Sorry. Especially when you're hearing for the first time, yes. Anyways, ladies and gentlemen. This is a pivotal election. This is an hour and a half election, I can tell you this, seen by nobody in this room before. If we make a mistake in this election, this country is heading off to be a Venezuela, or dare I say it, what was formerly Burma, now Myanmar. This election, if we make the wrong decisions, will see this country not recover. For decades after that. And there's good reason to be saying that. The moment there is going to be a change, if there is a change, they'll dramatically change the electoral rules as well so that every Tom, Dick and Harry can vote in this country in circumstances where they'd never be able to vote abroad.
But it's going to be a pivotal election for the direction of our country as we draw closer. Businesses need to decide what political party best represents not just them, but the country and the economy that we're facing going into the future. Do you think all businesses need a party that wants to make this country not what it currently is, on a long continuing slide but only more slowly, We're Tweedledum and Tweedledee, or Pepsi and Coke get control of things, and we just keep on going down. Or do we take ourselves back to where we once were?
Guess where that was. Number one in the world. And we did it not once, we did it twice in our past time under a great leader called Seddon in the 1890s when they were just forming political parties and then after 1935 and on to 1950 with the National Party after Labour and for all those critical years we were at one time adjudged the world's number one democracy. And please don't tell me that that's nostalgia. I watched the All Blacks on Sunday morning because of nostalgia, and we won, didn't we?
So we can do it. If you don't get it, don't get on the paddock. Ladies and gentlemen. We must become again the most attractive destination for innovation and investment. And we need members of Parliament with a proven record of delivery and competence. How many people are going to Parliament with no experience at all in business? I mean, at all. Can't even run the school tuck shop. Well, it's not a joke. It's terrible. It's shocking. And you ask themselves, how is it? Now, don't think I'm being anti-this and anti-that person, but why would someone who's virtually a teenager think they could be the mayor of Auckland?
Well, what's your answer to that? The biggest metropolis local government organisation in Australasia, and somebody who's a teenager is running to be the mayor, and everybody's cheering from the rafters. Or we need some youth. We need a youth view. A view of what? For goodness sake, the reason why the netball team wins and the other teams win is because people with experience get on the court or on the paddock and they know what they're doing. There's no chance or time to experiment. I've got you for a while.
I'm going to get them to your mind. He simply can't afford to allow the parties to tinker around the edges of the big issues and do nothing but accept the managed decline of our country. And do nothing but accept the managed decline of our country. Now, I don't know, you know, your grandparents never went to university, but they did a whole lot better than you and I have done.
Bit of a worry, isn't it, eh? Didn't go to university, but they've done a whole lot better. The members of Parliament at that time had never seen a university. Half of them hadn't seen secondary school. All they'd seen is a Great Depression and a war, but they made up their mind they were never going to have a country like that again once they came back from that experience.
Nor will we allow the incumbent left to throw away the progress that has been made this term. We have made some progress this term. This term we visited 54 different countries. We've learned firsthand what settings cultivate investment and uplift businesses. Other countries want to do more with us, but what are we doing? They too see opportunity and our job is to make the most of them. Oh, and by the way, you people are in business. You do know that the world's awash with money, don't you? Well, do you?
Well, if you do, you've shown us an example of how you got it to New Zealand. Thus far, have you? Now, I'm sorry, I don't want to come along and accuse you, but I'm coming to this campaign with a whole lot of money to run this country, and I'll announce at the end of this campaign, not now, and it's not now 11 weeks, sir, we're nine weeks out, before that first vote happens. Isn't it maniacally stupid? We're going to spend all our time getting ready and nine weeks out from the voting day, that's the 7th of November, people are out to vote.
So each day after that, all your efforts are diminishing and diminishing and diminishing. Why do we do that? Because some idiot in the civil service said, oh, more people will vote if you do that. That's nonsense. But the point is, we've only got nine weeks to go. So it's all on from here on in.
The general election is, as I say, 74 days away, but two weeks after that, people are allowed to vote. And every party is emerging from the woodwork with their manifestos. Marvellous, actually, some of the stuff. Their pledges. You know, some of them are promising a bridge where there is no river.
