The Letter - All changed, all the same
The Letter - All changed, all the same
We agree
with John Key. The collapse in Labour’s support makes the
government vulnerable. There are right/centre voters who
think National is so left-wing that they won’t vote if
they think National is going to win easily. Staying at home
could elect a real "fruit cake" government. The combination
of many parties and voluntary voting has resulted in
extraordinary governments being elected in Europe,
governments no pollster predicted. What this election has
needed is a positive reason to vote and last Saturday Jamie
Whyte delivered just such a speech at the ACT Northern
Regional conference.
Jamie Whyte’s analysis of National
“The National Party in
opposition claims to believe in personal responsibility,
individual choice and fiscal discipline, in government they
turn into the Labour Party. From the policies pursued over
the last 5 years, you would think that Helen Clark’s
Labour Party was still in power. Labour increased government
spending dramatically. This National government has
sustained it….Labour employed tens of thousands of new
bureaucrats. National has kept most of them in their jobs.
Bill English has actually boasted that under National
high-earners pay a greater share of total taxation than they
did under Labour’s tax policies.”
This week David
Cunliffe and John Key both announced their parties tax
policies. Labour will increase income tax on “high
income” earners and John Key says there will only be tax
cuts for middle and low income earners. Both tax policies
are based on the belief that the purpose of tax is to
redistribute income. They just disagree about the starting
point. Neither leader thinks that tax should be set at the
level that most encourages enterprise, growth or jobs.
Neither thinks your money is your own and no government has
the right to take a single dollar more than is needed to
fund essential state services. This is the Clark/Key regime.
ACT under Jamie Whyte
"ACT is the only party in New Zealand that truly believes in free markets. The only party that believes in property rights. The only party that believes in individual liberty and personal responsibility. The only party that believes in a small state and a big individual."
It is a powerful message
ACT’s polling reveals around
17 percent of the electorate are right/Centre voters. 83% of
New Zealanders are lefties who want the state to take the
big decisions in their life for them. Jamie Whyte did not
say National did not have its reasons for governing as if
Helen Clark was still PM. But the 17 percent who voted five
years ago for a change of government feel cheated. Up to
half of the 17 percent have voted ACT and last election at
least 3 percent of the right/centre voters stayed at home.
That is the audience Jamie Whyte is aiming for - the voters
who really believe in free enterprise and personal
responsibility. They are the intelligent voters who realise
that on all the big issues the National government will not
lead - from the sustainability of super, falling educational
standards, the decline in productivity in our hospitals to
the stifling levels of tax and red tape. These voters like
Jamie Whyte. They were waiting to hear Saturday’s
speech.
Due to the media blackout few heard it but by 20
September they will.
The importance of education
“Education has become more important
than ever. All around the world, the incomes of the
well-educated are rising rapidly while the incomes of
uneducated people are stagnating.
What matters now are
your intellectual and social abilities, both of which can be
greatly improved by a good education.”
What is wrong with New Zealand education?
"The difference between our best students and our worst is the biggest in the OECD. Our average is average only because our best are very good. Our underperforming students are doing really badly. About 15% leave school almost illiterate.” The Letter would add not only are the uneducated unemployable as the disturbing levels of youth unemployment signifies but our uneducated young adults are unable to do any task involving literacy. The country has a growing problem of unlicensed drivers who cannot pass the new driver’s license. We need to improve education standards or soon or later we are all going to be literally met them in a crash."
Why are so many schools failing?
If a state school fails to
provide educations that satisfy the parents of their pupils,
it will not shut down…it is likely to attract extra
government funding. In the private sector, resources flow
into success; in the public sector they flow into
failure.
When market competition is replaced with state
supplied goods and services, consumers’ preferences do not
determine what gets offered. We get a standardized,
one-size-fits-all educational model.
And, as always with
one-size-fits all models, state education in New Zealand now
fits only a few children.
As a recent Economist Magazine
survey showed, charter schools in America clearly outperform
state schools.
In New Zealand, Nick Hyde’s Vanguard
Academy and Alwyn Poole’s South Auckland Middle School,
for examples, are showing what committed and creative
principals can do to lift standards.
ACT’s education policy for 2014
“With Partnership
Schools, we have already made a step in the right
direction.
Most importantly, their funding depends on how
many students they attract. Their fortunes depend on the
decisions of their pupils’ parents.
The answer is to
give all state schools the option of become partnership
schools. School boards should be allowed to opt out of
control by the Ministry of Education, and be bulk-funded
according to the number of students they can
attract.
This policy entails no additional government
spending.
Just more freedom for teachers to adapt their
methods to their students.
More freedom for schools to
innovate.
More choice for parents and students.”
ACT has the best leader
“When I
took over the leadership of ACT, some commentators portrayed
me as a new captain on the Titanic after it had been holed
by an iceberg. ACT is not a ship. It is a torch for an idea.
I am proud to have picked up that torch. For the idea is the
most powerful idea, the most beautiful idea in the history
of human affairs. It is the idea of freedom.”
The full
speech which is the best given by any politician this year
is on www.act.org.nz
ends