Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
“The only one denying you the right to vote is you”
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this morning.Next year we will have a General Election and you will be given the choice of supporting the candidate and party you think best represents you.
People will be telling you how you should vote, including those of us who are aligned to particular political parties.
Continue to the full transcript of Winston Peter's speech this morning at Lincoln College
Speech by New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston PetersGuest LecturerIntroduction to NZ government and policy classForbes BuildingLincoln UniversityWednesday, 10th August, 20169am
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this morning.
Next year we will have a General Election and you will be given the choice of supporting the candidate and party you think best represents you.
People will be telling you how you should vote, including those of us who are aligned to particular political parties.
But we’re here today to talk briefly about your vote and New Zealand First.
We are not a party obsessed with ideology – our policies are reality based.
We are not beholden – constrained or limited by a whole range of pre-existing positions or in serving particular interest groups.
This gives us a unique advantage – we can look at the facts and together work for what is in the best interests of ordinary Kiwis and New Zealand as a whole.
New Zealand First stands absolutely for a society based on merit and equal opportunity for all.
And we do not take our identity or social cohesion as a society for granted.
This is particularly important given the large scale demographic changes that have been foisted upon us so carelessly by other political parties.
And the change they have brought about was never as a result of consultation with the New Zealand people.
There are parties in Parliament today belatedly expressing their concern about the adverse effects of mass immigration numbers on New Zealand’s economic and social health.
Some of these parties were entirely responsible for this because not so long ago they all thought this was a thoroughly good idea.
If anyone opposed their view they were immediately accused of being racist and xenophobic.
Let me share with you some comments New Zealand First received from a Chinese real estate agent in Auckland last week. The agent said:
1. “A large number of Chinese investment property owners, especially those purchased before the IRD registration rule was imposed, do not pay tax. They advertise privately through Chinese medium or among their own social circles. Our IRD, he said, is doing nothing.” And this agent said:
2. “The vast majority of foreigners are buying properties/land with capital gains as their primary concern; they are pure speculators. In the event of a downward property trend, they will be selling out in bulk and abandoning the New Zealand market.” And the agent also said:
3. “Auckland is quickly developing into a Chinese ghetto with ugly, cheap signages at every corner of the central suburbs. It is not the Auckland my family and many other Chinese families worked so hard to migrate to. With the overflowing of low quality Chinese immigrants rampaging Auckland, not only is our culture suffering an unrecoverable damage, many qualified immigrants are hesitating to move to New Zealand. The talk of "going to NZ is like going to China" is frequently heard in Japan where I recently travelled to.”
This Chinese real estate agent concluded in his personal letter to me: “The immigration policy has to change and you have to fight on.”
More and more people are saying this and speaking out about our current level of immigration:
- Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the Chief Executive of ANZ David Hisco, businessman Stephen Jennings.
But the government refuses to listen.
Your generation are seeing the result of large scale immigration:
There is artificial competition for rentals, housing, jobs, hospital beds, places in classrooms and lecture halls.
New Zealand First is not opposed to immigration.
It has its place but we do not want the situation we have today of a city the size of New Plymouth being created year after year.
We favour a cautious, sensible, and prudent immigration policy to ensure that our social cohesion is not in any way undermined or threatened.
The Prime Minister has stated that $100 billion of foreign capital was invested last year.
Despite the fact much of this foreign capital was not investment but speculation - he didn’t mention, of course, the billions vanishing from our country because of invisibles (exploiting corporate tax arrangements when they pay only a third of one percent in tax) and dividends to overseas shareholders.
Foreign corporates/ trusts
New Zealand First is not a party that supports people desperate to hide their super wealth in trusts located here so they can avoid paying tax; or unscrupulous people like money launderers.
We are totally opposed to large multi-national companies that operate here getting away with paying just a pittance in tax.
Last year overseas companies avoided paying billions in tax – that we know about.
For example Facebook paid only $43,000; Tegel Chicken about one third of one percent.
Unfortunately Coca Cola has been allowed to come in and take our water for a piffling fee and go off and make millions of dollars in profits.
One of these, a Chinese company Oravida, pays approximately $500 to draw up to 146 million litres a year from the Otakiri Aquifer in the Bay of Plenty.
A few hundred dollars for New Zealand – multi-millions of dollars for this Chinese company – with water from New Zealand.
New Zealand First believes water taken out of New Zealand should be subject to a royalty paid to the Crown.