Truly. And fiscal commitments, I love that phrase, fiscal commitments. Yes, they've all got this fiscal or expenditure commitments and how they're going to raise the money in taxes, but there's not one other party but the one you're talking to right here, right now, that's got a thing that's critical for this election, and guess what that is? An economic plan. How are we going to take our country back to being number one in the world? Where we grow at 4% and 5% per year. And please don't tell me that's impossible.
If you've choked growth for four decades, surely restrained growth must be massive for this country. Man, run properly from here on in. And then you're going to say to me, oh, but you've been around a long time, so why aren't you responsible? Well, the answer is, you keep on giving me a microlight and ask me to take you to the moon. Start voting the right way and I might take you there.
Well, if you give me a rocket, I'll take you to the stars. But we've always been up against the terrible restraint of these economic extremists, these neoliberals. bunch of lefty commos and pinkos. And you won't believe this, but have a good hard look. You've got a vowed Marxist in Parliament. Did you ever think you'd see that? And across at the party Maori, something even worse. If you've got the raw blooded quantum, then you should not even have a say, according to them. And that includes many people of Maori.
Because if you don't agree with scribbles, that's the guy who doesn't believe in colonial things with a cowboy hat on, then he thinks you're not a Maori. What an insult. What a cheeky son of a so-and-so. To even think that way. But that's what's in Parliament at the moment.
My point is, other parties have no economic plan. Or if there is one, put your hand up and tell me when you heard of it from the other side.
Or have you been too busy, haven't you been paying attention? Because I don't see anybody with their hand up. And you've had every other person party here, haven't you? This is the last one.
Jeez, this has got to be the commercial branch of the Mother Teresa Society in New Zealand. Because you're all here smiling and you're putting up with crap. Truly, I mean, I've been around a long time. And I'm not mucking around in this campaign at all. It's now or never, as Elvis once sang.
It's amazing, though. You've got other parties in Parliament who still believe that Roger Lomax would have worked if they'd done it more purely. Or Ruthonomics would have worked if only we'd have done it more purely. I've never seen such a circus in my political career. I was there at the time. I made a speech about the Arabist economy and I got sacked for it.
All the signs were saying, pull up, pull up, pull up, but no, we're going to crash. But I got sacked in them. The only person ever got sacked from the National Party since it was formed in 1936. How's that? Poor disgrace. Oh, mind you, they were the first people on the phone the next election.
I like that too. But back to my point. Other parties in Parliament want to sell state assets to offshore owners who want to move their ownership and profits overseas. So they can't run an economy. And so instead of telling the people that they can't run an economy, can't run at a decent growth rate, they want to sell what grandmother and grandfather saved all those years to try and make the books temporarily work. And they've done it over and over again, and they're still talking that way. Our view, as it's been always, is that fire sales of our assets is out of the question.
So too is the left's ever-increasing list of proposed taxes. The Green Party came out and the first budget that they announced, or budget announcement of any sort that they announced, had an expenditure increase of $88 billion. Now this is just colossal. $88 billion is what they said. Oh, and just to make sure they could bribe Maori people, and this is how disgusting they are in their interpretation of what Maori are, they said we'll give you $2.4 billion for your marae.
What do you think of that? Did the Maori people ask for that? No. But that's what they did. And it's headlining. 2.4 billion for Maori. You name it, they'll find the money and they'll spend it. And what we really need is forward-thinking policies, not a fire sale, and not some communist bait and switch, which, ladies and gentlemen, is in Parliament at this time. Last week we announced we will make changes to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act. We're saying this because it's an example. To incentivise investment in value-added dairy manufacturing in New Zealand.
Yesterday in the Post, there was an article written by this farmer attacking me and New Zealand First for that policy. What we're saying is that we're going to give other New Zealand potential companies enough milk to supply a factory that will add belly to milk and not to sell it in its raw state. And you've got farmers attacking us for that. Now this is breathtaking. I know because I used to work on a farm and sometimes when the cow flicks its tail, some of the stuff below the tail gets in your ear.
