Peters Winston: Adjournment 
Peters Winston: Adjournment 
[Volume:650;Page:19291] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 That certainly was early applause or acclaim afforded to me by the National Party! I begin by saying thank you to the Office of the Clerk and to those people who have carried out their duties in respect of members of Parliament: security guards and their supervisors messengers and catering staff. They all deserve our gratitude. 
In this House there are friendships that cut across party lines and that is good for if we get so committed to our own particular beliefs that we shut out the good ideas of our opponents we are on the road to intolerance and bigotry. We must not close our minds; we must keep our eyes and ears open to take in the best of what happens around us. Politics after all is known as “The Great Game”—it is played hard even brutally at times but that is the nature of democracy. It is untidy unlovely and often unrewarding but as Churchill said nobody has thought of a better way yet. 
We have been working under MMP since 1996 and I believe that the public of this country accepts it. It is interesting to note that in 2002 the Labour Party rejected New Zealand First as a possible coalition partner but that in 2005 we formed an agreement for confidence and supply and that that agreement has worked to enrich the lives of New Zealanders. Amongst other things it has restored the income of superannuitants and provided more fairness in respect of old people in old people’s homes and in respect of the young. It has also revived dramatically the racing industry of this country. We have improved our relations with traditional and newer allies in foreign fields and we are on the way to a free-trade agreement with the United States. 
I want to place on record our thanks to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and to those Ministers and MPs we have worked with to make this country a better place in the last 3 years. We did not always agree but we all worked with a common aim—to secure a better future. If there is one matter of concern we have had for the past 3 years it is that members of the second-largest party in Parliament did not attempt at any time to join in this country’s governance. Where were their ideas their pieces of private legislation their hunger to bring about the Utopia they insist is waiting for us all out there should their party get to take over? Their problem was that they were waiting for the Government to collapse—all through the last 3 years. And that was never going to happen. 
Despite what we know there are good members in all the opposing parties and as some will not be back after the election we tell them they go with our best wishes. We trust they will find a life after politics. 
The last few weeks and months have been tumultuous for New Zealand First and for me personally. We are grateful for the support we have received from many many thousands of New Zealanders who have pledged their support and who will be lining up to work for us in the next few weeks. There are forces out there working day and night against us but let me say this: “Bring it on!”. We will be ready and we certainly are match-fit. 
I thought I might bring to the attention of the House a certain trust document that has come into my hands. It is designed to get money and to get behind a political party and it is dated 30 June 2005 so it is pretty much where it has to be to be in the ballpark nowadays in New Zealand politics. I will read from the  
Weekend Herald 
 
at page 26 from an article by one Stephen Cook. It is about Rodney Hide who said: “I try to put as much distance as I can between myself and donations made to the party.” Yeah right! In my inquiries I found a trust plus its bank account—and I have 70 copies of the document for members if they want to take them. I found out what was going on but those people up there in the press gallery have always darned well known because the man behind this is known to me. He recently spoke at the Newmarket Rotary Club where he went on record as saying that Winston Peters had done nothing wrong that nothing New Zealand First had done was illegal and that any arrangements of the type that New Zealand First had were totally above board. Meanwhile his party leader Rodney Hide and the media have daily hurled abuse and hypocritical tirades in an attempt to bring down New Zealand First the third biggest political party in this country. The man behind this of course and the man at the Newmarket Rotary Club was one John Boscawen. Members have heard his name; he is the one ranting and raving about the Electoral Finance Act. Meanwhile Rodney Hide knows all about that trust having been taken by the Electoral Commission all the way to the Court of Appeal for failing to disclose the evidence of millions of dollars of funding behind the Cargill Trust and the ACT party. 
What is important about this story is that it will not be on page 1 of the  
New Zealand Herald  
tomorrow in the  
Dominion Post 
 
or in the Christchurch  
Press 
 and it will most certainly will not make the 6 o’clock news tonight because the media have been involved in a cover-up whilst they sought to get rid of a party and its leader. My profound message to the media right now before they get out there and start miswriting history is that they should learn something because New Zealand people have a sense of fairness of justice and of what is right and they have watched for 3 months whilst crisis after crisis in this country caused mainly by events happening abroad could have been assisted in terms of resolution. But every day whilst 29 companies went down owing $3 billion to mainly older people the media decided that that was not the issue. I have never ever in my period in politics seen such grossly irresponsible media as we have in New Zealand today and I have always known from day one that behind this has been an orchestrated conspiracy to get rid of the Government—any way any how. I know who is behind where the money is. When we see a man like Phil Kitchin from the  
Dominion Post 
 saying: “I have been working on this case for 2 years.” then we know full well how long Opposition members have programmed this outcome. But they are going to lose come 8 November because out there even as I speak tens of thousands of Maori have changed their minds and are coming home—and rightfully so. And tens and tens of thousands of older people have had enough of this hypocrisy— 
Hon Member 
: What a load of rubbish! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: The member calls it rubbish. That may be those members’ specialty but if they think that on election day 2008 they are going to romp home then they are kidding themselves; they will be way short of numbers. 
I will tell members something about politics: in this business one never never never says never. Only a fool would do that. So having disclosed what is going on in terms of hypocrisy in this country I will close with the famous words of that hero of Tennyson’s called Ulysses: 
One equal temper of heroic hearts 
—clearly that must be a reference to New Zealand First— 
… but strong in will  
To strive to seek to find and not to yield.