Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 09 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8756. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): It is always wonderful to have applause before you start your speech. This is the Prime Minister’s statement that was put out today and it reads nothing like the pathetic speech that he made as the Prime Minister—very embarrassing in the extreme. In this document he says that the Government is “taking the public with us by clearly outlining our actions and priorities.” Is there any New Zealander including the backbench of the National Party who thinks that that is remotely true? There is not a maramara murmur no confirmation at all because they know it is false demonstrably false.Look he is taking us down the road to low wages against leading economies.Hon Member: What rubbish.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No it is not rubbish. Rubbish is your speciality. These are the facts. He is taking us down the garden path of outlandish claims about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement—all sorts of claims. The Prime Minister said it was going to be worth $5 billion by 2025. Who in trade and foreign affairs is saying that now? Oh no it is $2.7 billion—almost half. By when? Five years later some time never.Of course that does not concern people like Mr Goldsmith because just getting a ministerial car is all he has ever wanted just to be able to call himself somebody. Of course if you have got that sort of character you are really starved of recognition. In fact it is a burning hunger which compels you to do what? To never stand up for the people who voted for you in the first place. That is a condition so bereft in the National Party backbench today. You have got all sorts of members here from the regions from the provinces from zombie towns. There is no infrastructural investment—no no. It is all going to Auckland. Oh sorry. Taranaki got a farm. Taranaki got a road. That is all—it got just that. But what about the economy in Taranaki and around New Zealand or for that matter in Northland going down the pathway towards police numbers going down not up and crime in—Hon Michael Woodhouse: Oh no they’re not.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh yes they are and more important somebody very close to you Minister knows it so do not ask in this House whether I know who that expert is. He is very close to you. He understands the regional police numbers. Minister you do not and never will.Hon Member: Are you talking about me?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well you ask him whom I am talking about. I do not want to get too close to the family here but those are the facts. Here we go down the pathway to no growth after the Christchurch earthquake and massive consumption immigration. I am glad the Greens mentioned that because you know when I and my colleagues used to talk about immigration and its massive costs if it was not focused we used to get accused of being racist or xenophobic. Sometimes it is better late than never but the costs have been huge.Then of course it is down the pathway to separatism that this National Party has taken us. Remember the slogan “Kiwi not iwi”?Hon Hekia Parata: Here we go.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh yes Hekia Parata and all those ones over the back there are all looking down now all with their knees knocking. They went along with that campaign and when they got in what did they do? They threw it in the rubbish bin and pulled out their separatist pathway down which they are now taking us.Look at the Resource Management Act. The Resource Management Act is meant to be an Act that is going to change the economic future of this country. Everybody knows that it is necessary. But what did National promise in 2013 and what is it delivering now? Well go and ask the Māori Party because it wants iwi to own the water.Hon Te Ururoa Flavell: Not all of it.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh here we go. The Minister for Māori Development says “Not all of it.” Well Minister we thought that the water belonged to everybody: European and Māori—whoever is here. Whatever their background be that person Korean Chinese or Indian living here legally the water would belong to all of us. But here we go straight down the pathway to separatism. [Interruption] It is no use shouting out like that because first of all it bespeaks a bad education and a lack of ability with the English language. It is no use screaming out like that. The National Party is down there. It has had a deal with the Māori Party and if you go on to the website you will see all sorts of iwi saying what is going to happen.I want to say this: one party is going to stand in the way of that nonsense and that party is New Zealand First. We have been prepared to deal with any political party if they are talking common sense and we say to the National Party that it is high time it stopped going down this pathway of division and dissension based on race and started to plan.Marama Fox: What does your Treaty negotiator think?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no. Forget about Marama Fox. Marama Fox of course is one of those people who have been here 5 minutes but in that short truncated time she has become—what—an expert on everything. She is an expert on everything. There is no problem be it legal constitutional environmental geological or spiritual—Marama is an expert on everything. Oh I wish that we in Māoridom all had a mother like that because our economic and social demise would have stopped a long long time ago—a long long time ago. It is unbelievable. [Interruption] I know you almost look Māori but you are not.What did John Key promise when he first became the Prime Minister? He said that he would promise to deliver the brighter future. Remember that? It seems so long ago—Ron Mark: To who?