Winston Peters – State Of The Nation 2026 speech <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Editors Note: As a media organisation we feel it is important to be truthful and fair. In the past we have published speeches from the nations political leaders when they have supplied the full text as we have done here and leave any thoughts or opinions to the readers discretion. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPower to the People\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Good afternoon. It\u2019s great to be back in Tauranga and the Western Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives and coming out in the numbers you have on this Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hon Alfred Ngaro<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First, thank you Alfred Ngaro for the introduction, and for finally seeing the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Uncertain World<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are living through the most challenging international environment that New Zealand has faced in the past 80 years. Navigating chaotic conditions such as these requires experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And experience has never mattered more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not a time for performative posturing and senseless virtue signalling. It’s a time for cool heads, rational judgements about what is possible, and an active diplomacy that listens, learns, and adapts to the chances when they present themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s what we’ve done in the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The State of the Economy<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the state of the economy, well we all know the economy isn\u2019t where it should be. We all know that, without having to be told because kiwis are struggling sometimes working two, even three jobs, just to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First unlike the rest, has constantly said that it will take time to turn our economy around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We have been open – and when other parties at the last election said that they could fix it within three years \u2013 we said that was a mistake, we knew the damage done to the economy by the previous Labour government couldn\u2019t be undone in three years. We know it can be fixed \u2013 but it will take time. And we need to communicate that to New Zealanders, to ensure kiwis understand the challenge, and join us on the pathway to economic and social recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are making positive movements as an economy in such uncertain times. But we can, and must, do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inflation is on the rise again, not nearly as bad as under Labour, but it is on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interest rates are on the rise again, not nearly as bad as under Labour, but on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our slow economic recovery has been set back by events in the Middle East. And yet, stability in the middle east is likely to be restored more quickly than New Zealand\u2019s economic return to recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s because, our government inherited a disaster of massive overborrowing, and spending not on production, not on wealth creation, not on employment, and not on exports, but purely on consumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And we’re paying a massive price for that now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We just had the COVID Inquiry showing the previous Labour government borrowed sixty billion dollars to deal with COVID, and yet they spent thirty billion of it on something else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That is half of the sixty billion wasn\u2019t spent on COVID. And you\u2019re sitting in this audience and the mainstream media here today, and none of them have told you what the thirty billion was wasted on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have turned it around, there is growth, but not as much as we need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The current economic climate and the realities of our situation just shows the sad thing about New Zealand over the past fifty years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We went from being in the top three in the world to a non-competing economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back then we had strong growth of over five percent a year, every year, and MPs who understood nationalism, who understood the national interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then we had the neoliberal experiment of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson and the rest has been a massive disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We became the victim of a totally unfettered free market – straight out of the neoliberal economic Milton Freidman textbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The left and right, Labour and National, went on to sell our assets, privatise our country, open our borders to mass immigration, open our society to every wild-west simpleton ideology \u2013 an ideology that has been proven over the past forty years to be an abject failure and purveyor of misery and struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First has never subscribed to that ideology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First began for the same reason. We opposed that ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have always believed in economic nationalism \u2013 where we own our country\u2019s assets, where we have targeted government intervention, where we give a hand up in times of need, where our country gives capitalism a human face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflecting back, at this time before the last election, no one gave our party any chance of getting back to parliament. Today, we are here, and the question for the media is no longer – if we will get back, its \u2018how many seats will we get?