New Zealand Executive Government Speech Archive

President Geoff Thompson, delegates, Members of Parliament, candidates, ladies and gentlemen. This is going to be a great election conference. I thank the Mayor for attending to open the conference. He not only knows the difference between right and left feet, he knows the difference between left and right governments and he's on the right side.

The President has covered many of the important issues we must face over the weeks leading up to the election. I want to take this early opportunity to thank the President for the huge effort he puts in for the National Party. His time and effort commitment is truly impressive. I want to spend my time today speaking to you about the decision which will face our nation on October 12th. That decision will be about whether we go forward to a richer future -- or whether we retreat to a poorer past.

The New Zealand National Party is the only major political party contesting this election that is pledged to going forward. All of the others want to sound the retreat. The leader of one of the newer parties said this week, We need people in our party ... who remember the way things were and could be again. Well let me remind him of the way things were not long ago ...

• the law prevented people shopping on the weekend -- the only time many of them could shop
• a wait of three to six weeks was the norm for hooking up a business telephone
• only the Government could broadcast television programmes
• you needed a doctor's prescription to buy margarine ú the law
• banned carpets manufactured from anything but wool ú you needed a permit to subscribe to an overseas journal
• the Government decided how many hens a commercial poultry farmer could keep and the price you would have to pay for them.

Nobody not even in their deepest moments of nostalgia - would seriously want New Zealand to be like that again. Nor could it ever be for the world has moved on. Our traditional isolation has been replaced by instant global communications. Government regulation has been replaced by the freedom to choose. Protective trade barriers have been replaced by the dynamics of international free trade.

State paternalism has been replaced by individual responsibility. We cannot go back -- either as a party or as a nation -- but we can look back. We can look back sixty years to the 13th of May, 1936 I was a toddler in Taranaki at the time. On that day delegates from all over New Zealand gathered in the old Dominion Farmers Institute building, just a few hundred metres from here, to form a new political party.

A party that would stand for the liberty and security of the individual ... that would oppose socialism and communism ... that would represent the mainstream of New Zealand political thought. To the best of my knowledge we do not have any delegate here today who was there at the inaugural conference - but we come close. I would like to recognise the presence here today of 86 year old Marion Barnes, a delegate from Rongotai who joined National in 1938 - just two years after the party was founded. Marion tells us that she's forgotten how many conferences she has now attended, but looking back she can recall a long string of electoral successes.

Since 1949 National has lead the country for no less than 35 years - longer than any other party. Both we and the country owe a deep debt of gratitude to those members of the National Party - those we remember well and those whose names may be fading - who made this a truly 'national' party. From our historic leaders like, Sir Keith Holyoake, to hard-working, long-serving members like Marion Barnes. To all of them, we say thank you for a job well done. Now we must turn to the path ahead ... to New Zealand's first MMP election ... to forming a new Government ... to our next three year term ... and to the new century that lies beyond.

This conference will be our springboard into an era that can be better than any we have ever known better than our party's founders could possibly have dreamed of. But realising it will demand that we are willing to change ... that we are willing to abandon the bad habits of the past... and that we are willing to adopt a new code for tomorrow. Today I want to call for nothing less than a new age of honesty and maturity in New Zealand political life. Making government work tomorrow is going to demand a higher standard and we in the National Party can show the way in the manner in which we conduct ourselves in the months ahead. Let us recognise that with MMP politicians are going to have to make a break with the ways of the past, if for no other reason than that they will be caught out if they don't.

Parties will no longer be able to fudge the true nature and true cost of the promises they make on the hustings because those promises and those costs will have to stand up to impartial and rigorous scrutiny. The first thing that will happen after an election is that you will have to convince some potential coalition partner of the validity of your election promises. The doability of those promises. Each commitment will have to be carefully costed and the benefits to the nation calmly assessed. Without an analysis of this kind, it will be impossible to bring together a committed coalition partnership that will run full term.

Coalition government demands that there is trust between the partners. We know this because we have been working in coalition arrangements for many many months. The United Party has not agreed with everything we wanted to do, nor we with everything it wanted to do, but there has, I believe, been trust and mutual respect. And here I would like to pay a tribute to the political maturity and the understanding of the MMP world that the United leader, Clive Matthewson, and his team have shown - and which has also been shown by Graeme Lee, Ross Meurant and Trevor Rogers.

Most of all though, I want to pay tribute to the support and energy of my Parliamentary colleagues. From senior Cabinet Ministers to backbenchers they have stood staunchly with the Government in perhaps the most turbulent time in our political history. They have worked together to ensure that through this time of upheaval the country was well served. They have my, and I am sure your, heartfelt thanks. Their understanding has made stable government possible.

I wish our major opponents had a similar grasp. The leader of one of them has said she wont work with anyone that she plans to form a government in her own right which will be fine if her party quadruples its support before election day. Then we have the leader of another party who is saying that he couldn't work with Jim Bolger or Bill Birch he should be so lucky! We in the National Party, by contrast, have made it clear that we will negotiate with potential coalition partners on the basis of policies, not personalities. Well put our cards on the table face up ... well openly discuss what the other party has to offer ... and well decide together what is best for the country. This is what I mean when I call today for a new age of honesty and maturity in New Zealand politics.

Let us campaign on the positives ... let us remind the nation of those things which only we can claim:

• that our economic management abilities are equal to those found anywhere
• that we can hold our party together, form coalitions when necessary, and run a highly stable Government
• that we can invest in health and education, create jobs, while simultaneously reducing debt, and cutting taxes
• that we have a clear vision of our nations future ú that we have a strong team that, with the intake of 96, it is going to be even stronger still
• and that our forward plans are honestly presented

This is what we will be offering the nation on October 12.

Tomorrow I want to talk to you about the brilliant future that is within New Zealand's grasp and the danger that it could all slip away if we made the wrong decision on election day and elected a three headed unstable coalition on the left. For the moment, I welcome you back here to the Capital ... I wish you a productive conference, a memorable conference, as we set out and debate our plans for the National Party and New Zealand as we move towards the 21st century.

Ends.