Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15537. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): The Prime Minister wants the House to express its confidence in the National Government. Well we do not. The plan outlined by the Prime Minister for 2014 brought to mind the word “hoover”—not the great water dam in the United States and not the first FBI boss in the United States but the vacuum cleaner. You know why? Because it sucks. John Key has spent too long running around after the movie moguls. He is in his own fantasy land. His speech had the most confused start of any speech that I have ever heard by a party leader in this House—the most confused start that I have ever heard.And then the anxiety when he looked to Gerry for help! His speech should have been an honest and objective statement of the conditions facing the country the challenges ahead and the solutions the Government has to offer which are all the big things that matter to ordinary people. Instead it was pure spin and manipulation and deceit and incorrect statements. New Zealand Prime Ministers of the past would have been embarrassed to have spouted such dribble. I think that a leadership spill in the National Party is not long away. Gerry is smiling because he may be able to get on the right side and perhaps prolong his already far too long career. But I know that it is going on. My inside information tells me that.National is a Government of non-achievers with a woeful record of failure. It always puts the interests of foreign big business ahead of ordinary New Zealanders. It keeps selling valuable State assets in a process that can only be characterised as economic madness. Here are some of the many examples of economic failure. There are 150000 New Zealanders unemployed while immigrant work visas and permanent residencies—David Bennett: Come on—anti-immigration.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —are sold like expensive bus tickets. That member sawCampbell Live last night. He should watch it again tonight. All over the country it is going on and the member from Hamilton East Mr Bennett thinks it is a laughing matter. It is not. It is an abomination to a First World country and to First World laws. There is a housing crisis but the Government refuses to acknowledge that migrant numbers and overseas speculators are creating havoc and are cheating Kiwis out of a decent home. There is not one country in Asia that would tolerate such a policy. The Government could not find one politician in Asia who would support such a policy so why is it doing it to its own people?Nothing has been done to address the massive overseas debt. Here is what is worse—the Prime Minister did not admit it but it is all in the documentation—the massive overseas debt is not coming down; it is going up. That is why he uses 2020 figures and 2021 figures. Look he will be gone a long time before that. In fact there will not be one member there left—possibly we will be for obvious reasons. But there will not be one member there left and those members are using figures that they first started to use in 2008—12 years away from 2020—and now they are still talking about 2020 like theyare going to hold on until then. I do not think so. It is still rising. The exchange rate is crippling exporters and manufacturers and again the Government refuses to act. It is paralysed. Worse still it contemplates an official cash rate rise shortly which will boot up mortgage rates and then what will happen as well is that it will kick up the exchange rate even further.Here it is today: Mr English trying to show that he is in control. He says he is concerned about the high exchange rate and that it was a concern for the economy. Whoop-de-do! We have got a finance Minister—Grant Robertson: The penny’s dropped!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The penny has finally dropped. He has been here for far too long. He has been the finance Minister for far too long. You have got people saying that our currency will possibly reach parity with Australia. It is doing enormous damage to an export-dependent nation and what does he say? “Well so it’s a bit of a concern.” Oh and this is what he also said though. He said this which absolutely belies what the Prime Minister was saying: “I think it’s too high yes and I think the Australian economy is a bit stronger relative to ours.”—relative to ours.Grant Robertson: That’s a concession.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: That is a concession. He says that that indicates that all in the one quote. In the House and out in front of the National Party’s cannon fodder he persuades them by saying one thing but privately he has to admit that things are seriously going wrong with the high currency.Andrew Little: Amazing what a week in Davos does.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yeah well that is what a week in Davos does. Mind you half of that backbench over there do not know where Davos is.Andrew Little: They thought it was on the West Coast!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Those members think it is on the West Coast between Hokitika and Greymouth. Worse still as I say they contemplate the official cash rate going up and up will go the dollar even further. And then they will say: “Well that’s a sign of a healthy economy.” It is unbelievable the kind of economic drivel that they get people like Mr Hayes and Mr Bennett to keep on repeating. I know those two gentlemen and privately they are alarmed. They know in their hearts that that threatens their election prospects. I know Mr Hayes is smart. He is jumping ship now. He is getting out now. He is getting pushed and he is jumping now because he is wise. He does not want to be standing around amidst the mayhem and debris of chaos post election night 2014 whenever National flies the white flag. Mr Hayes is an experienced man. He knows he can smell danger. Mr Bennett should pay attention as Mr Hayes can help you.Let us look specifically at the economy. No effort will be spared by the National Party to pump up the feel-good factor in advance of the 2014 election. “Mr Spray and Walk Away” thinks he can pull it off one more time but I have got bad news for him. He cannot—he cannot. All the storm clouds are assembling now. Within the National Party ranks they look ready now for an alternative leader.Hon Members: Ha ha!