Speech: Peters - Calling Out the Greens   9 Jul 2017

Winston Peters: Calling Out the Greens on Allegations of Racism, Payback for Clutha

Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
9 JULY 2017

CAMPAIGN FOR THE REGIONS TOUR – BALCLUTHA

South Otago Town and Country Club
1 Yarmouth Street,
Balclutha
12.30pm, 9 July, 2017

Excerpts from speech

CALLING THE GREENS OUT ON ALLEGATIONS OF RACISM

PAYBACK FOR CLUTHA

This morning I was watching TV One’s Q&A and saw a co-leader from another party referring to myself as being racist.
That same leader was talking about the launch of their water policy in Nelson today as though they have a mortgage on every sound idea for environmental sustainability.
They don’t of course, and worse still, when it comes to water their philosophy is so perverse they are happy for water to be not owned by the people of New Zealand, but rather just some of the people of New Zealand.
In fact, the Greens believe Maori own the water.
And like the Maori Party and the National Party that view is precisely what they are writing into law.
She then went on to say that she could work with New Zealand First as though we’re going to accept an allegation that we are racist, when it is parties like the Greens that would take this country down the pathway to racial separatism.
Racially separatist policies are deeply entrenched in the Greens policies.
My warning to the Greens is don’t call New Zealand First racist - an allegation that is spurious - and think there won’t be consequences.
We are calling out the Greens right now. Why should anyone believe the Greens are concerned about water, when they have such a racially jingoistic attitude towards its ownership.

TIME FOR PAYBACK TO CLUTHA

The concerns of your mayor that this region is having to pay for huge tourism growth without great benefit is a major concern.
The camper vans are flowing through in big numbers and it is your ratepayers who end up picking up the tab to pay for infrastructure – toilets and parking.
This is happening all around the country and the problem has been particularly acute here.
For the year to May international visitors spent $68 million in your region.
From this, the government creamed off a sizeable amount in GST.
New Zealand First believes this GST money must go back to the Clutha district to help pay for infrastructure.
The government took $1.5b in GST from international visitors to New Zealand in the year to March 2016, and $950m the year before, yet little has gone to councils that desperately need money for toilets, sewerage schemes and local road improvements to cope with tourist numbers.

ROADING

Ratepayers here also must pay for the third longest road network in New Zealand.
Roads are taking a pounding from heavy trucks but you receive little support from central government.
Some of that GST money would be used for roads as well as tourism infrastructure and to stimulate job training and opportunities.
ROYALTIES TO CLUTHA
Under our Royalties from the Regions policy, 25 percent of any royalties collected by the government from water, mining or petroleum in the region would be returned to the region from which they came.
As an example, the government collects over $400 million in royalties.
Under our scheme over $100 million, year on year, would remain in the regions for investment.
It is demonstrably wrong that companies like Coca Cola, Suntory Holdings, Oravida, Fiji Water – can take our water for a pitiful token fee while they make millions of dollars from it.
National says no-one owns the water – so foreign companies can come in and take it.
WOOL CARPETS BACK ON THE FLOORS OF GOVERNMENT

NZ First will stop synthetic carpets being installed in government funded buildings by specifying natural fibre carpets like wool and the use of wool insulation.

Tens of thousands of houses will have to be built over the next 10 years alone and what should be a bonanza for wool won’t be with National turning its back on wool.

NZ First will swing government procurement in behind natural, renewable and sustainable wool and natural fibres.
Both as floor coverings and as a material of choice for insulation.

It is wrong that in the six years since January 2011, the Ministry for Social Development purchased no woollen carpets but thousands of square metres of synthetics.
In 1997, just 20 years ago, wool was a $1billion export, which would be worth $1.5 billion in today’s dollars.
Yet poor leadership has seen wool’s export value fall to just $531m in the year to May 2017 and that’s down 33.1% on 2016.

TELFORD

We hear the constant line from government that we must bring in skilled workers to fill the skills shortages.
This applies also to the rural sector.
Then why has the government allowed Telford to get into the troubled situation it finds itself today.
Why can they not step in to make sure this renowned institution has a strong future?
Trades training and training for agricultural careers has not been supported by the government to the extent it should.
National look for the cheap and quick option – bring in foreign workers.
But we have more than 90,000 New Zealanders aged from 15 to 24 who do not have jobs, and are not in education or training.
The Salvation Army said between 2008 and 2012 under National, apprenticeship training collapsed due to poor planning by the government and by industries.
As a result, around 20,000 Kiwis missed out on becoming skilled tradespeople.
Numbers have recovered slightly since then but we are still going for the cheap option of approving 16,000 visas for migrant tradespeople every year and not providing enough pathways to get young Kiwis into these skilled jobs
Bill English said young New Zealanders working on farms are “pretty hopeless.”
That is a kick in the teeth of our young people.
They should be encouraged and shown the excellent long term prospects there are in the agricultural industry.
Telford must have a future.

RED MEAT

A few months ago we saw the axe fall on Silver Fern Farms’ meat plant at Fairton near Ashburton.
Hundreds have been thrown out of work.
The CEO of Silver Fern Farms said southern plants would not be affected and were safe “for now.”
That means anything can happen and creates uncertainty for your Finegand plant here.
New Zealand First predicted this would happen.
The fact is our red meat industry is in crisis whether commentators realise it or not.
The National government is leading this country along the road of foreign ownership and the main highway leads to China.
Did you not think it was strangely coincidental that shortly after Shanghai Maling obtained a controlling interest in Silver Fern Farms that the chilled lamb market miraculously opened up in China?
There might be a honeymoon period – but that soon quickly goes and the harsh reality sets in.
We have a key export resource, red meat, with all its added value potential, rapidly passing into foreign ownership.
The same is happening to dairying.

DAIRY – ADDED VALUE
Dairy is our second biggest export earner behind tourism and is a major player in the Clutha economy.
You would think we would have total control of this vitally important industry. We don’t.
We are steadily losing the added-value of our dairy produce.
New Zealand First says we must work to retain our major assets.
Not hand them over for foreign dominance and control.
We need the added value.

CONCLUSION
Ever since we began our nationwide road tour of the regions we have heard the same words:
Thank you for coming; thank you for listening to our concerns.
Because central government is not interested.
They have forgotten about you, even though their flawed economic experiment and globalism policies have caused so much widespread misery.
Our cities have people living in cars and garages.
Our rural towns have battled through the slump in dairy prices and have just held on.
Wherever we go you see the impact of funding deficits from central government – the roads falling apart; too many heavy trucks on our highways because National has let rail run down and have all but destroyed coastal shipping.
The government takes out of our regions, like Balclutha, and doesn’t give back.
New Zealand First will make sure there is payback for Clutha.
If you work together with us we can make it happen.

ENDS

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