Peters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1376. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Mr Speaker Happy New Year to you and all other colleagues. Our respects from New Zealand First to Api Mahuika—it is indeed the end of an era; he was an outstanding Māori leader and a great New Zealander—and also to Rex Pollock who recently sadly passed away in Tauranga.To begin this parliamentary term let us ask three seriously pertinent questions. What condition are we in as a country? Are we moving in the right direction?Hon Gerry Brownlee: Yes we are.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: We will leave Gerry out of that because any answer Gerry gives is not worth the air it passes on. And are we building a fair stable and prosperous society? Right now the backbench members of the National Party are beginning to have their knees knock because they know we are not. First of all what about the quality of public discourse in New Zealand? You see National is about shutting down public debate. One of our most brilliant literary people wins the Man Booker Prize makes a comment about her country and what happens with this highly educated liberal National Party? Well it comes out and attacks her not because of what she said but her right to even say it. How shallow is that? And that goes for the political debate as well because what those members want is the kind of blind obedience that certain in the financial sector love if it is serving their minority interests. And of course the types like Gerry Brownlee are only too happy to serve them because that is what they have always done. That is what they have always thought of—themselves and their own privileges. And we have got public sector—Simon O’Connor: Name the book Winston.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The Luminaries. Do you want me to read it to you? [Interruption] See what I mean? Tell me. That is the kind of arrogance that the backbench of the National Party is going to have to deal with very shortly because it is going to be sent a message. The message will come with great clarity and it will know that not long after that it may be doing what the backbench of the Australian Liberal Party is doing—standing up for itself for a change apart from being wanton puppets.Hon Simon Bridges: Oh like yours do.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh New Zealand First is a party of dynamism as you can see—of experience of youth. Which other party went up by 62000 votes at the last election?Denis O’Rourke: We did.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I know. That party had millions of dollars and went up 72000 and we had nothing and went up by 62000. That tells us that when it comes to efficiency of spending money New Zealand First is the party to back. But then I know that about 30 or 40 percent of the National Party supporters are themselves beginning to think that now. We get the correspondence. They are beginning to get worried especially the farming sector especially the dairy farmers of this country.But the point is that National members are about creating a myth—and using Government departments—that all is well. And the sad thing is that so many in the commentariat have gone along with them and this mainstream myth that New Zealand has been doing exceptionally well. When you look at our growth in GDP exporting—no that is down; manufacturing no that is collapsing. No but apparently—[Interruption] Oh there is the lady from Christchurch. She looks at me with a curious look. I know she is very wealthy but when manufacturing goes from 33 percent of GDP and is now heading towards 26 percent I think you in Christchurch should take notice not nod your head as though you do not know anything about it. And what is the export imbalance with imports right now? Got any idea? Is it heading to $12 billion? Well where are you going to be when that happens when you are coming to getting a job and keeping your business sustainable?Now back to reality here. The idea that you have got a competent Government when inequality and poverty are growing at a greater rate than in nearly every other developed nation and homeownership is now being denied to a whole generation of Kiwis—before the election there was no housing crisis; after the election: “We’ve got the solution. We’ll change the Resource Management Act and all of a sudden we’ll have all these houses. We’ll change the Resource Management Act and all of a sudden by some miracle the housing crisis will be settled.” What has happened to public debt? Well our debt is up six times now to $65 billion under those people who claim to be managers of the economy. The truth is that the National Party—if you want to really understand the National Party—no longer works for ordinary New Zealanders; it works for a well-off moneyed bunch of cronies both here and overseas. And boy does it pour the money into propaganda. I mean for every dollar that we had at the last election it had $40. It sprayed it around like confetti and just got home. We have got to take our own responsibility for that because we could have stopped it. It is not our fault of course. We did our best—make no bones about it—but the reality is that this expenditure from here and overseas to buy elections is going to come to an end. What we have seen is the wholesale transfer under National of New Zealand’s wealth into the hands of the few—and many offshore. Whether selling power generators flogging State houses now or decimating the Resource Management Act the underlying agenda is always the same: the favoured few will benefit at the expense of the many.But sooner or later New Zealanders will wake up. Sooner or later in Northland you will see them respond. Sooner or later they are going to send you a message. Mr Foster-Bell are you in or are you out? Come on put your hand up and tell us. Are you going to run son? Tell me are you going to run? This will be fascinating. Oh I know he is keen—I know he is keen. Do not worry gentlemen and ladies over there if there is one party that is thinking seriously about it it is New Zealand First. I know that numerous comments have been made by the Prime Minister. He is getting a bit nervous himself. He had the audacity to talk about a thing like age. Well Mr Prime Minister we do not dye our hair and we are not losing it—we do not dye our hair and we are not losing it. And if I was you I would just get on with trying to run the country.Whilst we are at it he is also giving away the country’s birthright. Look 95 percent of the banking sector is owned by Australia. That is the Ned Kelly policy. A torrent of profits and dividends and other payments every year go offshore to foreign-owned banks and you have got not one single policy from National to stop this outflow. The media is massively owned offshore—Fairfax and APN are both Australian. Insurance companies are nearly all overseas owned. And farmland and business and residential property are being sold like confetti.Hon Member: Who wrote this disappointing rant?