Alliance 1993 opening (15.00). Text is in bold Alliance. Your choice for ‘93 “The following is a political broadcast from the Alliance, which features some of the highlights from their campaign opening. (Images: Anderton, town hall, Samoan male singers, Sandra Lee, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Matiu Rata, Vote Alliance sign, Anderton, Len Richards Mangere, female Maori dancers). John Wright, Alliance candidate Rangiora. “The Alliance is unique. It is cooperation in action. It is the way of the future. It is a true grass roots, broad-based organisation which grew from the need of people of New Zealand for a real political alternative. Let us, for a moment or two, look back on some of the highlights of our short history.” Announcer: “The Alliance had its beginnings at the 1990 general election. For the first time in New Zealand’s political history a sitting MP resigned from a major party, then stood against that party and won. Jim Anderton became the first MP for the New Labour Party, with an over-whelming majority of votes. Alliance: A New Future Anderton: “What I’m going to do the first week Parliament opens I’ll be introducing a private members bill making MMP the system of representation that is put to a referendum in 1992, make it binding on the Parliament, and introduce it as a system of election for 1993.” Text: Alliance: Questioning the two-party system. Announcer: “As time went by, it became increasingly clear that a number of MPs were not happy with the first past the post two-party control.” Hamish MacIntrye: “I think it is the major problem we have with our political system that we have two major parties that insist on explicit loyalty and what that means is about five people at the top of each party control what happens, and it has all got to happen within caucuses and as I’ve already said it is very contrived within caucus at times. Alliance. Taking a stand. Announcer: “Like Jim Anderton, and Matiu Rata before him, Hamish MacIntryre resigned from his party. He went on to become leader of the Liberal Party. In December 1991, the Alliance was officially formed with the Democrats, the Greens, Mana Motuhake, and the New Labour Party. The Liberals joined later. Alliance. Electoral Reform. Announcer: “A nation-wide referendum on electoral reform was held in 1992, and the results left the government in no doubt that MMP was the favoured option. Jim Anderton. Alliance spokesperson. “A victory for common sense and for democracy, and a warning to the two major parties in this country not to play around with this. Ninety percent of New Zealanders have said they want proportional representation.” Alliance. Real influence. Announcer: “By now the Alliance was having a real influence, gaining 78 positions in the Auckland local body elections, and a majority on the Auckland Regional Services Trust. Bruce Jesson: “For us it is marvellous stuff. Our goal in these elections was to win the Trust, the ARST. There are placards all over Auckland claiming we won’t sell out, and we will stand by that promise we will not sell. Announcer: At the Alliance conference in November 1992, Green Party member Jeanette Fitzsimons, along with Mana Motuhake member Sandra Lee, were elected co deputy leaders. Alliance. Super Accord. “1993 has been a busy year for the Alliance, now taking its rightful place on the political stage. The Alliance’s involvement in the superannuation accord, helped ensure the preservation of superannuation at a reasonable level. Alliance. New Policy. “And now it has developed new politics to improve our future, including employment, education, the environment, and health. Phillipa Bunkle. Alliance health spokesperson: “We want a simply system that focusses on the provision of health services, not on the provision of complex bureaucracies and enormously wasteful contracts.” Alliance. Jobs, fairness and sustainability. “The Alliance wants to see jobs for all those who want them, a fair society, and a sustainable economy with environmentally responsible policies.” Jeanette Fitzsimons – Hauraki. Co Deputy Leader of the Alliance: “You have just seen the birth of a new political movement. Not just a new movement, but a new style of politics. The politics of the future. It is the politics of cooperation. We recognize the strength in our diversity, and we respect each other’s differences. And we want to see a Parliament and a society that is based on respect and cooperation too. The new politics is also about a new way of living. We know that we share this planet with millions of other species. And that our well-being depends on theirs. Our future is threatened by climate change, ozone depletion, massive loss of forests and soils. You know that we can’t continue to pollute our rivers and oceans, pour greenhouse gases into the air, poison our food with chemicals, and waste the resources our children will need in the future. Many of us are now committed to a new way of living, which takes less from the earth and uses it more wisely. Yet at every turn we are thwarted by decisions of government and business in which we had no say. Until every vote counts equally, until all points of view are represented in Parliament, and until not just women, but the values women hold, are equally represented in the House, we have not lived up to the promise of 1893. Make your vote count, vote MMP. “That is why voting for MMP will be the most important thing you do on November the 6th. And above all, if you are disillusioned with politics and think you can’t make a difference, think again.” Sandra Lee – Auckland Central. Co Deputy Leader of the Alliance: “This year we face a challenge. How as the Alliance and New Zealanders we can build a future for this nation based on a respect for the past.” I’m the Alliance spokesperson for education. What a tragedy we are seeing. As a free marketeer, use-pays dogma is creating a system where rather than our young people being educated to the limits of their ability, they are being educated according to their parents’ ability to pay.” Clapping. “What mixed messages the government sends to the people of New Zealand. They talk about the need for upskilling, and also about reducing the national debt. Yet if someone wants to move from the dole to tertiary education, they have to front up with $2,000 worth of fees before they are allowed in the