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: A very good question: to who?Hon Members: To whom.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: To who or whom and in which country? He surely did not mean his backbench or his Cabinet colleagues or for that matter the Minister of Immigration and whatever other job he cannot do properly. He promised a brighter future. Well what has happened? Debt has increased massively. Debt is something you have to pay off. Every home knows that. Has the economy been growing? No it has not. Apart from Christchurch and massive consumption from immigration it is static. Even New Zealand First and the Greens agree on that because they have come around to seeing the wisdom of our economic analysis.Ron Mark: That’s right. It took a while.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: It took a while. He said he would close the gap with Australia by 2025. There are 9 years to go and he is not saying a word about it. And then of course he talked about police numbers and law and order. He has got a Minister of Police who does not know what is going on. His brother does of course but he does not. He will not listen to his brother. He just goes on thinking he knows everything like so many of the people over there and the rest is history. Sometimes in provincial New Zealand towns like Motueka and Kaitāia over the weekend there is just nobody available at all. There is no one available at all.Then of course he got on to the TPP agreement. If the TPP agreement was so good for New Zealanders and if there had been so much discussion as he claimed with Māori how come 99.9 percent of Māori do not know about it? If there has been so much consultation—[Interruption] Oh did he mean with Marama? Oh no! Marama claims to know nothing about it which would be the first thing and the only thing she knows nothing about. Her colleague and cousin Hekia Parata apparently knows all about it.Hon Hekia Parata: I do.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh she does—just like the school up in Whangaruru. I knew a lot about that. Tell me this. How much was spent up there? No not $1.8 million. It will be about $4.4 million when it is all over. And who owns the farm? Now that this experiment has gone belly up who owns the farm that the Minister gave to those people up there? I can tell you this. Whether it be South Canterbury Finance or that deal up there in Whangaruru now collapsed I can tell you that you have to be a commercially illiterate incompetent to give people a farm and when the arrangement does not stack up—[Interruption] No shouting out. If the Minister is negotiating to get the farm back then she most definitely gave them the farm. She gave them the farm; otherwise what would the negotiations be about? What sort of incompetent Government gives South Canterbury Finance an uncapped guarantee so that it blows out $800 million or gives a group of Māori with no record in education a school and a farm to go with it and when it goes belly up they own the farm?Hon Member: Disgraceful.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: It is just disgraceful. [Interruption] I thought you were making a sign Mr Speaker. I just wanted to make sure it was not true.All over the Western World in the United States and elsewhere experts are saying: “What’s wrong with the TPPA?”. They are in the Republican Party and they are in the Democratic Party. But of course the National Party is so struck with the latent genius that it knows more than everybody in Congress. Government members went out and said last week that we have got a deal. Demonstrably we have not. If anything is changed in Congress which it will be if they go ahead with it—[Interruption] Oh forget about Anne Tolley. What does she know about anything? This is the former Minister of Education who said her qualification was that she had two children. Well on that basis there would be 500000 women in this country who would be capable of doing that job. Back to my point. You have got a Congress that is seriously doubtful of its benefits for them. Then you have got massive Japanese subsidies massive subsidies in Canada and massive subsidies in the EU with whom they want a trade deal shortly. Tell me what is the benefit of that?As the farmers in New Zealand find out just how bad this National Party is there is going to be a voting shift. There already has been in the north. Come along to the Dargaville field days on the 3rd the 4th and the 5th. Come up there National Party members and start flying your flag. Explain to those people what happened to the four huge promises in the by-election. [Interruption] Which flag? Good point.Clayton Mitchell: Which one?