The Haps
ACT’s momentum continues with it’s third consecutive rise in the 1News poll to 17 seats, and an ACT/National Government on 65 seats. Donations, crowds, and mood are matching the polls. If you are a Free Press reader, you are likely a core ACT supporter, thank you for helping us get this far.
End Maori Council Wards
No good ever came from dividing people by race. Māori representation on councils is roughly equivalent to the Māori population anyway, it is certainly far higher than Asian or Pacific representation. The logical conclusion of Māori council wards is that everyone should be segregated into race-based voting. That’s why on the weekend ACT announced it would change the Local Electoral Act to remove race-based council wards.
Not all Maori are the same
It shouldn’t need to be said, but here we are. One of the most odious assumptions behind Māori Council wards is that a Māori person can represent a Māori person better than a non-Māori person. That only makes sense if Māori people have more in common with each other than anyone else. As it happens, people from one hāpu do not always want to be represented by someone from another hāpu, even if they are both Māori. Then there’s the fact that individual Māori people can actually have different political views from other Māori and want to vote for different things.
Gesture Politics
Grant Robertson has increased the annual Government Budget by $56 billion. Now they are promising to reduce annual spending by $1 billion (sold as $4 billion, but that’s over four years). Any normal person would say they’ve increased Government spending by $55 billion. But saving $1 billion sounds better than spending $55 billion, so they put it that way. Ardern’s gesture politics live on.
Real Savings Indeed
The truth is that Robertson’s reckless spending (helped by Adrian Orr’s reckless money printing) has sucked the life out of real production in New Zealand. The IMF now forecasts that this country will have the second worst economic growth in the world next year, just edging out Equitorial Guinea. That’s why ACT’s Alternative Budget A time for truth is needed more each day. It would cut $35 billion worth of wasteful spending in four years. It would also leave taxpayers with some real change in their pockets, thanks to a $2,200 tax cut for someone on the average wage.
Desperate Man
When someone tries to be too hard to be one thing, it usually turns out they’re the other. Affable Chippie from the Hutt who loves a good sausage roll has always had a nasty streak. Now his polling batteries are low and, like a robotic vacuum cleaner, he returns to base.
Openly Negative Campaigning
There’s nothing new about negative campaigning. Politicians only have two basic options; vote for me because I’ll do good things for you or, vote for me because the other guy will do bad things to you. What’s extraordinary about Chris Hipkins’ promise to ‘fight back’ and attack the opposition, is that politicians going negative don’t usually admit it, let alone announce it.
Why not run on your record, Chris?
Hipkins’ and Labour’s problem, is they’ve done all the spending without getting the results. They’ve trashed the economy, public services, social cohesion, you name it, they’ve stuffed it. Unable to run on their own record, Labour are now cranking up the fear factory, just as they did in covid. We all need rid of these people so we can get back to the values that make this country work.
In balance there are good and bad policies with both act and national I think I will part vote NZFirst to get rid of the bad and keep the good.