Peters Winston: Budget Debate 
Peters Winston: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3216] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Madam Speaker I very much appreciate being given the call even if it is 20 minutes too early. This debate is already shaping up to be something like television’s  
Survivor 
 series. Don Brash has got the wrong day. We have already considered the Historic Places Amendment Bill which is to do with artefacts and the Coroners Bill which is to do with how to treat the deceased. The  
Survivor 
 series follows tribal life. The members of one side of the tribe are working together to try to make government work while on the other side there is a bunch of malcontents who are plotting and scheming among themselves like some sort of parliamentary version of  
Lord of the Flies 
. 
 They lack leadership—that is obvious; they know it. They lack purpose. They lack policy. And they wonder why they just keep losing and their arrogance depicts that every day in the way they despise the place they sit in—and how badly they do their jobs. There is one message that those commenting on the Budget should remember in respect of 2006—that is it is an MMP Budget and it demonstrates that if parties work together they can achieve positive things in the national interest. [ 
Interruption 
] 
I say to members opposite: “Eat your heart out!” I know it hurts but all through the remainder of this speech I want them to ask themselves one question: “What has my party done for my National supporters these last 7 years?”. The answer is: “Nothing.” How tragic! All the effort all the money all the highflying hoopla and public relations and the answer is doughnuts for hard-working National Party supporters. We suffer from no such demise. Some parties have matured under the change from first past the post to MMP 10 years ago and I am pleased to lead a party that has demonstrated just how successful it can be in achieving real progress for its constituents and which is seeing its policies make a difference to the lives of all New Zealanders. 
It is no coincidence that New Zealand First’s first five policy platforms from the 2005 election—on senior citizens immigration law and order the Treaty of Waitangi and an export-led economy—feature so strongly in today’s Budget. That is called making a contribution. [ 
Interruption 
] If the member wants to go to a dog-dosing strip we will get him microchipped. [ 
Interruption 
] Which ear? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and overseas aid both benefit from the Budget. Transport infrastructure benefits from the Budget—in particular around New Zealand in Tauranga. The communications system benefits. The racing industry benefits. The Maori world and the grievance industry are going to be fixed in the immediate term. And the list goes on. 
New Zealand First fought a lone crusade at the last election as all members know in respect of the plight of seniors. Other parties were happy to pay lip service while claiming that it was too expensive to do anything real to help the elderly. And it was not true. We said that too many of our seniors were struggling and that we were serious about improving their lot. We have and it is the cornerstone in the supply and confidence agreement. We have $126 million going now for the aged-care sector. That is new money. That funding cannot come soon enough for that sector but at least it is a start. 
It is important to note here however that it is not simply a matter of getting increased funding for this but of making sure that the money actually gets to where it is intended to go. For too long now district health boards have been siphoning off funding intended for aged-care people into other areas. That practice must end with this Budget and we call on the Minister to make that happen. But this increased money represents real progress. Nobody can deny it. We were the only party at the last election campaigning on the golden age card and about this time next year it will be a fact. It will make the money that the elderly get go a lot further. That will represent a real boost to the living standards of all our seniors. It goes hand in hand with the increase to over 66 percent of the average working wage going to married couples now since 1 April. I am particularly pleased and so are my colleagues to see the increased funding of nearly $500 million in the police budget for 1000 extra front-line police over three Budgets by 2008. It is not only 1000 extra front-line police but in addition an extra 250 support staff to go with it. That is a promise made and it is a promise kept. I ask my National Party critics what promise they have kept in the last 7 years. Can they name just one? 
Brian Connell 
: Tauranga. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Was that a win? I do not think so. That is not what I am hearing back home. [ 
Interruption 
] We know that Tauranga is going to get a bridge toll-free. That is another promise kept. [ 
Interruption 
] I do not go along with that humbug. He has had no affect whatsoever never will and they are regretting it already. 
We are pleased to see extra funding going into the Treaty settlements process and we would add a word of caution. We do not believe that the Government has done enough on this front; there is much more work to be done but as with many things in politics we are pleased to see the Government moving in the right direction. We are also pleased with the changes that have been announced with regard to the immigration sector. Members know that New Zealand First has been criticised as a party up hill and down dale around New Zealand. But the fact is there is a comprehensive review going on because nothing is as important as our border security and what one’s citizenship in a country might mean. In short the review we have asked for is under way as we speak. We are confident that by working closely with the Government we can see real progress and change. Securing our borders and valuing our citizenship as I said lie at the core of what New Zealand First stands for. 
