Thank you, delegates for that tremendous welcome. Thank you for your support. Looking at that video I am reminded again that it's been quite a term - a grand journey. The world has changed and so has New Zealand's role in it. We have come through so much.

Together, we have achieved great things for New Zealand. Together, we have made our nation strong again. We have cause to be proud again. You, and I, and every other New Zealander. Its not only when our netballers beat the South Africans or when the All Blacks run the legs off the Scottish. I can feel it in every workplace I visit, talking to young people in schools - there's a vitality abroad in the land that is infectious.

We have put aside mediocrity as an option. Instead we have put in place firm plans to deliver our country the security of a fair and prosperous future. It's not a future of vague hopes and empty promises. It is real. Continued growth. More jobs. Safer Communities. More prosperous lives. A better environment. When I see those images on the video I think, yes, we have been busy. And yes, I have been enormously fortunate. To work with world leaders at a time when the globe has been in a state of such change.

To share time with inspirational leaders such as Nelson Mandela. Nobody illustrates better than he does the sea change the world is going through. Old ideas, old prejudices, old politics are being pushed aside. Apartheid has been discredited, communism has been discredited, old fashioned big government has been discredited. Government by regulation has been replaced by freedom to choose. Success tomorrow will go to those countries led by political parties that understand what creates opportunity and wealth in the new world of the 21st century.

How knowledge and skills are going to be the most important resource a nation has. And therefore how investment in education, science and research are going to be the key investments in the future. Listening to the proposals of our political opponents it is clear that their thinking has not, in any substantive way, moved past the era of bulk food sales to Britain, the news on a five valve radio and an Empire where the sun never set. An era long gone in reality but still the base of much political thinking in New Zealand's opposition parties.

Delegates, at this conference we celebrate 60 years of the National Party. Today we look back not with nostalgia. We look for the lessons we can learn. The strength we can take from past examples. The values we must keep in mind. There are many. National's heritage gives us so much to take into the future. Because we confront a new era in politics, some say we must reject old values and design new ones with the pollsters in mind. Not so. Some say we must abandon the tradition of a broad, all-encompassing National Party for the politics of niche marketing. Again, not so.

I say today that the values that made National strong for 60 years will guide us well in the future. The chord we have struck with the New Zealand way of life will serve us well in the future. The qualities that led New Zealanders to choose National for 35 of the last 47 years are still there but we express them differently. We express them in a way that is attracting large numbers of younger New Zealanders to come out in strong support of our party. The political world has indeed changed. But New Zealanders' core values have not.

Those values have been at the core of all we have worked for in government and they underpin what we plan to do in the future. Values of honesty and integrity. Values that enshrine the enduring importance of the family. Today more than ever we must be conscious of the different pressures families are under and do what we can to assist. Our value system depends on the strength of families - that's why I enjoyed giving tax cuts to working families this year. They don't need an economist to tell them it's good - they know it's good and with National in office they will get a tax cut this year and again next year.

We have put a lot of energy into setting out a clear path to the future. Bill Birch made that very clear in his presentation. Last month's Budget demonstrated that, with wise management, New Zealand can excel. The OECD put it better than most in its recent report on the New Zealand economy. It said, and I quote, "while other OECD countries have pursued similar policies, few, if any, have done so in the context of such a coherent overall framework, stressing predictability, transparency and accountability."

That coherent overall framework is what New Zealand must hang on to. Other parties promise only part of the framework. That won't work. Some want to go soft on inflation, others soft on spending, others want more regulation and so on. In effect back to a failed past. Our approach is to recognise the inherent strength of the framework but not to be so unrealistic as to expect every forecast or every indicator to be spot on every time, and importantly not to panic when it doesn't happen.

It's the success of the overall framework that led to New Zealand being described by the World Economic Forum, as the third most dynamic economy in the world. A few years ago such recognition, such an accolade would have been impossible - today it's reality. It's something worth hanging onto. In this year's budget we set out to achieve three clear goals. To clean up the past by repaying another $8 billion in debt. To reward the present with $3.3 billion in tax cuts and to invest in the future with an investment of $3.7 billion in key areas like education, science, environment and health.