And can affect you mentally. And I can only presume that's what's happened to half these darn people, because their sycophantic behaviour is unbelievable. You know what the infant formula of worldwide business is? Anybody know?
Come on, it's called added value. Infant formula is when you take milk and you provide a product for children that's safe. And if you go to this little island off of China, a whole aeroplane load will get off and you'll see all these young parents there and you're saying, what are these people coming to this little island for? I asked that question one time. And guess what the answer was? Quite startling. They said to me, they're all here to buy infant formula as much as they can and going home. The whole plane load off on the southern island buying infant formula.
Guess where the infant formula was from? New Zealand. How much do you reckon the industry is worth worldwide? About 66 billion? So the most effective, efficient milk producers in the world call New Zealand. How much of the market have we got? I'm at the Chamber of Commerce. Put your hands up. We must all know this question.
We haven't got a chance, have we, if you can't ask that question. The world's most efficient milk producers has got nothing on the market. Then you know how sickening our politics has been. And that's why we've got a reply. Hopefully the post has got it. Is it in the post today?
Well, check it out tomorrow. Check it out tomorrow. Well, this is what this election is about. We'd give qualifying manufacturers investing in new value-added dairy production access up to 500 million litres of Fonterra milk per year for 10 years. Currently they're able to get hold of $50 million, but they can't get $500 million to make a go of it. And we announced we're going to let them have a chance of doing that. And the first thing they get is these guys from Fonterra attacking us. Now, Fonterra recently, you recall, flogged off its marketing labels that we've spent hundreds of years of building to let tell us France.
Did I see a Chamber of Commerce protest or walking up the street marching, holding banners? Well, did I? It is another three-year society. It has to be. Ladies and gentlemen, Fonterra made its choice last year to sell our famous brands built over generations, and we're going to do something about it. We're committed to backing business within New Zealand and not offloading our assets to foreign companies like Lactalis. We're going to be lactose intolerant.
I just thought of that. This sale should be a turning point, not the end of the manufacturing line. Fonterra was created by Parliament, you know that? This is the arrogance of these people. We, in 2001, gave them a monopoly to get a hold of all this product. And the moment you say to them, how are you handling your monopoly, they say to you, how dare you touch our business? The answer is, because we set your business up, you lousy so-and-sos. And we want an answer for the New Zealand people and for the New Zealand economy, and we want to take ourselves back to number one in the world again.
We once were. When we were number one in the world again. And political scientists in those days came by boat because there weren't aeroplane flights here, but they were climbing off boats to come and study this incredible country. Hundreds and thousands of miles away from its market, and it was number one in the world. egalitarian performance and its wealth and its progress, and where the Minister of Labour knew every registered unemployed person because there was just how many?
29. Not 1,000. Not 100. 29. They couldn't believe it. They're studying communism. They're studying all sorts of societies from past years going down to the centuries. And how way out there in the South Pacific, north of the penguins, is this country that's made it. Boy, what a long way we have fallen in recent times. And so we're saying to those companies, we're saying, we'll give you the chance. You've got your sales exactly six years to get underway. You'll use it or you'll lose it.
As I say, Fonterra was created by parliamentary monopoly. And the current regime can help investors start, but it's not designed to help them reach any industrial scale. That's why we're taking it to 500 million. Ladies and gentlemen, this election is about policies. It's high time we moved away from the status quo. You know what that is, don't you? Pepsi or Coke?
Tweedledum or Tweedledee, managing the decline, or even worse, where some of them are saying, and this is their slogan, quotes, it's our turn now. How do you like that? It's our turn now. To do what? Or as yesterday, the Labour Party put up this new slogan, which they've stolen from the Citizen Watch Company.
And grammatically, if you look at what their performance is, it's grammatically false as well. You know what their slogan is?
Nobody knows. Better. Fish and chips, better. Well, think about it grammatically. Better starts now is not even grammatical.