\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, we\u2019ve got news for everyone, and this time it\u2019s all good. We will turn these current media polls into confetti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have been working hard over the past two and a half years to build our machine for this campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are on a pathway to a major shift in the political landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have the team. We have the candidates. We have the party, and we have the growing support of kiwis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year we will be packing the halls around the country with ordinary hardworking kiwi battlers who see the only party talking common sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They all see what it is that makes New Zealand First different from every other party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are the only socially conservative party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are the only nationalist party. That\u2019s nationalist with a capital \u201cN\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are the only patriotic party \u2013 a word that is now so often criticised. We stand proud to be patriots of New Zealand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s most important, is that we are the only party that can counter-balance the present spectrum of extremists in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First is not just running in another election this year, we intend to turn this election on its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Economic Nationalism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The philosopher Plato said, “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato is regarded as one of the most important philosophers of all time. He made this famous quote about 2,400 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato was right then, and he is right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us look at some of the actions of some foolish past governments over the last forty years:<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what past National and Labour governments did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This type of short-sighted economic ideological madness is going to end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s New Zealand First\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fonterra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As we predicted last year when Fonterra proposed the sell off of iconic kiwi dairy brands like Mainland, Anchor, Kapiti and others to a foreign owned company Lactalis, it\u2019s CEO would resign and leave once his bonuses are paid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We said this exact thing would happen in our open letter to farmers last year \u2013 he, and Fonterra of course, denied it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well Hurrell has sold off almost every consumer brand since he started, and now Fonterra as a commodity price taker, not a commodity price maker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet when anybody questions them, Fonterra screams out that they are a private company. As do many farmers who don\u2019t seem to remember yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is, Fonterra has benefited by monopoly positioning conferred on them by parliament for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So they have come to politicians when they needed our help, but accuse us of snooping when we ask on behalf of our country what on earth is going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their decision leaves serious questions for New Zealand about what we must do to protect dairy manufacturing in our country as a result of Fonterra’s dereliction of duty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time a Fonterra CEO resigned, Theo Spierings was paid out a ridiculous $4.67 million after being paid a total of $43 million in just seven years in the role. How much will Hurrell be paid out? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies and gentlemen, Hurrell is being paid 24 times my salary. Hands up if he or any of the rest of them deserve that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as for the sale to Lactalis, we hear the deal is not going well. Last week Fonterra announced deep job cuts to staff. Insiders are saying they are ripping cost out of the business to make up for a lesser sale price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fonterra \u2013 our country\u2019s largest company – has gone from a propped-up nationalist company, to a sell-out globalist company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First has always fought against Neoliberal Economics; we are true believers of nationalist economic pragmatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Air New Zealand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This type of economic neoliberal lunacy reared its head again recently when there were calls for the government to sell its major shareholder stake in Air New Zealand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, Air New Zealand needs to stop calling itself the \u2018Waka in the Sky\u2019, concentrate on leaving on time, and stop charging for regional flights that cost the same as a round trip to Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But calls for the government to sell our shares when the airline market is in a downturn is economic lunacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Air New Zealand is our national carrier and a national asset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the majority shareholder, the government should be backing its future rather than dragging it down and hocking it off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First is the only party that can and will stop this economic privatisation madness of selling our national assets our forebears saved, scrimped, and built for us – we will ensure our country\u2019s interests, and future, are put first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patriotism, Social Conservatism, Egalitarianism<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First is proud of our country and our history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are proud of who we are, our history, our forebears, and what they fought and died for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are equally proud of our colonial heritage, traditions, and values, just as those of us who have M\u0101ori in our background \u2013 we are equally proud of that. And we should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are proud of the great things we have in our country – a Judeo-Christian background, the law that\u2019s been refined, a democracy that\u2019s envied by the world. These things are the exception worldwide and the exception down through thousands of years of humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are the lucky inheritors of it – unlike other societies where things are organised despotism and anarchy, we have got something good and worth preserving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet there are some parties in parliament who want it dismantled and destroyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First believes in one people, one law, one flag, and all equal under it. We believe in a colourblind state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are the only party in parliament with modern kiwi conservative values, and the only party that is willing to make a stand and fight against the insipid cancerous spread of the leftwing woke agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We believe that everyone is equal, no matter what race, gender, culture, religion, or creed. Our party has that as a foundation principle, other parties use it as a punchline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woke agenda has been wheeled in like a Trojan Horse over the