Category: ACT Party

Source: ACT Party

ACT’s Defence Spokesperson Mark Cameron is welcoming the first reading passage of the ANZAC Day Amendment Bill, which expands recognition to New Zealanders who served in conflicts and peacekeeping operations after the Vietnam War, saying it reflects how many Kiwis already commemorate the day.

“Every year at dawn services across the country, people stand in silence not just for Gallipoli, but for those who served in East Timor, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan – and many other places where New Zealanders have done their duty without fanfare,” says Cameron.

“These brave men and women served overseas, many in dangerous and difficult circumstances. Some came home changed. Some did not come home at all.

“They stood for the same values as those as those who went before them, and they deserve to be recognised just the same.

“It is a good move, and one that will mean a lot to the people who have quietly carried the weight of service without full recognition.”

Source: ACT Party

ACT is welcoming the passage of the Building (Overseas Building Products, Standards, and Certification Schemes) Amendment Bill, which delivers on ideas ACT campaigned on in 2023.

“Finally, we’re liberating builders and tradies to make use of materials widely approved overseas,” says ACT Housing and Construction spokesperson Cameron Luxton, who is also a Licenced Building Practitioner.

“Outdated local rules have denied New Zealand builders access to innovative, effective, and affordable products, and this has limited competition, driven up costs, and locked younger generations out of the housing market.

“We’ve seen massive price hikes for essential materials, and the previous Government’s response was to set up a ‘plasterboard taskforce’. It was like a bad joke. The real issue was that we’d banned popular plasterboard equivalents and other building materials used overseas.

“Internationally and locally, there’s constant innovation in building materials, but our bespoke local rules have held us back. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, because regulators in trusted jurisdictions are already doing the work of evaluating these products.

“This aligns with ACT’s wider war on red tape, including our ‘rule of two’ proposal for approving overseas medicines in New Zealand. It’s common-sense thinking: if a product is good enough for our friends overseas, we shouldn’t deny access to it at home.”

Source: ACT Party

Welcoming an overhaul of the Public Service Act 2020, ACT Public Service spokesperson Todd Stephenson says:

“Too many government agencies are trying to do too many things. Bureaucratic mission creep sees taxpayer money wasted on nice-to-haves, duplicated across different departments. Basic services are neglected even while headcounts balloon.

“Now, we’re getting the public service back to basics. Today the Public Service Minister announced an overhaul of the Public Service Act 2020.

“This delivers on an ACT coalition commitment to clarify the role of the public service, drive performance and ensure accountability to deliver on the agenda of the government of the day. And it comes after the Government last year issued a directive to all public service agencies requiring services to be delivered on the basis of need, not race.

“The role of the public service should be simple: to deliver services that cannot be delivered by the private sector, at a fair price for taxpayers.”

Source: ACT Party

“New COVID isolation rules for Omicron are unworkable, and the way they were dumped on the Ministry of Health website on a Friday afternoon is unprofessional,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Late on Friday, rules appeared on the Ministry of Health website to the effect that a person who tests positive must isolate for 14 days, and household members must isolate for a further 10 days.

“The way this has been announced, or rather not announced, echoes the cancellation of the 20 January MIQ lottery. That lottery was cancelled on the website of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, that was deleted and later confirmed in the form of a tweet. This is not leadership of communication in the middle of a pandemic.

“A Government prepared for Omicron would make clear announcements, rather than slipping critical details about isolation onto websites on Friday afternoon. Instead they have buried the rules on the Ministry of Health website with no formal announcement.

“The rules announced are unworkable, they will lead to a domino effect where a household can be down for a month. The Ministry of Health website says ‘The isolation period for COVID-19 cases in the community is at least 14 days, including 72 hours symptom-free,’ and ‘Your household members will need to remain in isolation for at least 10 days after you have been released as a case. This means they will need to be in isolation for longer than you as the case will [sic].’

“The effect is that if you test positive, members of your household may have to isolate for 24 days. People who cannot afford that will have a strong incentive not to get tested, defeating the purpose of the policy. If the advice is taken seriously, it will cripple the health workforce and supply chains more generally.

“New Zealand’s advantage with COVID is that we can learn from other countries, but we are doing the opposite here. Other countries are loosening their isolation requirements to keep hospitals opening and supermarkets shelves full, but we are tightening ours.

“By contrast, isolation rules in the UK were changed on Monday so that all people in the household of a case can leave isolation after five days if they have negative tests on two consecutive days. They have done this because their previous isolation rules devastated supply chains.

“In New South Wales, cases are required to isolate for 14 days but critical workers can leave earlier. Unlike New Zealand, New South Wales does not automatically deem household members as close contacts and require them to isolate. It allows people to use their judgement.

“The Government badly needs to front on this issue. It needs to explain why these rules are put in place, and why it believes the benefits of an isolation regime stricter than any other country bar China is justified. It should release the modelling it has relied on in an open and transparent way, the way this Government once promised to act.”

