New Zealand Party 1984 opening (31.00) Announcer: “This party-political broadcast is an address by the leader of the New Zealand Party, Mr Bob Jones, from the Town Hall in Auckland. Sign: The New Zealand Party: Freedom and democracy. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to a very exciting evening. My name is Janie Pearce and I am the deputy leader of the New Zealand Party.” Clapping. “And I’d like to present to you the leader of the New Zealand Party, Bob Jones.” Clapping and standing ovation. Bob Jones: “None of that folks, you’ve heard from the Prime Minister, political naivety clapping.” Laughter. Jones: “Let me begin by commenting on Janie Pearce. School teacher, lawyer, business-woman, mother, and the next member for Birkenhead.” Clapping. Jones: “Fellow New Zealanders, our country today is at the greatest crisis point in its short history. Because on every front it is a disaster. The economy is contracting, the only growth industry is crime, and indeed right now, as you folks sit right there, statistics say that somebody in this hall is having their homes burgled. But don’t leave please because it is too late to do anything about it.” Laughter. “We’ve got massive unemployment and that is a direct consequence of government policies, and it will get worse. We’ve got an appalling education performance. It was said recently by an educationalist that 30% of school leavers have the reading age of seven to nine-year olds. Our major industry, agriculture, 30% of farmers on the breadline, according to the Federation, the Federated Farmers. The majority of farmers dependent upon charity in the form of SMPs; again, a direct consequence of government policies. We have a bitterly divided society, sector against sector, and that is a sickness encouraged from the top. And everybody knows that is true. Our health standards are measurably, and I underline measurably, this is not political hype, measurably declining. Even the Minister of Health is sick. Laughter. “It is worse, mind you. The Minister of Trade and Industry, he’s never traded anything in his life. And I won’t comment on his industry. Our traditional free society has been subverted and converted to a Polish-style command economy with an identical result. And the man responsible, who had no mandate for any of that, and whose simple philosophy, and I emphasise simple rather than philosophy, is that he knows best. He alone knows best how we should run our lives, what we should charge for our goods and services, what each worker should be paid, what the exchange value of our currency should be, whether it will rain next week. You ask him and he has got the answer. And is it any wonder that he is always 100% wrong. Laughter and clapping. “And to preserve that absolute control, in the words of Michael Minogue, he surrounds himself with sycophants and incompetents. And the man and women of integrity, the Warings and the Quigleys, get out in disgust. Is it any wonder that those vitally important members of our society, those with get up and go, have got up and gone to Australia and other parts of the world. Ladies and gentlemen, the New Zealand Party, the real National Party, believes foremost in freedom. And the evidence shows, overwhelmingly, universally and throughout history, that freedom and prosperity, our proud slogan, are absolutely linked. Because you can’t have one without the other. Deny freedom and you deny prosperity. And let’s face it, we no longer live in a free society. And we certainly don’t live in a prosperous society. We are, in fact, the most indebted nation, per capita, in the history of the human race. No people, no nation, in the many thousands of years of human existence, have ever owed so much, been so indebted, as we are today. And the Prime Minister had the gall, on Monday night to tell the nation, and I quote him, “We’ve had to do some borrowing to some extent.” Laughter and clapping. Jones: “Look I wrote to the Guinness book of records recently. I wanted to know, as one man was responsible for this situation, did that make him the greatest financial failure in human history. Laughter. “I mean will little children in future generations sit down at school and learn about Napoleon, and Michelangelo, and Einstein, and Muldoon the greatest financial failure in the history of the human race. Well, look you can laugh about that sort of thing, but I tell you this is no laughing matter. It is a time for crying. Because he has done the borrowing and you will do the paying! And so will your children and their children, and their children, unless sensible, realistic action is taken right now. And the best economic advice claims that even if such sensible, realistic, economic action is taken right now, than this debt mountain which this country has, approximately $30 billion internally and externally, will roll onto $50 billion in about three years before a turn-around can be affected. And the sad thing about this whole tragic situation, is that it was all unnecessary. Contrary to popular belief, the bulk of this debt has not been incurred to fund the Think Big projects, which in the words of the Australian Financial Review only two weeks ago, are outmoded and reflect the economic thinking of the fifties. Nor was it incurred to fund our standard of living as the Prime Minister asserts. The vast bulk of our foreign debt has been incurred in propping up a totally bogus, absolutely overvalued, exchange rate. And every economist says so and the Prime Minister, a cost accountant, not an economist, says they are all wrong. But it is not a matter of opinion. It is a measurable fact, it is basic primary economics that I’m talking about. If a nation persistently, as has ours, for over a decade, has a cash outflow, exceeding its inflow, then its exchange rate is out of balance. And