New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has unveiled a compulsory KiwiSaver scheme and promised to legislate English as an official language, while delivering a scathing attack on Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Māori in a fiery speech to party members in Palmerston North.
Speaking at the New Zealand First convention on 7 September, Peters told delegates the party was in “revival with boundless prospects ahead of us” and repeated his long time pitch for unity under “one country, one people, one law, one flag.”
He began with a warning to anyone intent on disruption. “Disrupt here and we will throw you out,” he said. “We are not letting bludging Marxism prevail here.”
Peters announced that KiwiSaver would be made compulsory, with contributions from employees and employers combined to reach 8 percent before increasing to 10 percent. “KiwiSavers and employers will receive tax cuts to cover the increases,” he said. “We are going to turn KiwiSaver into a serious New Zealand asset owning entity.”
He attacked the sell off of strategic assets, saying, “New Zealand First will stop this overseas fire sale.” He also promised to fast track what he called “economy building, job creating projects” in sectors such as aquaculture, mining and critical minerals.
Peters said ordinary New Zealanders were carrying the burden of Labour’s economic mismanagement. “The people who are feeling it the most are the hardworking kiwis who are bearing the reality that has been biting them, and continues to bite them, every day,” he said. “We were left with an out of control Labour Party debt caused by a myriad of wasteful, failed, ideological projects and ballooning inflation.”
Peters accused Labour of betraying its founding principles. “The Labour Party left middle New Zealand a long time ago. It is evident just how shallow and impotent they have become,” he said. “They represented those workers in the very industries which have now become the anathema of who and what the Labour Party represents today. That is a fact.”
He said Labour had presided over “a deteriorating economy, deteriorating education and health systems, worsening law and order on our streets, massively increased debt, record immigration, crumbling infrastructure, a cost of living crisis, and a hugely divided society.”
Peters mocked the Greens as chaotic and obsessed with ideology. “The Green Party is in total disarray. They are now up to list member number twenty coming into parliament. Whoever that may be, no doubt they will bring with them an array of wacky wish lists and woke ideals,” he said.
“Here we have Chloe who is so arrogant that she has demanded to take the role of Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Ladies and gentlemen, we would end up a soviet era communist state within three years,” he said.
He claimed the Greens had abandoned environmental priorities. “The Green Party of just twenty years ago has morphed from an environmentally focussed party with some values to back that up, to a valueless, rudderless party who think that anyone that disagrees with them is evil and should be shouted down. They care more about gender, wokeness, unicorns, and a geopolitical war happening on the other side of the world that they know nothing about.”
Peters said a coalition of Labour, Greens and Te Pati Māori “would be an absolute circus and utterly destroy our country economically and socially. Do not underestimate the damage they would do. They have become the parties of moral outrage, obsessed with accusations, gotcha politics, woke ideology, and opposing anything that happens to offend anyone that gets offended.”
He also accused Te Pati Māori of pushing separatism and claimed the party was “not pro Māori, they are anti white. And according to a recent post from one of their most arrogant MPs they are anti Asian, anti Indian, and anti Black too.”
On immigration, Peters called for a smarter system. “We need a smarter immigration system that focusses on the needs of the employers, industry, and kiwi workers. Not more immigration,” he said. He argued too many migrants used New Zealand as a stepping stone to Australia. “If you do not want to sign up to those values, do not come.”
On climate policy, he repeated New Zealand First’s push for a rethink of the Paris Agreement. “It is just common sense that instead of draining our money offshore, into foreign economies, we invest it in looking after our own environment, right here in New Zealand,” he said. “New Zealand’s emissions amount to only around 0.17 percent. Why are we making a rod for our own backs, punishing our farmers and our taxpayers and our economy, when China or the US could sneeze and produce more CO2 overnight than we do in a year.”
Peters confirmed Cabinet had agreed to legislate English as an official language. “Cabinet agreed last week that legislation will be brought into the House shortly, that English is finally, officially legislated to become an official language of New Zealand,” he said. “This is another promise we made, and this is another promise we are keeping.”
Peters also condemned former Labour ministers for refusing to appear at the Covid 19 Royal Commission. “The Podium of Truth has become the Podium of Evasion,” he said. “Those former ministers were at the heart of decisions that affected hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, yet they refuse to be held to account.”
Closing his speech, Peters urged supporters to join New Zealand First’s mission. “We have inherited a gift of a free country and it is our job to preserve it,” he said. “If you are for one country, one people, one flag, one law for all, and all equal before it, then we are asking you to join up, become part of a rightful cause, be part of our mission.”
