Brown Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Brown Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14317] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Last week this House was treated—and that is the appropriate word—to a very fine speech indeed. From a New Zealand First point of view it was tinged dare I say it with some sadness. The speech I refer to of course is the valedictory speech of my colleague and New Zealand First MP the Hon Brian Donnelly. We will miss Brian. He was a good colleague a hard-working MP and a man who not only played a significant part in the workings of Parliament but played a very prominent part in the workings of the New Zealand First Party. 
Hone Harawira 
: And a good Northland man. 
PETER BROWN 
: And a good Whangarei man a Northland man. 
But today we have his replacement. He is another old friend making his third venture—is it—into the House his third appearance in the House. He is a man of good humour who is very competent and very experienced and he will be an asset to New Zealand First. On behalf of my colleagues I formally welcome Dail Jones to this Parliament and to the New Zealand First parliamentary team. 
One of the things that the Prime Minister stated in the opening part of her speech was a series of facts that pleased New Zealand First no end. She spoke about unemployment levels. She told us—and I believe these facts to be absolutely true—there are 377000 more jobs in the economy than there were a relatively short time ago and that the unemployment rate hit a new low of 3.4 percent in the December quarter which is the lowest level since the household labour force survey began 20 years ago. Those are achievements. She went on to say that the labour force participation rate is the highest ever recorded in the survey and that the total numbers of those of working age on benefits are down by almost 140000 on the numbers that the Labour Government inherited in 1999 when it came to power. I have not heard one National MP give any credence to those facts or those figures yet they are huge huge achievements. 
From the point of view of New Zealand First when we put this party together when it was formed one of our priorities was to address the unemployment level in this country. It was a major concern for a number of reasons. First we believe that people working play a much more positive role in the community feel part of the whole scene and lead much more productive lives. I think that unemployment was our first planning priority if I recall correctly. My colleague Doug Woolerton is nodding so he agrees with that. That the unemployment rate has gone down carries a lot of weight with us. We compliment the Labour Government on that achievement because it is no mean feat. 
Of course when unemployment goes down further pressure is put on immigration on the people who come to this country. The Immigration Bill is going through Parliament and is before a select committee at this very moment. New Zealand First makes no apology for taking a tough line on immigration. We believe that the people who come to this country must be law-abiding be of good character have good health have a job speak English and be prepared to integrate into this society. This is a country with values worth protecting and this is a country that gives everybody a fair go. We will welcome people here but they have to fit in. 
When we get immigration wrong—certainly in terms of numbers—it has an adverse effect on our social infrastructure and it has an adverse effect on our physical infrastructure. We just heard Sandra Goudie telling us what is wrong in terms of some of the physical infrastructure and indeed some of the social infrastructure. It is important that we control the numbers of people who are coming here. It is equally important—perhaps even more important in many ways—that we control the types of people who are coming here. I recently asked a written question— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: Tell us who let the poms in Pete. 
PETER BROWN 
: I will disregard that remark I say to Dover. My question was about the criminals who come here. I will read the answer that I received back. This document that came back from the Department of Corrections was headed “Breakdown by most serious offence resulting in incarceration for prisoners currently held in custody who identified their citizenship as non-New Zealand at the time of reception” and there was 558 of them. That is not very good I might add. When I got this answer I thought “Well what’s the worst offence?”. Ninety-seven of these people either raped a female aged 12 to 16 years raped a female over 16 years or raped a female under 12 years. Ninety-seven of the non - New Zealand people are guilty of that. Then I went through all the sexual crimes. There are crimes here of murder burglary and goodness knows what. Of the 558 crimes 190 are sexual crimes. 
Do we need these people here? Did we need them here in the first place? Do we need them here now? The answer must be a resounding no. I hope that when these people come out of prison they are put on the first plane out of New Zealand. I hope there is nobody in here who will defend them. New Zealand First will not. We will book their tickets out of New Zealand if we are given the opportunity. This is a shocking indictment on our immigration policy—letting in these sorts of numbers of people who commit these sorts of offences. 
An area of concern that the Prime Minister did not refer to but that has been raised in this House and it certainly has been raised by New Zealand First with the Minister of Transport the Minister for Transport Safety and the Associate Minister of Transport is society’s concern about people who drink and drive on a regular basis. New Zealand First has put up a series of ideas to those Ministers and to the Minister for Transport Safety in particular and we are hopeful of seeing those ideas adopted. As yet they have not been incorporated in the bills that have been put before the House but people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a serious issue. 
The Government is going to tackle the drugs issue and we compliment it on that move. But we not only want the alcohol and drugs problem to be addressed; we also want to address the attitude that some drivers have that they can continually get in a car drive while under the influence get caught get slapped with a wet bus ticket and drive again. The guys who have been disqualified care nothing about the disqualification. They continue to get in a car and drive. That is a major concern for society in general and it is an issue that New Zealand First will be promoting very very hard. 
One other area of concern that was not mentioned by the Prime Minister and that is close to my heart—and I was expecting there to be something on it in the statement—is what we are going to do about the shipping industry. That issue has been raised time and time again by me and by New Zealand First over the last 10 to 12 years. We have come close; the Minister of Transport issued a booklet on it. But there was nothing on it in the Prime Minister’s statement. I say that this is an island nation and we have to come to grips with the fact that we need a shipping service—we definitely need a coastal shipping service. I have to say that it is a personal disappointment that this matter has not been proceeded with with a little bit more haste. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Sunk without trace. 
PETER BROWN 
: No it will not be sunk without trace because we are going to keep it afloat but it is getting that way. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.