door. A government that causes hardship and suffering proportedly to relieve the national debt, encourages our young people into debt, while they have no means of repayment, at the most vulnerable stage of their lives. I am proud to be part of the Alliance, I am proud to be one of those people who had the honour of signing a pledge to usher in new politics to this country. I leave you with the thoughts of Walter Benjamin, who said this: “Every epoch not only dreams the next, but while dreaming impels it to wakefulness.” Maori section follows. Male Samoan boy singers. “Stop all the violence. Stand up for your rights. All the ammunition, it is not a pretty sight. Spread the love around the world, and have some harmony. Peace and harmony are two of my favorite things to me. Peace and harmony are two of my favorite things to me.” Hamish MacIntryre MP. Alliance Member for Manawatu. The key to improving our standard of living, and providing work and social justice to all, is a government which successfully manages the economy, providing the climate for business success, while ensuring health, and education are maintained. The success and endurance of the Alliance is largely due to Jim Anderton, to his extraordinary energy in Parliament, in his electorate, and in policy formation. Jim has proved himself in these areas, and he is a leader we can be proud of.” Clapping. Anderton: “Well I want to tell this audience and New Zealand, of a very sad event this week. Of the United Nations Children’s Fund, that is UNICEF, report which has a damning inditement, in fact the whole document, there it is, child neglect in rich nations. It has a damning inditement of the neglect of children by the so-called rich nations. Among which New Zealand comes in for particular mention. At the same time, from a completely different and most unusual source, comes an extraordinary warning about the dangers associated with high unemployment. The threat of social chaos as a result of mass unemployment on the scale we now have in this country, is considered by none other than the hard-faced International Monetary Fund, to be the greatest threat there is to western democracy. The Alliance has a real plan to improve employment opportunities. The Alliance will invest $1600 million. We will invest $1600 million in building one thousand additional homes in the first year, improving sewerage treatment programmes, protecting land from floods and erosion, employing more nurses and doctors and teachers to improve our health and education services. We will start long delayed maintenance work on neglected schools and hospitals, making our roads safer for New Zealand citizens to drive on saving lives, saving our forests and pastoral lands from possums, rabbits, and weeds, replanting native bush and establishing new forests, introducing a comprehensive energy conservation and efficiency programme.” Clapping. 40,000 new jobs. “This programme will create at least 40,000 new jobs immediately. Those on low to modest incomes in New Zealand, and that is everyone below the average wage of $640 per week, sixty percent of the country who earn income of any sort, they will pay less tax under an Alliance government, less tax.” Below $640 per week pay less tax. “This is not a high tax policy, it is a low tax policy for those at the bottom of the scale.” Clapping. “Who is going to tell me that if you put that kind of purchasing power in the hands of the poorest people in New Zealand you don’t give the economy a real kick along by being able to buy food and clothes and shoes and make a decent living for New Zealanders.” GST will be abolished. “We will abolish the GST in this country. Have we got enough money in this country to pay for such an ambitious programme? Of course we have, the trouble is a few people have a lot and a lot of people have a little and we have got to balance that up and then we’ll have the power to do what we need to in New Zealand. Clapping. Tertiary fees abolished. No means test for student allowances. “The Alliance will abolish tertiary fees, provide student living allowances without means testing. We are not interested in how much parents live; we do not want first and second class New Zealand citizens or New Zealand kids. Everyone in this country has a right to basic services like education and health.” Free education. “We will fund free pre-school education, including kindergarten, playcentres, kohanga reo, and Pacific island nests. Free primary and secondary education. When we mean free primary and secondary education we mean what we say. We will abolish these voluntary fees, which become real problems for families, and fund the schools directly from the public purse which is provided by all New Zealanders, not just those families who can afford it. Clapping. Free health care. “The Alliance will create a free health system for New Zealand by removing prescription charges, phasing out doctors’ charges over three years, immediately abolishing public hospital charges, reduce hospital waiting lists by increasing nursing and clinical staff levels.” Community cards abolished. “And scrap the community services card and all other community services cards in this country.” “We need more doctors and nurses in our hospitals, not costly over-paid and costly structures and bureaucrats in our hospitals.” Clapping. “New Zealanders have indicated they want a responsible, honest government. The Alliance has all the credentials to fulfill those aspirations. Together we can make a real difference to this country.” Clapping. Hon. Matiu Rata. Alliance Candidate Northern Maori: “Uncertain that the way ahead lies in more enlightened approach delivered this afternoon, not only by Mr Anderton, but by those who spoke before him. The Alliance and all of our candidates sitting here to my right, have all been charged with the same message, and at the moment are going as hard as they can, and I invite you to support not merely Jim and those who spoke, but indeed every candidate throughout the length and breadth of our country. “You see on the sixth of November, we will of course be reminded it is an election, not of revenge but of reconciliation. It is an election of healing, healing the pains that have arisen from the economic and social indifference imposed on all of us. It is an election where difference shall be our strength. Alliance