Peters Winston: General DebateText is subject to correctionPeters Winston: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4491. Text is subject to correction.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):So soon this has become a smug arrogant Government prepared to covertly lean on the media because it cannot stand the heat. It is very clear that the Māori Party decided to ring up Māori Television because members did not want to front with a New Zealand First person on the panel. The reason is of course that we know what they are up to and we said from the word “go” that they were not going to be a success. Although they might have sucked the National members into it they are going to fall with them as well.There is also a story up in the North and what the story says is that there is gold in those wetlands of Northland. How did the Hon Judith Collins describe the place where swamp kauri comes from? “I don’t like wetlands—they’re swamps.” she exclaimed on TV3 last year. “I don’t like wetlands—they’re swamps.” No doubt there are a few on the backbenches of National wondering what this has got to do with Judith Collins. If you were talking about Oravida Kauri they would more likely answer: “We like wetlands—they’re goldmines.” The unlawful mining of swamp kauri is a practice that is robbing Northland and robbing New Zealand but robbing is a trait that this Government has perfected into an art form while the same officials who run “honesty box” biosecurity allow precious ancient timber to be exported whilst almost zero added value occurs for Northland and for New Zealand. Plus there is the environmental despoliation in so many cases.This is incompetence built upon a rort that must stop and New Zealand First calls upon the Government to stop turning a blind eye and start enforcing the law that we already have and that is capable of doing the job if the Minister but did his job. This is like the Wild West and it is no wonder. In 2012 the Northern Advocate which is the paper at Whangarei wrote that if swamp kauri averaged $71.66 a superfoot in old money ancient swamp kauri the size of Tane Mahuta would be worth $7 million—just the one.Ron Mark: How much?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Seven million dollars. In 2012 the manager of Oravida—it keeps on coming back does it not? It will never go away. I mean you can be in the women’s magazine. You can be putting yourself out there in a rather trashy American way. It is the kind of distinguished thing that New Zealand First would never sink to: going in the magazines and holding your private life out there because she is on a mission to get back. But I am telling those colleagues over there that there is more. Anyway the manager of Oravida Kauri’s Ruakākā yard confirmed that by the end of 2012 it would have 2800 tonnes of swamp kauri harvested. In today’s dollars that is $71 million.This is serious money breeding serious illegality because in law swamp kauri must be turned into a finished item before it is exported.Alfred Ngaro: All the drama.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Now there is no use in Alfred Ngaro—who should understand these things who should understand the cultural significance of what I am talking about let alone the environmental matters—thinking it is a drama. It is a drama all right. It will be a real drama by the time we are finished. This is serious money breeding serious illegality because in law swamp kauri must be turned into a finished item before it is exported. The Forests Act 1949 defines “finished” as being a manufactured wood product in its final state that is ready to be installed or used for its intended purpose. We are talking furniture picture frames and yes even carvings. It is important to understand and the people of Northland know this that dressed or rough-sawn timber is not—I repeat not—a finished or manufactured product. So how can the Minister for Primary Industries the Minister of Conservation and the Minister for Māori Development class a raw log with shallow chiselled Māori carvings or titivated surface decorations as a finished product? The Minister for Primary Industries got up in the House today and he is out there talking to the media right now. The fact that a kaumātua blessed some of these logs is totally irrelevant. There is always a kaumātua for sale if the price is right. Members opposite would not know what a kaumātua was if they fell over one. The one log cleared by both the Ministry for Primary Industries and AsureQuality as being a finished carving got the export tick to go to Fuzhou Yima Trading Company in China. In short to conclude there is an almighty rort going on with private products right under the Government’s nose but because it has Chinese friends and a former Minister’s husband who are involved it will not raise a finger. Well we are going to raise the roof.