ACT - Right Thinking
act-new-zealand
Sat Sep 22 2012 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
ACT - Right Thinking
Saturday, 22 September 2012, 12:50 pm
Press Release: ACT New Zealand
Visit by US Expert Dr Mike Feinberg, Co-founder of KIPP
Can Partnership Schools make a difference and is there a place for them in New Zealand?
Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua – known internationally as charter schools – are one of the Government’s initiatives aimed at addressing student underachievement. As a relatively late adopter of the concept, New Zealand has the advantage of being able to learn from the successes and failures of models in other parts of the world.
Join us for a discussion on what KIPP, a US network of 125 high-performing charter schools, has been able to deliver in terms of educational achievement and new ways for parents and communities to be involved in their children’s education.
KIPP serves nearly 40,000 students across 20 US states. More than 85% of students are from low-income families, 95% are Afro-American or Latino/Hispanic, 14% are English language learners, and 9% receive special education services. Over 90% of KIPP middle school students go on to graduate from high school, and over 85% of KIPP alumni go on to university/tertiary education.
Dr Feinberg co-founded KIPP, is currently Executive Vice-Chair of KIPP Houston, and serves on the board of KIPP Foundation. He has won numerous awards for educational excellence and public service/social entrepreneurship.
Dr Feinberg’s visit to New Zealand is being made possible by the Aotearoa Foundation.
Reserve your place ASAP.
It is free to attend.
Wellington Tuesday, September 25 2012 5.45pm
Auckland Thursday, September 27 2012 7:00pm
Christchurch Wednesday, September 26 2012 6.30pm
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The Week That Was
Parliament was busy this week with MPs debating a range of legislation.
$15 Minimum Wage
Of particular note was Labour’s attempt to legislate New Zealanders rich by increasing the minimum wage to $15 through their Minimum Wage Amendment Bill.
The bill, put forward by MP David Clark, was defeated thanks to Opposition from ACT, National and United Future.
Lifting the minimum wage to $15 dollars when the economy is still recovering would put many low wage workers at risk of losing their jobs. While it sounds generous, anyone who does not produce $15 of productive work per hour would not be employed. Many small business owners would end up working more hours themselves rather than hiring another employee.
A member survey by the Hospitality Association showed that 48% of hospitality owner/operators paid themselves less than then minimum wage last year. We have no doubt that this is representative of all owner/operators in the small business sector.
It is ironic that Labour claims this bill will help our least well off when it will actually leave many on the unemployment scrap heap. If Labour thinks we can just pass laws to lift wages why do they not want to increase the minimum wage to $50!
Moreover ACT rejects the idea that passing more laws will increase our standard of living. The way to lift wages is to become more productive. Therefore if we want to raise our standard of living we must reduce the regulatory burden on business to encourage greater productivity and innovation. We must lower Government spending to ensure that government does not crowd out the private sector where our growth and wealth comes from. It is only then that business owners will have the confidence to hire more people and the ability to pay higher wages.
Local Government
ACT also opposed Labour’s Local Government (Council-Controlled Organisations) Amendment Bill. The bill would place Council organisations, such as port companies, under the ambit of the Local Government Act, meaning they would be run like bureaucracies, rather than the efficient profit driven companies they are now.
ACT doesn’t believe local government should be in the business of owning such assets anyway, but if they do, it is essential they be run like companies so rate payers can maximise their return on investment. Labour’s bill would have seen them bogged down in the inefficiencies of committee politics. We have enough of that in Parliament! We don’t need it spreading elsewhere.
New Zealand third most free market country
This week New Zealand was named the third most free market country in the world by Canadian think tank ‘The Fraser Institute’ which released its annual Economic Freedom of the World Index.
This index, initiated with the help of Milton Friedman, is designed to measure how well each country has adopted free market principles - low government spending, strong property rights, sound monetary policy, freedom to trade internationally, and light regulation. In other words, what ACT believes in.
Countries that do well in this index generally enjoy greater economic growth, better poverty reduction, greater civil liberties and, as it turns out, are less likely to suffer a banking crisis.
The top six countries are Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and, fifth equal, Australia and Canada. The bottom five countries were Venezuela, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of Congo.
Notably, the United States fell to 18th, the lowest it has ever scored. New Zealand is now a much more free market society than the home of capitalism itself.
As always, this index reminds us of a few things about the world and New Zealand in particular. We are a free market country, and that’s a good thing because free market countries do better.
Nevertheless, there are reservations to be had about this index. It compares 144 countries, most of which New Zealand has no intention of comparing itself to. While New Zealand is third with a score of 8.36 out of 10, Sweden is thirtieth with 7.53 out of ten. In other words we’re freer but not dramatically so.
Furthermore, the index was started in a period when half the world lived under some sort of communism. We are top of the class by old and low standards.
In particular, ACT would like to see a tune up of few more things which may not have been captured in this index. We score 95th on the ‘size of government’ measure. As ACT has argued, Labour’s spending binge on welfare packages has not been wound back by National - and National will never be able to do so if they wish to maintain the centre ground. That’s why we need ACT to push National to do what’s right – to lower spending, lower taxes, and reconnect effort with reward to get the economy going again.
