Taxpayers Fund ACT MPs ‘Real Change’ Videos

Friday, 21 July 2023, 2:34 pm
Article: Scoop Election Podcast

During the June 2023 advertisements featuring ACT Party MPs started showing up in social media feeds. For those viewers without the benefit of 20/20 vision, it was hard to see the authorisation crest alerting them to the fact that they, the taxpayer, had in-fact paid for these slick well produced videos. ACT MP Chris Baillie’s authorisation statement was so small it appeared the editors behind his video were attempting some sort of world record for font reduction.

The videos featured all the ACT MPs besides Leader David Seymour and Deputy Leader Brooke Van Velden. Throughout the videos the ACT MPs extolled why New Zealand needed ‘real change’. The closure for the videos featured a graphic with the words ‘Working for Real Change’.

ACT Leader David Seymour told broadcaster Sean Plunket on 17 July 2023 that ACT’s campaign slogan for the 2023 election was ‘real change’.

Parliamentary Services rules around spending prohibit asking for votes yet during June 2023 have funded numerous videos featuring ACT MPs utilising the campaign slogan they have been working on for two years.

The Scoop election team analysed and critiqued Chris Baillie’s ‘story’, which despite being one of the most popular videos with over 15K views on YouTube, did not help Mr Baillie’s list ranking prospects. For the 2023 Act Party list rankings Chris Baillie fell from number 4 to number 17 on ACT’s list. As a former police officer and secondary school teacher Mr Baillie lamented during his video that there were not enough people ‘like him’ in Parliament.

As of October’s election, with his current low list ranking there will be even less.

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