last decade or more into our education system, our government departments, our schools and universities, our sports systems, and has most notably seeped its way into our political system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parties on the left seem to think that kiwis are more concerned with pronouns and ideology \u2013 instead of government creating a free society that encourages hard work and a fair go for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all those self-appointed unelected elitist influencers, a proud egalitarian spirit and a modern kiwi conservatism is growing in New Zealand today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n World Health Organization<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is important to mention something that we announced just last week but not reported in the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023 New Zealand First campaigned to ensure that any WHO regulations would be first considered against a New Zealand \u201cNational Interest Test\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result, last week New Zealand informed the Director General of the WHO that New Zealand has officially rejected their proposed Amendments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First has always said that any decisions about the health of kiwis should be made by New Zealanders, not Geneva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We made a promise to maintain our sovereign decision making, and to push back on globalist bureaucrats – and we have kept that promise. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The State of the Left<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When Chris Hipkins delivered his \u2018State of the Nation\u2019 speech earlier this year, he said something which was quite telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said that he was not going to announce any policy until probably around July. So, what has Labour been doing for the last two years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an election year, at the first meeting, in front of the media, he just said that the Labour Party was out of ideas. That they are rudderless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is the so-called leader of the opposition. That is the apparent government in waiting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, two former Labour leaders Helen Clark and Phil Goff are saying more on Labour policy than the current Labour leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where are the Labour Party front bench giving comments or positions? They must all feel so impotent when long ago retired politicians need to step back in for the media headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately for him New Zealanders don\u2019t forget about the disaster he delivered the last time – massive debt, massive immigration, massive increases in crime, the disaster handling of COVID with multiple shutdowns costing businesses and jobs and the restrictions of kiwis freedoms, KiwiBuild promising 100k houses and delivering less than 1000, inflation well over 7%, and with a secret agenda of racial separatism and division\u2026that\u2019s what Labour delivered just three short years ago and we haven\u2019t forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem for Labour is they are now just the party of the \u2018Professional Managerial Class\u2019 and they certainly are no longer the party of the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are now full of party activists who have all graduated from some university sociology department riddled with leftwing brainwashing propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour is so flawed in their thinking, that they can\u2019t remember that just two years ago they left this country in such a state that we are even now still trying to clean up the mess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Very few know anything about the economy, and even less about politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is one thing they do know \u2013 they will never win the next election when they sit there relying on the Greens or The M\u0101ori Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour has deserted the traditional blue-collar workers of New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u2018slow boil\u2019 movement of the party to the far left has caused a huge number of longtime Labour voters to feel abandoned by a party that once stood for \u2018ordinary hard-working kiwis\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, Labour now seem to care more about leftwing \u2018social justice\u2019 issues, ideological crusades from overseas, and woke cultural Marxism. The very same failings and racial obsessions of the M\u0101ori Party and the Greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The once great Labour Party of Savage and Fraser, has turned into the \u2018Party of Moral Outrage and Political Inertia\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is only one party these days who understands what a worker is and you\u2019re looking at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For all those conservative, old school, egalitarian, common sense Labour voters out there who feel abandoned, you\u2019ve only got one place to come, and we welcome you. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Covid Inquiry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And let us not forget the COVID Inquiry just released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First pushed for the second COVID Inquiry, and scrapping the sham original one, to get some facts and accountability for the impacts the mandates, lockdowns, and vaccines had on kiwis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We were the only party to campaign on this issue, and join the protesters at parliament \u2013 when no other party in parliament would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We \u2018agreed to disagree\u2019 when this inquiry was announced because we didn\u2019t think the original sham inquiry should continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But even this inadequate report has proven that we were right to challenge the Labour government on these issues – they tried to call people \u201ccookers\u201d, the \u201criver of filth\u201d, and that we were all \u201cgoing down a rabbit hole\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The report brings questions that need to be answered by Hipkins and Verrall and all those other former ministers. They cannot brush this off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It outlines that clear advice from officials was ignored – in particular the advice about the risks of mandating the vaccine for children and the increased risk of myocarditis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The report finds that the failure of the Labour government to provide advice to the public about the risks of the two doses for children was \u201csignificant\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only did they not