WINSTON PETERS SPEECH TO NEW ZEALAND FIRST CONVENTION 2003

ADDINGTON RACEWAY, CHRISTCHURCH

“WE WILL BE READY”

An appreciation to the Party, the Party workers, the Caucus and the Tauranga Electorate.

This convention is a milestone in the history of New Zealand First.

Ten years ago, in the dying years of First Past the Post Governments, we gathered in Auckland to start a political movement that would be different to any other in New Zealand.

We set out to restore faith in the democratic process, long perverted by Labour and National under the old electoral system.

The old parties enjoyed unbridled power and were preparing to pay lip service to the new MMP electoral system.

New Zealand First will go down in New Zealand’s history as the real pioneers of MMP; the only new party to have delivered for the electorate in real terms.

From formation to government in just three years, we were criticised for the demands we made on behalf of New Zealanders in the coalition agreement with National in 1996.

Looking back, we can be proud that in only two years in government, we improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders.

We made changes that included:

A better deal for exporters

An end to the super surtax

One and half billion extra in health spending

Increased police numbers

Lowered immigration numbers

Screening for Hepatitis B

Maintaining government spending levels to keep New Zealand afloat during the Asian financial crisis;

And much much more

And we kept our nerve despite the most sustained attacks in the history of New Zealand politics.

No other party since then has had the courage to stand in the halls of power and remember the people who put them there.

Coalition partners are now the lapdogs of the political ruling class like the relationship that Labour imposes on United Future and the Greens.

Both fall over themselves to please their mistress – and wag their tails when she scratches their bellies. So in effect, we are back to a one party system in an MMP Parliament and that party is leading us to social, cultural and economic ruin.

You can tell a country is in trouble when it’s led by a Prime Minister who says on nationwide television: “I sometimes wonder whether I’m a victim of my own success as a popular and competent Prime Minister.”

This reminds me of two other quotes; “Mirror, mirror on the wall who is fairest of them all?”- the other is, “Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad”.

Leaders who put the laurels on their own head invite contempt.

***

What Helen Clark’s pronouncement omitted to mention was what exactly she was successful and competent at.

The only thing that her government has really succeeded at is undermining and damaging the interests of New Zealand.

They are a government of wreckers – actively pursuing policies designed to undermine New Zealand’s unity, coherence and sense of identity.

The shared values that hold us together as a people are dissolving in a sea of political correctness, lawlessness, and ethnic engineering.

Just look around the world and see what happens to countries where there is no common ground on fundamental values. They are wracked by internal division, strife and violence.

All elections are important, but the next election will define forever the cultural and social landscape of this once great country.

No nation is immune from misguided policies – success as a nation is not guaranteed. There is nothing inevitable about New Zealand once again becoming a stable, prosperous and fair-minded society.

New Zealand First campaigns every day on the basic rights we see as fundamental to being a New Zealander.

The right to walk our streets in safety.

The right of every one to stand together as equals.

The right to preserve our own values, culture and identity as a nation.

We campaign on these basic rights because the Government continues to place them at risk.

Pick up any newspaper on any given day and you will find reports of horrendous crimes.

The totally unnecessary foreshore and seabed dispute portend a divided country.

And our unique New Zealand identity is still being overwhelmed by a flood of immigrants.

Each of these omens signifies the breaking of yet another strand of the ties that bind us together as a nation.

There are powerful forces of disintegration at work in New Zealand and in these we see a tragedy unfolding.

Before we can start rebuilding our nation we must first identify the dangers that are putting our future at risk.

Unless there is a reversal of current policies that sap our strength, the New Zealand we know will be gone.

And all our children will have is a distant memory of a lost land that once led the world as a social laboratory for the betterment of humanity.

LAW AND ORDER

The first threat we face is the remorseless erosion of law and order. The criminals are winning because the Government is on their side!

Many criminals who should be locked up are on so-called home detention, committing more crimes.

Crime pays in New Zealand – thanks to a soft government and teams of state paid do-gooders who treat the criminals as victims – and treat the victims as criminals.

The other political parties have one fatal flaw in their approach to tackling crime. They want a ‘magic bullet’.

They believe that out there somewhere is the key to the criminal mind – and with enough discussion – enough consultation and research they will find it.

It is time for action and that is why New Zealand First, rejecting the passive approach, is committed to doubling police numbers.

