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Leader's Letter
March 2004
Leader’s Report
Rt Hon Winston Peters
THE ESSENCE OF of sound politics is to be consistent - to say what you mean and mean what you say. New Zealand First has always followed this principle, even if it has meant becoming unpopular among the legions of the lost, particularly in Wellington.
For many years we warned both Labour and National governments that their politically correct race-based policies would create false expectation among Maori and resentment among non-Maori. Both parties failed to listen and have between them created a climate that now threatens to tear apart our social fabric.
The Treaty of Waitangi, which should bind us, has become a source of division and real leadership is needed to overcome this. We are losing sight of the fact that those who signed and supported the Treaty had something that is in short supply right now - vision. Their vision was of a united nation - a people at peace with each other - respecting and acknowledging each other.
That is not happening right now. Labour is treating the Treaty like some sort of all-purpose gap filler that has to appear in all legislation, all policy and every official document. An old colonising document, signed with the best of intentions, cannot become a 21st century “shape shifter”, with its meaning constantly changing according to the whims of the time.
It is also time that National admitted their past conduct in promoting the burgeoning Treaty industry. Whatever Labour did in the eighties to create separatism, National bettered in the nineties and is now undergoing a form of political denial.
New Zealand First’s position is that the Treaty industry is unravelling the social fabric and cohesion of our country.
We represent New Zealanders of all backgrounds who believe in a sound future for this country and who want the Treaty to contribute to that end - not undermine it.
We are the only party in this Parliament that is committed to addressing the concerns and priorities of all New Zealanders. We do not share this government’s view that New Zealand is nothing more than a collection of subtribes - European -Maori -Pacifi c Peoples - the Indian community - the Chinese community and so on.
We point out to National that you cannot rewrite history and take the word Maori out of the New Zealand vocabulary. It is not about non-Maori versus Maori. It is about all of us, the people of New Zealand and our commitment to each other.
Issues of history must be handled in a spirit of fairness and with a sense of justice. It does not mean that New Zealand should be transformed with everyone undergoing some form of cultural submersion. Our personal identity is precious to each of us.
We owe it to future generations to sort out the confl icts emerging in our society. We cannot risk becoming embittered and divided like those countries where strife and bloodshed are part of everyday life. The choice is ours.
Rt Hon Winston Peters
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