Peters Winston: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: General Debate[Sitting date: 21 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7419. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Clearly that speech by Maggie Barry is evidence that 1080 will not get rid of the bats. The border security of this country is lax and the biosecurity in this country is lax. We have had more people with sniffer dogs—that is handlers—than dogs themselves at a ratio of 2:1 and we have had cuts to the conservation and environmental expenditure in the country and that Minister of Conservation has the audacity in a cliché and drivel-ridden speech to claim she is doing something. I will not waste my time because the last time I saw her it was up at a meeting in Dargaville and the whole meeting had to be stopped while the chairman told her to keep quiet.Let us start by congratulating Jack Martin of Pahīatua who is turning 100 years old this weekend. He served as a sapper in the 10th New Zealand Railway Construction Company during his 4 years in the army—more than 3 of which were spent overseas. He was awarded the 1939-1945 Star the Africa Star the Defence Medal the War Medal 1939-1945 and the New Zealand War Service Medal. Jack received letters from the Queen the Governor-General the mayor MPs and the President of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association B J Clark.He also got a letter from the Prime Minister. I wish the Prime Minister could hear what Jack’s son said because to quote him he said: “It’s simple for Dad. He fought under the flag and sadly lost cobbers in World War II from as far back as his schooldays. ‘They shall grow not old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.’ From Dad’s room at the Waireka he can see the flagpole while sitting in his La-Z-Boy looking out across the lawns. That flagpole was a bit tatty and had no flag. Bryan James the Pahīatua RSA President refurbished the pole in time for Dad’s birthday and a brand new flag was presented to the pole in the ceremony involving soldiers from Linton Camp. Now Dad can see our flag flying proudly every day.”That is the son’s testimony and I hope people in the media and other parties will remember this: the real affection there is for our flag. I know that some people like Simon O’Connor Stuart Nash and—bless her cotton socks—the Hon Judith Collins agree with our campaign to keep our flag but for the rest shame because they all joined the committee to go along with the Prime Minister’s fad.One party did not and that party is New Zealand First. It is not about politics. It is about doing what is right and decent for the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein this Friday the centenary of Gallipoli’s evacuation which falls on 15 to 20 December and there are significant dates from Palestine to Viet Nam. It is crass and insensitive for the Prime Minister to go along with this fad now. And for the benefit of Mr Macindoe returned servicemen and women—Ron Mark included—know that there is a silver fern on our graves but that it is a real fern on grey stone.None of those flag options has the unique botanical silver fern. That is how naïve they are over there; it is not even offered to the people of this country. That is why New Zealand First is aggrieved that Mr Brownlee refused to grant a debatable motion on the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. He refused to grant it. Then he told the people of this country that the Prime Minister did not know about this report when the Prime Minister did and it was all available 4 days before the Prime Minister left for Iraq but the media were never given it. It is a sham and the UMR poll is as clear as daylight on this matter: New Zealanders do not want to go along with the Prime Minister’s latest fad and his gross waste of $26 million—a gross waste of $26 million.If you were watching Sky television today out of Australia there was a trade Minister talking about—1 minute to go; fantastic it will be incredibly good—the free-trade agreement China has just signed with Australia. Compare that with the one we signed. Compare the advantages they have got with what we got. Compare what they are going to get with what we negotiated and then explain to me if you are so much for free trade why the China free-trade agreement is being renegotiated by the Government as we speak.David Seymour: Who was the foreign Minister?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I made it public and clear that we were not supporting it. So do not come here like a juvenile infant and make stupid statements like that Mr Seymour.