Better starts now. Better what? That's their slogan. Stolen from Citizen Watch Company. And it took them... Have you seen it? Look, have you seen that in the headlines today?
Holy Toledo. What a country we've become. Well, if I stole a slogan, it would be all over the headlines. That shows you the bias of the mainstream media. And they are cripplingly biased, I'm sad to say. Just appalling.
New Zealand First has announced a number of bold policies. The first thing we're going to do is set up a $100 billion future fund.
Anybody else announce that? Well, the Labour Party did. They announced five months ago a future fund. Guess what was in it? Come on, take a wild guess. 200 million. That was enough for every journalist to fall off the chair and say, you must have got a decimal point in the wrong place. They announced a future fund of 200 million. That one in Fitzcarton going forward. You see how difficult this campaign is? And don't think I'm just exaggerating it. I'm just giving you a huge example. And they got away with it.
And yesterday there's Chippy trying to show he can handle the hammer. Can't even hold the hammer properly. He hit it about halfway up the sleeve like this. Bit like John Key, remember the time he was there and he couldn't hit the nail? And bit the whole nail over?
Ours is not a one-off approach. We're going to find $100 billion plus for a future fund, and when we make a comment about what we're going to do in the future, we're going to be able to pay for it. And you're going to say to yourself, how can he possibly talk about $100 billion? And the answer to that is because the world's awash with money, and some people have approached us. But I'll tell you what I'll guarantee you, no politician will get near the management of that money. We're going to have the Temasek Singapore type model.
Smart business women and men are going to be in control of this operation and no politician. And we need that across the political divide. Then we can be certain of going forward without them messing it up. Or worse still, get an ideological brainwave and decide to sell it off, just as it's taking off.
It'll mean we'll build the projects that we promised in our country and provide certainty to businesses. Now, the conflict in the Middle East has highlighted our reliance on imported energy. There's an old English saying, it's an ill wind that doesn't blow somebody some good. Ladies and gentlemen, you're in a country that for 20 years has done no exploration at all at depth. And all of a sudden, a whole lot of international serious experts are saying, you guys are potentially setting on a future Norwegian supply line.
You could be as rich as Norway. And they're not guessing at it. They know what they're talking about. And so we're saying we're going to find the money. That's a billion to make sure we do find those resources. And before you greenies say you're totally opposed to oil and diesel and what have you, then you tell me how we're going to go forward. Even if you don't use any diesel or any oil in any vehicle, how are we going to go forward without these products in the future? Everything you've got in this country is made from these products.
And yet these people, a bit like a song a man used to sing, this is years ago, your grandparents will remember it, but his name was Anthony Newley and he had a song called, Stop the world, I want to get off. Well, that's the Greens. They want everything, but they don't want anybody to have any chance of getting the resources to do it. You can't have the resilient future coming without you have a thing called extraction. And thank God, the West Coast and the South Island is coming alive now. It won't be voting Labour ever again, I'm telling you now.
They're going to be roaring shortly. Because they're being allowed to go back and mine and do what they used to do. Now, you might not like it in leafy suburbs of Wellington,
But the fact is, surely they're entitled to a future, and that future's going to be good for our country. Fossil fuels aren't going anywhere sometime soon. Get that clear. And so all these promises that they're making is for a world where you will have 90% unemployment, because there'll be no capacity in the future if the Greens ever got their way. And there they are, alongside Te Pāti Māori, with the cowboy hat on, and an outfit called Opportunity Cost Party.
Where? I've got to laugh. This is Wellington. Whether the most popular opportunity is the most popular in Wellington. Can I ask you all? Where in the whole history, down 10,000 years, has any political party ever found us leader by advertising for one?
Answer, little old New Zealand. And there she is, day in, day out, on mainstream media, while these more than four-flushing idiots are interviewing this person who's got no idea what the hell she's doing, and she's going to be making a difference in this election. Oh, no, she won't. Because one pie is going to make sure that never happens and you're looking at it. You're going to be saved again, despite yourselves.
