Turei Metiria: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Turei Metiria: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13541] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 I will not try to rebut all of the misrepresentations made by National Party members. It would take all day and it is not really necessary because what we are really hearing from them all is the sad pain of their realisation that they are losing millions and millions of dollars of secret money dribbling out of their back pockets. It is an understandable pain. I accept that they need to express it. I do not really need to address it much more than that. 
I want to remind the people in this Chamber and also those outside this Chamber about the way that some of the secret money was used. I refer to the billboard campaign prior to the last election. One of the ways that some of the secret money was used—and we are trying to ban secret money through the protected donations disclosure regime—and also one of the areas of parliamentary spending by the National Party was on the billboard campaign that occurred during the period from about March to the election in 2005. National spent $600000 on billboard sites within just the 3 months of the regulated period. But in fact its billboard campaign began much earlier in the year than that. I refer particularly to the “Iwi/Kiwi” billboard campaign that began late in April. This campaign was built on the Orewa speech which was designed to feed prejudices and fears by casting Maori as corrupt and reinventing beliefs for pecuniary gain. That is what Don Brash said—that Maori were cast as corrupt and reinventing beliefs for pecuniary gain. He vowed to put an end to Maori special privilege and used Maori specifically to generate fear anger and resentment in order to boost his poll rating. 
National did not believe any of those things but thought the campaign might be a good way of getting votes. It turned out that it was. In order to build on the momentum from Orewa National did the “Iwi/Kiwi” billboard. We know that Bryan Sinclair who was working with the National Party was talking with members of Parliament particularly Maurice Williamson about issues around the “Iwi/Kiwi” billboard campaign. He said that National needed to “slosh those funds around” that National had to “spend to win votes” and that the billboard campaign was a “credible area in which to open the cheque book”. This is what he said to Maurice Williamson. 
National used 90 billboard sites around the country to run the “Iwi/Kiwi” campaign and it was arguably the most successful billboard campaign. I hope that the Maori Party and others out there are reminded about the issues around the “Iwi/Kiwi” campaign. It was arguably the most successful of that billboard campaign because it was deeply dishonest. It was calculated emotional manipulation. Those “Iwi/Kiwi” billboards were established to meet the need to portray simple messages that had emotional resonance with National Party voters. It encouraged non-Maori to feel separate to feel threatened by Maori and to feel that Maori wanted to take away their beaches and threaten the Kiwi culture around the oceans even though that was never the risk. The “Iwi/Kiwi” billboard was designed to drive a wedge between Maori and Pakeha specifically so that the National Party could gain votes. 
There were other similar billboards. Members might remember the one about Government spending that said: “Hip hop tours welfare bribes prisoner compo singalong courses taniwha”. That one worked in particular because many of those little aspects—taniwha the prisoner compo and singalong courses—were specifically about Maori issues or Maori people that were in the media at the time. So this was a way of saying that the Government was spending all that money on “those Maoris” and not on the ordinary people of New Zealand thereby again driving a wedge between Pakeha and Maori. 
This was the way that the National Party was spending that secret money—the millions of dollars of secret money that it was getting. This was the way it was spending its parliamentary money as well—on those kinds of billboard campaigns. This is the kind of divisive false dishonest manipulative politics that this country does not deserve. This country does not deserve to have that kind of politics. Neither does it deserve—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Christopher Finlayson 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Does Chris not like that? 
Christopher Finlayson 
: It is not a question of whether I like it; it is a question of whether it is relevant. We are dealing with a part by part analysis and a clause by clause analysis. This is a general speech. This is exactly the point— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The member will be seated. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Can I finish? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: No I am going to rule on the point of order. Mr Finlayson I certainly say to you that that is a debating point. I think every speech has had that sort of debate in it. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Of course I am talking about the reason why it is so important to have a control on the secret money that flows to political parties because if we do not know where that money is coming from parties can use it for such nefarious purposes.