properly advise the public and parents of those risks, they then mandated the two doses of the vaccine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those risks, forced under mandate, directly affected over a hundred thousand children aged between 12-17 years old. This cannot be ignored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The health advice from the Chief Health Advisor about the risks for under 18s having the double dose of the vaccine was not made public by Labour ministers or officials, and Hipkins said no minister was aware of the advice – we showed evidence in the House that they were aware of it but never shared it with the public and even continued the mandates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That is why New Zealand First wants a select committee inquiry into the injuries that the mandated double-dose of the vaccine may have caused to the hundreds of thousands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone needs to be held accountable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those vaccine injured need a voice and the ability to publicly give evidence to the Crown, and New Zealanders need to know what impacts this has had on the trust in our health system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are many other people who are affected. Doctors and Nurses who, because they disagreed, were forced out of their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of those people were victims too, they need to be listened to and given a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The COVID-19 Inquiry also showed that the Auckland lockdown went on far too long – and Labour knew it. It shows those Labour ministers did not provide a complete assessment to Cabinet of the lockdown measures against economic, social, and educational outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is worse, is that the employment and wage scarring impacts of the mandates were significant. The Labour government made no attempt to monitor these impacts and the devastating results that would come to our country. These mandates and lockdowns cost thousands of jobs and had a devastating effect on our economy and people\u2019s health and livelihoods – much of which was avoidable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is any wonder those Labour ministers didn\u2019t want to front publicly to give evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unions <\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be clear to all New Zealanders that the Unions no longer represent blue-collar hard-working kiwis anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their blatant direct connections with the Labour Party are now out in the open. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What has happened to the true workers unions? They are nothing but a bunch of half-acre, arrogant, elitest, Labour Party sycophants with soft hands who walk around in comfortable shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is patently backward that they continue to present themselves to the media for so-called \u201cindependent commentary\u201d on government legislation or policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unions have changed from representing workers to representing left wing elitist political agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The head of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Craig Rennie is a candidate for the Labour Party in the upcoming election, he was also Grant Robertson\u2019s economic advisor as he was borrowing and spending money like an eight armed octopus. The Public Service Association Union Fleur Fitzsimons is a card-carrying member of the Labour Party and stood as a candidate last election and no doubt will be this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the leaders of these unions are Labour Party candidates, sitting on Labour Party policy committees, run third party campaigns for the Labour Party in elections, and affiliated unions get a vote for the Labour Party leader, New Zealanders need to be asking who do the Unions truly work for \u2013 the workers or Labour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First has always fought and achieved changes for workers across multiple governments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I used to be a union delegate for the Labourers Union myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know what it means to back the workers of this country – back when unions were led by hard working blue-collar kiwi battlers who knew what a hard day\u2019s work was \u2013 not the bunch of arrogant, left-leaning, politically motivated, serial protestors like most of them are today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is clear the leadership needs to be gutted in some of these unions so they can get back to what their original principled purpose used to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That has been the cause of the decline in the true workers unions \u2013 today they represent less than 15% of the workforce. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Greens <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the Greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They have proven themselves to be the most hypocritical, shallow, vacuous bunch and now many of them are self-confessed Marxists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest problem that the Greens have is their name. They are not a Green Party anymore. They are not even a little finger of Rod Donald or Jannette Fitzsimons \u2013 who, despite all of their flaws, stood up and had purpose and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Green Party today is nothing but a shallow shadow of their former selves. They don\u2019t talk about the environment anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Greens don\u2019t care about, nor do they understand, the reality of our economic and social future as a country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They care more about gender, wokeness, unicorns, and a geopolitical war happening on the other side of the world that they know nothing about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just look at the irony of the seats they hold \u2013 all in city centres full of well-to-do upper-crust bubbles, or woke-obsessed students and weirdos with purple hair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They should change their name to the \u201cParty of Palestine and Pronouns\u201d. