Winston Peters: Lessons from the US election

Winston Peters.

It has been a turbulent time in more ways than one.

The big shake which rocked New Zealand shortly after midnight early Monday morning and the destruction it has wrought, the lives it has taken and affected has been a disaster.

Memories are still fresh from the horrors of the Canterbury earthquakes and only in recent times has there been some semblance of progress in getting over that catastrophe.

Now, like some terrible action replay, we seem to be going through it all over again.

The only positive note has been that few lives were lost. Had the earthquake struck in daylight hours, the cost could have been greater. That is something we can be grateful for.

However, the destruction at Kaikoura, Ward, Seddon and the area generally between Picton and Amberley is a terrible setback for our country.

A huge amount of money and resources will be needed to get this vital arterial route open again.

Here in Northland we have many challenges, but fortunately we have not experienced the horrors of earthquakes.

No doubt Northlanders will give their best wishes and ongoing support for all those affected by these latest earthquakes.

Last week the Western world sustained its own version of an earthquake when Donald Trump defied the odds and all the predictions of the so-called experts when he won the presidency of the United States from Hillary Clinton.

Put aside what any of us may think about the personalities, the main reason why Mr Trump, a property developer, reality TV star and political novice, swept to power is because he struck a chord with ordinary Americans who have been forgotten too long.

He did not want American jobs disappearing overseas; he did not like watching the inexorable decline of American manufacturing which had once led the world; he did not want the United States flooded with illegal immigrants who were taking jobs off Americans.

In June, Mr Trump visited Monessen, a small town near Pittsburgh which had dropped from a population of 18,000 to 7500. The city's steel mill had been shut down, jobs had disappeared overseas.

The mayor had appealed to Washington and President Barack Obama. He did not receive a response. He appealed to Mr Trump. Mr Trump came to the town and listened to the mayor's concerns. The mayor, a lifelong Democrat, voted for Donald Trump.

There are parallels for Northland with what happened in the United States last week. For too long this region has been ignored by Wellington and the politicians. This must change and can change.

New Zealand First has made a firm commitment to help Northland and provincial New Zealand and Northland. We have long recognised that our regions, the real export wealth creators, have been ignored for far too long.