Peters Winston: General Debate 
Peters Winston: General Debate 
[Volume:678;Page:903] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Meanwhile primary industries in this country lose billions of dollars every year from a massively inflated dollar which my colleague David Carter who has just resumed his seat maintains for National’s mates in the finance industry in downtown Queen Street. But this is a story of how an Australian bank some Ned Kellys across the Ditch and some local business people robbed a small New Zealand town of its livelihood. It is about how a gang of corporate thugs screwed dozens of people out of their jobs. It is about how the Westpac bank involved itself in shafting an iconic New Zealand company namely Yarrows (The Bakery) in Manaia Taranaki—heartland New Zealand which my colleague did not refer to. We are talking about the receivership of Yarrows in May last year. 
The circumstances in which the company went into receivership were unusual. At the time Yarrows had a valuation of $100 million. The sole shareholder Paul Yarrow had just secured a new international joint venture worth $200 million over 10 years. So what happened? A group of individuals set out to take control of this joint venture and force Mr Yarrow out. It was nothing short of corporate assassination. First the Australian conspirators deliberately overcharged Yarrows in rent to the sum of A$2 million in false leases. These were then charged to the Australian company operation of Yarrows. They then demanded a payment of A$7 million from Mr Yarrow and the price if he did not agree to their demands was receivership. Here are some of the names of the New Zealand and Australian individuals involved: Warren Duncan Trevor Perry Colin Pettigrew and Michael Finnigan—all connected to Yarrows—Brian Mayo-Smith from the receivers BDO; and Nick Hale from Westpac bank. 
These people conspired to bring down Yarrows from within. Where is the evidence? Well some of that will emerge in a court case starting in the New South Wales Supreme Court tomorrow and some will come from a tape-recording of businessmen conspiring to cheat an owner. The House is well very aware of what happens when a tape-recorder keeps running and no one notices it. This is not an English dog’s breakfast tape; this is a “bread-gate” tape. The tape-recording reveals the depth of this plot and what these people conspired to do. For example we have Michael Finnigan former trusted adviser to Paul Yarrow saying: “Let’s threaten receivership.” Then we have Trevor Perry who describes himself as “an angel investor” saying to the Westpac representative Nick Hale: “I never thought I’d be happy to see a demand put on a company by a bank.” All on tape. 
I have just one question for Mr Hale and Westpac and it is this: why? The reason is they wanted control of the planned joint-venture bakery operations with the Japanese company Sumitomo and mostly they wanted Paul Yarrow out so that they could transfer assets from his family company in Manaia to pay for their shares at the discount price in Australia. When Paul Yarrow would not agree they threatened to ruin him and so it transpired. Westpac followed through on the directors’ threat and called in the receivers. Prior to this conspiracy Westpac was on the verge of getting 90 percent of its money within weeks. 
What are the connections between company directors Warren Duncan Trevor Perry and Colin Pettigrew and Westpac officers John Chapman and Nick Hale and Brian Mayo-Smith of BDO? We understand that the Serious Fraud Office in New Zealand is about to step in and tomorrow in the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney these New Zealand and Australian directors will be involved in a legal war over the ownership of the company in which the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is involved. 
The case shows what happens when unscrupulous overseas-owned banks and corporate high-flyers get their hands on New Zealand companies. But this a rural company in Manaia in Taranaki a massive subscriber to that community including the local rugby team. Think of all of the benefits it has poured in—millions of dollars over the years. It has provided employment to all those local people in Manaia over the years. A young person there always knew that they would have a job locally. It is an international best-selling company providing its product all over Asia and throughout the Pacific. It also provides the core product for Subway in its contracts here and around other parts of the world. But here is another bit: when it all happened the Westpac bank and these businessmen had no regard for what was being done to local people. And the Government does nothing about this sort of behaviour.