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I suggest the white feather—the one the Prime Minister wore to the trade deal.Come up and talk about the 10 bridges that were promised in the by-election. Where is the money for seven of them? What happened to the super-highway from Wellsford down to Warkworth and to Pūhoi which is not even started yet. What happened to this big promise that Steven Joyce and all of his colleagues including the very innocent and naive Mr Bishop made when they turned up? It seems that when it comes to the naivety shower the National Party wants all the water. Mr Joyce went up there and promised that they were going to get 10 bridges and a super-highwayall the way to Wellsford. Any engineering reports so far? Any in the Northland plan announced last week of the 58 things that were given up in Northland which Mr Reti was up there to applaud and acclaim? Which one included the 10 bridges? Which one included the super-fast highway all the way to Wellsford?What about the Government’s taxpayer-subsidised cellphone coverage cell tower coverage also promised by his National colleagues in the Northland by-election? Not a word—not a word. No wonder the Prime Minister got confused. He got confused when he mentioned the man who gave that speech—knowingly the man who is the political Samson without hair—Steven Joyce. He went round and round the country regurgitating rubbish thinking that a whole lot of words would go a long way. But everyone up in Northland is rubbing their chins and saying: “But what did you promise in the by-election?”.Here is the rub. At the meeting Steven Joyce was asked by the member for Northland one fundamental question: “Mr Joyce is there going to be a monetary and fiscal policy change in Wellington to back up your 58 point plan?”. His answer? Have a guess. It was “No.” It is all window dressing. But whatever happened in Northland it is not going to stop there. It will be going to Whangarei as we all know because in Whangarei they do not like being called “zombie town” and the Gisbornes and the Wanganuis and elsewhere around the country.Hon Member: Who called them that?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Who called them that? It was the leading economist whom the National Party keeps on quoting.Hon Member: They don’t.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh yes they do. Fancy their being so out of touch. [Interruption] I know the member for the ACT Party has fallen in love recently. That was his last big item. I always find it really amazing how his politics have changed. This is the party of big money. Usually big money has two things that go with it: a sense of class a bit of reserve a sort of natural reticence. But no just like the member from out that way who used to be the Minister of Justice from the National Party appearing in women’s magazines—no the biggest feature item of his political achievement lately is that he has fallen in love. With the greatest respect—the greatest respect to the ACT Party member—look it happens to everybody if they are lucky. It happens to everybody if they are lucky. It is not a selfie occasion. Frankly get over yourself and start thinking about ordinary New Zealanders because they are who put you here. The fact is that the ACT Party is down to one member of Parliament and it has had more money than any other political party for the time it has been here. I know that he is in serious want of advice: get over himself take the personal stuff out of the media and start on policy passion and people and he might have a chance—a bit late but he might have a chance.Five minutes to go—can I just say this here. What is very clear from the Prime Minister’s speech and so many of the speeches for the National Party is that the Government is out of touch now with ordinary New Zealanders. It is not so strange really when you think about it because the median wage today is enjoyed by not even 70 percent of the New Zealand people. There are a whole lot of people in this country in the tens and their hundreds of thousands old and young who are up against it just to get by. That is a tragedy for a country that used to be a world leader and used to be able to claim like no other country on earth a greater disbursement of wealth and egalitarian equality and performance and social and economic delivery. But now it is dog-eat-dog—everybody for himself—and under the National Party it is: “If we can get enough money to sell our propaganda we will try to fool the people one more time.”Well we have got a message for the ACT Party the National Party and their cohorts the Māori Party over there. They had better enjoy it for a little bit longer because they are not going to make the next election. That is for certain—they are not going to make the next election. That is for certain. In the next few months and if it takes a year or a bit longer there is one party and its name is New Zealand First and we are going to go out there and turn this country’s politics upside down like we did in Northland and like we are going to do in March on the flag when we prove how out of touch this Prime Minister really was—prepared to spend $26 million—Marama Fox: What about Treaty settlements?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh what about Treaty settlements? I will tell you what we will do for the Māori people—I will tell you what we will do for the Māori people. We will stay with housing with health with education and First World wages and we will leave Treaty settlements to the Māori Party and those academics who are having a most rich wealthy affluent life on the backs of their own people’s numbers and have forgotten about their people. Go to Moerewa and ask any Māori up there: “What have you got out of the Treaty?”. Go down to Ngati Porou and ask the average Māori: “What have you got out of the Treaty?”. So here we are in a most un-Māori way seeing Māori members of Parliament screaming out when they hear common sense. It will not save them. Our message as we close with this speech today and as it was in the Northland by-election and as it will be as soon as the flag option choice goes down in March is for the New Zealand people to hang on a little bit longer. Do not give up because help is on its way.