Policies

State Owned Assets

Government ownership of businesses and major assets has long been a controversial policy area. 

Over the past thirty years, many countries from the United Kingdom to India have embraced privatisation, selling previously state owned enterprises.  From 1979 to 2002 over a trillion dollars of government assets were transferred from the public to the private sectors globally, and the proportion of the world economy made up by government businesses reduced to six per cent from twelve.   

Housing Affordability and the Resource Management Act

"Safe, comfortable, and stable housing is important for social cohesion, family stability, and individual wellbeing.” – New Zealand Productivity Commission

Today, the goal of owning one’s own home is becoming harder to reach for too many New Zealanders. Over the past 33 years, the prices of homes have dramatically increased in comparison to average incomes – making them much less affordable.

Primary Industries

It is not widely known that the World Bank has ranked New Zealand as having the second highest level of natural resources per capita.  When New Zealand’s pastures, minerals, forests, fisheries, and freshwater supplies are accounted for, we are one of the luckiest countries on earth.  Agriculture, fisheries, and forestry provide 71 per cent of national merchandise exports, and it is by the judicious use of our environment that our country pays the bills.

Economy

New Zealand is in competition with the world and particularly Australia for investment, jobs, and workers. Whether we win this competition, or at least hold our own, is one of the most important questions facing our future.  Australians earn some 40 per cent more than New Zealanders and pay lower taxes on average.  In the ten years to 2010 we lost 260,000 people to Australia, even allowing for those who came back.  The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research predicts that, if we don’t change course, we will lose a further 412,000 people by 2025.  

Law And Order

The ACT Party has always had a strong focus on law and order.  It is the prime responsibility of government to keep its citizens safe.

With the ACT Party in Government under National, we have ensured that National puts this responsibility at the top of its list. Since ACT has been in Government, we have seen the following:

Immigration

We are a nation of immigrants and ACT is a party that supports immigration.  Located at the edge of the Earth, New Zealand as we know it exists because people have chosen to come here.  Currently, we rely on immigration to maintain our population, as tens of thousands of native New Zealanders leave our shores each year.

Education

While education for many children is among the best in the world, we have a well-known “long-tail” of underachievers, who become the next generation of under skilled, unemployed, disengaged citizens.  After 70 years of state controlled and mandated education, we have a situation where around 20% of our children left school last year unable to read or write sufficiently to fill out a job application.  

Health

The New Zealand health system suffers from a severe productivity problem.  Despite huge increases in funding from successive governments, we are actually getting less efficient. Between 1999 and 2008, health funding more than doubled in real terms yet the outputs from our medical facilities did not keep pace with this funding increase. We still have far too many New Zealanders dying on waiting lists and not getting vital treatment such as chemotherapy quickly enough.

Transport

Transportation is one of the most important enablers of modern life.  Today we are able to go farther, faster, and with more choice and flexibility in where we go than at any other time in history.  Mobility means opportunity because it expands the range of places people can be and activities they can be doing at any given time. It drives economic growth.  ACT is committed to mobility.  

Emissions Trading Scheme

The National Government, with support from the Maori Party, implemented an Emissions Trading Scheme which has already imposed serious costs on all New Zealanders. Petrol and diesel prices went up by four cents per litre while electricity and gas prices have risen by five per cent, and all these are set to double by 2013. Farmers, already suffering through higher energy costs, are to become liable for biological emissions from January 2015.

Welfare

The original intent of the welfare state was to take good care of the truly vulnerable who are unable to provide for themselves, and be a temporary safety net to help get those with no other means of support back on their feet. But today welfare blights the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders.

Tertiary Education

Our universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are currently unable to respond effectively to student and employer demands for high quality education at a competitive cost. Government caps on fees that can be charged and numbers of students able to be enrolled at any given institution reduce competition and ultimately the efficiency of our tertiary education sector.  As a result, our universities have slid down the international rankings in recent years, with our top performer, the University of Auckland, having dropped to 82nd this year from 46th only five years ago.

Spending Cap

Government spending in New Zealand is out of control.  Governments can justifiably take money from New Zealanders when there are clear public benefits such as infrastructure, education and healthcare.  However, the previous government set the country down a wasteful path of transferring money and services to influence swing voters instead of to provide public benefits.  Since 2005, government spending has increased from $29 out of every $100 earned by New Zealanders to $35.

Local Government

Local Government is in many ways the most important level of government in New Zealand.  It is responsible for the roads, water, sewers, and public transport that people use every single day.  Local government owns extremely valuable infrastructural assets, and collects billions of dollars of rates every year.

Defence

The prime responsibility of government is to keep its citizens safe. We are a small nation in a world where conflict never permanently goes away.  Strong alliances with countries which share our democratic values are the only logical option for New Zealand. We do not have the resources to act in an isolationist manner.  

Environment

New Zealanders have a closer relationship to the natural environment than perhaps any other people on earth.  In contrast to Europe and Asia, where civilisation has existed for thousands of years, New Zealand was the last significant land mass to be colonised by humans.  We have much wilderness and natural beauty, and New Zealanders hold it dear.

One Law For All

New Zealand was once a bi-cultural nation. Over the past couple of decades, immigration has meant New Zealand has become increasingly multicultural. Pasifika, Asian and Indian New Zealanders have joined with Maori and Pakeha to create a unique fabric of society made up of many rich strands.

Regulation And Red Tape

Like people in many countries, New Zealanders live under vast amounts of regulation that control how they can go about their daily lives in work, business, recreation, and in developing their property.  Some regulations can have positive effects, protecting people’s rights without them having to go to court on a regular basis.