. I like everyone else in this House am the descendant of migrants. Those migrants have contributed to building this wonderful country of ours and to developing the strong economy we have and we value the energy that migrants bring. They also contribute enormously to the development of our economy. Without migration we would not be able to meet the skills shortage that we have in our country we would not be able to build a stronger economy and we would not be able to have linkages with other countries. All those things are very important. But I come back to what I talked about at the beginning of my speech: leadership is about drawing people together.