Peters Winston: General Debate 
Peters Winston: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:21847] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 The moment the Labour Government announced its Budget in 2005 it was in trouble. And the moment the National Party announces its tax cuts it will be in trouble. Around this country the halls are filling up wall to wall and outside the doors. That tells me that a third horse is in this race and that this election will be a three-horse race. All the bumf and talk from all the commentators and feel-good people can carry on but I was at Te Awamutu the other day where it was wall to wall. I thought to myself: “I’ve felt this feeling before. This is déjà vu only it is déjà vu where New Zealanders understand just how hopeless the Labour Party and the National Party—the tired old parties—are. 
Did members hear the argument today? It was just Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber arguing about the same old things. The fact is after 21 years of this economic experiment under both Labour and National Governments we are at No. 40 in the latest per capita per income figures from the World Bank. We are not at No. 4; we are at No. 40. I asked people out there whether when they voted for Labour in 1999 they really thought they would get a change. No one put up his or her hand. I asked them whether if they were to vote for National in 2005 they really thought they would get a change. This is in Te Awamutu which used to be sort of heartland National. 
Last night I was at the Te Awamutu Rotary Club and at a professional women’s meeting—a big meeting I might add—where I asked the question: “If you vote for Brash and National do you really think you’re going to get a change?”. And do members know what? One old woman said she thought there might be a change. That was one person in a packed meeting. That tells me— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Was that Don Brash? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: It was actually Don’s sister. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Use the member’s full name. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Excuse me but there are no parameters to this debate. It is a free-for-all. I want the public freely to get to know— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member is a longstanding member. He knows he must refer to a person by his or her full name not by a nickname. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: All right it was Don Brash’s sister. The reality is that more and more New Zealanders in growing numbers realise that there is no hope for the old parties or their Klingons or their poodle parties or their doormat parties. All the hope in 2005 lies with the party of principle that has never sold people down the drain that says what it means and means what it says a party that has soul a party that has heart and compassion. I will give an example. A man tried to kill—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Here is Mr Williamson who believes in tolling. In 2002 National was fully for tolling. Now we have Don Brash running around the country saying: “No tolls.” A candidate for National in Hamilton is saying that a National Government would fix the road between Auckland and Hamilton. Why does that silly turkey not go for a drive up there? It is being fixed. Machinery is everywhere and here is Don Brash saying: “No tolls in New Zealand!” 
He is the biggest political hitchhiker and plagiarist I have seen. He stole our Waitangi policy and he could not explain it. Every journalist knows that. He could not answer the first question or the second or the third or the fourth or the fifth. He could not answer one of them. Then he looked at our policy on infrastructure and roading and said: “That’s pretty good. I’ll steal that.” And here we have Maurice Williamson who went down to Queenstown and told people there they were going to have six private companies and toll roads. That is what he said. Now Don Brash is saying: “We are for all taxes for roads going into roading.” Yeah right! People should go and look at National’s 2002 racing policy. It had none. We did. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: We did. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No National did not. That is why I say to Mr Tisch he was moved to say at the racing conference that National had been working on it for a long time. Yes exactly 24 hours! National had a meeting out at Trentham. Guess how many people turned up? Five people plus Lindsay Tisch and Don Brash! They got the docile  
Dominion Post  
to publish a photo of them after the meeting with a horse. And their racing policy? The problem is that one could not tell which one was a horse.