manifesto ph. 0900 34455 Stamped self-addressed envelope: Alliance Private Bag 5 Newton Auckland. Announcer: “For a copy of the Alliance manifesto phone 0900 34455, or write to the Alliance, Private Bag 5, Newton Auckland.” Alliance. Together we can make a difference. Christian Heritage Party opening broadcast 1993 (15.00-21.00) Graham Capill. Party Leader. Yaldhurst. “It goes without saying that you can’t erect a building without firm, solid ground under the foundations. And the same applies to a strong, growing, prosperous nation. Good evening, I’m Graham Capill, leader of the Christian Heritage Party. We believe that unless the foundations of our nation are built on solid ground, the pressures and difficulties our nation faces will result in the collapse of the family and society, bringing with it erosion of our freedom and society. Capill on beach with girl: “Our nation was built on Christian principles. That doesn’t mean, of course, that everyone embraced the Christian religion. It simply meant our legal system, our schools, our homes, even business, recognised the 10 commandments was a pretty good guide as to how we should live. Society was built on a solid foundation. And because the foundation didn’t change from one year to another, our communities were much more stable. There was dependability, strength and direction. And we had freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to control one’s own property, and freedom to decide what was best for our families.” The Treaty of Waitangi was supported by Christian missionaries whom the Maori people trusted. Maori saw the benefits of Christian based laws of the Crown and requested that they came under the same law. That is our nation’s foundation. On our ten dollar note there is a picture of Kate Shepherd. We’ve heard a lot about her this Centennial year. She was a Christian who fought to win the vote for women so as to protect and promote family life against the abuses of excess alcohol. She and her fellow pioneers wanted to have women treated as real people, with their own inherent dignity and worth, and to promote a caring environment for families. Going further back in history, William Wilberforce was a Christian who recognised the inhumanity associated with slavery. He stood up in Parliament for 22 years in succession, calling on his country to stop the slave trade. When he started it wasn’t popular. But today we remember him as the great champion who brought freedom to men, women and children. The point is that when we built our nation on biblical Christian principles it was like building on rock. It gave certainty, dependability and true freedom. Over the past 30 years successive governments have been moving our nation away from this time-tested foundation. The result has been a downward spiral of increased violence and crime, increasing debt, broken homes, dishonesty, and general lack of integrity in leaders. Text: Increasing violence & crime. Increasing debt. Broken homes. Dishonesty. General lack of integrity in leaders! “Instead of freedom your rights and responsibilities are slowly being removed. Government has amended human rights legislation (New Zealand Bill of Rights image) so that no longer can you employ who you want to. No longer are you free to rent out your property to the person you choose. And even the right to practice your own religion is now under attack because you are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, even though your beliefs may require the opposite. The government has also signed and ratified the United Nations convention on the rights of (Human Rights: A compilation of international instruments image) the child. The net effect of the convention is to radically change the way you will be allowed to train your children. Already the Commissioner for Children has called for a ban on smacking children in all homes, another basic freedom under threat. And not only that. There are so many inconsistencies. The government says we don’t have enough money to maintain the present health care services. Yet we spend millions of dollars on abortions, denying unborn children the basic right to life. Government legislates to allow casinos, yet they then need to allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars to help those who get caught in the web of gambling. You see what Christian Heritage wants is to reduce our country to its Christian foundations. Because it is only then we can achieve secure family life, responsible care for one another, reduce crime with restitution to victims, increased integrity and honesty in government. And enjoy the freedoms of the past right into the future.” Secure family life. Responsible care for one another. Reduce crime with restitution to victims. Increased integrity and honesty in government. Enjoy the freedoms of the past … right into the future. “Recently church leaders put (Image: Making choices: Social justice for our times) their signatures to a joint statement on social justice. Every single issue they raised Christian Heritage addresses. We are committed to upholding the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi. No other party is more concerned about human dignity and the need to provide the basics of life for everyone. We are concerned about mutual responsibility, and do not endorse the selfishness which so often is the hallmark of our society. We have as a priority goal of full employment, providing community work which will restore dignity to the unemployed. And as a Christian Party, we are committed to caring for people, including giving legal status to the unborn child.” Uphold Treaty of Waitangi. Reinforce human dignity. Mutual responsibility. Priority of full employment. Provide community work. Care for all people. Legal status to the unborn child. “Christian Heritage has policies on every aspect of government. Get a copy of our manifesto and see for yourself (image: Policy manifesto 1993. Hope for your family. Hope for your future.). Every policy is built on that sound foundation. If you care for your family and what they are going to inherit, if you want a caring, compassionate society, which allows true freedom, then I urge you to vote Christian Heritage. We will provide a solid foundation for strong families and a strong nation.” Music: children singing national anthem. Christian Heritage Party of New Zealand.