Speech: Peters - Calling Out the Greens 9 Jul 2017
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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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