While our property rights are secure compared to, say, Zimbabwe or anywhere in Africa, South America, and Asia, there are subtler restrictions on the use of property that did not exist at the time the index was established and are not measured. ACT has long said that the RMA is a major incursion on economic freedom, and if land use regulations by government were included in this index we would probably score a lot lower.
Finally, one notable exception to our economy being liberalised, and where New Zealand scores low, is in our openness to foreign direct investment.
As ACT Leader John Banks wrote in the National Business Review last month, this is an area where New Zealand could be a lot more open for business.
All in all, free markets are very clearly the Kiwi way. We must continue to stand against other political parties who would move towards more Government control and restriction.
Reserve Bank Policy Targets
Reserve Bank Governor-Designate Graeme Wheeler this week issued a joint release with Finance Minister Bill English outlining a new Policy Targets Agreement, which set out specific measures for maintaining price stability.
The agreement requires the Reserve Bank to keep CPI inflation between one per cent and three per cent on average, but requires the bank to focus on keeping future average inflation at two per cent. It also included a stronger focus on financial stability, by including asset prices in the range of indicators the bank monitors.
Reassuringly, Mr English said that he believes the existing policy targets agreement has served New Zealand well and therefore he did not feel there was any major change required.
ACT agrees with the Finance Minister’s statements.
In the past few weeks, Labour, the Greens and Winston Peters (with his Reserve Bank Bill, previously mentioned in Right Thinking), have all called for a broadening of the economic factors the Reserve Bank must consider. But as a recent NBR article stated, ‘It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it.
Infometrics Economist Matthew Nolan says the calls to modify inflation targeting and widen it to address other imbalances are “not well thought through.” He says “the imbalances were not caused by the Reserve Bank but by government tax and other policies.”
This is a critical point. ACT has long said that the best way to bring the dollar down would be a reduction in government spending.
ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley says “If you start targeting the exchange rate what that means is you have to allow more inflationary pressures and also more volatile interest rates.” “You’re probably going to see housing booms and busts become more pronounced” and “the country’s businesses would have to deal with a much greater variability of interest rates”.
NZ Institute of Economic Research principal economist Shamubeel Eaqub says “the current regime has seen New Zealand through the worst financial crisis since the 1930s relatively unscathed and although some tweaks might be in order. Major change was not needed.”
In Other News…
The children of Rogernomics
Last week, we featured the first three episodes of Fortress New Zealand – a look back in history to the New Zealand before Rogernomics - where State control ruled, price freezes and wage fixes were in, and a prescription was required if you wanted to buy margarine. New Zealand has come a long way since then.
But today the effects of the recession have the political parties of the left looking to move back to the failed policies of the past. This is folly.
As we said last week, anyone born in the 80s would be too young remember what New Zealand looked like under those types of central control, central planning type policies. This week we will look at the next three parts of the documentary.
Watch: Part One (4): Revolution
Watch: Part One (5): Revolution
This makes for an interesting watch given the Treaty claims that are occurring right now.
Watch: Part One (6): Revolution
Auckland-North Regional Forum - Saturday, 13 October 2012
Bridgehouse Lodge, Warkworth
‘Education, Enterprise & Environment’
Speakers: David Seymour; Gary Diprose – Springboard Community Works; Paul Decker – Mahurangi Technical Institute; and Roger Beattie – Eyris Blue Pearls.
$30 Adult / $15 unwaged
Register on-line at: www.act.org.nz/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=95
Facebook
Keep up to date on a daily basis by following us on Facebook
You can find ACT’s Facebook page here and ACT Leader John Banks’ Facebook page here
Our People, Our Community
In this section we profile people from within our ACT community be it members, supporters, staff, candidates, former MPs, board members – no one is safe!
This week we get to know more about:
Gareth Veale
Originally a West Coaster, Gareth moved to Christchurch to attend St Bede's College. He is still there and is currently working for the Earthquake Commission – a job that is sure to be keeping him busy.
Gareth has been involved with ACT for two years, and gave his party vote to ACT in both the 2008 and 2011 elections – since he has been able to vote. In the short time since joining, Gareth has stood as an ACT candidate in IIam and recently took on the role as a Deputy Board Member for the Upper South region.
He joined ACT after reading Sir Roger Douglas' books, ‘Unfinished Business', 'Completing the Circle' and Richard Prebble's 'I've Been Thinking'. He says it was a natural progression from there - despite coming from a Labour leaning background (his Grandmother is the Mickey Savage portrait on the mantelpiece type).
Attracted to the ideas of personal responsibility, self-reliance and enterprise as being cures to our social ills, Gareth thinks social issues should be tackled at a family and community level - rather than having the government doing it poorly.
While the current Government is better than a Green/Labour/NZFirst beast, Gareth believes New Zealand has become largely stagnant under National.
While we are making piecemeal changes in the right direction - Partnership Schools, welfare reforms etc – it is not enough to get our economy moving. The country needs a strong ACT party to push National in the right direction. ACT's economic policies would create a truly rich country that can more than provide the jobs and opportunities we need.
Gareth says we must do all we can to return in greater numbers in 2014, to really invoke some positive change for New Zealand.
Recommended reading: Karl Popper's 'The Open Society and its Enemies'.
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