It is feasible, affordable and sustainable.

Criminals will rethink the costs and payoffs from crime and it will dramatically reduce crime.

And we will stop this farce of police being used as tax collectors on the roads.

Police will be fighting crime, not collecting money.

We will also go right to the heart of why so many of our young people drift into crime.

Too many grow up without jobs, self-discipline or direction. Yet without self-esteem and self-discipline young people do not become contributing citizens. They become aimless, often criminal, and this is a recipe for social disaster.

We propose to introduce military or community service training for young unemployed people.

And, if they need some “tough love” – we will give it to them.

TREATY OF WAITANGI

Many needing tough love are Maori who have been born under the shroud of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Treaty was essentially a colonising document - more a statement of good intent on both sides and as such holds considerable social value.

However, guilt ridden white liberals, brown radicals, judicial activists and an army of politically correct bureaucrats have turned the Treaty into a travesty.

Between 1984 and 1996, and now, again, both Labour and National perpetrated a massive fraud by encouraging the Treaty industry and manipulating what the Treaty means.

Those who signed it saw it as a way forward in unity.

On the beaches of Gallipoli amid the slaughter of ANZAC troops 88 years ago, New Zealand’s sense of nationhood was forged.

In 2003 we are again facing a defining moment but first we have to answer a fateful question.

Do we go into a future – crippled by a distorted view of the colonial past – or can we face up to the fact that it is now 2003?

The Treaty, as it now being interpreted, will cripple New Zealand’s forward progress.

Ultimately the Treaty is what New Zealanders deem it to mean.

The key question we have to ask ourselves is this:

Is the Treaty contributing to the future of New Zealand or is it now a source of division?

This is not about denying the Treaty or the values it enshrines.

We do not question the vision of those who signed the Treaty.

But through misguided political correctness and hidden agendas the Treaty has been perverted from a source of unity to one of discord and division and is now a roadblock to our future.

And in its folly the government is busy adding to the blockage.

Infecting our laws with references to unspecified Treaty principles is fertile ground for the burgeoning Treaty industry, propagating confusion and mischief.

Meanwhile it is doing nothing for the real health, housing, education and employment needs of Maori and Maori are already the ultimate losers from this situation. Despite its rhetoric the Government has used Maori shamelessly.

Maori actually face a double penalty because their genuine needs are being starved by the diversion of resources to the greedy Treaty entrepreneurs.

By propagating the Treaty industry Labour and National have turned Maori into everlasting professional victims of the colonisation process.

Every group of New Zealanders can move ahead and go as far as their energy and talent can take them. All except one – Maori who have an albatross around their neck in the shape of the Treaty industry.

They have another handicap – a separate electoral system which is sidelining them from full political participation. At the last election under the separate political system seven Labour Maori MPs were elected to represent the interests of Maori.

This is not happening. How does prostitution benefit Maori women? How do same sex marriages benefit Maori?

And what about the Supreme Court? Even four of these seven Maori MPs could block that or demand a referendum and force the Government’s hand. They don’t because they lack the political courage to truly represent the interests of their people.

There is a fall out on New Zealand First from this political cowardice.

There is so much dissatisfaction with the seven Maori MPs that New Zealand First is under huge pressure to stand in these seats.

There is no doubt we would take these seats again if we fielded candidates.

We campaigned on a single franchise for all New Zealanders; and a separate electoral system based on race is not part of our vision of a united prosperous nation in which everyone is valued equally.

We understand the plight of Maori in the seven Maori Electorates but we say be brave, help is on its way.

MMP is the answer to the representation Maori have lost to Labour. We have shown that Maori can make it to Parliament on the same footing as everyone else.

So the answer to their problems is vote for the party vote New Zealand First.

Then we will deal to the serious issues of health, housing and education and First World wages and salaries.

IMMIGRATION

The third area posing clear and present danger to the integrity of New Zealand as a sovereign state is unlimited immigration.

New Zealand First has repeatedly informed, warned and explained why current immigration policy is disastrous to New Zealand’s interests.

Relatively, no country permits anywhere near the influx that is happening here.

There are about 55,000 births annually in New Zealand.

When you allow for the death rate we had a natural increase of about 27,000 in the year ended June 2003.

