13 Sep 2014

Heartland NZ being ignored - Peters

9:06 am on 13 September 2014

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says heartland New Zealand is being ignored in this election and he is visiting rural areas to show they do matter.

100914. Photo Diego Opatowski / RNZ. Winston Peters talking about police numbers at Hutt Gables Retirement Village.

NZ First Leader Winston Peters. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski

Mr Peters said that under the National-led government, Auckland had turned into what seemed like a separate country detached from the rest of the economy.

He said his party believed New Zealand was more prosperous when the regions were thriving.

New Zealand First wanted to reform the Reserve Bank Act with the aim of helping manufacturers and exporters and making the country less reliant on dairy and timber exports, he said.

"For all those who have been shouting out, 'which way are we going to go?', let me tell them that it doesn't matter unless we go down the path of economic change, change the Reserve Bank act, so that it serves provincial export, wealth-creating New Zealand, and second we stop this massive sell off of our country to overseas interests."

The party also wanted to strengthen tests for foreign ownership of strategic assets, Mr Peters said.

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