In The Shadow of the Super City
new-zealand-first-party
Fri Apr 22 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
In The Shadow of the Super City
Friday, 22 April 2016, 10:29 am
Speech: New Zealand First Party
Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
22 APRIL 2016
Speech by New Zealand First Leader and MP for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters
Whangaparaoa Golf Club
1337 Whangaparaoa Road,
Whangaparaoa
10am, 22 April 2016
“IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUPER CITY”
Thank you for the invitation to speak here in beautiful Whangaparaoa.
The peninsula’s population is growing and with it are challenges and difficulties.
Many relate to coping with growth.
So it was disappointing in January when the Prime Minister left Penlink out on the list of projects to have accelerated major transport infrastructure investment.
And you have to ask – how is Auckland Super City treating this area?
Have you been given a fair go?
Where, for example, are the signs of infrastructure spend quite apart from the unaccelerated Penlink?
Why are there concerns here about a lack of democracy?
Under Special Housing Area status, development can be fast-tracked with next to no consultation with the community and with minimal appeal rights.
Where is the democracy in that?
Right from the outset New Zealand First warned that the Auckland Super City was a mistake.
As the brainchild of the dysfunctional leader of a dysfunctional political party it couldn’t help but fail.
You must remember there was no grassroots demand for a super city.
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It was imposed on the people by National Party and specifically by ACT Party leader Rodney Hide.
You the people were never asked. You did not get a vote on a matter of fundamental importance to them. You just had the amalgamation dropped on them from above.
On the way to establishing the super city the National Government imported, at the request of the Māori Party, the concept of a statutory, non-elected Māori body on the Auckland Super City.
The idea that you can have people on a council who were never elected goes against all sense of democracy, representation, public service and shared citizenship.
This, despite three elections ago National campaigning on the slogan Kiwi not Iwi.
So, today on the Auckland Council, with rights to sanction all manner of applications to the Super City, is a body purporting to represent 19 iwi in Auckland. That number, of course, will again be received by astonishment from people who understand the early Auckland tribal set up.
The body’s operations are financed by the ratepayers, both Maori and non-Maori, but the ratepayers have no say who their appointed representatives are.
Accordingly, instead of New Zealand working towards a single franchise at the central government level, something the Royal Commission on our electoral system said would be possible over time under MMP, we have a new establishment that is not even electorate, franchised based on the Auckland Super City, and it won’t stop there.
New Zealand First warned this outcome would occur if local authorities lost control over their own destiny.
Accordingly, serious issues face New Zealand at the moment.
They can no longer be ignored. They need to be confronted and addressed.
WATER
And watch now that National has opened up the issue of no one owning water. The non-elected Maori body here and elsewhere are going to want to have a say on who gets, and what is paid for, water.
National’s misguided policies under Mr Key on this issue has taken water from the New Zealand people as a God given right and made it a tradeable asset in the hands of a few.
**IMMIGRATION/YOUNG NZ’ERS
**
One serious issue is immigration.
We have become a country without borders and with little concern for the impact immigration is bringing on vast sections of our society.
We are becoming a country which is increasingly showing a lack of concern for New Zealanders born here.
If you listen to government ministers like Finance Minister Bill English, they have written off many of our young people.
Recently Mr English described some of our young as being unreliable and hopeless when it comes to working on farms.
He said also the reason why his government was “permissive” with immigration was to plug employment on farms.
Instead of making young New Zealanders more employable by ensuring they have a better education and some training, this is how the government works.
They opt for the short-term quick fix option: Bring in migrants.
They don’t think through the consequences of this policy – that the risk of unemployment among New Zealanders born here spreads to yet another generation and with it the growth of a permanent under-class.
They don’t think about the increased risk of crime and the greater drain on our welfare system.
New Zealand First is extremely concerned that too many of our young people are becoming disillusioned and disengaged and ending up on the scrapheap.
Statistics show more than 70,000 young people aged between 15 and 24 are not in education or training – they are just drifting.
Not all of them would be suitable for farm work.
But some of them would be.
Unlike National we have not given up on these young people.
To help this at-risk group, we have a Youth Employment, Training and Education Bill which would place many of them in the army, where they would be schooled in literacy and numeracy.
They would learn the discipline of turning up with the intention of being fully engaged and they would perhaps learn a trade.
These are the sorts of policies which are needed in New Zealand.
Not comments from a minister about Kiwis being “hopeless” and “unreliable,” or a government actively pursuing a “permissive” immigration policy.
No good comes from slanging young people off.
Young people should be encouraged to get involved; to receive training.
The Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation says there are not enough apprentices to meet the demand.
Young people should be given incentives to get into that industry, and to get into the farming industry as well.
Yet, there is another disturbing trend and it is seen here on the peninsula – young people with university degrees who cannot get work.