A proportion of that royalty should be returned to the region from where the water is extracted.
That’s only fair.
Separatism
New Zealand First is opposed to separatism.
We absolutely oppose the trend supported by National and other parties to create a “parallel state” for Māori through programmes such as Whānau Ora.
We are opposed to divisive proposed legislation around the ownership of water.
We are opposed to reforms to planning laws which say that Maori are separate from the community, and therefore are entitled to a statutory body with legal powers of sanction over city, town and country planning applications.
We make this stand because we believe in one law for all – irrespective of ethnic background.
All New Zealanders, regardless of their origins, are entitled to good education, housing, health facilities and most of all they need good jobs with fair wages and salaries.
But we do acknowledge that lack of full-time employment is a serious issue for many, and more so for Māori and Pasifika young people.
Economy
We support a mixed economy.
We do not subscribe to National’s free-market ideology that wants to see private interests dominating the provision of public services.
There have been many examples of failure.
For example, the electricity sector is now a complete shambles.
It now mostly generates price hikes and requires a total overhaul.
National’s creeping privatisation poses great risks to our standard of living in areas such as education and health.
Health, education
Access to education and health services are fundamental to a decent society.
There can be no real equality of opportunity if there is gross inequality and disparity in these two critical areas
So we support a high quality public education system and high quality public health service
We do not believe in selling our land or houses to foreign offshore interests and we believe that state-owned assets should be held in trust for the people.
Parliament and the government’s role is to protect and defend the people - to be guardians of the country’s resources – and to help the people reach their potential through enlightened health, education, housing and employment policies.
Now some others are trying to say it - but New Zealand First is committed to it.
New Zealand First believes that we must train, skill, educate and employ our own people first.
There is no excuse for the hiring of cheap labour from overseas when so many New Zealanders are on the unemployment scrap heap back here.
And on the question of student loans our position is that we want to amend the current scheme.
We would provide incentives to assist student debt repayment and work with sector stake holders, including the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA), to review the whole Student Loan Scheme.
We would introduce a universal living allowance which is not subject to parent means testing as a priority for all full-time students.
And we would also introduce a dollar-for-dollar debt write-off scheme so that graduates in identified areas of workforce shortages may trade a year’s worth of debt for each year of paid full-time work in New Zealand in that area.
Lack of vision
We have these policies because we have a vision for New Zealand.
Over 8 years National has shown no vision, no strategy, no plan for New Zealand.
National has the Auckland housing crisis which they deny exists; increased immigration creating a consumer demand blowout, the Christchurch Rebuild, and billions of dollars from offshore buying New Zealand assets.
These are not the policies for a great future.
You can judge for yourself.
But there is a challenge for each of you here today.
For decades the percentage of young people choosing not to vote has been alarming.
This is not good for the social and economic health of our country.
Christchurch is known as being the home of the woman on the New Zealand ten dollar note, Kate Sheppard.
You might have seen the show on her recently at The Court Theatre – “That Bloody Woman!”
Kate Sheppard fought hard so that women would have the right to vote.
She did not take this responsibility lightly – she saw how important it was and she valued it.
And because she did, New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce universal suffrage – allowing women to vote in political elections.
Sadly, today there are many young people who say ‘why bother voting, it doesn’t matter’.
Well, respectfully, that is wrong.
Each and every moment of your life the policies of governments are affecting you, many adversely so. You might think you can ignore politics but politics is not going to ignore you.
Kate Sheppard recognised this.
Everything in the cost structure of your life, whether at work, university or leisure, is affected by government policy.
So politics does matter and; if that’s the case, would you not be smart to have your say in what those policies are and the political environment to improve them?
New Zealand First encourages you to have your say and vote.
As Kate Sheppard said:
“Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops.”
Leonhard Kurz, an international manufacturer of decorative and functional coatings, has acquired the design-oriented production company Burg Design from Spanish automotive supplier Grupo Antolin, in order to extend its design and decoration capabilities for its global customer base.
Burg Design, which has over 200 employees at its Steyr and Haidershofen locations in Austria, was founded in 1977 and is a globally active specialist in the design and production of high-quality, large-format silk screen printed items. Burg’s design solutions are employed, for example, in the automotive, furniture, sporting and white goods industries.
