ACT New Zealand Annual Conference

ACT New Zealand Leader Richard Prebble said today that this weekend ACT will be the first political party to hold its annual conference.

"ACT has set itself the bold target of influencing the country's agenda. The conference will be dealing with the serious issues facing New Zealand: Health, Education, Economy and Taxes, Crime and Justice.

"The ninth annual conference will also discuss what is perhaps the biggest issue facing New Zealand and the world - the imminent war in Iraq, and the challenges of a post-Saddam Hussein world.

"Despite the fact that neither of the two old parties has wanted to discuss Iraq - and Helen Clark says she spent only ten minutes talking to John Howard on the issue - ACT believes there are very important issues to address, such as our future relationship with the United States of America, the world's only superpower, the future of the United Nations itself, and the inevitable impact the war is having on the global economy.

"ACT as the party of fresh ideas has attracted a range of outside speakers - the most prominent of which is Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, Milton Friedman, who is talking with his wife Rose by videoconference and taking questions.

"The ACT conference is designed to enable members to be able to participate in quality discussions and there are a range of workshops including ones run by Sir Roger Douglas, Hon Ruth Richardson, and the ACT Members of Parliament.

"The conference starts on Saturday morning with a speech by ACT President Catherine Judd, and conference workshops will be interspersed with presentations, including the Friedmans.

"On Sunday, as is traditional, I will give my Leader's Address where I will speak about the serious issues facing the nation and ACT's fresh ideas and alternative solutions.

"Registrations for the Conference are looking good and we expect over the conference more than 250 people will attend at least one session. This will make it our biggest Wellington conference ever, and compares very favourably with the registrations at last year's Election Year conference in Auckland," Mr Prebble said.

Details of the Conference are available at http://www.act.org.nz/conference

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