What is the government doing to help these young people make use of their qualifications?
These young people will answer - very little.
IMMIGRATION/HEALTH
Statistics New Zealand released figures yesterday showing immigration at record levels for the 20th month in a row.
In the 12 months to March 31 we had a net gain of 67,619 permanent and long term arrivals driven by China, Australia and the Philippines.
When TV One’s Mike Hoskings raves about the size of the intake, and the quality, he is showing his stupidity or naivety, he can take his pick, but when our economy, not theirs, is financing export education, and your city is chocking at the seams in every area of economic and social need, he is on another hedonistic planet.
This open door immigration policy of the government’s has brought with it predictable wide-ranging consequences.
One that the government should have foreseen was the effect on hospitals.
The situation has got so bad New Zealand First believes a new policy must replace the old.
The policy is – when you go to a hospital seeking medical assistance you must prove that you are a New Zealand citizen, otherwise, you must pay.
The Auckland District Health Board says they are struggling to deal with the enormous pressure being placed on their systems as a result of immigration.
Large numbers of immigrants are flocking to the DHB’s hospitals seeking treatment for quite ordinary ailments which could be handed by a GP.
This means if New Zealand taxpayers who have paid taxes all their lives go to our hospitals, they are having to join a queue comprising a large number of immigrants who have been in the country five minutes.
The immigrants have worked out that if they visit a GP, a charge would be required.
If they go to the hospitals instead, however, chances are, care will be provided free of charge. That’s not New Zealand First’s view, that is the Auckland District Health Board’s view.
New Zealand First agrees. It is only fair that immigrants should pay.
A second measure to improve this pressure on our hospitals is one New Zealand First has expressed for years:
It is - put a brake on immigration.
We have said it for a long time - we need to allow time to digest the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have come to New Zealand in the past two decades – from all countries.
We need to pause and take a breather from this tsunami of migration.
One final measure that would ease pressure on our health system is to require immigrants coming into New Zealand under the parent reunion category to take out private health insurance for 10 years.
This is what happens in other countries.
Why not here?
Tens of thousands of immigrant parents have entered New Zealand without being required to work or pay income taxes and these people naturally use our health system.
New Zealanders are renowned for giving people a chance but this can be abused and it is being abused.
It is only fair and right that immigrant parents should have some self-support by way of private health insurance, or their children’s support.
As we speak China is applying sanctions to young people who don’t look after their parents. In the Chinese culture it is the young who must look after their parents in old age – not load that responsibility on to the New Zealand taxpayer.
The Chinese does not think New Zealand First is being discriminatory so why do a bunch of weak kneed politicians try make that case out.
EXPLOITATION/CRIMINALS
Another aspect of the government’s open door policy is that workplace corruption and exploitation of vulnerable workers is thriving.
The Labour Inspectorate has confirmed widespread breaches of New Zealand labour standards, which could involve hundreds of employers throughout the country.
The Labour Inspectorate cited an ‘inadequacy of record keeping’ by rogue employers. In other words, they’re talking about blatant fraud and this must be stopped.
The problems are made worse by the appalling mismanagement of our visa application process.
Last year a Waikato-based Filipino woman single-handedly showed how incompetent Immigration New Zealand is.
This woman managed to gain commercial benefits from falsifying documentation.
Also the proliferation of student visas, up more than 5,000 since last year, will only add fuel to the fire as rogue employers target migrant students desperate to stay here.
It is clear that there must be more oversight of employers, more regular inspections and raids, stiffer penalties, and immigration at a level that can be controlled.
Convicted employers, if new immigrants, should be sent home.
Each year now a quarter of a million overseas workers in various categories are being allowed in to work in New Zealand.
And some are foreign criminals gaining residency.
How did 60 of them wanted by China come to be living in New Zealand as we found out this week from the Chinese government. Perhaps Mr Hoskings could tell us what he thinks of that.
The reason is obvious: because New Zealand has horrendously inadequate immigration checks.
Our thin line of immigration is stabbing in the dark; they are under so much pressure with 124,000 immigrants coming into this country each year, they cannot process or check them properly.
And in China and other countries the word has circulated – New Zealand is a soft touch; New Zealand’s paperwork and verification processes are Third World.
This week we had the prime minister in China pledging to the Chinese that they would speed up the immigration process.
That means things are going to get worse; there will be more criminals slipping into this country, more road gridlock, more housing unaffordability and demand, more stress on our social welfare system.
HOUSING
On countless occasions New Zealand First has pointed out record immigration and foreign buyers have caused an explosion in housing demand in Auckland and government SOE Quotable Value has confirmed we are right.
QV stated that there has been “a large increase in immigrants under the investor and investor plus categories and “this had correlated to rising house values in Auckland”.
