*SOLO-NZ Op-Ed: Hide the Hypocrite * *Mark Hubbard **November 5, 2009 *

I never had any faith in John Key, so I can’t be disappointed in his Bolgerite pragmatism. Everything I said pre-election in this Libertarianz press release has come to pass:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0807/S00353.htm

Quote: “Once again, I am forced to conclude that Nanny State will remain rampant under National."

The one I am really disappointed with is Rodney Hide—and not just the girlfriend perk, but the serious stuff. If ACT were the true classical liberals then:

1) He would be voting down the new asset confiscation rules, which belong to a police state, not a civilised State.

2) He would be an implacable opponent of the new and heinous search and surveillance powers for an extraordinary range of government departments. These signify the police state is here, and they were brought in by a National (Socialist) government. Yet ACT are voting for this.

( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10604944 )

3) In Parliament today he would be asking the following of Peter Dunne:

‘Given your stated belief on Backbenchers last night, Peter, that you think it might be a good idea if DNA samples were taken from ALL babies at birth as this would circumvent the later issues of intrusion and consent’, given this is your belief, are the citizens of New Zealand, and their private information, safe with you as the current minister of IRD?”

4) He would be working to keep the National Party true to its election pledge of tax cuts. All we have had is a range of new taxes and tax crackdowns (the crackdown headed by the chief rorter).

5) He would be advocating for as flat a tax system as possible: at the least the Trustee and top personal tax rates down to 30%.

He has been a huge disappointment on all these fundamental issues.

To quote from the Mises blog this morning: http://blog.mises.org/archives/010974.asp

*We need to emphasize the threat that Big Government represents to all our freedom — including the right of freedom of movement — and which should be remembered on this 20-year celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, the Collectivist mentality did not end with either the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union. It remains alive and well in America and around the world, with its insistence that the individual lives for and is to be sacrificed to “interests” of the state. We still have our work cut out for us, to demolish the numerous political “walls” with which the government continues to enslave us through its police power in the growing interventionist-welfare state and the threatening economic fascist order. * That’s what ACT voters put you in Parliament for Rodney, to pare back the Nanny State and the Police State. But you seem to have become part of it.

ENDS

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