Fossil fuels aren't going anywhere for the time being. As much as the left will decry anything extracted from the ground, the simple reality is that cheap and readily available energy is the lifeblood of any economy and it will be for us and we will be no longer subjected to the straits of a moose crisis right now where everybody is being affected by it and the cost of living is prohibitive because of it. Trucks don't run on hopes and dreams. If you don't remember anything about this speech today, remember this part.
Trucks don't run on hopes and dreams. Much to the dismay of Chloe Swarbrick. That's why we will future-proof our fuel security by investing the billions to find the resources that we know are there. And the other thing is, it's an ill wind that doesn't buy somebody some good. All of a sudden we realise that we've got many rare minerals in this country and the world needs them. We face an ongoing existential threat to fuel security and supply, all because we are totally susceptible to the geopolitical choices made by other nations, and this needs to change.
You know that Marsden Point was shut down by Labor, even though they were told this is high risk? And Megan Woods and the sausage roll eater?
He wants to be the Prime Minister, again, if you can believe this. Shut it down. If it was still going, with our supply of oil we've already got already, we could keep every essential business going in this country in a fuel supply crisis. And they went and shut it down. It's incredible. The impact of this is directly hurting businesses and consumers. And we potentially have enough to greatly reduce our sensitivity to global supply shocks. We're going to fight against the high cost you will be experiencing by breaking up the gentailers to make power prices more affordable.
We're going to bust the power companies up. Do you remember the power companies? They were established. In 1998 by the so-called Bradford reforms, where he said we're going to have these reforms so that we can plateau out future rising costs. Well, when he had the future reforms in place, guess what the plateau looked like? It was vertical. And we went from being cutting-edge, advantaged, business and homes, energy efficient, to paying some of the highest costs in the world. That's what these ideological reforms have cost us.
And we're going to bust that outfit up. And the first thing we're going to do is make sure the government is not the biggest cheat, because the government owns 51% of many of them, and is sitting by taking these huge... It's profits whilst people and business are being screwed all around the country. It's just wrong.
And we're going to go and buy back the Bank of New Zealand. Oh, were the neoliberals shocked when I said that? Can you believe these poor, flushing morons? Excuse me. We were going to start the BNZ way back when, decades and decades ago, to take on international banks and provide cost comparisons. Because here's the thing we've got to answer, and you know, you're sitting here right at the citadel of commercial operations. How come the Aussie banks are making more in a smaller market per capita than they're making in a much bigger market in Australia?
If Ned Kelly's not ripping Kiwis off, answer that question. And if you can't, then for God's sake, give us a chance to get our BNZ back, which was sold one third, first of all, by Labor in 1987. And guess who they sold it to? Those crooks called Fay Rishwhite. And who called them crooks? Well, the guy you're talking to. And he got sued for $7 million, but who won? And it was all over. All the way to the Privy Council. Or I didn't say, say, Mr. Peters, that must have cost you a fortune, but you'd like some compensation.
Well, you can do it now if you like. You can take a cap around, for goodness sake. Because I've saved this country billions and billions by going to the Privy Council. But they sold one third of it to Fay Rishwite. And within three years, the BNZs broke. The National Party, of which I then was a member, said that we're going to underwrite the bank and have a full-scale inquiry. And in the first one hour, Jim Bolger sold us down the drain. No inquiry. And Ruth Fisher, who made the promise, who you backed because she's that right wing with the ACT Party, right?
Yes, she is. She was the one that said we're going to underwrite the bank and have a full-scale inquiry, and she had no such inquiry in court. And the other day when I said I'm going to buy the BNZ back, she attacked me. Breathtaking.
Just breathtaking. But ladies and gentlemen, it's not going to cost much to buy it back. Because I don't know if you've been watching the Aussie banks. Have you watched the Aussie banks overnight? They've lost a trillion dollars in value.
Didn't you know that? I am at the Chamber of Commerce, aren't I? Am I? Well, this is overnight. That's what happened. So it's not going to cost what the National Party screamed out and said, and Nicola Willis said. She says it's going to cost me $30 billion to buy it back. This is unbelievable. And these are the people wanting to run this country economically going forward.