New Zealand First has long advocated for an Export Year to give that vital sector of the economy a much-needed boost. Although that aspect of our supply and confidence agreement did not get the fanfare it deserved in the long term it will be the most important thing that we do in the next 3 years. If we can grow our exports at a significantly faster rate then we will see flow-on effects throughout the entire economy—from greater productivity to higher wages through improved living standards through to the lifestyle choices that are linked to that. We all benefit from a stronger export sector. We are totally committed to a successful Export Year 2007. 
Some have called it a Budget leak. I am talking about unbundling the loop which I would have thought given the National Party’s predicament it would be all for. We in New Zealand First prefer to call— 
Hon Member 
: Which loop? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Well it is actually multi-loop really. We in New Zealand First prefer to call the announcement of local loop unbundling “unfinished business” which can finally be put to bed in the interests of every user of telecommunications at home and in business. It has been a long scandal—16 long years—while they have been price gouged and there has been no political movement. Members might remember that in 1998 as Treasurer of this country I sought to do just that but I was stopped by the National Party. Yes I was there is no doubt about it. Members should go back and look at the facts. In July 1998 we announced that a full-scale review would take place; then the National Party paranoiac about the mates it had and its protection racket decided to stop it. That is what has happened all these years since. I am pleased to say that that will all be over and we will sort out one of the biggest compliance costs that New Zealand has—the need to comply with telecommunications necessities in business. National members talk about taxes all the time but this is real and it is fundamental. 
New Zealand First is pleased with the progress made by the Hon Peter Dunne and the Hon Michael Cullen with regard to business taxes. It will take some time but if we want to change our economy the best and fastest way we can do it is to attack that sector in particular in respect of a more sympathetic export tax regime. That is what we argued for. More profoundly as I travel around the world I see the necessity for it. At least a review of the regime to do with business taxation is under way and we look forward to engaging in it. 
We have already seen as members know a major boost to the racing industry. Good heavens I was across in Brisbane just a couple of days ago at the Australasian Racing Ministers Conference and the Australian Ministers were all whingeing and complaining and saying that they were going to write to their federal Treasurer Mr Costello because the guy in New Zealand had an unfair advantage on them. Is that not a turn-up for the book? I said to them that for God’s sake they have had 20 years’ start and they should give us a break but they said they had to write to the federal Treasurer. But I kind of think that at the speed things move at the federal level we still have a fair start on them and can make a good advantage. 
The point is that National Party members talk about tax cuts. They should go and ask the racing industry about tax cuts. The racing industry has them. The industry has had a massive reduction from 20 percent to 4 percent in respect of gambling duty and has huge depreciation allowances on stallions and brood mares. The racing industry got tax cuts. [ 
Interruption 
] Here we go again. Somebody over there is claiming that that is National Party policy. People say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. But my response to that is for them to look at the National Party website from 2002 2003 2004 and 2005 and tell me who is telling the truth. Is it Lindsay Tisch or Winston Peters? It is a purloining exercise of the type that National Party members engaged in on the Treaty of Waitangi on law and order and on so much of New Zealand First’s roading policy. They just stole it lock stock and barrel and claimed it as theirs. 
The trouble is that they cannot sell it. They have a leader who reminds me when he gets up and compares New Zealand with Australia of that famous line from  
The Mikado 
. The line is probably unknown to the gentlemen sitting over there but it goes like this: “Then the idiot who praises with enthusiastic tone all centuries but this and ev’ry country but his own;”. That is Don Brash. He having backed the Douglas revolution and Ruth Richardson has the temerity to pick the eyes out of politics by now using the Australian comparison. Goodness knows everyone knows that Australia went down the incremental change pathway of policy reform. We suffered a revolution. Thank God it is over. Had we gone down the same pathway as Australia at somewhat the same speed I believe we would be 35 percent larger in real terms as an economy. Let not Don Brash tell us that he has something new to offer—he has not and nor do his backers and those who support him. 
It is great news to see that a long-lauded and extolled policy of New Zealand First—that all road taxes go into roading—is now a budgetary fact. Yes it is. I congratulate the Minister of Finance on deciding that that is a wise policy—because it is. We will finally address the enormous vacuum of infrastructural investment that we have suffered for the last 20 years. We will at last do that and it is good. Tauranga will be grateful for a new toll-free harbour bridge as well. Some people talk and some people do. National members are like used-car salespeople—plenty of pre-sales talk but no after-sales service. 