The decoration solutions supplier expands its technology offerings and boosts its design competencies through this purchase
Leonhard Kurz, an international manufacturer of decorative and functional coatings, has acquired the design-oriented production company Burg Design from Spanish automotive supplier Grupo Antolin, in order to extend its design and decoration capabilities for its global customer base.
Burg Design, which has over 200 employees at its Steyr and Haidershofen locations in Austria, was founded in 1977 and is a globally active specialist in the design and production of high-quality, large-format silk screen printed items. Burg’s design solutions are employed, for example, in the automotive, furniture, sporting and white goods industries.
This addition enables Kurz to broaden its range of design technologies, thereby offering its customers even more comprehensive solutions for optimally meeting the demand for visually refined and customizable surface designs. Kurz and Burg have already successfully collaborated on a number of customer projects in the past, and while doing so tailored the technologies of both companies to one another and combined them synergistically.
“It gives us great pleasure to welcome Burg Design as a new member of our company group, and we look forward to working together with a business that is involved in such an exciting market segment,” says Rainer Süßmann, Manager, Sales & Marketing Automotive at Kurz. “Thanks to synergy capability in design and technology, we are able to open up new design possibilities for our global customer base. The highly professional and competent team at Burg will assist us substantially in expanding our business segments.”
Süßmann also regards Burg Design as a perfect addition content-wise: “While Kurz is more active in the area of the high-volume sales models of large-scale global manufacturers, Burg mainly supplies customers like Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes and other manufacturers in the customized and premium segments, and does so internationally. We will therefore complement each other very well,” explains Süßmann.
A Leonhard Kurz press release
Former Prime Minister and Victoria University of Wellington Distinguished Fellow Sir Geoffrey Palmer is calling for a modern written constitution in New Zealand to boost public confidence in government.Sir Geoffrey and constitutional expert Dr Andrew Butler have been working on a proposed new constitution and will soon publish a book, A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, setting out their ideas and seeking public comment on them.
New Zealand’s Constitution should be modernised to make it more easily accessible, says Sir Geoffrey.
“We aim to provide a model and stimulate the debate. We believe this country needs a modern constitution that is easy to understand, reflects New Zealand’s identity, enhances public confidence in government, and better protects rights and liberties.”
A constitution outlines the fundamental rules regarding the powers of government, how government institutions are structured and interact, as well as protections for human rights.
Compared with overseas constitutions, New Zealand’s Constitution was highly unusual in that it was made up of “a hodge-podge of rules”, was not located in one place and was very hard to find, said Sir Geoffrey.
Parts of what could be considered the current constitution were located in 45 Acts of Parliament, 12 international treaties, nine areas of common law, eight constitutional conventions, several executive orders and other legal instruments.
Trying to understand the current New Zealand Constitution was difficult and frustrating, says Sir Geoffrey. “It is unsurprising then that New Zealanders speak little of their Constitution and think about it even less.”
However, he believes the public will engage strongly once they have specific proposals to consider and its importance becomes clear.
“We believe the recent flag debate showed there was an appetite for discussion and movement on the constitution. A constitution goes to the heart of the matter about who we are and what we believe in.”
Sir Geoffrey and Dr Butler today launched a new website on the subject at http://constitutionaotearoa.org.nz/. More specific detail about the proposals will be revealed on the site after Victoria University Press publishes the book at the end of September and the public will then be invited to make submissions to the authors.
"Public participation and involvement is a core aim of our project," says Dr Butler. "We are convinced that people should have a sense of ownership of their constitution. So we want to hear from the public before finalising our own ideas."
There could be some significant changes. For example, the authors propose a new Constitution that would replace the idea of the Crown with a legal entity of the State. This could mean the end of the monarchy in New Zealand.
“However, it is possible to retain the monarchy and create the State,” Sir Geoffrey says. "In the book, we will be making the case for the substitution of a New Zealander as Head of State, but whether the Queen remains Head of that State would be up to New Zealanders. We simply want to show that it can be done, and can be done in a way that involves a minimum of fuss.”
In the meantime New Zealand’s present Constitution was incomplete and far too flexible, says Sir Geoffrey. Unlike most other countries, nearly all of New Zealand's constitutional rules can be altered very easily by Parliament. Important features, such as the Bill of Rights, can be changed or removed with no consultation and no popular mandate.
“In our view, government should be conducted under the law. That law should apply to everyone, including Parliament. People have rights and they should be provided in a constitution that is supreme law and binds the Parliament.”