Source: ACT Party

“ACT welcomes the news that migrant families who have been cruelly separated for far too long will be reunited, but 1500 empty MIQ rooms shows there’s no reason both them and desperately needed workers can’t be here now,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“As of today in MIQ there are 1,500 empty rooms. The Government has been planning the Trans-Tasman bubble for months, it should have planned ahead so those spaces that have been freed up were filled immediately. It’s just poor planning to leave rooms empty while families are torn apart and businesses are crying out for workers.

“If this really is the Government of “kindness” it would have ensured that families could have been together at the earliest possible opportunity. Stories of parents and children not seeing other for a year, or husbands and wives being separated were completely unnecessary.

“If this really was the Government of “kindness” it wouldn’t leave business on the brink of collapse because they can’t get workers and it wouldn’t leave fruit rotting on the ground. There is nothing kind about leaving these rooms empty.

“Just a bit of forward planning would have stopped this from happening. Unfortunately we have a Government that is entirely reactive and doesn’t seem to be able plan anything in advance.

“This lack of clarity is having a huge mental and economic toll, not just here but in the Pacific Islands.

“The Government needs to stop playing politics with people’s livelihoods and emotions. It’s time to do the right thing. We have an opportunity now to fill these rooms with people who will make a real contribution to New Zealand, let’s not let the opportunity pass us by.”

Source: ACT Party

“ACT can reveal that taxpayers are footing the bill for pointless contact tracing that should have been scrapped when Omicron made it redundant,” says ACT’s Leader David Seymour.

“Written parliamentary questions show the Government is still spending $10.2 million a month on contact tracing, despite contact tracers being unable to reach enough potential contacts or fast enough to ever be of any use in light of Omicron’s higher transmissibility.

“The Government’s response to COVID has become increasingly costly and ineffective as the virus has evolved they’ve failed to change with it. Now we’re stuck with redundant policies that were designed for a different variant and exist only as a financial burden.

“The reality is that most people don’t even report their positive results anyway.

“$10 million would fund 33 cystic fibrosis patients with Trifakta for a year, 71,000 mental health counselling sessions, and is ten times more than what Hospice NZ needs – but this Government seems to think it is better off spent on empty call centres that are providing no benefit to New Zealanders.

“ACT says that any COVID restrictions or services that aren’t protecting our health system in any tangible way should just go. They’re a needless expense at a time when reckless Government spending is fuelling out of control domestic inflation.

“Getting rid of contact tracing would save taxpayers millions and is an important symbol that we’re moving on and getting our way of life back. It should be done immediately.”

The Written Parliamentary Question can be found here.

Source: ACT Party

“Data collected by Bloomberg shows the milestone of 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered worldwide has been passed, leaving big questions for the Government about where New Zealand will stand relative to other countries as the worldwide programme continues,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“If the medical regulator gives the all-clear to New Zealand’s first vaccine today it won’t change anything, we still won’t have any vaccine for months.

“A very effective spin campaign is being waged whereby commentators well-disposed to the Government tell us we should actually be thankful to be at the back of the queue for rolling out coronavirus vaccines.

“We’re being told we’ve done so well we can afford to wait, but the opposite is true.

“Despite well publicised issues with supply, there are almost as many people being vaccinated every day across the planet as there are people in New Zealand – 4.25 million in the latest count – and the figure is rising daily.

“A week ago in was little more than 3 million.

“Being at the back of the queue for vaccination means being at the back of the queue re-integrating with the countries we want to travel to, trade with and invest in.

“It’s inevitable that by the middle of the year there will be essentially open borders between the countries that have moved fastest to vaccinate, and that network will grow exponentially.

“A Covid-19 vaccination passport will become your ticket to freedom, yet New Zealanders are going to be forced to watch on, locked down in a largely Covid free country.

“Just how is that a good outcome?

“Shouldn’t our Government have done a better job of prioritising our recovery from the pandemic?”

ENDS

Source: ACT Party

The Haps

Last week Free Press extolled the Government’s RMA reforms. We thanked ACT and Simon Court for resource management law based on property rights. We think we understated it, Free Press has campaigned for this for a decade (yes, we are ten). RMA reforms are the best policy change so far this century. If New Zealanders cannot develop the land, we have no advantage as a country. It’s a country saver.

Meanwhile the Greens have gone (more) insane. Last week one Green MP effectively said police patrols are worthless. The Press Gallery finally rounded on them, because young people in Central Wellington know the world can be a dangerous place and a few coppers are a welcome sight at night. Chlöe Swarbrick’s increasingly deranged economics become clearer every week in Question Time. She seems to think profit is a line item that businesses just add on to their customers’ bill. Now there are some serious questions for the Green Party leaders to answer around another one of their MPs’ social media accounts. Free Press predicts the Greens polling will soften this year.

If it Pleases the Gods

Free Press has seen correspondence demanding courts must now begin and end with a Karakia, or prayer in English and Māori. Gary Judd KC has written to MPs making (as usual) lucid arguments as to why this is wrong, and there are legal precedents from the Privy Council finding it is wrong for people in public service to be subject to prayers. 

