This is the first of a new email newsletter to members and supporters of the ACT Party.

Just days after the overwhelming “No” vote was recorded in the anti-smacking referendum, my “Crimes (Reasonable Parental Control and Correction) Amendment Bill” was pulled from the ballot box

Open Letter To The Prime Minister

I am writing to urge you to respond to the results of the current referendum on what has come to be called the anti-smacking legislation.

ACT New Zealand Welfare Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas today called for a genuine rethink of how we deliver welfare services in New Zealand in light of startling figures showing that - since the introduction of Working for Families in 2004 - the ratio of workers to beneficiaries has steadily dropped to a point where it now takes the efforts of almost three working New Zealanders to support two beneficiaries."

Speech to the Every Child Counts Conference; St John's Conference Centre, Cnr Willis & Dixon Streets, Wellington; Wednesday September 5 2007

"Winston Peters' Super Gold Cards will be able to be embedded with microchips if the law passes as it is currently written.

New Zealand should examine a new British report into welfare reform, which recommends allowing firms and charities to contract for providing social services and offers beneficiaries more help to get back into the workforce in exchange for a greater effort in job seeking, says ACT Social Services Spokesman Heather Roy.

ACT Leader Rodney Hide congratulates John Key on his speech this afternoon, which highlights why new ideas are needed about how to tackle welfare dependency and the social problems that go with it.

Speech to ACT Auckland Regional Conference, Squid Row, Auckland, Sunday 30 July 2006.

ACT Social Services Spokesman Heather Roy has released answers to Parliamentary Questions which show that of the worst five months for child abuse, three have been in 2006.