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ACT confirm joke party status

ACT confirm joke party status

“Yesterday’s ACT Party launch saw ACT confirm their status as a joke party”, says Labour candidate for Epsom Michael Wood.

“Their sense of irony is supreme. Consider the following:
· ACT, a party that prides itself on free-market principles of self-reliance and being opposed to ‘hand outs’ is entirely reliant on a political deal to gift them the seat of Epsom in order to survive.

· Jamie Whyte lashed out at the Internet Mana party over Kim Dotcom’s legal issues and strikes a ‘tough on crime’ posture but had less to say about the fact that the party’s most recent leader has been convicted of serious electoral offences, joining two other ACT MP’s who have been convicted.

· ACT believes that school zones should be abolished, but has attempted to make political mileage out of fears that the Grammar zone in Epsom might contract.

· Having run a scare campaign about ‘high rise development’ in Epsom, ACT now proposes to abolish the Resource Management Act, which is the piece of legislation that gives local residents the right to submit and oppose neighbourhood developments they have concerns about.

· Despite a commitment to supporting ‘stable centre right government’ ACT have been one of the most unstable parties in parliament. The people of Epsom currently have no MP, and New Zealand is having an early election, because the previous ACT MP is a convicted criminal.

· Although they claim to believe in the potential of New Zealand, Jamie Whyte has recently claimed that New Zealand workers are lazy, leading to the importation of cheap overseas labour.

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· ACT believes that Maori, who on average have lower incomes and life expectancy, and higher rates of unemployment and morbidity than other New Zealanders, are New Zealand’s equivalent of pre-revolutionary French aristocrats.

“It would all be funny were it not for the fact that ACT is seriously contesting a seat in our House of Representatives and wants a major position within government. ACT are New Zealand’s equivalent of the Republican tea-party, a pick’n’mix bag of extreme libertarian economic policies and bizarre reactionary niche positions designed to cynically harvest votes”

“Fortunately, New Zealanders see through it all. Barely 3/1000 people are supporting ACT in most opinion polls, and in Epsom we hear from long-term National Party voters who are no longer prepared to support ACT given their extreme policies, and their hypocritical reliance on a deal for political survival. ACT’s launch on Sunday is likely to also be their last gasp”, says Michael Wood.

ENDS

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