Auckland is bursting at the seams with all sorts of infrastructure problems and still the immigrants surge in.
And now with our dairy industry in crisis and farmland dropping in value, foreign owners are lining up to buy our most productive land.
You have to ask yourself the question:
Is the government working in the best interests of New Zealand citizens, or in the best interests of foreigners?
SUPERGOLD CARD
There are people who have paid taxes, are salt of the earth New Zealanders, who, when they get to retirement age receive NZ Super and the SuperGold Card.
New Zealand First is proud that through our determined efforts the SuperGold Card came into being – in spite of strong opposition.
But the Government has never liked it and don’t want to fund it.
As a result from July 1, cardholders around the country who want to take advantage of free off-peak public travel wherever smart cards are used, will have to buy a new smartcard and pay $10.
In Auckland you will have to buy a HOP card.
Having to buy a card goes right against the philosophy of the all-purpose SuperGold Card which was designed to be totally free and to be used anywhere in the country.
What the Government has done is cap funding for off-peak travel on public transportation and for any shortfall that occurs local authorities will have to pick up the tab.
Basically the government is deceitfully undermining the SuperGold Card’s value and they want local councils to pay.
This action of the government is not in the spirit of what the SuperGold Card was all about.
It is not the way senior citizens should be treated.
The government has ignored the tremendous benefits the SuperGold Card has brought throughout New Zealand.
They have ignored that the health benefits brought by the SuperGold card have more than paid for the whole cost of the scheme.
Thousands of senior citizens all over New Zealand rely on their SuperGold card to get them out of their home or flat; to allow them to get out and about and to connect with people around them.
New Zealand First has been calling on people all over New Zealand to give the Government a message over SuperGold Card and we want the people of Whangaparaoa to take up this message also.
It is:
Hands off the SuperGold Card!
NEW ZEALAND SUPERANNUATION
Another scheme the government does not like is New Zealand Superannuation.
You must also tell the government to future proof national superannuation.
New Zealand First is greatly concerned by proposals coming from Treasury and others to increase the qualifying age for National Super beyond the age of the present 65.
Treasury claims national super is becoming too expensive for the country.
But what about the millions of dollars we are losing every year because multinationals are ripping off New Zealand by avoiding tax?
It’s horrendous that 20 multinationals in New Zealand with revenue of nearly $10 billion paid only $1.8 million tax.
When this was pointed out to our prime minister instead of acting decisively he said he will wait to see what the OECD does with its Multilateral Tax Treaty on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.
That’s the classic soft option – duck for cover wait and see what the big boys do and it will be a long wait. The OECD is not renowned for quickly getting on with business.
So this country has to sit and wait while missing out on billions of dollars.
Let’s not forget either that Mr Key has allowed New Zealand be become a tax haven for overseas millionaires and money laundering criminals.
The respectable world is saying it and Mr Key should stop denying it. But meanwhile we have Treasury and the government looking at superannuation and saying, we can’t afford it.
Our older citizens are being made scapegoats.
We can afford superannuation.
At 3.7 net percent of GDP, superannuation is very affordable and there is no reason why that should change.
While NZ Super is easily affordable, it has been greatly disappointing that the Key government stopped continuing payments to the Cullen Fund,
This fund was designed to smooth out the costs of increased demand for superannuation in the future.
By not continuing payments the government robbed New Zealand Super of well over $17 billion in contributions and lost profit on those contributions that would have gone directly to build that fund.
At the same time National fleeced the fund with new taxes in excess of $4 billion.
The Cullen Fund was a wise move to reassure New Zealanders that they would still have a pension during heavy demand.
CONCLUSION
So, ladies and gentlemen, there are challenges and difficulties Wangaparaoa and New Zealand.
We believe a better more resilient immigration programme is urgently needed in New Zealand, not an open door policy that brings vast negative consequences.
We believe also that our senior citizens have to be respected and we show this by our full support for the SuperGold Card and New Zealand Superannuation.
And we want our young New Zealanders in jobs and training; we don’t want them on a scrapheap.
In other words, ladies and gentlemen, we must work for the best interests of all New Zealanders, not just a few, not for billionaires and money launderers from overseas looking for somewhere safe to hide their cash.
Yes we have challenges and difficulties, but they can be overcome by sound policies that do work. The key policy that we offer is stop the bloated demand from immigration, and give Auckland and our country a chance to breathe, and an economy based on real wealth creation, new technology and exports in the way every other sound economy does
Inflating consumption and debt is not an economic recipe but a pathway to disaster.
Only New Zealand First has been consistent in laying out sound economic and social policies for the future and opposing the short term faddism of economic policies that have never worked in New Zealand or for that matter anywhere in history in any part of the world.
Thank you very much.
ENDS
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