Now, this is getting a long speech, that's it. I was meant to have question and answer time. So can I just say, we're going to do a whole lot of other things, but I want to make it very, very clear that the polls are in a very fascinating circumstance. It's not that I give a hoot about the polls. Our job is to create polls, and we're not going to stop off now. This party is going to keep on rising in this campaign. But you could help with a plain dose of common sense and sharing your circumstances about going forward.
Because if you think the other political parties have got a regime or recipe to take this country to a better place, then you please go and vote for them. But I can tell you from my experience, and look, it was a very nice thing you said, that nobody's got as much experience as me in this game. You said I was one of the longest serving. No, I'm the longest serving by miles. I used to love it in the old days when I was a young politician, and there was a guy called Rob Muldoon there, and the Labor Party would be having a go at him, and he'd say things like, I'm going to be around long after you're gone.
I never thought that would be me. But it is. Anyways, ladies and gentlemen, it's now or never. That's how serious we take it. And I just want to get, don't get me wrong, this is a tremendous job or task politics. It's seriously. a case where you're privileged and honoured to be a public servant in that context. And it's been my experience from the very time I was young studying politics that when you're unique in this context, there's no profession where you can do so much harm to people so quickly as politics.
But there's no profession where you can do so much good for people so quickly as politics either. And it's the second one, the positive one, is the reason we're motivated and still here after all these years. So we're going back to the world one more time, and boy, we're going to make sure the world's full. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Minister. I think we have been given a challenge here. We've been very quiet. Welcome to the Chamber of Commerce members. So I expect some fabulous questions to come from the audience. We also have people online. So audience first, and then we'll go to an online question.
I have to be frank.
Audience Member
Good morning. Tell us a bit more about the future funds. You know, you've announced the policy. That's fantastic. I think probably for this audience, what they may not realize is that this builds from an earlier policy where you took $3 billion and invested that into the regions. How do you see those two policies connected?
Rt Hon Winston Peters
Look, we began the Regional Growth Fund in 2017 because we could see that the provinces over decades and decades had fallen dramatically behind in many areas. And we could see so many projects where we could take this enterprise here and turn it into a serious exporter. Take, for example, the limerry. In Hawke's Bay. So what's the limerry? Well, it's a company that started a lime business, but they've got now 21 suppliers to the limerry. And this is potentially a big export industry. But that can be repeated over and over and over again.
And around about 40 or 50 times repeating that, all of a sudden you're looking at an economy and it's recovered, it's on its way. But we've had no money into those areas at all, and we've left it to the banks who say, unless you can pay it back within five years, we're not interested. It's an appalling circumstance in that context. And so we started the Provincial Growth Fund. And guess what we were accused of? Of starting a slush fund. Can you believe it? I was down in Blenheim. We've got 11 projects right near Blenheim.
Well, I was down in Atopo, the other day. Two pages of projects have been started by the Provincial Growth Funds. The value and importance of them will be around 50, 100 years from now. And that's, as you say, the primary reason for our start on that was to build the provinces. And the moment COVID turned up, all of a sudden people realised, oh, the provinces are important. It's the only reason why we survived. But then the gross thing that happened during that time is that they borrowed $62 billion and half of it was never spent on COVID.
I'm going to have to keep on paying that back for decades now. To think that they're even standing up now is beyond me, but there they are, standing up looking like an alternative government if we don't win. But I put some time into it very carefully because you're caught by the Public Finance Act. And I just know what will happen if I don't get this wrong. The Public Finance Act makes it very, very clear that only two people can raise money, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. as I once was the treasurer.
And we didn't go out and raise the money. We were approached, and we're going to be ready and clean by election day with the resources that we're talking about. We'll see who's got what it takes in this campaign on that score. But it's far more. And if you've seen anything to do with our future, the future infrastructural costs of this country are way past $100 billion. But then we could raise $200 billion, couldn't we? If we know what we're doing with the first $100 billion. But as I said before, we'll raise it and we ensure that the politicians can't get their unqualified hands on it.
