Free Press

ACT’s new regular bulletin

Only Businessman
Robin Grieve, an orchardist and health and safety consultant, is the only Northland by-election candidate who’s supporting himself in the private sector. “A council bureaucrat, a career politician, a district councillor, and a self-employed businessman walk into a bar…”

Breathtakingly Short-sighted
National isn’t taking advice on the tough issues. Last Wednesday in Parliament a National back bencher was asking Hon Anne Tolley soft pedal questions so she could hold forth on the generosity of national super. Ms Tolley was revelling until ACT Leader David Seymour asked: had she seen any Treasury reports on the scheme’s sustainability? No. The Minister for Social Development, the biggest spender in the Government, had not read a vital Treasury report.

The Answer
The Treasury’s Long-term Fiscal Outlook predicts the cost of NZ Super will rise from 4.4 per cent of all economic output today, to 7.9 per cent by 2060. Small beer? It is the compounding effect that should worry taxpayers. The government’s on track to be indebted by 198 per cent of GDP by then. Even the Dom Post is (reluctantly) endorsing ACT’s plan (more on this later).

Not Giving Up
Making Superannuation sustainable is too important to ignore. David Seymour has written to all parliamentary leaders asking them to support ACT’s initiative of having a public consultation and referendum on Super. They should all be on board. Today’s swing voters may appreciate Prime Minister John Key’s pledge to maintain the status quo, but historians will not be so kind. Labour want to help, but dropped their policy of raising the age after losing the election. Hon Peter Dunne wants to explore variable rates for people who take Super earlier or later. The Maori party know, or should know, that the Maori population are younger and it is young Maori taxpayers who are in the gun if things don’t change. The Greens are always talking about sustainability, what about fiscal sustainability? We still hope to appeal to Winston Peters’ affinity for referenda.

Credit Where It’s Due
The NBR is crediting the Taxpayers’ Union with blowing the lid off corporate welfare. Normally think-tank like organisations do lead debate on such issues, but the party of ideas raised the issue months before the T.U. We also remain the ones who can influence it in parliament. The original and best call for ending corporate welfare is here.

Breathtaking Resignation Letter
After 13 years heading the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajura Pachauri has resigned saying his work was not only as a ‘mission’ but as ‘his religion, his dharma.’ We like missions and religious freedom as much as the next person, but shouldn’t the IPCC be a place of science? For the record, Free Press subscribes to Matt Riddley’s ‘luke warmer’ school of thought on climate change, which goes like this: “we started with an open mind but the hockey stick, climate-gate, and flat 21st century temperatures all made us a tad sceptical. The problem is real but it’s the size that matters and it’s nowhere near as bad as the alarmists make out.”

No Case for Fireplace Bans
Speaking of science. Last week we were briefed by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the environment. She is respectable on most environmental issues. As it turns out levels of PM25, very small particles that cause the most health damage, are not problematic in Auckland. There is no health case for banning fires on a narrow isthmus where 40 per cent of PM25 is salt. It probably won’t make much difference but we’ll ask anyway: what was Auckland Council thinking?

Military training assistance to Iraq
David Seymour spoke in parliament in favour of playing our part in Iraq. You can watch his speech here or read it here. We think of the Kiwi effort as a tiny contribution to nation building, the sort of thing the so-called progressive left used to support – and obviously will again, when they return to power. So Labour is playing this for the politics, which is shameful.

Imitating Churchill?
The PM was in full-on Churchill mode in supporting Iraqi nation building. Unfortunately he has gone all Neville Chamberlain on ensuring a viable long-term structure for NZ Super. The NZ First Leader, with the advantage of his first name, probably wins on Churchillian style but his substance was cut-and-run Chamberlin too. What would the WWII generation think of that?

Dom Post Love In
A sure sign of ACT’s revival is the love-hate attention paid to us by the increasingly erratic Dominion Post. Two editorials, several letters to the editor, a cartoon, and half a dozen news stories on ACT last week alone. Even when they agree with us the tone is teenage snark, but the times, they are-a-changing.

The Winterless North
ACT’s good keen man in Northland is already campaigning. At the Northland Field Days this weekend he was well received by those worried that National is forgetting Northland. He’s giving a month of his time and needs your support for billboards, letters, and advertising. You can donate to Robin’s campaign here.

Freedom is not free

If it were legal, ACT Leader David Seymour would sell blood to fundraise for ACT. All you need is a credit card.

Donate

Tell a friend

Our goal is 100,000 votes in 2017. You can help by forwarding this newsletter. They can sign up to receive it here:

Subscribe

ends

© Scoop Media