Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7250] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 There are times both in our country and in other countries when one hears the address or speech of a new leader and it is elevating exciting stunning and charismatic. [ 
Interruption 
] I did not say I was about to deliver one but thanks very much. There are times when a new leader rises on the scene and he is charismatic he is exciting he is elevating and he makes stunning coherent addresses but alas— 
Hon Member 
: What’s the punchline? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: —what we heard today—and this is the punchline—was not one of them. 
Many members in this Parliament were happy to see the end of 2006 but New Zealand First was not one of those parties. After all in 2006 we got a whole lot of things done while some people just talked. Whilst they talked we acted. We did for our supporters what we had promised to do. My challenge to those producing the cacophony of sound to my right is to tell me just what in the last 7 years they have done. I cannot hear them. They do not have to give 10 things or even five things. [ 
Interruption 
] Changing their leader four times and their deputy leader five times is not regarded as a public achievement so I ask them again to name one thing. I cannot hear them. Some parties promise and some deliver. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I know that this is a vigorous debate but some of us are missing the more witty bits of it. Would members please lower the interjections. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Last year was an enormously challenging year but sadly one of the dirtiest politically in New Zealand’s history. 
Pita Paraone 
: That’s for sure! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: That is for sure. If they look in the mirror they will know why. I want to make this very clear: petty politicking sank to a new low in New Zealand and exhibited a divisive ugliness that was most unbecoming of both Parliament and parliamentarians— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Where did you get the emails from? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Where I got the emails from did not matter; it was what was in them and what they said. They screamed of venality deceit hollow men and hollower women. Last year the politics was witless often venal self-ingratiating and unparliamentary in the extreme. But we are back ready to begin 2007 with renewed purpose and a sense of humour. 
After all it is tragic to see what I just saw which was someone discover that New Zealand has some poor people—that New Zealand has an underclass. You know when National first brought out that kind of rubbish circa December 1990 in Ruth Richardson’s mini-Budget all its members were told that but I see those members on the front bench right now. I even remember Bill English saying to me: “But Winston what if it all works?”. Well such a policy could not work and never would work and it will not work if it is tried again. That is what the hollow men disclosed as their venal secret purpose. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You voted for that Budget! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Here we go. You see leaving that party is a badge of honour—ask my friend from Ashburton. I mean one guy who got a cigar and puffed smoke into a woman’s face received a right-hander and is still where he is; the other guy got up in the National caucus and asked a simple question of the leader and he is considered to have done something unforgivable. Why would that be pray tell me? Why would somebody who asked an honest straightforward and as it happens correct question be so badly sadly hounded by his party? 
Ron Mark 
: It made John Key the leader didn’t it. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Well it made John Key the leader but is he saying thank you? Is he restoring the member? Come on! 
Ron Mark 
: What sort of leadership is that? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: What sort of leadership is that? A guy raised the most serious of questions— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: There’s an echo in here. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: The member will find that that echo is legend by the time the next 2 years are out. 
We have much to look forward to. Labour began the year talking about sustainability and I am pleased about that. The National Party found a leader who woke up and discovered that New Zealand has an underclass. Where has he been these last 22 years? Where has he been these last 22 years of the great economic experiment begun by Douglas and finished by Richardson? He talks about turning the economy round merely by implementing tax cuts. How shallow is that? Which economist in the world believes that that will fix the economy? Which New Zealand economist for a start believes that that is the prescription for New Zealand’s economic solution? New Zealand First believes in climate change—economic climate change and social climate change. That is what we are asking this Parliament in 2007 to begin for the first time in a long time to deliver. 
John Key’s biggest challenge is to restore some backbone to National and to leave the hollow men and women to fade away into history where they belong. 
Hon Annette King 
: He was one of them. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Well I am going to give the guy a fair go. I always believe when new leaders turn up that no matter what their limitations they should be given a chance. They might just grow into the job. That is the approach of New Zealand First. We have always been that way—generous to a fault. But what worries me is that surrounding John Key are all the same old faces in the same old places bringing the same old tried and failed policies with the same financial backers. I read over Christmas in  
The Hollow Men 
 more information than I had had in my emails and I was truly astonished. In fact I had a very restless Christmas because of it. [ 
Interruption 
] It is true. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You said you destroyed all your emails! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: I did not destroy  
The Hollow Men 
 because it was more expansive than the emails I had had. Mind you since then I have got new ones. Do members know what they tell me? They tell me that sadly in a political environment where a strong Opposition is necessary—which New Zealand First has tried to deliver year after year and successfully—and where so many members are meant to provide that strong Opposition National members are deeply riven and divided. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Oh no. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Oh yes they are! Echoing sadly and reverberating out of those emails are the kinds of personal squabbles that we thought the National members might with a new leader have moved past. But no they have not. Let us take Mr Lockwood Smith. What do these emails say about Lockwood Smith and his political machinations? He is not saying too much now is he—not a mutter not a murmur not a syllable not a sound. He is not saying too much now. Murray McCully—where is he and others? National probably has three teams now. It is not fair on the New Zealand public because the New Zealand public need a strong coherent Opposition. How can they possibly have that when Mr Key is surrounded by the same old names like Ryall Smith Williamson and McCully? They are neo-liberals of the past who after 22 years of economic failure— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I resemble that remark! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: He resents it because he does not understand what it means. He resents it because he does not understand what the word “neo-liberal” means. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I said I resemble it! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: I know he resembles it but he should not resent it. The plain fact is that when National has the same financial backers and the same puppeteers it is very likely unless it has an awfully strong dynamic leader that that is what the policy being secretly put together will finally reflect if National ever gets into power. New Zealand deserves better than that. 
