Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1067] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 That sounded terribly like a valedictory speech of a failed Leader of the Opposition—or a very lengthy attempt to put Mogadon out of business. I have to say that when he talked about National’s programme for the next 12 months of exposing arrogance corruption and incompetence I thought he was going to spend 24/7 looking into the mirror. One has to be a very arrogant person indeed to think that that sort of speech time after time in its sheer ineptitude could ever qualify a man or a woman to be a Prime Minister. One would have to be arrogant to think that that is what it would take for one thing is very sure: after today Don has to go. It is one thing to fumble one’s way through a speech before a staged captive audience like that of a Rotary meeting; it is quite something else to turn up here front up and perform. Again as we always knew he would he failed. 
Now according to the Chinese calendar I am reliably informed that this is the Year of the Dog but for the National Party in 2006 and for its leader this will be the year of the lame duck. We can already see it. The only people smiling genuinely during that speech were John Key and Bill English. All the rest made a feigned attempt to stir up their morale so that they can survive the bitter dreary months ahead as they contemplate 9 long years out of power without being able to demonstrate one thing in 9 years they have ever done for anybody. I have to tell people that that is sad. It is awfully sad when people’s hopes dreams and ambitions of the romance and glamour of politics is to help people. 
Rodney Hide 
: He’d know how. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Oh Rodney Hide! I tell members there is a very good cartoon today in the  
Dominion Post  
on page A6. It is  
The Wizard of Id 
 and a medieval maiden is sharing her experience with an older lady. She says: “My Rodney doesn’t know the meaning of the word defeat.” The older lady asks: “You mean he never gives up?”. The younger one replies: “No he’s just not too bright.” How did the newspaper know? How did it get the timing so accurate as of today? 
Don Brash should ask Bill English what it is like because in the National Party when the rumours start they never stop. Its members are all up against the grindstone sharpening their knives in three diverse little teams all hoping that sometime in the long-distant future they might finally get back into Cabinet. I know the feeling; I was there once in the National Party. Of course I never had the ego or the arrogance. The rumours never go away and with performances like that people can see why. 
The amazing thing about this is that the doyens of the media have the contest now down to Bill English and John Key so no wonder Gerry Brownlee is not smiling. He is the deputy leader and now he has become the leak. He is the one who told the  
New Zealand Herald  
that story. Now I have to be fair to him. It is in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 so 
I will give him a chance to deny that. But he does not. He is the one who started the leak. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I take this as a yield from the member and therefore pick up the remaining time he has to speak in the House this afternoon. I am quite happy to do that and accordingly I seek leave of the House to replace the time that Winston Peters is entitled to in order to regale the House with a particular incident that various media appear to be somewhat fixated on just of recent times. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The member seeks leave. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Gerry does not realise that they are not going to replace the “Don and Gerry Show” with the “Gerry and John Show”. He is actually on the way out. The reason why he is on the way out has nothing to do with his competence—or incompetence—because that is not a distinguishable factor in the National Party. The plain fact is that he went to the  
New Zealand Herald  
to nail John Key and John Key quickly demonstrated his naivety by ending up getting nailed himself. How does one do that? And that is a very very obvious reason why the National Party is in trouble. 
I say to Don Brash that there is some good news because New Zealand First is a caring party and we have just the solution for his failing dilemma. We cannot sort out his leadership problem but we can offer him a palliative option for his leadership woes: it is called retirement with dignity. We have this golden age card ready for Don. [ 
Interruption 
] It is in his name. We are working on it. He will soon be able to retire because he already qualifies for this card. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: So do you. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Oh no I do not. Did members hear that? Of all the people Nick Smith said that I do. Who looks like he qualifies? He should have a good hard look. I know he is only about 32 but he does not look it. And of course he was a former deputy leader of the National Party for about—was it 2 weeks; 2 days? It was amazing really. People should not forget that the great leader of the National Party said at the time that he had 100 percent confidence in Nick Smith. Two days later he had total confidence in whom? Gerry Brownlee! 
Just to give Dr Brash the details by 1 April the seniors card which begins then in terms of its provisions will entitle superannuitants to 66 percent of the net average wage—not the lousy 60 percent the National Party gave elderly people when it was last in power. It is to be 66 percent not 60 percent. 
Hon Member 
: Not true. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: It is true—1 October 1998. That is precisely what a past leader of the National Party did. The second thing is it has an aged-care package so if Dr Brash should get ill he will be looked after. And if in his retirement he is worried about the streets and the security of his family and his relations we are to have 1000 extra policemen and policewomen. That is what it means to campaign to tell one’s supporters that one means business and will deliver and to then set out to deliver. It is not just cheap talk. [ 
Interruption 
] 
I say to Mr Key that it is one thing to go out and backstab a former MP for his area and claim he was going to live in west Auckland—he never has—but he is parked up in Parnell in one of seven homes. I say to my friend John Key that if he lasts as long as I have in politics then he might have something to say for himself. In the meantime he should watch and learn. 
As we predicted the leader of the National Party went up to Orewa this year and can people guess what he talked about? Can they guess what this party which called New Zealand First’s leader and its MPs racists actually talked about? He talked about New Zealand values and immigration matters. I wondered at the time what the press gallery would make of this. Well apparently it was OK. It was a total plagiarism and a total purloining of New Zealand First policy just like the one law for everybody—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh yes I know it is true. We can just ask Maurice Williamson. He told the National Party that if it did not steal New Zealand First’s three key policies it was a goner. Is that not true? 
