2 May 2002

The Act Party’s ‘zero tolerance for crime’ claim doesn’t appear to extend to dodgy offshore investment scams, Acting Consumer Affairs Minister Jim Anderton says.

And he says Act can’t be anti-crime because it opposes every new prison the Government announces.

“Not only is Act anti-business, it is also anti-prison and pro-crime,” Jim Anderton said.

“Act claims it is against crime. Yet Act MP Rodney Hide flies to exotic resorts helped out the organisers of a scam that has fleeced New Zealanders of millions of dollars, then refuses to explain himself.

“If that isn’t tolerance for crime nothing is.”

Jim Anderton says the so-called ‘zero tolerance for crime’ campaign is a cynical smokescreen dreamt up by Act’s market research to draw attention away from Act’s economic policies.

“Act has market research showing that its economic policies are massively unpopular. No one will vote for a party that wants to sell everything including hospitals, give tax cuts to the rich and increases fees, user charges and taxes for ordinary New Zealanders.

“If Act was engaged in trade, they would be in breach of the Fair Trading Act. No minister of prisons has announced more new prisons than Matt Robson, and the Act Party opposes all of them. You can’t be anti-crime if you are anti-prison,” Jim Anderton said.

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