New Zealand would be more successful and better governed if there was constitutional change, says Sir Geoffrey.
“The changes we will put forward we believe are a necessary part of preserving democratic freedom in New Zealand, and of protecting the fundamental principles which anchor public power and strengthen government accountability. We want to find out if New Zealanders agree.”
A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, published by Victoria University Press, will be launched at Parliament on 21 September: http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/a-constitution-for-aotearoa-new-zealand/
Doctrines now having opposite effect of the intended one.
France the country that invented diversity and multiculturalism is having to abandon them just because they constrain diversity and multiculturalism by forcing the nation into gender segregation.
The problem was thrust into embarrassing pubic prominence a year ago when police were required to guard an Arab potentate’s private beach on France’s Mediterranean coast, writes our European Correspondent.
Some of the police rostered onto the task were women. Such guardianship ran counter to the proclaimed religious beliefs of those using the private beach.
The female police were rostered off. The religious embarrassment of the would-be swimmers was as nothing compared to the public embarrassment in a country in which equality is one of the three tenets of its existence along with liberty and fraternity. The matter of the female police officers being ordered off the job they were pledged to do was allowed to slide into the background.
But it has sprung into life again and this time the issue of gender segregation has taken over a firmer place in the political agenda.
It is now over the seemingly minor detail of specially programmed swimming pool times required for wearers of full clothing or for the all-encompassing “burkini” as it has now been described.
The female angle to all this has long been swept under France’s exceptionally individualistic code known as the Rights of Man which had its beginnings in the French Revolution.
The reluctance to confront the irreconcilable demands of religious diversity and gender equality is very largely due to France’s immense swathe of political parties. A spectrum all the way from the very far right to a die-hard Communist Party. A concensus is virtually impossible amid such fractured political nominal idealism.
This proliferation of parties leads to what the French describe as “clientelism.” This describes the situation in which the Deputies (Members of Parliament) seek election through appealing to the widest possible number of sector and thus religious voter interests.
Clientelism is a code for France’s ruling Socialist Party. This pretty much resembles an Australasian version of a Labour Party being what the French describe as “version caviar” i.e. made up of political class elites from sedentary callings. It gathers strength though as it proceeds Leftward in its gauche de la gauche direction gathering along the way the real worker Left such as one finds in the old northern French rust belts.
The French concept of assimilation is based on the United States experience of the 19th century. Or it was until a few months ago.
The ability of France’s president Francois Hollande is drawing to a close to paper over all this with displays of awkward ecumenism. Instead of showing a votive similarity there is on display instead nowadays the full extent of the gulf between what the French call “confessions.” Especially in regard to gender equality.
From MSCNewswire's European correspondent, Wednesday 10 August 2016
Māori words and names are being trademarked in China hampering New Zealand businesses from trading freely, says New Zealand First. “Miraka, a Māori dairy processing company, has had to alter its name in order to trade in China because ‘Miraka’ has already been trademarked,” says Māori Affairs Spokesperson Pita Paraone. “References to a range of Māori words and phrases including Aotearoa, Tamaki, whenua, hapū, iwi and moana are also trademarked in China. “The government recently passed Te Ture mo Te Reo Māori recognising the Māori language as a taonga of iwi and Māori but the government is not protecting this taonga within New Zealand’s free trade deals. “It brings into question the relevance of the government including references to the Treaty of Waitangi in trade deals if the Māori language is not going to be respected by our trading partners,” says Mr Paraone.
Virgin Australia will introduce a new fare structure from 7 September 2016, which it says will offer travellors more choice, value and flexibility when booking a flight.Fares For You, will provide a range of fares across all domestic and international routes. Virgin Australia says guests will have greater control over inclusions in their fare. All domestic passengers will receive complimentary food, baggage and entertainment on every flight regardless of the fare type they select.Fares For You will replace the existing fare structure, offering a total of nine fare brands across the entire domestic and international routes for sale.
TravelInc Memo
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The introduction of the new health and safety legislation in April this year has become a more robust, non-negotiable, no excuse compliance issue as well that is going to make businesses think twice about ignoring it.
The future of Health and Safety and compliance management will be an evidence based approach, based on the availability of records for a business to quickly prove due diligence, if and when the business is called to account.Many businesses still use a 20th century approach of hard copy record keeping that are usually filed in a myriad of different ways: spreadsheets, filing cabinets and record manuals, diaries etc. - does this sound familiar?
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Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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