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The M\u0101ori Party<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The M\u0101ori Party, as we predicted two years ago, is a disaster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the current polling still has them counting as holding four or even six of the M\u0101ori Seats. Which one of the two M\u0101ori Party\u2019s are they talking about? And more importantly, which one will Labour do a deal with? Anyone in the media ask them that yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact is the M\u0101ori party are not pro-M\u0101ori, they are anti-everything that has given them the ability to sit in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are not pro-M\u0101ori, they are anti-democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They want a totalitarian race-based separatist country. They want a separate parliament, separate laws, and separate land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is why they will always be so divisive in their rhetoric. That\u2019s who they are and that\u2019s what they do. And who wants to work with them? The Labour Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The M\u0101ori Party is in such disarray that their own party is no longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is an utter disaster for the left and they know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We stood in parliament at the start of this term in the very first speech and said they wouldn\u2019t last long. We weren\u2019t joking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact here is what I said, and I quote, \u201cI know a bunch of losers when I see them\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marsden Point and Energy Costs<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First believes energy security is national security. It underpins everything – our households, our jobs, our industries, and our resilience as a nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So it was amazing looking at social media last night where Chris Hipkins said the following in a long post about the situation in the Middle East and the effect it is having on energy markets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNational\u2019s plan is short-sighted and out of touch. It is gambling New Zealand\u2019s energy security on unpredictable overseas prices and making Kiwis pay more for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well Mr Hipkins, let me remind you about what your Labour Party did when you were in government when you \u201cgambled New Zealand\u2019s energy security\u201d when you allowed Marsden Point to be shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On 15 September 2021 there was a paper taken to Cabinet that outlined how the then Labour Government could save Marsden Point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your then Energy Minister Megan Woods said there was \u201cnot a strong case to support the refinery\u2019s operations on fuel security grounds\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cabinet paper raised concerns that if Marsden Point was closed there would be a number of issues including fuel supply and security, the loss of jobs, and wider implications for the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at where we are today and how we are now dealing with a very real and serious situation about New Zealand\u2019s fuel security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was an option given to the Labour government to delay the closure of the refinery by ten years which \u201cwould avoid potential negative impacts on fuel security and buy time to progress options that would enable skilled workers at the refinery to help kick-start a bio-fuels industry\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Labour Party said no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most damning piece of information in that Cabinet Paper is that it states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLoss of ability to refine domestic crude oil could leave New Zealand more exposed to the severe consequence of depleting all fuel stocks if unable to import any fuel for a sustained period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Labour Party continue to deny that they could\u2019ve saved Marsden Point. This Cabinet Paper shows that not only did they know the risks to national fuel security, they chose to let Marsden Point shut \u2013 and they have left this current situation that we are now experiencing with shortages of fuel supply and skyrocketing prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are ignorant economic vandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet on social media they have their trolls continuing this lie day in day out \u2013 the 15 September 2021 Cabinet Paper makes them all liars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Campaign Policy Announcement: Splitting up the Power Companies<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First today is announcing a campaign policy. We will be breaking up the power companies so they can no longer control both the power and the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For decades now, New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses have been getting a raw deal when it comes to electricity. You\u2019ve been paying far too much for power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current system is designed to make maximum profits for power companies, and everyday Kiwi families and businesses are the ones paying the price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re having to choose between heating your home or putting food on the table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hitting Kiwi families. It\u2019s hurting our industries. And it\u2019s costing New Zealand jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve seen it across the country. Mills at Karioi and Tangiwai. Oji Fibre Solutions\u2019 Penrose mill. Carter Holt Harvey\u2019s Tokoroa plywood plant and Eves Valley sawmill. Balance Agri-Nutrients\u2019 Kapuni fertiliser plant. All shut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And just this month, Heinz Wattie\u2019s has proposed ending manufacturing in New Zealand, putting 350 Kiwi jobs at risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Energy security is national security. It underpins everything – our households, our jobs, our industries, and our resilience as a nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We will deliver a National Energy Strategy for New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll split the big power companies up into generators and retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The big four power companies control almost 90% of the electricity generation and then sell it back to themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes it verydifficult for innovative and low-cost retailers to enter the market \u2013 which means prices stay high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the current system, the most expensive generator sets the price for all electricity – even electricity that costs peanuts to generate. It\u2019s absurd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will replace the current system so that companies cannot hold back supply just to drive prices higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We will guarantee long-term, fixed-price contracts for new-build generation projects, giving investors certainty. And we\u2019ll guarantee their power will be first to be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It will mean more power stations. More renewable energy. More competition. More resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we\u2019ll put power back into the hands of New Zealanders. If you generate power at home like solar, you should be able to sell it back to the grid at the same price you pay for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s time to secure our electricity system for all New Zealanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India FTA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hipkins often talks about the lack of job opportunities for our young people and our university students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the Indian FTA, New Zealand will continue to have no numerical caps on Indian student visas, it will guarantee work rights during study, and offer extended post-study work visas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we are incentivising uncapped number of Indian students to come to New Zealand and work \u2013 and why wouldn\u2019t they come \u2013 whose jobs do you think they will be taking? