Peters Winston: General Debate 
Peters Winston: General Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3562] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Who was it who said “one law for all”? No it was not the National Party; it was New Zealand First. But like so much that National members have stolen from us they do not know how to practice it. On National’s breach of the law I say that the media must get the facts straight and stop buying the myths and the spin in relation to National’s non-payment of GST on its broadcasting allocation at the last election. We have to ask ourselves a few simple questions. What does the law say? What did National do? What are the effects of National’s actions? Who is out of pocket? 
If members read today’s paper they will see that the chief executive of the Electoral Commission said yesterday that National could repay the money without a legislative change. National has some lawyer members and they know exactly what I am saying. On that basis the answer is that National is making its current claims totally spuriously. The answer is straightforward. No matter what National members say the law says there is a limited amount that parties can use for the purposes of broadcasting at an election and that amount is set by the Electoral Commission. Right? 
National was lucky enough in getting the amount it did. It received several times the amount that New Zealand First received even though it did not get more than twice the vote we received. It received several times more than New Zealand First did then it went out and spent more than that. The point is that rather than National members taking their good fortune and playing by the rules they abused their providence and corruptly tried to grow their broadcasting expenditure even further. That is a fact. 
So what did those members do? Well they broke the law. They breached the Broadcasting Act by overspending. This is what people seem to forget. They have already been referred to the police over this matter so why on earth is the media falling for the line that National cannot pay because the law has to be changed? That is total bovine scatology and those members know it. For Don Brash to now claim as he did this morning that we in New Zealand First want National to break the law shows what a totally incompetent fool he can sometimes be. There he was on  
Morning Report 
 making a prize fool of himself and saying that New Zealand First is responsible for National not paying the broadcasters. What total humbug! I have to ask whether this is the first time— 
David Bennett 
: Pay your legal bills! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: The member should listen sunshine when I say I have paid mine so he should not tell this House a lie. Unlike the member who has the courage of a sparrow I face up pay up and take people on. The member has not heard the end of it—make no bones about that. I will have the member laughing on the other side of his face before too long—make no bones about it. He must just be patient. 
I will ask this question about the matter. Was this National’s first election as it was for the Maori Party? If the Maori Party had done this it might have been understandable because this was its first election. No it was not National’s first election. It has been having outings since 1938. The law has been in force for 20 years. National knew the law but decided to circumvent it. 
Hon Member 
: Is this your last one? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: No it is not my last one. More important the member will stay over there whilst he has that attitude. He will stay there as long as he has that arrogant attitude. 
I received an email from a businessman the other day. He wrote: “I was self-employed for 11 years and in that time if I made one mistake if I was one day late I was penalised to the full plus interest on GST PAYE ACC and income tax. The National Party did not rewrite the law for myself or my fellow taxpayers when we made mistakes.” New Zealand First members could not have put it better ourselves. That is exactly what is happening here. National overspent and it has the absolute born-to-rule arrogance to think that it will stop the whole of Parliament so National can be seen not to break the law. I am sorry but who voted against the clean slate legislation? Who voted against Nandor’s wipe the slate clean bill when the Greens put that bill before Parliament? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will use the member’s full name. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: I mean the Green member who put up a bill about wiping the slate clean on crime. National voted it down and now Don Brash says he wants to wipe the slate clean. There is a word for that. 
Hon Member 
: What about Harry Duynhoven? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: National voted against Harry Duynhoven as well. He was totally innocent and there was no money involved. There is a word for that and it starts with “h”. National members are super-good at this hypocrisy.