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Unlike that member over there we are able to write our own speeches. We do not need a dumb researcher to write it. We can do it ourselves—always have done always will be able to. Do not ask questions about who wrote this speech. What you are trying to say is: “Who will have the brains to interpret it for me?”. That is what you should be asking: “Who on my side has got the intelligence to interpret it for me because clearly sitting over here and putting my hands up for somebody in the Mafia will not do any more.” National members of course do not want to know the truth. National members do not want to know where the sales are going to. They do not want to know how many of our houses are being sold. They do not want to know how many houses Bayleys are selling in China every day now. They do not want to know whether the buyers are coming from Luxembourg United States Canada—they just do not want to know.Meanwhile we have got people struggling with stagnant wages in a now growing high-cost economy. Ask any person coming back from London or elsewhere and they are quite shocked to find how expensive it is—[Interruption] No not for Gerry because Gerry has always had it good. Gerry has always been on the pig’s back—he has always been on the pig’s back and it shows. I am talking about ordinary New Zealanders.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Must be a very big pig.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well actually it is a hippopotamus. It is not a pig; it is a hippopotamus. But the reality is that I am talking about ordinary people struggling to make families work in this country. Overseas buyers have an insatiable appetite for our land. Do you know why? With the world’s massively growing population they know that arable land is going to be more and more a high-price product. Do not blame them; blame the dumb people in politics who do not get it. Look even Michael Field who used to write for the New Zealand Herald—here it is: “NZ farms eyed as ‘boltholes’ for world’s super rich”. It is all there on 20 January in the New Zealand Herald. Then you go to the next one on 7 February 1 week on. Here is Bayleys putting out its press release saying—this is just what is happening according to Bayleys real estate in Canterbury—that a bevy of foreign landlords is now at the Overseas Investment Office and that is what New Zealand wants. We have enough landlords of our own overseas investment and talking about creating jobs but it goes go on to say that they are snapping up properties in Canterbury and all over the country because rentals are going through the roof. The member from Christchurch over there of course will not do a thing about it because he is in their league. Exploitation of ordinary people’s needs desires and wants is what National members are about by their silence because in failing to act they are saying: “This is good enough for us.” There are those two articles and we are saying that we need a register. We need to know what is going on just like Australia which has one and so many other countries.And then on immigration over 50000 a year came last year in the last 12 months. All where to? Auckland. Needing housing? Most desperately. What is my Samoan friend who is now the Minister for Pacific Peoples doing about that? He knows that the people who are missing out are his people that they are being squeezed out everywhere but no no; he is probably like the Māori Party. He wants to go to the airport and give them a pōwhiri and make them all welcome. Well you know charity begins at home and it begins with the Māori Party recognising that the biggest losers in all this argument are the people they purport to represent. That is why the Māori Party’s vote is in decline. That is why it is all over Rover because when it had a chance to put its people first it decided to go for the baubles of office. How tragic is that—how tragic is that?Hon Member: That’s a bit rich.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I know son. I have resigned and walked out of office more often than you have had hot dinners. So do not say that it is a bit rich for me. Only an ignoramus would say that. Learn some history righto? What sort of Government would allow an influx of that many—over 54000 a year—with no jobs no accommodation or say as Mr Key did today that 81000 is a record for new employment in New Zealand? How stupid is that? We have had record employment every year for the last 55 years because it is axiomatic is it not? If you increase the population you might just get more and more employment but what is the level of unemployment? It is 140000 who cannot get 1 hour of work a week because when you get 1 hour of work a week you are off the register. Well invite that sort of deceit into your own mental processes but we think it is a fraud on the population and we think it is repugnant in our society. Incomes are stagnant. There is a chronic housing crisis—140000 cannot get 1 hour of work a week and the health system is straining at the edges. There is massive immigration and growing inequality.And then of course a key issue mentioned by my colleague Mr Norman in the previous speech is climate change. Well you know we were the first party to say that the emissions trading scheme is a rort and it is.Hon Dr Nick Smith: You voted for it.