It’s great to be back in Tauranga in the last week of the campaign.

As you know, some of us have been here before - and can recall the launch of this establishment. And remember a flying school next door that was struggling to get central government recognition.

We’re back again in the Bay of Plenty because we’ve always believed “regions matter”, that they are the engine room of our economy, that they are the power house of our export wealth, and critical to a COVID-19 recovery.

As a matter of interest, I came here to fight a snap election in 1984. Back then the road over the Kaimai’s was still part metal as was the road north to Waihi. And there wasn’t one bridge over the central harbour. Before I left there were two bridges - both toll free. And new roads with alphabetical names, such as route J, K, everywhere.

We went from being a sleepy hollow to New Zealand’s fastest growing city. Tauranga’s population roared past that of other cities.

And one of the first things we did, was to get Tauranga taken from second in the Bay of Plenty phone book, to first. It was just a small matter, but it was a waste of time for so many of us fanning through the phone book, and remember there were no cellphones back then.

But that’s history and the number one anxiety and fear New Zealanders have today as a group, is what happens now. People are asking, what happens to me, my job, my income, my family, my community, and my country.

Everyone is talking about getting a coronavirus vaccine. The problem is, the SARS virus is still with us, and HIV hasn’t found a vaccine after four decades.

So really this is no time for blind trust and hope. New Zealanders need a fail-safe vote, based on proven experience and common sense.

“Experience Matters”

Ladies and gentlemen, experience is needed in politics, and for the last three years we brought experience and common sense to government.

As Foreign Minister we’ve worked hard to re-establish New Zealand’s respect in the world.

On the 16th of February this year, I sent a message out to New Zealander’s all over the world.

“Come home now” because your travel options are closing off real fast.

It wasn’t easy, but we had to call upon all of our relationships and friendships with Foreign Ministers and Prime Ministers, and Presidents in far flung countries, to get our people home.

We picked up the phone on countless occasions to cut through the bureaucracy and just make things happen.

It was about knowing what needed to be done – right then – right away.

It was about forward planning, getting things in place, not allowing things or people to get in the way of the right plan.

And we moved over 150,000 people either back to this country, or back to their country. And we didn’t endanger this countries health in doing so. That is why experience is so important.

Experience is about how in the last three years we have reset our Pacific relationships and re-established our Senior Role in the Pacific. Our neighborhood is part of our security and we have rapidly restored our influence with our Pacific friends.

Over the past three years we’ve cooperated in coalition government to pass over 190 pieces of legislation. We brought experience to every discussion. We brought caution when it appeared decisions were being made without the experience to foresee what the outcome could mean. It’s about understanding the implications, progress and decisions, and how they would affect the population of New Zealand.

Look, let’s be adults here. It doesn’t mean that in coalitions you don’t have disagreements. Of course you do. Every good organisation brings vigorous debate to the table. And trying to paint these differences as somehow being disloyal to the coalition is nonsense. We shook a Prime Ministers hand and we kept our word.

In New Zealand, as everywhere, government is walking a tight rope.

There is intense pressure to get the economy back to work, whilst balancing to keep the COVID virus in check.

Given the depth and the extent of the pandemic, at some point the eye watering stimulus and support packages being promised by some parties will have to be scaled back. That will have to happen if the government’s finances are to have any credibility.

Given the outlook of great uncertainty and the prospect of severe hardship ahead, what should Kiwi’s think as we vote.

“Regions Matter”

Until 2017 the regions, for decades, had been treated like Cinderella. Political parties had for years been promising to do “something” to boost the regions. But that “something” was always vague in terms of funding, timing and delivery.

Before COVID-19 struck this year the government, through the Provincial Growth Fund had a serious regional policy that is substantial, well-coordinated and properly funded.

What makes the Provincial Growth Fund different is that it has critical mass. The PGF is putting $3billion into the regions to fund a wide range of projects that deliver jobs, amenities and enterprises that act as catalysts for further development.

The PGF has not been run by bureaucrats, it has been run by serious business men and women, who lent their commercial experience to a seriously successful programme.

New Zealand First brought the Provincial Growth Fund to government in the negotiations to form the coalition. We did so because there was a desperate need for a strong regional policy to ensure:

1. Balanced and equitable growth

2. Relieve pressure off our overloaded major cities

3. To make New Zealand’s economy as a whole more diverse and resilient.

We set out three years ago to get the basics right.

The lesson we are re-learning from COVID it is that regions are critical to our country’s survival, and that investment like the Provincial Growth Fund is desperately needed in the future.

Why is your vote is so critical now

In harsh economic times politicians find excuses for spending cuts. Or some come up with ideas, with no regard to the massive debt we will have to pay back. And its what the debt is spent on, that’s most worrying in this election.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most critical election for anyone in this room, or who is watching online. Unless you remember the last world war, there has never been a crisis like this one.

And in a crisis, experience, cool heads, and common sense seriously matter.

It’s no time for experiments or for thinking to shift the dial extremely to the left or violently to the right. We’ve been through that in the past and none of it has worked.

We all must surely know now that this is a time for voting with “eyes wide open”, for working smarter, because we’re trained up to do so. For adding value to our resources where ever we can. To maximize for New Zealand the wealth of what we produce, and not see other countries get the lions share of it.

Again, today, the headlines are raging on about a “wealth tax” and the parties giving an assurance that there won’t be one, are the very parties that tried to get just that over the last three years.

Even though those same parties had to admit that a Capital Gains Tax would not help the governments books for at least seven years – they spent months arguing that there should be one anyway.

New Zealand is not going to go forward if it doesn’t have policies to deal with the immediate crisis. And in our manifesto, New Zealand First has set out what our vision for the future is. And how we can, by working smart, trade our way out of this crisis.

Far too often difficult and complex policies – productivity, living standards, exports, population, immigration, and workforce issues which should be dealt with by ‘top of the cliff’ policies are now ‘bottom of the cliff’ wrecks. As a result, instead of improving household incomes, recent governments have been Working For Families as a political solution to paper over the cracks of economic failure. The very root cause of the problem is not dealt with, with the consequences getting worse and the cost of band aids increasing unproductive government spending. The result is a downward spiral.

New Zealand First believes that our country desperately needs the following:

· A pivot shift in the culture of work to improve our economic prospects

· An understanding that equality is fairness, but it must not override competition

· Appreciation that ideas such as hard work, productivity, excellence and sacrifice must no longer be frowned upon.

If we are to seriously compete with the better performing economies, then we must match them in the values that they practice.

A wealth tax of the type being floated by the Greens will cripple many New Zealand families and Senior New Zealanders. Due to house inflation, many of these people are asset rich and cash poor.

And any added taxation paid on an annual basis and set against property values, will rob those people and literally tax them out of the home they saved and worked so hard for.

A government that lurches violently to the left is a serious threat to New Zealand’s Seniors.

It is a serious threat to those who have invested in businesses, or farms, or any other enterprise to make a living. And it’s a serious threat also to workers.

Closing

New Zealand First has for decades defended vulnerable New Zealanders against political extremes.

With COVID and economic fear on every Kiwi’s mind, experience and common sense in government is needed now more than ever.

We are an underdog in this election, but we’re far closer to influencing the next government that National or Act.

For many voters, New Zealand First is still the best bet for sound, stable government.

So take out some insurance.

Make your second vote count.

And, party vote New Zealand First.

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