Parliament begins with a prayer, but Parliament is a self-Governing political body with rules decided by its members. Besides, there is no requirement to attend it. Judd points out, however, that lawyers are required to arrive before the judge and leave after, so they cannot avoid being present for the Karakia.

They’ll be required to read along because “Large prints of the karakia will be installed in each courtroom for all those present to use to read along to.” Judd points out the Bill of Rights says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.”

Judd goes on to reference precedent from the Privy Council. It found for a Muslim soldier in The Bahamas (a Commonwealth country) who did not want to be part of a Christian prayer during colours parades. The Privy Council relied on The Bahamas’ constitution, which is remarkably similar to New Zealand’s Bill of Rights.

A lot of people might ask, so what, who cares? It’s up to the Court anyway and surely a minute of praying can’t hurt, even if technically it does interfere with some lawyers’ practice of their faith?

Will it harm the impartiality of justice? Probably yes, it chips away at neutrality when the Courts give the nod to some religious or spiritual views but not others. Is that critical? Probably no. Is it the biggest problem we have right now? No.

We’re writing about this because it is such a good example. Such a good example of people’s basic rights being trampled for no reason. The right to think your thoughts and speak your mind, or not, without being hindered and harassed by do-gooders. It could be any organisation, it just happens to be the Courts.

At Free Press, we often wonder where these people come from. What drives their behaviour? Why can’t they just leave other people alone? Here’s our theory.

For 100,000 years humans lived in tribes, closed societies where a person’s role was decided for them. The instinct to make other people conform to rituals is deep. They reassure you the people partaking are in your tribe. The idea of living as an individual choosing your own adventure in life is WEIRD. Specifically, Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic.

Most people in most of history didn’t live weird lives. They lived tribal lives. Much of what is happening in New Zealand today, weird rituals, compulsory courses, demands to be part of a race first and a citizen second, it all comes from deep tribal urges.

Free Press and friends and allies have to get better at explaining the alternative. A civilised society where each person is treated as a thinking and valuing being, required not to do any violence against anyone else but otherwise free to go about their lives unhindered. It would be a start.

Source: ACT Party

Welcoming the Reserve Bank’s review of banking capital requirements, Mark Cameron – who represents ACT on the select committee inquiry into banking practices – says:

“ACT Party has been sounding the alarm about these rules since 2019, so we’re glad to see the Reserve Bank finally take notice.

“These rules are driving up borrowing costs for firms, farms, and families.

“Last week, as part of the Parliamentary banking inquiry, I asked Westpac CEO Catherine McGrath about the effect of the capital requirements. She told me that reversing the capital requirement introduced in 2019 would result in an additional $2 billion circulating in the economy – or about a 50 basis point cut in interest rates.

“BNZ previously confirmed to me that costs are falling particularly hard on famers, with the rules driving up rural interest rates by one whole percentage point. It’s about time our farmers got a fair go to invest in their land so they can feed New Zealand and the world.

“The irony is that by putting pressure on sectors such as farming, these rules risk putting people out of business and fuelling the instability the rules are meant to prevent. Hopefully the Reserve Bank will see sense and scrap these burdensome requirements.”

Source: ACT Party

“A racist outburst from the Dean of the AUT Law School targeting an ACT MP on the basis of her being an immigrant reveals exactly why we need the Treaty Principles Bill,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

In response to Dr Parmjeet Parmar’s draft bill to stop the allocation of university resources based on race, Khylee Quince posted on Facebook: ‘Alternative headline: Immigrant forgets where she lives.’

Dr Parmar has responded, saying: “I am a New Zealand citizen and I am not here at Ms Quince’s mercy, or anyone’s mercy. I know exactly where I live: in a democracy where everyone has the right to freedom from discrimination. Including immigrants.“

“This law school Dean believes immigrants should be singled out for different treatment,” says Mr Seymour.

“The Vice Chancellor needs to stop this rhetoric. How many immigrant students study law at AUT? Should they be treated differently with demands to ‘remember where they live?’

“In another time that would be called racism. But it’s 2025 and institutions like universities have cloaked that kind of view with respectability.

“Of course, all New Zealand citizens are either immigrants or descended from immigrants. It’s extraordinary that we need to debate whether some citizens should have the same basic rights as other citizens, but here we are.

“Whether the Treaty promised equal rights is a civil rights issue, and our major institutions are on the wrong side of history. They’re experiencing collective brain rot.

“Universities are infecting the minds of young people with the virus of identity politics. Journalism and law schools are pumping out young left-wing activists who believe tangata whenua and tangata tiriti should have different rights.

“The courts, of course, have decided the Treaty is a partnership requiring different rights for different groups. The question is, what will our elected Parliament decide when it’s asked to take a stand?”

Editor’s note: AUT Dean of Law Khylee Quince has previously drawn attention for saying Gary Judd KC “can go die quietly in the corner” for opposing compulsory tikanga studies at law schools.