Peters Winston: Debate On Pacific IssuesText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Debate On Pacific Issues[Sitting date: 18 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9561. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Kia ora. Tēnā koutou katoa and warm Pacific greetings. It is a privilege to welcome our esteemed guests to this significant event and meeting. It is hoped that by this we will strengthen New Zealand’s relationship with the Pacific region and the countries and peoples within it. The populated Pacific region is extraordinarily large encompassing about one quarter of the world’s surface. The populations may be low but they are high in resources. It is after all our backyard and our neighbourhood.Your presence here today is a timely reminder that one value we share as a region is a commitment to democratic values. It might be painful and difficult but we do believe that we should elect the people who represent us. The record is not perfect and the failures stand out but today provides us all with a chance to look past the failings discuss what went wrong and plan for the future. On behalf of New Zealand First—that is the people’s party by the way in this country—and my colleague Asenati Lole-Taylor welcome to you all and thank you for coming.This region is one of rich culture landscapes and natural wealth. It is a region known for its striking artworks and its strong proud people. It is a region of great potential. These resources held here hold the promise to generate adequate sources of income for the Pacific if they are handled right whether that be in relation to agriculture horticulture tourism or critical areas such as fishing and the fishing resource. Pacific countries and people in the Pacific realise and recognise this fact. In acting to secure their people a prosperous future in the 21st century this region is fast becoming a platform for other small island States around the world to learn from.We play an important role in the Pacific region. We have of late I am very pleased to say over the last 10 years realised that we should be spending far more of our foreign aid in our area where we know the people than in far-flung areas where we have got no idea where it is going. I think we are probably all united on that. We have about 300000 Pacific people in this country and New Zealand needs to play its part to ensure that Pacific people receive the means to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Aid should be seen as an investment. We recognise that our Pacific neighbours are proud people and we recognise that aid is not a handout; it is a hand up. And above all my party for onerecognises that when dealing with the Pacific you are dealing with people who are in every way your equal and many have been here for millennia.It is in New Zealand’s interest to see a flourishing Pacific region. We understand that poverty and social ills lead towards political and social unrest. We want a stable region that is prosperous with strong trade links and a strong diffusion of ideas. If someone suggests to you that the aid thing is not quite right remember the fact is that for every $10 that we export $1 is coming back. The ratio with regard to your people is 10:1 and we have no trading relationship that has that percentage of benefit for this country as it is with the Pacific people. If we had that ratio around the rest of the world we would be enormously rich and we need to address that when we are explaining why aid is important in this part of the world.In a geopolitical sense the Pacific region is fast becoming an area of competing influence and it is a sense of disquiet that one has. This is due in part to the region’s proximity to Asia natural resources and a number of votes in the United Nations. We all know how seductive it is to be taken down the main drag in China with motorbikes all in front and motorbikes all behind and treated like you are a god. But that reminds me of the old saying that new Caesars used to be told when they were appointed in the old Roman days. There was always a person deputed to run by their side and every now and again say: “Remember you’re only a man—remember you’re only a man.” That seductive experience in the Pacific with Asia has to be carefully carefully handled. Do not worry. I have got colleagues like that myself who get totally carried away when they go overseas and forget that their roots lie in their own country. Can I just say—John Hayes: What about a mirror?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh no no no. I am a Pacific person. Our roots here go back a thousand years—just in case any of you were not certain of that.The issues facing countries in the Pacific might be similar whether they be climate change the retention of resources or pollution and environmental degradation. It is up to New Zealand to ensure that we undertake aid assistance and that development does not come at the expense of local people customs and culture. There is a Pacific way and it is not wrong. It should be defended. One of those things about the Pacific way is that their institutions need to be recognised. I have always for example believed in the Great Council of Chiefs in Fiji. They should not be set aside. They should not be as any wise nation would understand and that goes for the rest of the Solomons Vanuatu and other places where there is a chiefly role that the people do respect and we should seek to modernise our constitutional approach to understand that. We must look to uphold and respect the cultural as well as the political boundaries of our neighbours.There is just one thing I want to say and that is this: there is a need all over the world and that is including in New Zealand for politicians to be seen to be accountable and transparent. No one is immune from this. I can remember being offshore with a foreign Minister—I will not say of which country but it was in the Solomon Islands. He was berating the local administration. I said to him: “Look I don’t want to be in the same room if you’ve forgotten your own history. Don’t you remember the State Bank of South Australia Rothwells Bank or that three Premiers in Western Australia got done over under WA Inc.? Do not preach to these people who know about your history. And I don’t want to be in the room representing my country when you do that.”Back to my point we need to understand that accountability and transparency are in everyone’s interests. I know that there is a Pacific feeling because it is very endemic in Māoridom too. It goes like this: if you cannot help your own then who can you help? And that is the seed of so much nepotism and corruption but it is a very very understandable cultural phenomenon that we have to in the interests of the people who represent us fight against. It is extraordinarily difficult because your people expect youto have some understanding of the saying “Blood is thicker than water” but that said it is Government and it is an issue of privilege and we need to strive against it.I want to say that increased dialogue between our countries is of benefit to all. Two of us were recently at an Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees meeting in Australia last week. We found it enormously beneficial that Pacific countries were there and some African countries were there but many of us from Australia and New Zealand had plenty to learn ourselves. Gathering with representatives from across the Pacific not only allows for the bettering of relationships and the sharing of ideas but it also allows for greater scrutiny of how we are progressing together. For my part the New Zealand First Party seriously believes in the Pacific relationship. We believe that is a special relationship with a capital “S”.While you are here you are going to meet all your relations and many are going to say to you “Which party should we vote for?”. I suggest you say to them: “Well first of all get on the roll and then vote for the one party that understands Pacific people—that party being New Zealand First.” And I can promise you without any fear of contradiction that if you all do that we will all be better off very soon. Kia ora tātou.