I challenge you to find me one economist who says that is wrong. I know there is a cost accountant who thinks so, but find me an economist or a banker, or any other Minister of Finance, anywhere in the world, who says that is wrong. And now of course the Prime Minister has got a new answer to this situation when last week he made possibly the most absurd economic statement since the advent of Major Douglas when he said that there is nothing wrong with our exchange rate. It is all the others that are out of line. Laughter and clapping. (9.22) “Same old story, everybody is marching out of step except the Prime Minister. And Woodrow Wilson talked about seventy years ago, when he said in the case of financial joyriding, arrest the chauffeur not the automobile. And that is why when this party was launched on the 22nd of August last year, its major economic plank was the installation of a floating exchange rate. Something incidentally that I first wrote about in my first book, about seven years ago, launched by the Prime Minister no less. But where is the criticism of our proposal for a floating exchange rate. We get all the endorsement from the economists, but not a peep from the other politicians. Lots of personal abuse about me, lots of labelling about the New Zealand Party, not a whisper of criticism about our policies, until finally, one day, late last year, John Boyish Falloon was given the task to criticise our floating exchange rate proposal. And he did, he criticised it, gave a speech, boss told him to do so, said it was no good, didn’t give any reasons, and his speech wasn’t given a lot of publicity. Big news story that day: Australia, under a Labor government, had decided to float her exchange rate. And the response on that occasion from London banking circles: welcome to the twentieth century. Because under a floating exchange rate system there can be no deficit imbalance, no need to borrow, the system is self-regulating. And now of course we are hearing, what has been topical in the last few days, we are hearing that this would be inflationary. Well that is nonsense. Certainly, there would be a price adjustment. A once only affair, somethings cheaper, many things dearer, we concede that. As we re-establish sensible cost relationships. But look, which sector of our economy is most afraid of inflation. It is the farmers. They are the ones who carry on about is most, and look at the Federated Farmers election manifesto put out recently. Low and behold what do we see. A call for a floating exchange rate system for this country, as this party has been advocating since its foundation. And I believe that the evidence is now clear. That Labour will float our exchange rate, when they become the government, only they are too scared to say so. They think we’ll mock them; we said we won’t, we will of course, but nevertheless for copying our policies. Clapping. “Don’t want to give credit to us. They probably don’t understand it. We saw evidence of that last year as a matter of fact, Mr Lange complained of our foreign debt. Giving a speech in Christchurch and the Prime Minister said in response, Mr Lange doesn’t understand. Use me in fact, by way of illustration, to make his point. He says Jones has got more money than I have, and I’m sure that is no surprise to anybody. But he said, I bet he owes more than I do, and I’m sure that is no surprise to anybody either because with his track record no-one would lend him any.” Laughter and clapping. But look he had a point he is absolutely right, you can’t just look at the debt situation, notwithstanding the fact that we are the most indebted race, I repeat, in the entire history of the human race. You’ve got to look at the credit side of the ledger as well. And the way to do that is to look at debt as a percentage of our gross domestic product. And let’s take a look, and what do you see. Not only are we the world’s most indebted nation, we have the second to worst debt ratio to gross domestic product in the developed world. And, if you read this week’s National Business Review, there is a full-page article detailing the facts. Ladies and gentlemen, this country is in a mess. And I don’t have any doubt that the only reason why we are having an election is to avoid presenting a budget. We need urgent economic reform, and we need it right now. We can’t afford to wait, we must bite the bullet, we must do it right now. And that is why the New Zealand Party, right from foundation, have advocated floating the exchange rate, which, of course, stops further debt accrual, you can’t have it, mathematically impossible. And let me make this clear, when we talk about that this is not Social Credit amateur economics, nuttyism and all the rest of it. We are talking not just about what Australia does, we are talking about what Britain does, what the United States do. We are talking about what the Philippines opted to do two weeks ago, and you’ve heard this week Mr Lange made reference to Turkey, and its economic recovery. The Turkish government issued a statement earlier this year, and they attributed the phenomenal turn around in their economic situation to the adoption of a floating exchange rate system. It is the self-regulating system that prevents deficits in our foreign account, it is the incentive system that rewards foreign exchange earners, farmers, tourists, the tourist industry, export manufacturers and so on. And the other thing we’re talking about is tax reform. Not lip service, not what the Labour Party says, a fair tax policy, what on earth does that mean? We have done what the critics, the economists, what the Royal Commissions on taxation, and the last one, the McCaw report, has said, and urged, and every economist sings the same song, we have switched the emphasis from direct to indirect tax. And