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh yes they are. Just because Hekia Parata is not part of the cabal does not mean it is not going on. In fact I think Hekia will be the first tragedy when it takes place. There will be lots of talk of an economy firing on all cylinders the rock-star economy which still cannot match New Caledonia by the way going at 3.5 year after year. National has had stagnated bottlenecked corked-up growth it gets it for a temporary 1-year term and it starts talking about the rock-star economy. What a joke. No effort will be made to dispel or challenge the spin that New Zealand is a rock-star—a superstar—economy. Well look at all the fundamentals. Itain’t true. A responsible Government would have immediately corrected this sort of false and misleading claptrap.Let me sound a warning about this rock-star economy. It is only a suggestion Gerry but do not forget who is making it. Treasury has never won a Grammy award for accuracy of its forecasts. It has never won—Hon Member: Who wrote that Winnie?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well actually Treasury wrote it. Thanks for asking the question. I could not have done better myself for timing. It is here and it says this—this is from November last the 5 months ended 30 November: “The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was in deficit by $2.3 billion which was around $400 million more than expected mainly due to lower core Crown tax revenue.” Who wrote that? Why it is from the Government itself! It is from the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the 5 months ended 30 November 2013. You see an $86 million surplus is cigarette-paper thin and you are getting there because the Government is suspending spending like for example on overseas aid whereas the others spent $92 million last year and like for example suspending certain roading projects. Just hold them back. Those members think: “We will get a surplus any which way we can like we will hold back some Waitangi settlements. We will not pay out to these victims of the Viet Nam War. We just will not do anything like that there and we think we will con our way through it.” I have to tell those members that it has all been tried before and it always fails. Do not let it happen again.As I said only a few days ago Treasury forecast that this so-called deficit was not going to be what it thought it would be. National aided and abetted by its pet intellectuals—and yes its puppets bank economists money traders and corporate cheerleaders—will put a positive spin on every bit of economic news even when it is bad. The facts are staring us in the face. Our manufacturers and exporters will get no help with an overvalued dollar. Bill English said today about the Aussie dollar itself that it is going up by the day. It will keep going up as I said if interest rates are increased. But National could not care less about every manufacturer whether they have closed or moved offshore. In the halcyon days of our great country when National was a good party and knew what it was doing and had practical men of experience we used to rock on at 4.5 percent per year and manufacturing was 33 percent of our economy—the GDP. Now it is 13 percent and falling and the Government has no plan because manufacturing means offshore exports and it means jobs. It does not have a plan. Its plan is hands-off and to let the free market work it out.I know the apologist from Epsom thinks that that is a great policy. He also thinks that pulling down your hoardings when you are campaigning—not on election eve which the law requires. No he pulls them down during the actual campaign itself.Paul Goldsmith: You couldn’t win an electorate.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh really? Let me tell that member that I have won electorates that no one else could win. We won all the Māori seats once. Nobody else would be able to do that. We won all of them.Hon Gerry Brownlee: What happened then?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: What happened was they got duped by their National Party colleagues and failed to show the loyalty and that is why the National Party is now in trouble. It is because the Māori Party that they put—David Bennett: Andrew Williams wants to go.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no. Mr Key made a speech last week if you recall and all of sudden he says: “Oh we will be happy to talk to New Zealand First.” You know it is a bit like that famous quote from Jesse Jackson when he said that itseems like that when Santa Claus is running into heavy weather he decides that now he will call upon Rudolph. It is unbelievable—unbelievable.There is no basis for this National Government to boast about its economic record. Export prices for dairy produce have been at record levels. New Zealand has been the beneficiary of the best terms of trade for 40 years. There is nothing great or glorious about 150000 New Zealanders not being able to get a job. What is so brilliant about creating a speculative housing bubble for foreign speculators in Auckland? Is this part of some brilliant economic plan known only to the inner circle or what they have politely termed the “kitchen cabinet”? Do you see that phrase the “kitchen cabinet”? Well I know some of them have spent too much time in the kitchen but they do not make a good—Denis O’Rourke: Or in the dining room.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Or they are the product of the kitchen but they are not a kitchen cabinet. As I said New Zealand’s external balance sheet is in an awful state. The dollar is going up and over the past 5 years National has failed totally to diversify our economic base. We are now even more vulnerable to what is known as a black swan or an unforeseen event or shock. That is where we sit today and wise people have said it.Hon Dr Nick Smith: What about the film industry?