Hon Member 
: No. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Oh yes he did. I got the emails. He said to the National Party: “Look you went out and made all these promises to the Maori people and look what it got you compared with New Zealand First.” True or false? It is very true. 
It is said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery but National members could actually tell people that it is not their policy. They could own up to the fact that the policy belongs to some other party. More important they could say that they know nothing about the policy and that is why they cannot explain it. 
I say to my colleagues that it is most amazing when one comes back to Parliament for the first year after an election. One frequently sees political colleagues geeing themselves up but in their heart of hearts they know they cannot do it. They cannot make it. People should have a good hard look at their front bench. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Look at yours. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: One of my colleagues over here is good enough to match those five over there. That is a fact. 
Whilst we talk about getting company tax down having a year for the exporters in 2007 and getting wages up—whilst we talk about real issues—what do the National Party and ACT do? They constantly bad-mouth our country. It reminds me of that famous line from  
The Mikado 
: 
The idiot who praises with enthusiastic tone 
All centuries but this and every country but his own. 
That is Rodney and Don. They are always out there bad-mouthing their country. They have no solutions no answers and no programmes; just the hope that things might turn so bad that someone in their foolishness and despair might elect them to office. They talk about unaffordable tax scales and cutting social expenditure all of which they sought to keep secret at the last election where the emails said: “For goodness’ sake don’t set out the detail. Whatever you do don’t tell the public what the detail is because if they know you’ll be unelectable.” True or false? [ 
Interruption 
] Oh no no no! I am a farming boy and I know one thing that one does not do: one does not load the barn with hay and feed it to the cattle all in one day. It has to be given out slowly so it can be digested and understood. 
 I will give members an example relating to Don Brash and the National Party. I saw them at the Karaka saleyards this year. In 20 years National Party members have done nothing for racing whatsoever. But there they were totally supportive all of a sudden of the racing industry. 
Dr Don Brash 
: That’s right. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Don Brash says that that is right. I tell members to look at the 2002 website for the National Party regarding its racing policy. They will not find one. National just walked along and stole New Zealand First’s policy. National members are out there now along with some seriously changed people in the industry trying to somehow have some of the gloss wash off on themselves. 
Once again I say to Dr Brash that that train left the station a long time ago. Within a year the racing industry’s tax policy will be fixed up. As to fair taxation breeding incentivisation and GST to ensure that those horses stay in this country and that we maximise their wealth the train left the station—as it did for immigration and the Treaty of Waitangi—a long time ago. 
Hon Annette King 
: They don’t know about GST. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No they do not know about GST. The member is right about that. 
I will close on one point which is that the job of foreign affairs in this country is to expand and improve our relations. [ 
Interruption 
] Members should ask themselves the simple question of who foreigners would rather see: Winston Peters or Rodney Hide? Who would the Asians want to see: Winston Peters or Rodney Hide—or for that matter Winston Peters or Don Brash? Which member looks like he comes from New Zealand? It stands to reason. 
I tell my colleagues in the National Party and the ACT party that they can bad-mouth their country as long as they like but that that is not the way it is going down overseas. Overseas people are enthralled that New Zealand has a new understanding of its obligations in Polynesia and the Pacific and that we truly do have a similar view on so many issues in Asia when it comes to policy. Not one Asian leader has said anything to me about immigration policy. The reason is that they all have identical policies to New Zealand First’s. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes they have. They asked: “But haven’t you got an Opposition leader whose wife comes from Singapore?” and I said: “I can beat that. Five thousand years ago we came from China.” The DNA is irrefutable. What is important in foreign policy is that one’s country has some integrity and that it decides issues on matters of principle. 
There was a row in the National Party recently between the leader and its foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully. Murray McCully said again that we should determine our beliefs with respect to Islam and those cartoons on the question of trade—no principles just money. Just like with the nuclear issue they think we should forget about principles; it is just about money. 
Of course Murray McCully then did another somersault and the National Party has dropped its nuclear policy again. That is four policies in 4 years. Tahi rua toru wha—far far too many changes from a party that seeks to be in Government. I say to Don Brash that if he wants to take this special golden age card I will have the forms later on this evening and can give him some advice as to how it works. The Opposition can try to change its stripes but when it changes what it stands for it loses everything and that is a fact. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh no the member does not. 
I remind the National Party that this is what we said. We told our supporters that no matter what the other parties promised them one party would decide the 2005 election—and we did. Is that not a fact? In the end it came down to one party. The second thing we said was that we would deliver a host of our promises—and we have and we will. We were asked by the National Party to get off the fence and to not abstain. The National Party knows exactly what it asked us to do because that is what the Government asked us to do. True or false? So when will some journalists get their heads around a few plain facts? 
Having been asked to get off the fence and not abstain we have signed a confidence and supply agreement. We will ensure that this Government lasts for the next 3 years because the alternative would be so much worse. As my namesake said: “Never give in—never never never never in nothing great or small large or petty never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Those are wise words. I tell National Party members not to get excited by Tauranga too soon. [ 
Interruption 
] They are excited. They have had one miniscule victory in an ocean of despair and it will not be enough to carry them through the next 3 years. 
I tell my colleagues that we have a lot of hard work to do over the next 3 years. We have to keep a Government honest as we promised we would do. We have to ensure that there is no extremism in New Zealand and we will ensure that that does not happen. But above all we will set in place the policies that matter so much to the ordinary New Zealander and to those hundreds of thousands who are waiting to line up with New Zealand First in 2008.