Speech by Rt Hon Winston Peters
Pure
Cameron St, Whangarei
1pm, 30th June, 2017
A Real Voice for Whangarei
The Chair of the Whangarei electorate, Noela Fidow, deputy chair Ken Barber, Parliamentary colleagues, Tracey Martin and
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First members, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a pleasure to be here in Whangarei to announce our candidate for this electorate and to launch our Campaign for
the Regions Tour around the North and going coast to coast from the North Island to the Deep South, all the way to
Invercargill and Bluff.
There are 86 days to go in this campaign. Eighty-six days to get our message through to voters of Whangarei, Northland,
and indeed around the whole of our country - our message is that with our resources as a country we could, and must, do
much better than we are.
Our country has a history of having achieved significant greatness of economic and social leadership against the very
best in the world.
That is not our present record where manufacturing has been in decline, exports against GDP in decline, and a two-speed
economy where the regions have been playing third fiddle to a myopic preoccupation with big city politics and globalist
agendas.
Our commitment to the New Zealand people is in our name, it is New Zealand First and New Zealanders first.
In this campaign we know we are up against some serious corporate money much of that from offshore, and designed to buy
the political system regardless of what the mass majority of New Zealanders want or need.
This money has gutted the National Party of all principle, and all sincerity. They called themselves National back in
1936 to differentiate themselves from global socialists. Back then and for decades it was National with a capital ‘N’
yet today, in all their simpering arrogance, the capital ‘N’ has gone from their name and they are the globalists.
The very thing they set out in 1936 not to be.
No doubt they have ordered in Fonterra tankers of champagne for 23rd September.
Well we are going to ruin their party.
That is one of the reasons why so many New Zealanders have given up voting. Because they don’t think they can make a
difference.
Well, this campaign is to persuade them otherwise.
That every town matters. That every business matters. That every workforce wherever they might be matter. That every
province matters. That every region matters.
We are not going to let vested interests marginalise and cinderallarise the very heart of our country.
If you look at New Zealand today and the politics that governs it New Zealand is in a very parlous state.
• Where money can buy citizenship, whether one intends to live in NZ or not
• Where offshore money can buy critical land and resources, whether it disadvantages New Zealand or not.
• Where political parties back mass immigration, regardless of whether high skills are involved or not, regardless of
whether we have homes for them or not, regardless of whether we have schools for them or not, regardless of whether we
have health services available for them or not. And regardless of whether we have employment and First World wages for
them or not.
If you look at our biggest city, there are stresses and demands incapable of being satisfied wherever you look.
The very idea such an economic and social result is defensible is preposterous and those that would defend it need to be
exposed for what they are. In the next 86 days that’s exactly what we are going to do.
We are here in the Whangarei, capital of the North, a city being described by big city economists as a “zombie town” and
suffering from decades of deferential, paternalistic neglect.
It has the greatest port in the country, without a train to it.
And that is just one example of central government’s neglect and a lack of strong local representation in Parliament.
There are numerous other examples. We are here today to announce New Zealand First’s candidate for Whangarei, who has
the full backing of the New Zealand First caucus, the full backing of the three New Zealand First MPs here today and the
rest who are about their work around the country.
Their backing is encapsulated in a message sent to me this morning of support and best wishes from the Deputy Leader of
NZ First Ron Mark and all our MPs.
Representation of an electorate like Whangarei will not be easy and will need all of the intelligence and experience and
commitment of our candidate.
This is no time to be looking around at novices or an MP with training wheels on, but rather someone who will hit the
ground running, knows the system inside out, and knows that we have to concertina, within a short time, real milestones
of achievement for Whangarei.
Our candidate is a country boy, off a farm, who made the most of educational opportunity to become a national and
international leader.
This candidate has a stunning record but most recently has devoted his professional skills to turning the natural
resources of diverse Pacific peoples into long term sustainable assets.
And that’s exactly what we are going to do here in Whangarei with our neglected asset base.
Ladies and gentleman, our candidate, is going to be a real voice for Whangarei, he will speak to you now – he is, the
Hon. Shane Jones.
ENDS