Peters Winston: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: General Debate[Sitting date: 01 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2802. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): It is a privilege to be back as the member of Parliament for Northland. Five weeks ago the PM said that we would not stand. Then when we did he said that we had zero chance of winning. And then some of my media friends said that it was a joke and a stunt—some have had the good grace of course to recant since then.So let us start with an olive branch to Mr Key and the Government. If their Resource Management Act reforms are in the interests of New Zealand’s growth and environment and the hard-working people who make up our brilliant primary industries and the forgotten regions then we in New Zealand First will give them serious consideration.The problem is that they have never—not once—had the decency to call us despite their Michelle Boag’s deplorable attempt on Q+A to say otherwise. So we warn them that if these reforms stoke the Auckland property bubble that is keeping interest rates high and with it the New Zealand dollar—a dollar that is crucifying our productive sector being close to parity with the Aussie at record highs against the euro at 8-year highs against the yen and stuck in the high 70c range against the greenback—then Messrs Key Smith et al. We will not and we cannot help you.Last Saturday Northlanders went up to this Government’s flagstaff and chopped it down. In doing so they sent a message on behalf of Southland the West Coast Marlborough Whanganui Manawatū Wairarapa Hawke’s Bay Gisborne the Bay of Plenty the Waikato and elsewhere. That message is this: “It’s the economy stupid.” It is not a two-tiered economy. It is not all about Auckland. New Zealand excels when our regions excel but if they are treated like second-class citizens despite generating this country’s wealth they are going to rebel.Look at Northland’s neglect: the lowest median income in New Zealand; over 778 one-lane bridges; 1100 kilometres of unsealed roads in Kaipara with 70 percent of the roads in the far north unsealed and with the people who complain being threatened by bully-boy National MPs; a rail line that is so bad that it takes almost 5 hours to shift goods south to Auckland; and a place where you can forget 4G because a simple cellphone call is itself a trial.While billions of dollars are being poured into the commuter rail in Auckland and Wellington this Government cannot spare $6 million to fix the Napier to Gisborne line or to join the north line with Marsden Point. What that says about the regions in this Government’s priorities is not lost on them. Although we know about Northland’s bridges the West Coast has over 49 of them on State highways and yes we will ask the district councils how many are classed as local roads—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Don’t be silly Winston.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Do not shout here like Maggie Barry did at our meeting in Dargaville in the Methodist church. She came up. She was shouting. She had to be stopped by the chairman and all the crowds. There she was like all of the National Party and I said to her: “Look Maggie we can paste you any day in the House. Don’t come up here where we are loved and expect to be getting a decent audience.” She got told off by everybody including the chairperson and she was driving there in a ministerial car—all a waste of taxpayers’ money.All these other Ministers and backbenchers were making phone calls and putting up hoardings and when I saw them putting up hoardings I thought to myself: “You guys are finished.”—you guys are finished. When I see hard-working men like Alfred Ngaro and I see Mr Mark Mitchell from next door putting up hoardings I know that the National Party has collapsed up north.Look we asked the good people there to send a message and boy they did. And now we have got the National Party in so many days—just 4 days—later it cannot remember it.Hon Gerry Brownlee: What’s the message Clem?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The message Gerry is that it is over time for you. The message Mr Brownlee is that they have had enough of your neglect. They have had enough of your arrogance. They have had enough of being forgotten. They have had enough of being marginalised Cinderella-ised and forgotten and those hundreds of thousands of people who have created our wealth not just in Northland but around this country are going to make sure they get a fair go in New Zealand’s political and economic future. They cannot wait for the next election and—you know something—nor can I.Mr Key was asked all those questions yesterday and today and it may as well have been—as they say in the information technology industry—vapourware. Our message to rural and provincial New Zealand is this: help is on its way. Help is on its way. I know that the National Party has tens of thousands of members maybe hundreds of thousands of members who are now also very pleased to see that we are back.