Free Press:ACT’s regular bulletin August 1 2016

Coming to Christchurch
If you have been missing ACT events in Christchurch this year, fear not. David Seymour will address a gathering of ACT supporters and ACT-curious Cantabrians at Procope, 165 Victoria St, 7pm this Thursday August 4th.

For Just $1.56
The National Party has announced a plan to eradicate rats, possums and stoats by 2050. They are committing $28 million over four years, or $1.56 per person per year, to the task. Who knew we could solve one of our greatest challenges for half the cost of a cheeseburger?

What About Your Pussy Cat?
It’s not clear whether eradicating rats stoats and possums will do much for native birds so long as there are still cats, especially cats with no rats to chase. The National Party is silent on cats but the policy has Gareth Morgan purring with delight.

A More Sensible Proposal
ACT has a more realistic way of bringing back the birdsong: Sanctuary Trust. The nub is that the Government should sell Landcorp (why is the Government in farming?) and put some of the funds in a trust with a hundred year mission to build fenced sanctuaries for native birds using public private partnerships with groups like Wellington’s Zealandia.

Paper Tiger Policies
Before the announcement, the Prime Minister’s press secretary was dispatched to tell journos something ‘big’ was in the offing, who knew it was cheeseburger conservation? It got the Free Press thinking, how many of National’s policies are supposed to work and how many are simply media ops?

$1 Billion for City Infrastructure
National’s last big announcement was that the central government would loan local governments a billion dollars interest free to build infrastructure. Watercare are forecasting $4.8 billion of capital expenditure on water and waste water alone, but even if it was substantial it makes no difference because the councils must pay it back. Nevertheless the government took the photo op.

The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary
The Kermadec sanctuary will make no difference to total fish take because the total take is limited by a quota, which hasn’t changed. The policy will inconvenience fishers who either fished in the area or planned to, but will do nothing for conservation. Nonetheless it is politically helpful to point to a large area on the map as conservation.

The Marine Protected Areas Act
The same as the Kermadec sanctuary, but worse. The same amount of fishing will take place under the quota system, but concentrated into areas that are not protected. More concentrated fishing is more damaging. In other words, there will be worse conservation outcomes but better political ones.

Claytons’ Capital Gains Tax
The Bright Line Test was supposed to suppress the $500 billion housing market, despite being forecast to raise only $5 million in revenue – less than some real estate agents make. Of course the housing market has charged on regardless, but the opposition now have the legal infrastructure in place to create a de facto capital gains tax.

We Could Go On
New Zealand has dysfunctional housing and education markets, as well as a gradual productivity malaise – as with the Holyoake and Muldoon governments, long term problems are slowly accumulating while policies serve only to get the government publicity for a news cycle or two. All the more reason to join, donate to, and vote for New Zealand’s only reforming party – ACT.

Fair and Balanced
We should point out that most of Labour and the Greens' policies (government building houses to counter a land shortage, setting the price of solar power, having the Reserve Bank print money to make us richer, even greater subsidies to university students, capital gains tax to lower house prices, etc. etc …) are also intellectually bankrupt so it is not just National.

ends

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