I have to say something about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is the ministry that is the front face and facade of this country in so many parts of the world. Its budget is up in respect of overseas aid and the ministryx. That is important because there is so much to do—more so these days in an ever-changing more complex and more difficult world—in our neighbourhood and farther offshore. 
Hon Bill English 
: What a statesman! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Yes I am a statesman actually unlike someone who is not prepared to admit what he wrote and not prepared to concede that he wrote it—someone who makes statements and then rushes off and lets Bill English come down to carry things in the House. Has anyone ever seen such an image as what was on TV last week? Bill English gave a press conference with the other pretender and contender standing behind him—the big fella overlooking him—whilst the so-called leader hid from the television. If I were a back-bencher I would look hard at holding a meeting in a smoke-filled room preferably late at night because I would know I had work to do. [ 
Interruption 
] I will not put one on for members tonight. I am sorry that offer was over a long time ago. 
When I watched Dr Brash’s press conference last week I was reminded of a political novice—he clumsily held a press conference without even knowing what the press conference was about. People can make some mistakes in this game but they cannot make mistakes like that. The National Party is led by a man who is actually worse than a dead man walking. He is a political novice clumsily moving from one screw-up to the next. Whether it is walking the plank or dropping press gaffes it goes on day in and day out. But it is not just he who is dysfunctional—so is his party. 
No one believes he will be leading the party at the next election. The answer lies in the latest episode of the  
Survivor  
series:  
“ 
In Opposition 
”. 
 There is one obvious contender—the guy everybody else is picking to win—the one with the money and the ostentatious manner. He is self-made—worshipping his creator—he seems to have it all and is prepared to show it all off. There is nothing wrong with that except his mates—strangely—do not like him and I wonder why. Mr Key—the “Earl of Parnell”—can just see in the dim distance his electorate of Helensville and Kumeu; and because he refuses to live there I want to tell the member about that electorate. “Kumeu” in Maori means “to tug the udder” and we are saying: “Tug the ‘udder’ leg mate!” It is a fact that he does not live there; he refuses to live there. 
Of course there is the other member whom National tried last time—and it was such a disaster—namely Bill English. I knew he could not make it until his voice broke but National members did not understand when they chose him that that was the problem. Then there is the crazy character. He is the one who got the leadership job as deputy leader and the job lasted 2 weeks. They made him the “Bluegreen” man. That juxtaposition would be enough to make anybody nuts. He has been tried in the leadership role before and I wonder why and how he has still survived. 
Then there is the hard woman who is a female version of Darth Vader. She is prepared to trample over all tradition and anybody else in her way. The problem is that if one looks like Darth Vader sounds like Darth Vader and breathes like Darth Vader then there is a good chance that one is Darth Vader. The National Party should know. They have tried a Darth Vader before if members remember. She wanted to govern on her own and took National to the worst result since 1936 but its members never learn. They have the effrontery to come along to our meetings and demand that we support them. It is true; it is a fact. 
There is one other guy; the tough-talking runty guy. Everybody knows he is all wind and no action. He has such a jaundiced view of the world and is always finding the negatives—but never the solutions to fix anything. He has tried law and order but nobody could really take him seriously because he looked as tough as a pansy blowing in the wind. I ask members whether they can remember the speeches on law and order he used to make. All the guys in Mount Eden and Paremoremo prisons used to quiver at the knees. What a joke! Now he is trying on the health sector and again it is all wind and no action. 
There was so much promise and so many false starts that one wonders whether it is a case of puberty blues or just a lack of capacity on the part of the younger members. On the back bench I see the despair and every day I feel it as someone very conscious of my fellow MPs. As Jonathan Hunt did we always worry about these young MPs and how they handle things. The concern and sheer angst on their faces worries me. 
The real issue is though that on the question of this  
Survivor 
 series for National nobody cares. That is why New Zealand First is here celebrating the parts of the Budget that this tribe of politicians—New Zealand First—has delivered on. We want all New Zealanders to know we are a party that is there to make their lives better and to make this country great again. While others are falling apart around us we have stood firm in our work for the benefit of all New Zealanders and that is putting New Zealand and New Zealanders first.