ACT Draws Miniscule Crowd In Whakatane

Wednesday, 7 October 2020, 10:04 am
Article: Charlotte Jones - Local Democracy Reporter

Firearms, the welfare state and education were the main topics at an ACT party public meeting in Whakatane on Monday.

Two ACT candidates, Nicole McKee for Rongotai and Cameron Luxton for Tauranga, spoke to nine of the party’s faithful at the Whakatane football clubrooms. East Coast candidate Blake Webb was not present.

Ms McKee said the party stood for “minority groups” that were being unfairly treated by the current Government.

These minority groups included legal firearm owners, landlords, and farmers.

She spoke of her own story, which included six months on the Domestic Purposes Benefit, as it was known then, after the father of her child died in a car crash a week before her daughter was born.

“I used it as it was meant to be used; I was on it for six months and then got a job,” Ms McKee said.

“Welfare is only meant to be used as a stepping stone to get out of a rut.”

She then met her new partner and went on to have another four children with him.

While pregnant, Ms McKee took up shooting and used this skill to keep her children fed with venison and wild pork when money was tight.

Her daughter is now using those skills to feed herself and her six flatmates in Dunedin while she studies.

Ms McKee said this way of life might no longer be possible soon if the current Government remains in power.

She said the Government had no interest in listening to minority groups and would continue to “push”.

She said an example of this was the firearms reforms which would see legal firearm owners facing more severe punishments than gang members.

Ms McKee said ACT would like to repeal many of the firearms reforms and allow police to freeze gang members’ assets if they owned an illegal firearm.

“Law-abiding firearms owners are targeted while gang members are out there shooting police and presenting firearms at the public,” she said.

Those at the meeting raised concerns about not understanding the current firearms laws and fears they would make an innocent mistake and be prosecuted for it.

Ms McKee said ACT would like to remove all aspects of firearm policy writing and administration away from police and only allow them to deal with enforcement.

Ms McKee said ACT would also like to introduce a debit-like card for beneficiaries that would only allow them to spend money on necessities.

“We didn’t agree that beneficiaries received extra money during Covid when they were just sitting at home anyway, and other people were really struggling,” she said.

She also said ACT wanted to re-introduce charter schools and an education fund for every child in the country.

Each child would have access to this money for their education from primary to tertiary, whatever was left over, even if they spent none, would be paid out to them when they turn 65.

“They could be rich but dumb,” said Ms McKee.

Ms McKee said, at current polling, ACT would be successful in bringing 10 list MPs to Parliament. This would include her at number three on the list, but not Mr Luxton who is at number 15 nor local candidate Mr Webb who does not currently have a listing.

She said none of those on the list were career politicians and were only there because they cared. She said the party struggled to get noticed by mainstream media and encouraged the nine people in attendance to speak to their friends and family to spread ACT’s message. There were three journalists from three different media companies at the meeting.

Those at the meeting were pleased with what they heard and said ACT had a “common sense” approach and were “commendable”.

A few made donations to the party before leaving.

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