thus, our policy, of exempting the first ten thousand dollars of everybody’s income, and taxing at a flat rate of thirty cents in the dollar, would mean that the average wage earner in this country, in his wage packet, he would receive $49 a week extra. And, of course, goods would be higher, correspondingly higher, in price. But that is an incentive system. We would have a uniform indirect tax on all other goods and services, exempting those with a high social content, such as food and books and educational or health services, and so on. And that is a lot more in our economic policy, but they are the key items. But I challenge anyone in this nation to fault that economic policy. Ask any economist, ask Derek Quigley, ask him to tell you honestly what he thinks of the New Zealand Party economic policy. Because adoption of these policies, and only these policies, can put this country to work again, can quickly expand the economy, and reduce the relevance of our debt. And perhaps, of greater importance, allow us to begin a programme of repayment so that we are no longer the most indebted nation, per capita, in the entire history of the human race. And we must do those things because we, as a nation, are staring disaster in the face. Ladies and gentlemen, we all know who got us into this mess. But do you really believe Labour are competent to get us out of it. Can you imagine three years of David Lange’s waffling, and platitudes. I mean at least I’d be amusing. Laughter and clapping. “People say that the New Zealand Party has competent people, but they are inexperienced in politics. It is not politics we need anymore. We’ve had enough of that, it is competence, competence if this country is to be rescued from its downward slide to disaster. And I can tell you this. If John Kirk or Ben Couch, and many others I can name, can learn which door to go through we’ll manage. Don’t worry about that! Clapping. “Because we are the party of competence and we have seen evidence of that this week. When the Press asked all parties will you produce the traditional election manifesto, and you know they produce a document, all parties, every election, print about 5,000 copies for the party faithful. And all other three parties said there is not enough time. Look at this, out already, a few days afterwards (may show manifesto). Clapping. And as you sit here those printing presses are rolling right this very minute in Dunedin because we are not printing 5,000 copies, because for the first time in this nation’s history we are printing 1,080,000 copies and one is going to go into every letter box in this country. Clapping. In last Saturday’s Dominion newspaper, a top newspaper, it must be as the Prime Minister doesn’t like it, editorialised about our party and particular about our candidates. And the editorial praised us and I quote ‘There is a great deal in the New Zealand party’s forthright and uncomplicated policies which is refreshing, exciting, beneficial and practicable. And then the editorial went on to say, and issue us a warning, it said, it implied, our candidates are too good. There is an elitist image about us. Well let me say it loud and clear, we are proud of that. Clapping. Because the time has come for competence. We can no longer afford the luxury of clowns in the house. This is an emergency, and I’m proud of the fact that we are presenting, and every New Zealander will be able to see this manifesto, with every candidate and their biographic details (flicks through manifesto) in the back. I’m proud of the fact that we are presenting the best educated line-up in this country’s history. And I’m proud of the fact that we have four economists and numerous professional people, lawyers, doctors, scientists, farmers, businessmen, school teachers, and company managers, and more women candidates than any other party. I’m proud of the fact that our candidates, to a man and a woman, are upwardly mobile achievers. But note this carefully. We’ve done a comparison with our rivals. More New Zealand Party candidates are from working class backgrounds, despite their individual success stories, than in any other party including Labour. Clapping. “Because we know the real world. And when David Lange trumpets about the working classes he patronises them. And he doesn’t know those people because he is a doctor’s son, and I’m not; I’m a simple working class lad and I can tell you if he came around to our home when I was a boy, singing the song he is singing, we’d have punched him in the nose. Clapping. This nation needs proven competence. Not proven incompetence as is offered by National, not committee joiners as offered by Labour, but proven competence. And note this carefully, it is because of our success we know the benefits of education and that is why we are the nation’s first ever education party. And that is why we are proposing to lift the school leaving age to 16, programme to get it up to 18, like other top performing nations, Japan for example, also the Soviet Union. Lower the school starting age by providing pre-school access for four-year olds, lower the pupil teacher ratio now, straight away, and continue to lower it. And a great deal more all outlined in our education policy. Because it is a new age. And the modern capital is knowledge, not money. Clapping. And education is the best investment we can make. Look I haven’t got time to outline all our policies, but there is one I want to touch on, there is one I want to emphasise. And just maybe it is the most important of all, it is life and death. And that subject is peace. Because we believe, as a party, that this nation has no enemies. We are the most isolated country geographically in the world. We’ve spent twenty-three years this century fighting other people’s wars. We spend $700 million annually playing war