In the broadest sense, we made a big investment in security. A nation that is well educated, healthy, and safe is a secure and stable nation. But there is more that needs to be done. To be a secure and stable nation we also have work to do to resolve the mistakes of our early history. In recent days the Waitangi Tribunal released its interim report on the claims by Taranaki iwi for redress for the totally inexcusable actions of government in the last century. I know there are some who say it's not our fault - we weren't there. That's true. It's not our fault but it is our responsibility to address and resolve such issues in a fair and affordable manner.

I state again that private property is not under any threat whatsoever in settling Maori land claims. We demonstrated with the Tainui Settlement what the Government and Maori can achieve and what we want to achieve with the same degree of honour by settling all other proven claims. Today I thank the Maori Advisory Committee for their work for the Party. As no Government before has done, we have confronted New Zealand's sad record of Maori grievances. I want to thank Doug Graham for his ongoing commitment in this important area of Government policy. We are bound by history to work to find solutions. The wrongs of our history have to be put right. We are striving, in our settlement of claims, to hand back to Maori the tools of their own advancement. The most legitimate Maori grievance - and it is a grievance that all New Zealanders of goodwill understand - is plain, outright disadvantage. Too many Maori are unemployed. Too many have little education. Too many children grow up in families where there is little hope.

Our settlements of grievances will help bring Maori into the mainstream of economic success. That's something the National Party can be proud of. We are honouring the hopes of those Maori and pakeha who signed the Treaty in good faith. It is hard work, but I am proud of the progress we are making. The pay-off will be with us for generations. The voters will be wooed in the weeks ahead by opposition political parties offering new spending virtually without limit.

The irony is that it will all be premised on the Government's success in putting in place policies - which all opposition parties said were a disaster - that has Government income greater than Government spending. The much talked of surplus. But it isn't a surplus waiting to be spent, it has all been committed to the repayment of Government debt. Let me deal very bluntly with the three opposition parties approach to vastly increased spending. The first and most important point to make is that New Zealand's prosperity isn't guaranteed irrespective of how the country's run. If the country was run by a three-headed coalition of the left, then prosperity would vanish virtually overnight.

New Zealand's recent past is a clear and harsh reminder that New Zealand can fail. Voters in this election campaign need to be constantly reminded that our success, our future as a prosperous nation is at risk at this election. If the National Party is not at the core of the new Government then everything we have achieved is at risk. Jobs are at risk, mortgage rates are at risk, personal security is at risk, improved health care is at risk, the great strides we are making in education would be at risk. 1996 is a stark choice campaign. Your taxes will go up, inflation will go up, your mortgage repayments will go up if an unstable coalition government of Alliance, Labour and New Zealand First were to take over government after the October election.

New Zealander's security depends on the stability only a National led government can provide. Our great export industries that earn the overseas wealth we need to keep New Zealand moving forward depend on stable government policies to succeed. Agriculture has been the life blood of New Zealand since the earliest days of European settlement. There are many heroic stories surrounding the development of New Zealand farming but perhaps none as unique as that of Chew Chong the Chinese immigrant who arrived here in 1867 and in effect started New Zealand's export dairy industry.

It's a remarkable story of pioneering dairy farming in Taranaki and as a consequence Chew Chong was a few weeks ago included in New Zealand's business hall of fame. I know that sheep and beef farming is going through a very difficult period at present and that has prompted some farmers and farm leaders to ask whether there should be a change in the present economic framework. I can understand the question but no change in the economic framework can compensate for a collapse in the US commodity beef market and no change can compensate for a lack of buyers for wool, or a lack of market price for any other export commodity.

What can help as Agriculture Minister Lockwood Smith has said very many times recently, is for the various industry groups to look again at how they process and market their product. Farmers will never become wealthy on commodity trading. It is essential that we not only add value but that we extract value from a market. That's what marketing is all about. This is most unlikely to happen, if as the Ernst and Young report states, "red meats are largely marketed as they were a generation ago!" The other side of the coin is that dairy farmers exporting to similar world markets with the same currency have just received a record pay out. The significant distinction for me is that 21% of dairy exports this season were products which did not exist only five years ago. What we are seeing here is the benefit of greater investment in product development and greater investment in the market place.