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Indian Government has itself described the FTA as providing \u201cunprecedented mobility opportunities for Indian professionals, students\u201d and has noted that the temporary employment opportunities offered to Indian citizens are unprecedented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They have said our offer to India on temporary employment visas is more generous than we\u2019ve made to any other FTA partner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are simply asking: Why have we been more generous on migration with India than in any other FTA? Why has migration been made one of centrepieces of what is meant to be a free trade deal, not a free migration deal? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The agreement will allow 5,000 Indian citizens who will enter New Zealand under the FTA at any one time. We are making the point that these visa holders will be able to bring into New Zealand their spouses and children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, given a standard family size of two parents and two children, this means 20,000 people in New Zealand at any one time under the new visa which has been created exclusively for Indian citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because encouraging additional migration from India to New Zealand is a key objective of the Government of India, the applications to migrate from India will significantly increase across the board \u2013 including the uncapped numbers of students with the right to work which will take Kiwi jobs off Kiwis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our serious concern is that migration to New Zealand, across the board, is too high especially given tough economic times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judging by both the FTA, and how it\u2019s being promoted in India by the Indian Government, we\u2019re likely to see much more migration from India in the years ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First has never been anti-immigrant, we have been, and always will be anti-unfocused immigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you have been here legally for a year or a thousand years we are all New Zealanders, but we cannot continue to give our country sugar-hit immigration numbers to increase consumption, with no plan for how we will cope with ever increasing numbers of people and the changing landscape and culture of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is coming at a massive cost to our future generations. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies and Gentlemen, kiwis are amazingly resilient and, though we are affected by the past, we are more concerned with the future and the possibility it holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand was once the greatest country on earth and it can be again \u2013 that\u2019s worth fighting for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is much uncertainty around the world and at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must never lose sight of where we have come, and where we want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only together can we reach our potential as a country and as a nation, if we are united as one people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Times are tough. But we are fighting for you. And we will never give up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand First has been on a mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To fight for the ordinary hardworking kiwis who just want a country they are proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A country that provides opportunity for you and your families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A country that gives you hope for a better future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must not lose sight of how far we have come on this long road to recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have won many battles, but we are yet to win the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, if you give us the tools, we will finish the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It hasn\u2019t been easy, but the things in life worth doing are never easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We must always choose the harder, right path\u2026over the easy, wrong path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is what will build the character of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is what will build a country we are all proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must never forget that challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must never give up what our forebears fought and died for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must never stop believing in ourselves or our mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must never stop believing in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is our vision and our mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To protect and to save this great country New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please join us, and lets give power back to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Winston Peters – State Of The Nation 2026 speech Editors Note: As a media organisation we feel it is important to be truthful and fair. In the past we have published speeches from the nations political leaders when they have supplied the full text as we have done here and leave any thoughts or opinions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[113,257,319],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-11388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-politics","10":"tag-winston-peters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11391,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions\/11391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11388"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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