Free Press

ACT’s new regular bulletin

Greens contra Religious Freedom

The Green Party have jumped all over suggestions that Destiny Church will make a third application to operate a Partnership School after two failed attempts. The Greens have always been the most authoritarian party, knowing a right way to live each part of your life. More importantly, they have reminded us that applications for the next round of Partnership Schools is open untilOctober 30, and we hope a wide range of quality applications will be made.http://www.partnershipschools.education.govt.nz/

Comedy and Timing

We can only speculate that the Maori King’s claim to Auckland (yes, all of it, from Mahurangi to Manukau) was supposed to be made on April 1. Nga Puhi have made a counter claim. We thought that Auckland was Ngati Whatua’s rohe. Free Press respects the Treaty settlement process but such irreverent claims turn it into farce.

David Seymour Makes Counter Claim

On behalf of the People of Epsom, David Seymour is laying claim to the King Country. He doesn’t have much of a basis for doing so or know many of the details but believes it is extremely important and is determined to see it through.

Less Funny

We hope Treaty Settlements Minister Chris Finlayson was being polite when he treated the claim as serious but we wonder if he is a Colonel Kurtz up the river (see Apocalypse Now). Aucklanders are only starting to find out that same man casually gifted 14 Auckland volcanic cones to Ngati Whatua in the middle of an election campaign.

PM to the Rescue

On Monday morning Prime Minister cut across Finlayson’s bow, arguing that claims had to be pre-registered by 2008 and the Maori King hadn’t made one. Free Press predicts that it is too little too late from the PM. There is already far too much in play that undermines a free and equal society.

What’s in Play?

The University of Canterbury has unveiled a plaque that effectively says Pakeha are second class citizens who are lucky to be here. Volcanic cones lost, private property owners in Auckland are now receiving letters about Mana Whenua sites at their place. Hawkes Bay will have a new co-governance planning council that is an affront to a free society of private property owners. Wai 262, described by the justice department as one of the most complex and far reaching the Waitangi Tribunal has ever dealt with, is making itself felt through everything the government does.

Andrew Little’s Smacking Moment

John Key made his career when he reached across the aisle and reached an accord with Helen Clark on the anti-smacking bill (how’s that working?). It was not good law but showed Key in a magnanimous, Prime Ministerial light. Little could do the same on the RMA, where Key is moribund. He has sixty votes with the support of ACT but the concessions needed to get Peter Dunne of the Maori Party will make any RMA reform meaningless.

Nick Smith MIA

National’s problems are not only a lack of numbers. Last week Nick Smith went home to the Environmental Defense Society to announce RMA reforms (already few remember what they were). It would be like the Labour announcing their welfare policy at the Business Roundtable.

Wide Open

Practically any package of RMA reforms Labour could suggest would be better than those that Maori/United would agree to. If Little suggested clearing the meaningless fluff out of sections six and seven, add cost benefit analysis and respect property rights, Key would be cornered as Clark was on smacking.

Will they do it?

Free Press doubts that Labour will take this course. Presenting a way through such a complex and controversial issue requires enormous gravitas. We can’t see a Labour front bencher who could pull this off but for the country’s sake we’re happy for one of us to prove us wrong.

Why it’s Needed

Free Press speaks to developers who confirm the theory: The RMA acts as part obligation and part alibi for the armies of planners consenters, inspectors and their counterparts in the private consulting world. Armed with it, they clip the ticket at every turn. They also ensure that Labour’s erstwhile constituency will never afford a home of their own. Then we start blaming the immigrants.

Only ACT

Realistically, there will not be serious RMA reform unless ACT plays a bigger role in the next government. It is reason enough in itself for anyone who wants a sane housing market to vote ACT.

Paid Parental Leave

ACT voted down Sue Moroney’s paid parental leave bill on the basis that National would feel aggrieved losing a vote but would introduce the (surprisingly sensible) measures in a bill of their own. Moroney’s bill would have extended paid parental leave by several weeks in cases where new parents face extra costs that are totally beyond their control. The cases were multiple births, premature births, and the birth of babies with special needs.

Vote Buying or Insurance?

If you believe the welfare state is a machine for buying votes then you’ll spray money at target voter groups, such as new parents. Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s $5,000 baby bonus was a very good (actually very bad) example of this. Helen Clark’s interest write off for middle class university graduates was another. Moroney’s bill, on the other hand, was a perfect example of the welfare stateinsuring against unforeseen circumstances.

Social Insurance at its Best

Nobody can or would have twins, a prem, or special needs baby just to get the extra benefit, but anybody in those situation has unforeseen and greater needs. This is how social insurance is supposed to work. Instead of taking on these sensible conditions, the Nats plan to shower taxpayers’ money on two weeks’ extra paid parental leave to all who have children, an entirely predictable and largely controllable event that’s a bad candidate for social insurance.

Scaredy Cat

Winston Peters declined to appear on The Nation with David Seymour this weekend. He, of course, would maintain that he’s above it. However Richard Prebble has pointed out David can beat Winston in the house, and to give up live TV coverage we wonder if he wasn’t a little bit scared.

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