Speech to Wellington Young Professionals

Wellington Central Candidate Stephen Whittington Delivered Monday, November 7 2011

Thank you to Luci and the Wellington Young Professionals for inviting me to speak to you tonight.

It's great to see so many people here.

The biggest issue facing New Zealand is how we deliver the kind of dynamic, growing economy that will not only keep young people in New Zealand, but attract many of those who have left back to our shores.

I'm a twenty-five year old New Zealander who sincerely wants to live and work in this country.

Unfortunately, National lacks the spine to implement a reform agenda that will reverse New Zealand's economic decline. Labour have no ideas to change tack. To put it bluntly, neither selling SOEs nor implementing a capital gains tax are sufficient to alter New Zealand's future direction. Indeed, increasing taxes will only hurt us more.

Let's look at National's rhetoric before the last election, and compare it to the reality of what they've achieved.

Before the last election, National talked a lot about how they planned to reduce the size of Government. In power, they have ramped up the growth in Government. Back in 2005, after six years of big-spending Labour government, Government consumed 29 per cent of GDP. Today, the Government consumes 36 per cent of GDP.

To give you an indication of how much that is costing us all, if we were able to get Government expenditure back to 2005 levels, we could cut corporate and personal income taxes to around 20 per cent. National is refusing to be honest about the sustainability of superannuation. Instead, John Key has staked his job on delaying the inevitable, and is forcing young New Zealanders to keep paying high taxes to fund a scheme which, at the moment, is unaffordable and unsustainable.

National is doing nothing to close the wage gap with Australia. When John Key came to power, that gap was 35 per cent of GDP. Today, it stands at 40 per cent.

The good thing is there's still time to change tack. And ACT has an economic recovery plan to make that happen.

The first thing ACT will do is stop the Government borrowing $300 million dollars a week it doesn't have, by ending waste, and reversing many of the unaffordable election bribes Labour implemented but we are all paying for. We will restrain ever-larger government by putting Government on a budget with ACT's Spending Cap Bill. No longer will politicians be able to bribe you with your own money.

The second thing ACT will do, once expenditure is under control and we have started repaying debt, is to reduce taxes and streamline regulation.

We would pass the Regulatory Standards Bill which sets out principles of responsible regulation. If proposals by Ministers or departments fail to meet the criteria of responsible regulation they would have to acknowledge it publically and justify to New Zealanders, why a policy that undermines good law-making should still be passed. Too often, poorly considered regulation causes more harm to our welfare than good. ACT wants to stem the flow of bad regulation.

The third thing that ACT will do is grow the number of jobs. - not through unaffordable subsidies to big business like the Green Party support, but through encouraging the private sector to expand employment opportunities and grow their businesses.

If we leave it up to National, they'll continue to take their cues from the latest focus groups and opinion polls. National is a conservative party. If Labour grow government, and National fail to reverse it, the trend is towards ever-larger government.

The ACT Party will push National to implement the policies that will make New Zealand not only more prosperous, but also a freer and fairer place to live.

If you voted National in 2008 because you wanted Labour Party policies with different faces, vote National again. But if you voted National because you wanted a change of direction, you need to Party Vote ACT.

ENDS

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