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: We said that the emissions trading scheme was a rort. Yes son we voted for it when it was $25 per unit. We did not drive it down to $2.35. That is what Mr Nick Smith did. So do not make that stupid statement because some of us remember what we voted for and he destroyed the forestry industry all at the same time. Mr Smith of course is famous for running with the hares and hunting with the rabbits. That is what he is famous for. This is the guy who said: “ACC is in absolute crisis. I must do all this and this and this.” It was a total public relations fraud of course and then of course ACC found it was in serious surplus.But back to the point. Today we learn that Skycity is going to be an eyesore. Second question—how is Skycity going to improve it? The Prime Minister says that the taxpayers of New Zealand will and the ACT Party wants to support that.David Seymour: Absolutely.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh absolutely. No doubt about it. The ACT Party is so dumb of course that when it announced that it was going to change the Resource Management Act it did not wait to find out what the details were; it just said it would support it.This is meant to be the most intelligent party in Parliament with all this experience and that member is asked: “What do you think about the Resource Management Act changes?” and he said he will support it. Do you know what is in it? No. Do you know what its content is? No. “But then again I don’t have to because I am a puppet.” That is what he really said. “I’m there because the National Party put me there.” Oh we know that. Even New Zealand First got more party votes in Epsom than they did. True—we got more party votes in Epsom than they did. Look how can you possibly predicate a political career when you are a puppet and when every time John Key says “Jump” you say “How high?”. He is now in charge of the alternative school system and yet he knows nothing about education. He knows exactly nothing about education but then again his predecessor was one John Banks and he knew even less. So that is the ACT Party’s contribution.Then we have the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In June last year we were all told 3 months out from the election that we were not going to the Middle East. The election was hardly over and all of a sudden the Prime Minister is concerned at these massive breaches of human rights. Did you see his posturing in the House today? He went into a fit of concern about human rights abuses by ISIS. What did he say about Boko Haram? Not a murmur not a mutter not a syllable not a sound. His concern and the Government’s concern is to be in the club—the club that says that if you go to Australia and you work there for 21 years and you get tipped out of your job you do not get the dole any more you do not get fundamental rights any more. Or if you are in the UK they have changed all our privileges there. Is that the club he is talking about? Or is it the club that belongs to the United States which says: “We’ll give a free trade agreement to Chile and Morocco but we won’t give one to New Zealand.”—this great democracy for the last 155 years. Only nine of us have that great proud tradition and that is the club he wants to suck up to every day?Prime Minister we need somebody to stand up for our country’s interests and our values. The Prime Minister should not think he can walk on to the stage of New Zealand politics and with no parliamentary debate and no consensus send people into danger and maybe imperil this country as well without the decency of a democratic decision by this Parliament. On the issue of the two flags—we have got Hone’s flag and we have got the Prime Minister’s flag until of course it looked a bit like the ISIS flag and now the Prime Minister has changed his mind and he wants the silver fern. What a diversion that is! And as for separatism well who signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? Who has got the two-prison system the two flags and race-based local government now sweeping throughout New Zealand and Whānau Ora? They are policies based on race. That is the National Government’s legacy. That is what it has done and to criticise Mr Little—well I cannot use the phrase but it is a bit like some utensil calling the other one black. It is pretty sad is it not really?Then of course we have a $1 million by-election in Northland that should not be happening. It was avoidable because the Prime Minister and many of his colleagues knew the circumstances well before 20 September 2014. They knew the circumstances and the Prime Minister is going to be found out. Anybody who knows Northland knows it is a rumour mill and if they know the National Party they know it is an even bigger rumour mill and the very idea that the Prime Minister did not know until December 2014 is utterly preposterous. When the police commissioner says he did not drop the ball well whom did he tell? Anne Tolley? I think so. I know Northland. You know Whangarei. News gets out there before it even gets to the court. News gets out there before it even gets to the police station. If you get picked up on a driving charge at 1 o’clock and at 1 minute past 1 everybody knows. But the only person who does not know is this inveterate Minister famous for as Enid Blyton would say “forgettery”. The Prime Minister the No. 1 Minister does not know about all the great serious crises happening in this country. Whether it be the Coatesville raid the SIS the Government Communications Security Bureau he just does not know. On this issue which will be extremely embarrassing to the National Party—and its hypocrisy will know no bounds when it comes to fundamental human rights—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I am not concerned about the sub judice issue. I am talking just about the political issue.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): No—the word that member used.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yes that is right. Thank you very much. I am glad you grasped that Mr Assistant Speaker. That is very important because the sub judice rule does not mean that this Parliament is constrained in a way that I fear we might be. But it is going to be deeply embarrassing and our message to the people up north is: “Hang on because help’s on its way.” Our message to people up north is: “Had enough? Send them a message. You won’t change the Government but you sure will make them listen for the very first time.” And to the people in Kaipara paying all those rates for the disaster on the Mangawhai Heads and Kaikai Kaitāia Kaeō Kawakawa and all those forgotten territories our message is: “Don’t give up. Hang on. Help’s on its way and the campaign will start soon.” Thank you very much.