Free Press 30/1/15
act-new-zealand
Fri Jan 30 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Free Press 30/1/15
Friday, 30 January 2015, 1:20 pm
Column: ACT New Zealand
Free Press
ACT’s new regular bulletin
A New Beginning
This month is an inflection point. It begins a political year and a parliamentary term. From a front row seat in parliament, we rate the parties’ chances.
Still Scared of the Big Bad Ruth
Prime Minister John Key has won three elections. 58 seats, 59 seats, 60 seats. What a politician. Where are the policies? Last year we told the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister that Ruth Richardson has accepted a role giving advice in the ACT office. It is hard to put those two off their stride, but that did it.
Administering Helen’s Legacy
Name a Labour policy National has reversed. Hints: Labour established the Cullen fund, removed competition from ACC, wiped interest on student loans while studying, then wiped interest on student loans forever, replaced the Employment Contracts Act with the union-friendly Employment Relations Act, started paying people to have children (paid parental leave), started paying people to bring up children (working for families), took the option of bulk funding away from schools, capped funding for independent schools, gave councils the power of general competence, removed the purchaser-provider (RHA-CHE) split from healthcare, raised the top tax rate above the trust and company rates…. So it goes on.
Labour
We feel obliged to say something about New Zealand’s second largest political party, but what?
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Greenpocalypse
The Greens’ do have policies but they are headed for civil war over them. They are frustrated and divided. Their polling momentum has stopped. If Labour does recover it may go backwards, ending political careers. After 18 years of MMP they are still not in government. The generation gap between younger Greens who are comfortable with markets and Russel Norman, an actual Marxist, is irreconcilable.
Civil War
From Parliament, we see faces up close. We watched Russel Norman closely during James Shaw’s maiden speech. Shaw quoted Thatcher and praised free markets. Norman’s face raged. He was the last Green MP to congratulate Shaw, before storming out the back entrance of the chamber. When Shaw tries to talk down his leadership ambitions he cites Normans’ achievements up until today. This tension is unsustainable.
Climate What?
Climate change used to be the ‘moral challenge of a generation.’ It has not featured in the last two Green campaigns. The day the IPCC released its fifth report, parliament was sitting. Amazingly the Greens used both their parliamentary questions to harass the Prime Minister about his text messages. David Seymour asked one of the more respected environmentalist Greens about this. He got a feeling like the (first and last) time he repeated a feminist joke to his mum in 1992.
Where to Next?
If they can avoid Greenpocalypse they will have a good brand and a sophisticated campaign organisation. The problem is that nobody, including themselves can be sure what they stand for any more. It’s not the environment. It can’t be 1970’s economic policy. They can’t promote modern economics because the leadership are opposed to it.
Private Hell
Winston Peters is grumpy. He faces three years surrounded by people he picked because they are too boring to pose a threat. The real shame is that the otherwise liberal news media continue to report his dog whistling racism. For example. In his latest episode he (wrongly) claimed that international students get fast tracked to permanent residence. Actually they require a job. Education is New Zealand’s third largest export. When is Mr exports against exporting? When it involves Chinese and Indians buying the services on location.
What Lovely People
Last issue we pointed out that David Seymour doesn’t sell blood to raise money for ACT only because it’s illegal. Here’s what we get from the anti-partnership school campaigners. We hope the person involved is not a teacher.
We are unfazed.
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