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Nick Smith asks what I will do about it. Well let me tell you. We have an economy based on or characterised by one dominant export product which is milk powder; one dominant export company which is Fonterra; one dominant export market which is China; and one dominant import which is people—immigration. That is not a plan that a party calling itself National which would evince putting its people first should ever be proud of.David Bennett: Anti-migrants—anti-migration.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The stark ugly truth is that New Zealand is nowhere near paying its way in the world Mr Bennett. It is clear that this Government is clueless as to how to address that.Young New Zealanders have been betrayed by this Government. Their hopes of homeownership have been snatched away. Barely any young couple can save at the speed of soaring house price inflation and Mr Bennett you cannot save that fast either. No member over there can save that fast—oh maybe Mr Key can. But of course that is Merrill Lynch. The rest cannot. None of those members can save that fast to match housing inflation. Young New Zealanders struggle under the burden of student debt and their prospects of a decent secure and well-paying job have been trashed by wholesale immigration policies.Immigration is the most thriving and corrupt industry in New Zealand today. It is not a laughing matter. It is all laid out there and you will hear a lot more as these few months unfold in the term to come. Incredibly over 150000 migrant work visas were issued in the year to June 2013—150000. Today the Prime Minister announced more work visas and the whole process he said of issuing visas is going to be sped up. Apply online—get a visa online. Come to New Zealand and take a Kiwi’s job! This is lunacy and it is going to be stopped.David Bennett: Are you going to stop it?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Most certainly it is going to be stopped.Just a point on what the Prime Minister claimed in the House this afternoon. He said that theHobbitmovies created 5500 jobs. That is what he said. They know over there that that statement is bulldust.Hon Gerry Brownlee: No it’s not.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh no? Well this is direct from the Prime Minister’s office—his senior adviser. It says this: “The PM was asking yesterday for the total number of people who will work on bothHobbit movies. The context if he is asked about Labour’s industrial relations policy and how it might impact on the New Zealand film industry is he can say something like ‘About 3000 people will work on theHobbit movies.’ If that policy had been in place then all those people might never have got a job.” So it is 3000 by guess here; now it is 5500. But he is not going to get away with that sort of stuff in this campaign—oh no sirree. We will be waiting there every time he tells a porky—wahoo exposure. He goes on to say this: “Would it be possible to get an estimated number—just to the nearest 500 or 1000 would be fine.” That is straight from the senior adviser of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister gets up in the House and tells people something else. He is misleading the House again.The Government has no idea of who or what is coming into the country. Why should New Zealanders give up their jobs to immigrants? The Government is not loyal to the people of this country. Sure it is a Government for the people. Sure National is a Government for the people—the people of China India anywhere but New Zealand. The winter is going to be tough. Jobs will be hard to get and power bills are going through the roof. As for the statement about increasing competition in the electricity industry—well that was pure garbage. We all know we have got a price-fixing cartel operating here. Domestic consumers pay up to three times more for their power than big companies do and many small businesses and domestic consumers are being ripped off. We all know it. It is an exercise in deception as is the broadband roll-out. A Southern Cross cable conglomerate of Telecom and Chorus is exploiting New Zealand the Government and the taxpayers because the Government is paying them more than twice what it is worth—over $1 billion. Somehow the Government is trying to put across that it is doing consumers a favour when they have actually been ripped off.It is just like the plan for the police. It is all about glib words. Do you know what the Government said today? It said that the Government is going to reduce the rate of crime by 15 percent—the rate of violent crime by 15 percent and the rate of youth crime by 25 percent. What a brazen abuse of figures and statistics. It sounds something like the police files out of North Korea and Pyongyang. It does not sound like a First World country. Has the Government told offenders how much to reduce their offending? Who is negotiating with the criminal community over these statistics? It is an absolute fact that if you do not have sufficient law enforcement resources then you will not have the capacity to fight crime and much crime will go unreported. We know that on that matter New Zealand First is the only party with a great record. Last time we had the power we got 1000 extra frontline police just like that. Now the Government runs around the place talking about the police resources.The Government is even claiming that they brought in free medicine for under-6-year-olds.Hon Members: Oh!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No Mr Key is claiming that boldly out on the public stage. Thank heavens people remember. [Bell rung] Two minutes to go Mr Speaker? One minute to go? Wonderful. That will be enough to finish off this party.What we have heard today if you look at the penultimate page is a statement about taking steps this year to introduce a National match-fixing policy. That is what we heard today—National’s match-fixing policy for the election. If you cannot win the game cheat or fix it. Well we are on red alert and ready to hand out a card. We cannot say it will be a red card. We cannot say it will be a green card. We cannot say it will be a yellow card. But we most definitely can say that it will be a white card. It will be a white and black card as soon as National—as it will—flies the white flag.One last statement: remember what Mr Key said about the SIS raid last year? He said he did not know about it. We will prove in this House that he did.