Make own mind up, Peters urges

VOTE: Rotorua voters Steff Morris (left) and Cheryl Hally share a laugh with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters during an election campaign walkabout at Rotorua Central Mall yesterday. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 050914SP9

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wants Rotorua students to think for themselves, not listen to others to make their minds up.

Mr Peters completed a walk around Central Mall greeting prospective voters before speaking to Waiariki Institute of Technology students during a visit on the campaign trail to Rotorua yesterday.

"Lots of people, older than most of you, will often tell you what it is that you're concerned about," he told students.

"Rather than actually listening to what you're concerned about, and what you expect from your politicians, they tell you what you should be concerned about and how they're representing you."

Mr Peters said the unfairness of the student loan system, difficulties of getting a job after graduating and whether young people could afford to buy a house were concerns he had heard repeatedly in the election lead-up.

The students vote should reflect the vision they wanted the country to be, he told the meeting. "Do you want a New Zealand that looks after everyone, from babies to grandparents, or just a select few?" he asked.

Young people needed to tell politicians what they wanted because they would have to live with the consequences of a failed economy longer than anyone else.

Mr Peters rejected the latest polls which had the National Party being returned as a majority government. "They are seriously wrong in misleading the public where NZ First is concerned.

"We are enjoying a surge which will go all the way to election day ..."

The biggest issue affecting the Rotorua region was the added-value loss of exporting, including a neglected timber industry and falling timber prices.

"We have here a product going out of Tauranga in its most basic raw state, no added value and thriving industries in this part of the country being totally neglected. Rotorua people are beginning to realise that and it shows in their economy. Ask them, how they feel, things are flat."

Mr Peters said NZ First candidates in Tauranga and Rotorua, Clayton Mitchell and Fletcher Tabuteau, were "both going like a house on fire".

"We're very confident of the quality and talent we are going to bring in 2014 to Parliament. In their local area, they are seriously well known."

Mr Peters said people he met in Rotorua were asking him to win.

"Truly it is the number one question, no bull."