games, $700 million annually, $2 million per day; we say that is ludicrous. It is a new age, and it may well be a short-lived one. And we say let’s have no part of this nonsense because the likelihood of a nuclear holocaust is very, very real. There is a million dollars a minute being spent in the world today on weaponry, and there is not much point doing it if you are not going to use it. And only absolute non-involvement gives this country a chance of escaping it. Seven hundred million dollars a year we’re wasting. Half what we spend on education. Half what we spent on health. And we say that is absurd. And we way lets restructure our forces, our armed forces, into a small, elite, highly trained, highly skilled, highly paid, unarmed defence force against our real enemies which this country is highly vulnerable to: natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, and other civil defence tasks, and of course territorial surveillance. Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud of the fact that we are the first ever peace party in this country’s history. Not a foot in each camp as with Labour, the first real peace party in this country’s history. And I suggest that every New Zealander ought to remember that on polling day, because this issue pre-empts all other issues. There is no point worrying about our economy, there is no point worrying about our education services if we are all going to be dead soon. The Prime Minister, of course, says the election is about leadership, and I can understand that he wouldn’t want to talk about the economy, or democracy. Well let me say this, the concept of strong leadership is the very antithesis of any concept of democracy, it flies in the face of collective decision-making. And we’ve all witnesses, and we’ve all suffered the consequences of that in recent years. But ask yourself, what sort of leadership is it that brings a nation to the brink of disaster. Or divides our society. What sort of leadership is it that destroys a once great political party that will diminish and disappear in the coming election. What sort of leadership is it that drives from that political party the Derek Quigleys. Look if leadership is an issue, it shouldn’t be an issue because it is the very antithesis of democracy, let me then stand up and be counted. When the Prime Minister loses money I make it. When the Prime Minister destroys a political party, I have built one in six months, and I doubt very much if he could have done that. And also I’m better looking than he is. Laughter and clapping. So when he utters his tired and feeble plaintiff plea, for Rob’s mob to come to the rescue, that is pathetic. Rob’s mob. Well I’ve got a message for him, the mob is still there, but there is new Rob. Clapping. Because I say to you the time has come to remove the National Party from our political scene. Because in terms of principles that party has been killed by its current members, sycophants and incompetents, in the words of one of its members. And I believe that party is dead, is beginning to smell, and it is time we buried it. Clapping. The Prime Minister says we are extremists. Well we are not going to run away from that. We are not interested in the middle, muddle ground of compromise and second best. Because look where that has got us. We are extreme, we are proud of the fact we are extreme, we are extreme about education, we’ll turn this nation into a country of scholarship. We won’t make kids go to school, we’ll make them have an education and there is a world of difference. There won’t be any compromise there. There won’t be any compromise about health, we are extreme about that as well. And note this carefully, we are extreme about private enterprise, something that the Prime Minister and his colleagues have long since forgotten. We don’t give it lip-service, we practice it. And most of all, we are extreme about peace. And we are extreme about militarism. We are against it, we don’t want any part of it, we want to live and not to die. And that is a consideration that pre-empts any other as I have said before. We believe in excellence, not the merely adequate, and the vast majority of New Zealand Party candidates live up to that standard. Look at our attitude on any issue. We are the forerunners and they are copying us on it. The Maori seats; right from foundation we’ve said they should be abolished. And only this week one of the most prominent and respected Maoris in this country said that is absolutely right, and as much as we can ascertain there are only four Maoris in this country who disagree. Laughter. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you believe in freedom and if you believe that people know best how to run their lives, not politicians, then I say to you vote for the New Zealand Party candidate. And if you believe in the private enterprise system, then there is only one private enterprise party on the hustings in this election and that is the New Zealand Party. And if you believe in a massive leap forward in educational standards, not compromising platitudes of the Labour variety, then vote for the New Zealand Party. And most of all if you believe in peace, and not infantile war games, and that stupid mentality reflected by Doug Kidd of bangs for bucks, then vote for the New Zealand Party. Clapping. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to get rid of this government and they’re going to go, the polls tell us that. But the last thing this country needs is a Labour government. They’ve had eight and a half years of a Labour government so I say to you, enter the polling booth, on the 14th of July, cast a vote, not just for your children’s future, but for yourselves, your own lives; vote for New Zealand by electing a New Zealand Party government. Thank you very much. Clapping.