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Leader's LetterJune 2003
New Zealand is still “God’s Own”When asked to summarise New Zealand First’s philosophy I say we are a party which believes in private enterprise but also has a strong social conscience. Or put another way, we are business orientated but believe in justice, fairness and having a safety net for the disadvantaged. We are an island nation tucked right down at the bottom of the world. We have a beautiful country, virtually untouched, with a relatively small population. All that adds to our attractiveness, both to tourists and immigrants. However New Zealanders deserve a decent standard of living. I believe rightfully so because as a nation New Zealanders are hard working, innovative and determined. With such qualities it is only appropriate that living standards are high. But that is not the case. Contrary to opinion, mass immigration will not solve our problem of living standards. In fact, in the longer term, that “solution” will only exacerbate the situation. To achieve a higher standard of living we must export. We were once on track, but became too protectionist under Sir Robert Muldoon. With a change of government, we then swung violently to the free market. It was sort of “privatisation to the rescue” type philosophy. The theory being that some would own much, become very wealthy, with the resulting trickledown benefiting the rest of us. We were told nightly, on television, that, first the pain and then the gain. That became true in a sense, except the gain came first for a few and the pain continued long and hard for many others and in fact is still continuing. In a nutshell, the theory completely overlooked that the free market means exactly that. There is only one rule and that is, there are no rules. It was ignored that the free market has no social conscience or indeed any social responsibilities. The result was, our once egalitarian society began to change to one based on greed. It would have changed a great deal more but for the emergence of New Zealand First. As an island nation dependent on exports and thereby transport, we perhaps should examine what we have done to ourselves. In excess of 99% of our external trade (exports and imports) is transported by ship yet our Merchant shipping fleet has all but disappeared. Our roads have not kept pace with our traffic volumes or vehicle type. Our railway has shrunk and, from reports, is poorly maintained. Its shares have plummeted, raised only by the news the perhaps a foreign buyer will ride to the rescue. Government is now saying it will help. Our airline, once sold, had to be rescued by being bought back by the government. Transport is not the only area of concern. Welfare dependency has increased markedly. We have major concerns with law and order. Violent crime has increased significantly, in excess of 13% since this government came to power. Our electricity industry is not coping and there are major concerns in regard to superannuation and retirement savings. On top of all that we have developing friction between Maori and non-Maori and resentment building towards some immigrants who make it plain they have no intention of assimilating into our society. Is all this fixable? Is it too late? Can we do it? Yes we can, but only if we start to believe in ourselves and plan accordingly. As a nation we need policies which encourage our businesses, inspire our workforce and care for our elderly and socially disadvantaged. But isn’t that why we came into being ten years ago? Yes it is and we are still needed - more than ever, if the truth be told. Peter Brown MP
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