We can see after 22 years that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act is a failure. Right now we have some of the highest commodity prices of all time yet that high dollar which is being artificially propped up by the Governor of the Reserve Bank using inappropriate terms for a New Zealand economy is seeing our exporters in many cases going to the wall. After 22 years we might understand that. 
 For example why are we facing the Governor of the Reserve Bank putting up interest rates again in April to enhance the purses and the treasuries of foreign Governments and foreign investors? Why has that party over there not learnt for example that we need a much stronger savings strategy? Why is our economy awash with Australian money? Why have that country’s savings been doubled from something like $350 billion to $715 billion in recent years while ours have actually fallen away—while New Zealand’s savings have dropped? The Leader of the Opposition talks about a bright future in the way that he does but with that prescription there cannot be anything other than what we have now which is not good enough. 
New Zealand could be doing far better. If we want to rise up to the level of successful OECD countries then some fundamental things to do with macroeconomics are fundamental to New Zealand’s possible survival. If we do not act on the Reserve Bank dollar then this export-dependent economy will not succeed. If we do nothing about our savings then we face the destiny of perpetually filling the coffers of other investing countries and other investment houses. 
I support Kiwibank. I support and my party New Zealand First supports the savings initiatives that Dr Cullen has taken. But we have to go much much further if we are to have any hope of having in the future the kind of economic recovery that even after these wasted wilted years we still could have. That is what my party stands for and that is what we will hammer in 2007—to get the economic and social climate change that New Zealand needs and to get the fundamentals out there. 
We know in looking at the crime on our streets and at the failure of our penal policy that the failure really starts in this Parliament. We have to be more firm more certain and more unforgiving of recidivist crime. At the same time we have to have a heart and to understand that entry-level crime is where we as a country should focus our efforts—that we should put more effort and money into that area. But to run around saying we will lock criminals up and throw away the key is the kind of populist policy that we in New Zealand First have never found attractive and never will. We want some real policies in 2007 for this country. 
I have talked about savings and I have talked about the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act needing to change. That blunt crude instrument whereby interest rates are put up just to dampen down house prices affecting the whole country will be catastrophically bad. And it will not happen that the Governor of the Reserve Bank does otherwise unless we take a lead from here. Why do we not just increase savings before April 2007? The governor will then have no reason to whack interest rates up. New Zealanders will not be hurt in any way at all if that happens. 
But we have to make some fundamental and simple changes that many of us have advocated for decades now. We saw the flight to Erebus when Douglas turned up we saw all the warning signs in October 1987 and here we are 20 years later and this Parliament has to rise understand what it is rising for understand what went wrong and admit that maybe the economics of some people in this House were screwed and stewed and that they will never help New Zealand. 
Those economics of course have never worked in any nation at any time in history. Why did we dream that they would work in this country? At least the Labour Party came to understand that. What is sad about  
The Hollow Men  
and all the emails and machinations is that the National Party still believes in it. That is why National lost: a number of New Zealanders had enough suspicion to believe that National would carry on doing the same old things if it were in power. After all I found out—mind you I always suspected it—that Ruth Richardson was right there in the middle of it. That hopelessly failed mad economic scientist temporarily like a dwarf of international statesmanship got a job in this country as the Minister of Finance. Even Bolger fired her yet National got her back. 
Hon David Carter 
: He fired you too. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No he did not fire me; he got me back. To get his job he got me back. Mind you that might be the last time that happens because I can tell members now that there is no sin like ingratitude. 
I was talking about Australia’s savings. Since 1999 Australia’s savings have gone from $300 billion to $736 billion. Our savings have gone from $19.8 billion down to $19.3 billion. So savings a change in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act and a real application of law and order policy are fundamental. 
I was hoping to talk briefly about my foreign affairs portfolio but I do not have the time to do so. I will say just one thing. We face problems in the Pacific that are worse than ever before. There are a whole lot of reasons for those problems but the slide in the average age of people in Melanesia in particular means that the problems we confront are bigger larger more complex and more serious than ever. So New Zealand First exhorts the Government to ensure that we put the effort the support the personnel the bureaucracy and above all the raised expenditure into trying to turn our neighbourhood round. After all charity begins at home and the Pacific is our home the home of New Zealand. 
I close this speech by saying that New Zealand First is looking forward to working with the Government in 2007 on the same constructive basis that we did in 2006. We do not give a darn about what the media say about certain things in respect of this party’s operations; it is a tight and cohesive operation. I issue the National Party with a closing challenge. If there was one thing that emerged from  
The Hollow Men 
 it was that National was still the same party of Richardson Birch and Brash—and possibly because of the numbers it still is. The National Party has a leader who can finance the organisation himself so perhaps he should get rid of his financial backers who write and buy policy—something that I personally experienced and saw when I was a member of the National Party front bench. Let us hope he does so but if he does not then Victor Hugo’s classic tale of the underclass of another generation  
Les Misérables 
 will apply equally to the National Party as it endures another 3 cold sad long years in Opposition.