We must extract more value from the market and that means paying farmers for what the market wants. Farmers are both resilient and realistic. And I want them to stay with the National Party which is the only Party that has a long term interest in them, their families and their industry. All export sectors depend on access to world markets. Since day one my Government through senior Ministers like Don McKinnon and Philip Burdon have worked in country after country, in meeting after meeting to lower barriers to trade. We are succeeding but the effort must continue.

Our exporters are still unfairly penalised in many markets. What we have achieved is progress but we are committed to getting trade barriers lower still. That commitment mirrors our intention to play a real role in the international community. Trade and the environment are linked by New Zealand's international image of a clean green country. We are determined to keep that image. Part of that commitment is reflected in this year's Budget which directed $110 million of additional spending on Green issues.

The new money will enable more effort to be made in key areas like possum control, saving rare and endangered species and to help clean up past pollution. With Joan, Denis Marshall and Nick Smith, I recently had the pleasure of walking through a part of our new Kahurangi National Park.

It's a vast and wonderful area and it was with a real sense of achievement that I declared the Park open, knowing that in doing so the National Government were reserving and preserving this wonderful heritage for not only our children but for all the generations as yet unborn. A matter of great environmental concern in recent years has been nuclear testing in the Pacific and elsewhere.

At long last the French have stopped testing and we want China to do likewise. As the next step we want the nations of the world to sign up to a comprehensive test ban treaty. A treaty to ban all further nuclear tests. I am still optimistic that will happen even though some countries like India are very reluctant to agree. The pressure must be kept on to get a test ban treaty. There is still more to be done.

New Zealand will again play a leadership role in seeking to have a southern hemisphere nuclear free zone declared. We are working on that concept now. The real and ultimate goal we must commit ourselves to is a world without nuclear weapons. There is no place in the world for weapons of indiscriminate mass killing. It was with that thought in mind that Attorney-General Paul East took New Zealand's support to the World Court to have the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons declared illegal. Seven and a half months later the Court has yet to deliver its judgement which certainly gives new meaning to the term -"careful consideration".

What issues like the world debate on nuclear testing and nuclear disarmament have shown is that a small committed nation can provide leadership and influence opinion on important global issues. A new National led government after the October elections will continue to speak out on key global issues, continue to give support to the United Nations and continue to demand more accountability from the United Nations. We will continue to provide peacekeepers where they can play a constructive role as they have done in Bosnia and elsewhere. In short we will be an active but not uncritical contributor in world forums. In recent years, New Zealand has been shrugging off the last vestiges of an inferiority complex because of our small size and distance from our traditional anchor point Europe.

That strong link to Europe will remain but there are also strong links to America - North and South - to Asia and improving links with regions like the Middle East and Africa. Near neighbour Australia is the most important link of all. In looking at the world we need to freshen up our thinking. The sweep of global technology makes information on all issues instantly available. We are no longer isolated. Modern transport means you can reach most places in the world in 24 hours. The old barriers erected by distance and size are no longer relevant. Being small will soon be seen to be an advantage.

In a fast changing world the speed of response needed to meet changing demands will favour small technologically advanced nations. A nation's prosperity in future will depend not on size, location or physical resources but on knowledge, skills, inventiveness and drive. New Zealand can be such a country as long as we make the right investment in the right areas. It's all over to us. That future is ours for the taking. It's hugely challenging but hugely exciting. I am an optimist and I firmly believe we will go forward to that richer future, not backwards to a poorer past.

For New Zealand the next few years are going to define our character for the 21st century. I believe we will be up there with the winners. How we handle the first election under MMP is going to define our role in Government. There is still much confusion about MMP. The President spoke on some of the key issues yesterday including the absolute importance of the Party Vote. I want to spend a moment on possible Coalition Government. First we should not rule out the possibility that New Zealand voters seeking the security of a stable government will give National sufficient support to form a government in our own right. That would be the best possible result for New Zealand in this time of great opportunity. We also do not rule out continuing in power as a minority government.

