Free Press

ACT’s new regular bulletin

The Power of Equality

The narrative of the left is that inequality is rising because of the big bad policies of the free market. But what if it isn’t? A recent Treasury paper exploring a range of inequality measures shows that since the early 1990s inequality has been stable or declining.

Getting Better by the Most Important Measure
Inequality is in fact now slightly lower than it was in the early 1980s – if you measure consumption instead of income. Why? Because people save some years and spend others. Also, we have a tax and transfer system to make up for earning differences.

A Better Agenda
Instead of banging on about inequality statistics, and misrepresenting them at that, the left should be thinking: How does a family on an average or lower income own a home and get their kids a decent education? ACT wants to bust up land use regulation and the state monopoly on who can start and run a school. Who’s with us?

Not Labour
Labour have asked more parliamentary questions about Partnership Schools than any other education topic this year. Despite the fact that Partnership Schools are getting exceptional results for disadvantaged children. Savage and Fraser were giants who built Labour to give the disadvantaged a fair go. Today’s Labour are more interested in their PPTA supporters.

Wholly Owned Subsidiary
Last Wednesday Labour’s education spokesperson asked a question on Partnership Schools. After the primary question, which is published before question time, questioners try to surprise the Minister with supplementary questions. Labour’s whole line of questioning was revealed in a PPTA press release that came out minutes after he asked his questions.

Possible Law Breaking
New Zealand has laws against slavery. Is there an exemption for the PPTA from owning a Labour MP?

Not the Greens
The Greens couldn’t care less about housing affordability. They are far more interested in the kinds of houses people live in than whether they are affordable. This kind of thinking has given us extensive and extravagant land use planning that stifles the growth of the city and prices the poorest New Zealanders out of the market.

Greek Lessons
The lesson from Greece: prudent fiscal policy and orthodox economic policy are real things. Amen.

Who v Who
The Greek government is notorious for corruption, inefficiency and waste. It’s not so much Greece v Germany as the Greek people v the Greek state, or the Greek private sector v the Greek public sector. And their pension issues make it an intergenerational fight as well.

Thanks Rog, Thanks Ruth
Just as well we had a Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble and Ruth Richardson. If not for them New Zealand would be in much the same position as Greece right now. Bizarrely, both the current Labour and National parties are embarrassed about those people and their policies. ACT embraces them – the success of modern New Zealand is in no small part due to the reforms they drove.

Software Eating the World
We spotted a great story in the Herald last week. A young child thought he heard an intruder outside the house, several nights running. The mother downloads an app that allows an old smartphone to function as a security camera. Intruder spotted, police alerted, intruder caught. This sort of thing doesn’t show up in GDP – the app is free – but it’s an indisputable gain.

Harmful Digital Communications
In the end, David Seymour, joined by four breakaway Green MPs, voted against this Bill. The National Party have a Soviet-style graphic out reminding people that online bullying could lead to a sentence of up to two years in jail. It’s strikingly Orwellian.

Yet more Schadenfreude
Rumours of an attempted coup on the deputy leadership of NZ First were spot on. Being the deputy leader of NZ First is like being the second man to run a four minute mile.

Benefit Caps
Lindsay Mitchell discusses the merits of a benefit cap for households, like those being considered in the UK. A benefit cap places “a cap on the total amount of benefit that working-age households can get so that, broadly, households on out-of-work benefits will no longer get more in welfare payments than the average weekly wage for working households.”

The UK Plan
It involves reducing the benefit cap further, stopping under 25s claiming a housing benefit, and limiting tax credits to the first two children only. Consider that latter point. Why should taxpayers be funding Working For Families credits for each additional child, regardless of the number? Call us old fashioned, but shouldn’t people at some point have to take responsibility for themselves?

For Auckland Readers
The unelected (yet-well funded) Maunga Authority is pushing ahead with their plan to ban people from driving up Mt Eden. But an information release obtained by David Seymourconfirms there is no evidence that vehicles are eroding the mountain. There was no public consultation leading up to the decision. Surely ratepayers deserve a say on access to the mountain they pay to maintain?

Feedback
We noticed that some of the Twitterati were annoyed by one of paragraphs here a few weeks ago, mocking the intolerance of the self-styled “liberal and tolerant” people. So in that spirit, here is another observation. In a recent article Jon Gabriel writes: Tell a joke to a liberal. Between your punchline and his laughter, there is a Progressive Comedy Pause. In this second or two, the liberal will process the joke to make sure he is allowed to laugh. It is why some of Seinfeld’s comedian colleagues no longer bother with performing at US colleges (ie universities). Why are people so painfully sensitive these days? Where have all the adults gone?

ends

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