Free Press: ACT’s regular bulletin

We Picked It
Free Press was the only commentator to pick that Trump would win. How did we do it? The old fashioned way, we did not take our views from self-appointed commentators, we spoke to American voters. What makes anyone think the commentators who told us Trump could not win are any more accurate in their views on New Zealand politics? If you want accurate predictions it pays to read Free Press.

2016 Quake
Free Press feels for those lost overnight, and their friends and families. The clean-up and recovery will be another major effort as buildings need to be assessed and repaired - today is only the beginning. NZQA made a weak decision to cancel scholarship exams and close their own offices but force students to sit NCEA, only if their school is open. The result is a mess where some students who were counting on a strong exam day performance will fail because their school chose to close. Very poor leadership from NZQA, they should not allow the same to occur tomorrow.

Tete-a-Tete
In this week’s head to head with Jacinda Ardern, David Seymour points out another reason why politicians should not run businesses: the Golden Goose effect. Politicians can’t justify selling businesses when they’re going well, and can’t find a buyer when they crash, so they end up owning dogs. Jacinda as usual is way off beam, presumably unaware of the academic evidence that, while there are private sector failures, Governments are terrible at running businesses in the long run and on average.

A Compromise
It is difficult to imagine a Government with the gumption sell all SOEs in the foreseeable future, but the Mixed Ownership Model has been a success, bringing the discipline of commercial shareholders to bear on companies that would otherwise have only politicians to answer to. Why not extend partial privatisation of all SOEs, if commercial scrutiny saves taxpayers from another Solid Energy it might be worth it.

Trump Trump Trump
Free Press readers are probably as sick of hearing about the man as its writers, but last week’s events were epochal. This week Free Press unpicks what it all means for New Zealand politics and policy as we go into our own election next year.

Prediction II
We also predicted that Trump’s election would be terrifying the day before and unnoticed the day after. We should have, but didn’t, predict how uncouth would be the response of Democrats (and those who proclaim to believe in democracy here). Nonetheless Trump has already started backing down on his wilder proposals, and a little dignified acceptance of a democratic outcome would go a long way.

What Happened?
Trump is the product of a movement, he picked what the American people were thinking: Governments of both stripes have made too many promises without delivering, and treated them with contempt in the process. They were prepared to install Trump precisely because he was such an uncouth figure who followed not one conventional rule.

Poor Man’s Donald
Winston Peters is elated about the Trump victory, presuming he will automatically share in Trump’s success and even claiming to have predicted it in a speech where he never said Trump would win and wasn’t reported as such. (See David Seymour hitting back in Parliament here.)

Won’t Fly
Winston’s difficulty is that he is not an outsider but our longest serving parliamentarian. Trump’s ‘first 100 days’ plan leads off with a promise to implement term limits on Congressmen! The rest of the plan makes interesting reading, including tax reform and support for school vouchers, so it’s not all bad (but a lot of it is).

More Mini Trumps
Trump is already inspiring New Zealanders across the political spectrum. Chloe Swarbrick, who ran a populist ‘outsider’ campaign for the Auckland mayoralty, says Trump’s victory drove her to stand for the Green Party. We’re sure it did (Trump Score 6/10). Meanwhile in the Mt Roskill by-election, Labour Candidate Michael Wood got into some biffo with the husband of National’s candidate Parmjeet Parmar, before telling the cameras he was defending the honour of his wife (who is a successful politician in her own right) and he loves her! (Trump Score 8/10) Even Gareth Morgan compared himself to Trump then backed off (Trump Score 0/10). Free Press predicts Trump Delusion Syndrome will be with us through to next year’s election.

Could it Happen Here?
Yep. Senior Government ministers do not show Hillary Clinton’s botoxed forrid of contempt, but eight years into Government they are using the language of the officials who brief them rather than the voters who elected them. More importantly they’ve failed to address New Zealand’s long term challenges in housing, productivity and education. Like the Holyoake and Muldoon governments before them, this Government can handle day to day politics but lacks vision. ACT is already campaigning on the tough issues, housing, productivity, and education, we need your support: www.act.org.nz/donate

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