In the year to July 2003 over 72,000 immigrants came here, a net migration gain of 42,000 – up 22 percent on the net inflow in the previous year.

Whatever the bland assurances from the frenetic Minister of Immigration, the situation is either out of control or Labour has a deliberate policy of rapidly replacing Kiwis with foreigners. Either way it is treasonous and treacherous.

A government running a settler policy to swamp the New Zealand born population.

Observe the recent fiasco over foreign mothers coming here to give birth – at our expense. New Zealand is the only country where citizenship comes for the price of an air ticket!

As soon as one loophole is closed another opens because there is no coherent population policy – just a series of ad hoc knee jerk policy U turns usually in response to some immigration scam that New Zealand First has exposed.

Imagine what immigration would have reached without the stand taken by New Zealand First? Already one in five New Zealanders was born overseas and that figure soars to one in three in the Auckland region.

The Balkanisation of New Zealand that we warned about last year is now well under way with enclaves that have only a marginal connection to mainstream New Zealand.

Communities –that nice friendly – innocuous – all purpose word.

But the communities created by today’s mass immigration are unlike earlier immigrant communities – they are so large they cannot be “digested” in a country of only four million people.

Ask people in Bosnia, Ulster, Sri Lanka and Fiji what the term ‘communities’ means and you will get a more ominous meaning.

Today many of our ethnic communities carry the seed of conflict. Already these self-perpetuating, self sustaining communities are turning into ghettos where English is a foreign language.

In these ‘communities’ New Zealand is another country.

These enclaves are becoming ghettoes that reflect the culture of Calcutta, Canton or Kabul.

This Government wrote the book on Political Correctness and Wellington is now known as the PC capital of the world.

In the wacky world of PC the gravest crime is to be called a ‘racist’ so any policy, however vital for the interests of New Zealand, is avoided if it can be termed ‘racist’.

This Government would allow the entire population of Calcutta or Shanghai into New Zealand tomorrow to save itself from being branded ‘racist’.

Political correctness dictates that obvious and sensible policies to protect the health of New Zealanders and to keep out criminal and potential terrorists cannot be put in place.

If you thought Maori alienation was a challenge, the prospects that emerge from the ethnic ghettoes now forming are the stuff that nightmares are made of.

New Zealand First will NOT stand silent in the face of this colonisation.

We serve notice that the day of the overstayer, the illegal immigrant, the bogus asylum seeker and the fake refugee are over forever.

Under New Zealand First legislation we will, like Australia, change our citizenship laws.

You will not become a New Zealand citizen just because you are born here. One or both parents will have to be a New Zealand citizen.

New Zealand is for New Zealanders – not for benefit seeking tourists seeking a free ride on the backs of New Zealand taxpayers.

CONCLUSION

Fellow freedom fighters – there are stormy skies over the land of the long white cloud.

And if we are to survive and thrive the things that unite us must be bigger than those that divide us. Right now the scales are out of balance.

New Zealand is disintegrating into a series of sub-tribes – Pacific Peoples – Maori – the Indian Community – the Chinese Community – the Iraqi community, the Somali community and so on. By some perverted logic the Government seems to want New Zealand to revert to a tribal system.

The Labour party and their fellow travellers may welcome this prospect but it spells the end of dreams as a unified nation.

Remember Clark, Cullen, Wilson and Goff are the same outfit that aided and abetted the wrecking ball of Roger Douglas.

They were all part of the Lange Government that put the New Zealand economy into a pit from which we have never recovered. The Government that sold the prime national assets upon which to build future wealth.

Now, no matter how productive and efficient we become, much of what we earn drains away to those overseas owners who now control our best assets.

No wonder it is so hard to raise income levels.

So – not content with their economic damage throwing away the core of New Zealand’s wealth, the same mob are now bent on throwing away our nationhood in pursuit of their globalist agenda.

At the next election at least one party will be ready, New Zealand First, will be offering a real alternative for real New Zealanders.

We will introduce sound, fair policies that pave the way to prosperity.

We will provide jobs for our people.

We will make our country safe again.

We will ensure that New Zealanders have access to quality healthcare, decent housing and a good education.

We will end the division and the discord.

We will ask New Zealanders to help rebuild our once proud nation.

We have two years to spread our message into every city town, village and home.

It wont be easy but we will be ready.

We know we can fix it. We must and we will.

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