To do that would still require the concurrence of other political parties. Because coalition government is likely I set out some clear ground rules in recent speeches. For National, coalition government won't be a new experience. In the last three years, we have shown that MPs from different parties can work together. That process began immediately after the last election when I invited the Hon Peter Tapsell to become Speaker. That surprised a lot of people. It broke new ground in modern politics for New Zealand. But it assured stability in Parliament. We have made more new moves along the way. Today, Peter Dunne elected as a Labour MP is in our Cabinet.

As you all know, I've dedicated myself since election night 1993 to delivering electoral change while retaining maximum security for New Zealanders. I knew then that New Zealand faced enormous challenges, if it was to see through this electoral change with security and confidence in tact. Remember those pundits who predicted that the Government could not possibly last the term? Well, we are almost there. We are into the home strait that takes us to the new era. The Government has not fallen apart. Instead we seized the new realities and made them work. We have developed and introduced full and comprehensive plans for the future.

I realised in 1993 that we had a double responsibility. We had to prove the new political environment would work. And we had to nurture the economic recovery then just beginning, and use it as a platform for a better future. We have done both and are now preparing for the next challenge - providing political leadership in the immediate post election period. This will start the instant the results are known on Saturday night, October 12.

If a coalition government is called for, then the most important point is that the coalition should be formed not on personalities but on the policy content that the parties can agree are in New Zealand's best interests. The next point to make is that it is foolish for commentators to be dogmatic in advance about which parties may form a government after the election and it is equally foolish for party leaders to emphatically proclaim who they will or will not be prepared to work with after the election. It is the voters who will determine the make up of the new Parliament and it is then up to political leaders and politicians to produce the best government they can for New Zealand. We will give away nothing that is dear to National.

Our 60-year history has given us a great heritage that we cannot squander. That heritage has also shown that when we put our minds to it we can usually find solutions. It will be a matter of seeking those areas where we can find broad agreement. I'd suggest there will be many of them. We can start with the basics. Price stability. Economic growth. Real sustainable growth that will see average New Zealand incomes 50 per cent higher in 15 years. Policies that have created more than 200,000 jobs in four years.

These are facts. They are goals that the broad majority of New Zealanders share. That is why I know a majority of Parliamentarians share them to - and will do so after October 12. Then we can move to areas where it is maybe a little more difficult to find agreement, but by no means impossible. In education, we can surely agree on guaranteeing excellent education for all New Zealanders, with the best, most professional teachers. In health, we can agree on a public system that is available to all, fairly and efficiently. It will not be hard to find partners who agree on New Zealand shouldering its responsibilities in the world - and providing Southern Hemisphere leadership on issues we are passionate about.

Perhaps there will be some areas we will put aside. Agree to disagree, if you like. There may be issues that we will be confident to put to the test of Parliament. Give them a fair hearing and accept the results. To some extent we are doing that with the bill to abolish appeal rights to the Privy Council right now. It may not be easy, managing change is never simple. But it is the only path that offers New Zealand security.

We must offer every New Zealander security about their future. Anything less and we would be failing New Zealand. I didn't come to Parliament to settle for second best. You didn't come here to do that. Today we face a contest like no other in our history. The election that we now confront places new demands on all of us. We must take our message to every corner of the nation. We must leave every voter in no doubt about what we are doing and what we will do. Voters must also be left in no doubt that a three-headed Government of the left would be a disaster. It couldn't work and all New Zealanders would suffer.

Again I am optimistic. The spirit of New Zealand is on our side. We're a nation at work again. We're on track to a future that New Zealanders want. When all around us the commentators said MMP would decimate traditional parties like National, we are united as never before. We were formed to meet new political realities. We are doing so again. We prospered because we are in tune with the values of ordinary, decent New Zealanders. It is no time to abandon them now. We have the will and we have the means to lead New Zealand into the future. We are well down the path of electoral change that voters asked of us. We are making it work.

Now it is time to move to top gear. I am ready. My team is ready. You are ready. In the next 16 weeks lets show them what the modern National Party can deliver.
Ends