Audience Member
A couple of questions from online. This one's from Malcolm, and he asks, what levers would New Zealand first use to get the national economy back on track, and what do you see as the basis of our future economy?
Rt Hon Winston Peters
My speech in the last 30 minutes. But wasn't he listening?
Audience Member
Minister, I wanted to ask you, people are confident when they've got money in their pockets. Why don't you get a carbon photocopy of working, start printing some money, and circulating it into the economy? Because a bit of inflation is quite a good economic generator. It creates jobs, it creates demand, and it creates a more vital economy.
Rt Hon Winston Peters
Well, that's a fascinating theory. I can tell you when I started as a lawyer, The mortgages in those days had a fixed interest rate. We had so got on top of, and we were number one in the world, of inflation, that mortgages had a fixed rate for the whole 25 years.
It was the 1972-75 Labor government where inflation went to 17.5% within three years. That changed all that. And we've been trying to wrestle with inflation ever since. In fact, we're preoccupied with it unsuccessfully. Because, yeah, we were on top of inflation until the Labor Party got in last time and it hit 7.5%. That's what we inherited in 2023. But I agree with you in all other respects. People need more money in their pockets. And the difficult thing at the moment is that people have been making all the efforts, but there's something missing.
You get what it is? Because the plan's wrong. They don't have any hope. It shows... in their sentiments. I travel around this country and I watch very carefully, I'm watching all the shops. This country is in a very, very, very uncomfortable situation at the moment. There's so many businesses that are in difficulty, it should not be, because there's not enough money in the system, as you say. But there should be money in the system for the right reasons. I don't advertise you print money. Because sooner or later that runs out.
And the value of money, you keep on printing, it gets more and more and more. I mean, I know economies where the inflation rate was 350% before the president took to it. This is Argentina. And he's finally got on top of it, but not by printing money. You sometimes have to bite the bullet. But I agree with you in every respect. I want to see people with more money in their pockets, but justifiably so. What we've got here at the moment is an unbelievable circumstance where there's a party the mainstream media says is going to hold the balance of power, and they're not going to, but that's what they're saying, where they're going to give all citizens
$20,000 whether they're working or not. For the rest of their lives, just like that. And to get that, they're going to tax you 1.75% of land value every year on your house. And when she was asked, how can all people afford that? She said, well, they'll just have to downsize. This is breathtaking stuff. But in all respects, the campaign in 2026 is dependent on this being revived for the first time for a long time. That if people make the effort and work and save, tomorrow is going to be better. That's the great New Zealand that once was the case.
It was spectacularly extreme, you know, when that happened, and you probably have no idea of it, but you'll... Ask your parents or grandparents and they'll tell you. Because we just took off as a country and we were growing. Guess what the growth rate was? Five and a half percent year on, year on, year on, year on, year on. But you know the peculiar thing was? Most of the people who set up that economy hadn't been to university. So maybe we've got a problem in this country. Too many smart alecks who don't know what they're doing in politics.
Hayley Horan
Thank you. We have a question over here.
Audience Member
Sir, with all respect to your longevity, I'm interested, who are the young up-and-coming candidates on the New Zealand First list around the country and standing in our electorates that we should be looking at for who are going to take the baton of New Zealand First forward in the future?
Rt Hon Winston Peters
Well, the reason why we don't talk about leadership in New Zealand first is because we've got leader. All the other players talk about leadership because they haven't got one. But we don't talk about leadership because we've got one. And the second thing is there's a whole lot of bright young people there. And I don't know if you saw our last convention, but there was a stack of young people there. And the media were looking and thinking, what's gone wrong? But nothing's gone wrong. They're just working up.
I could list them, but if I do, I'll offend a whole lot of people if I don't list them. I can't make that mistake. But no, we've got a great bunch of people coming. But we've also got a lot of experienced candidates, former MPs, former ministers. All coming back. Our job is to make sure we get up the polls high enough to make sure they all make it. And there's a fun or two very exciting candidates yet to be announced who have been at the top of New Zealand's economy. And we've got, so these exciting announcements we're making very, very, very soon.
