Peters Winston: Financial Review Debate — Procedure In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Peters Winston: Financial Review Debate — Procedure In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11862] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 It was really quite amusing to listen to the debate in my office and to find that we have two older parties responsible for the debacle on the Treaty of Waitangi and the industry and the mess since 1984 in particular claiming on the one hand to be innocent of it where National is concerned and to be constructive where the Labour Party is concerned. I cannot stand by as a former National Party member having warned them when I was in that caucus until 1992 about exactly the kinds of mistakes they were about and making to have them come along here and paint themselves as pure as the driven snow on this issue. Who gave Doug Graham a knighthood? 
Ron Mark 
: National. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: And why? 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Because he supported them. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: That is right. The Gerry Brownlee thesis that he puts out over the radio and the National Party caucus thesis is: “Oh we have a new leader now. So it all is OK. We can exonerate ourselves from the absolute and total mess that we helped to construct.” I am sorry it does not work that way. In any respectable Western democracy policy is about the record—the voting record the political record—and they will not get away with the kind of display that thus far they have been allowed by the New Zealand media to get away with. Who started Aotearoa Television? 
Ron Mark 
: The National Party. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: The National Party. Who put all the money behind it? The National Party. Who passed the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act so critical to this issue right now in 1993? Why the National Party! Everywhere we look it has its fingerprints and DNA all over it. But where is the great debater? We know that the  
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 show does not start until 7 o’clock. One can still catch a plane and easily make the  
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 show. So where has he been since question time today? The excuse National Party members gave is—I am not saying he is not here. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: No. We have had several points of order on this this afternoon. The member knows well that he cannot refer to the absence of members. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Oh no but I am not saying that. I am asking when we will hear him in this debate. I am not saying he is not here. I am asking when will we hear the great debater this new messiah on these great issues that he speaks to the Rotary clubs about but apparently this old institution that goes back hundreds of years which we are blessed to be members of cannot hear his wisdom? The  
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 show we know is not prepared to force him to debate against me tonight—because I made the offer. I did. I said: “Well if the Prime Minister is too busy I am certainly not. I will be there and will talk to you about his track record.” But the  
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 show said “No”. The  
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 show has been involved in collusion with the National Party twice this year. 
Rt Hon Helen Clark 
: That’s right. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Oh yes. On the issue of the meal at the Kermadec I had a phone call that night from one Brent Fraser researching for the  
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show. But he had made a mistake and he hit the wrong button. He thought he was talking to David Carter and he launched into a tirade about how well they were doing—he and David Carter. The only thing was he made the phone call to the wrong man—me. I listened to all this and I said: “I’m sorry Brent you have rung the wrong man and I am coming for you.” We now know that when Don Brash claimed to have cancelled all of his appointments yesterday so that he could take part in the  
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debate he knew there would be no debate. Still out goes his press statement and the gullible media of this country fall for it. If Don Brash were so keen to debate he would be debating in this Chamber right now. But he wins all his fights by 100 yards. He cannot run fast enough. 
Let me tell members this: one cannot see him for dust and small pebbles. The  
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 show will not save him because there is a thing called leadership in politics and I have never seen a Western leader last any degree of time if he or she cannot front in Parliament at the debates and cannot do the stump as they say in old-fashioned parlance. One cannot be by the media made a silk purse if one is a sow’s ear. They can carry on showing their ignorance but it will not be a successful strategy—and there is no way Richard Long could keep this up. I mean he will have lost whatever hair he has on his head now.