Slowly, slowly does it. I suppose if you were to say that I can point to some members of parliament from the other parties who I do think have got a chance of being great politicians in the future. And then there's the no-hopers. I mean, and there's a stack of them there. Unbelievable. But some of the parties have got some bright MPs. I won't tell them, but say because I might ruin their career.
Hayley Horan
And I think we've got time for one last question.
Audience Member
Amy Hines from Financial Services Council. We have an ambition for New Zealand to have over a trillion dollars in retirement savings by 2040. How important in your view is it for New Zealand to have the ambition for retirement savings but also for our capital markets?
Rt Hon Winston Peters
Well, it's a great ambition. And the reality is, you know, in 1970, 275, the then Labour Party had a retirement savings plan that had two serious imperfections. One was that women didn't really qualify. And that was a huge defect, but it could have been fixed. And the other one was you didn't get the full payment until...
2028, that's two years from now. That could have been fixed as well. And sadly, the National Party at the time turned it into, these are a bunch of communists, they're going to own the whole country, with the Cossacks, and as a result, we lost the opportunity. And then in 1991, 1997 rather, A politician offered you a referendum and said, I'll cut the taxes by 8% and we're going to put all of you into a savings account and one day we'll be rich. I'll give you a vote on that and we got smashed. That is, I got smashed.
I offered the referendum. I got smashed. And I can remember Paul Holmes and I sort of goating, you got beaten, you got beaten. I said, yeah, I got smashed. I got voted down all right. You might have voted me down, but you didn't vote away the problem. And here we go again. We've got the Cullen Fund, which New Zealand first backed in opposition because it was better than nothing. And the current fund was also, and written into it, was a personalised clause that it still can be personalised, but it's never been done.
Because the sad thing in this country is the parties on the right, namely National Act, uniquely around the world, don't have an understanding and believe in savings. Now, you've got to admit that's true. It's colossal. I mean, Jenny Shipley campaigned against me on that matter to try and roll Jim Bolger. How could a conservative party be anti-savings? But you're quite right. We'd have started it earlier. then we would have been far better off. And don't forget the Cullen Fund was started to smooth out the cost of the brief peak in retirement.
And you know why they keep on saying we're going to attack the super investment fund and attack super? It's their way of saying, I'm so incompetent, I can't run an economy that's got growth in it. Because if the economy is growing at 3% plus, you'd not have these concerns, because it's only 5.2% now of the GDP, our retirement costs, and that's half of what most countries are. They're on 8%, 9%, 10%, 11%. We haven't got that problem. We've also got the Colin Fund to smooth it out. But with all those things already happening, instead of saying, I can't run the economy, I should leave Parliament, they're saying, let's start now attacking the retirement funds.
If the fact is, when you talk about these people raising the age of retirement, to 67 or 70 or something like that. They're also meant to do something about the Cullen Fund. It's my belief that they intend to privatise it again. Because they never mention that this fund is the reason why the forward costs will not be so great. Because we're going to use the Cullen Fund for the purpose of which it was set up all those years ago. Is that clear?
Hayley Horan
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in thanking the Rt Honourable Winston Peters for an incredible speech.
Rt Hon Winston Peters
There used to be a very famous American singing group called Little River Band. And they had a song, which is really our slogan, to help you in this campaign. You know what the song was? Hang on, because help's on its way.
Hayley Horan
Thank you so much. Thank you, Minister. The Minister's on a tight time schedule, but I don't know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed that deep intellect with humour. Don't go yet. I've got to sell you the chamber. Firstly, I want to thank Allen + Clarke so very much.
The enrolment forms are over there.
Thank you, Minister, for supporting us today. This is the close of the Leader Series, but it is not the end of Beehive to Business. So, firstly, thank you all so much. I don't know about you. Have you enjoyed the morning? Great. Fantastic. So, if you are not a member, why not? You can come and see me on the way out, but I just want to say thank you so much for the questions and for your attendance and to everybody online. So that concludes our morning this morning. Thank you so much, everybody. You're now to leave now.
