“ACT is a thinking person’s party and this Government is the polar opposite, coloured by marketing and vanity,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Only ACT is offering real solutions to the hard, grown-up problems. That is what I told a packed house in Auckland today for ACT’s annual Waitangi weekend State of the Nation speech.

“It’s all very well, and arguably great marketing, to declare a climate crisis. But what about being honest about the less fashionable crises affecting just as many people every day?

“We have crises right now in education, housing and infrastructure, productivity, our most vulnerable children, and law and order, with the gangs running out of control.

“Also, as politicians, we need to recognise we have a crisis in government – we keep passing terrible laws.

“This Government in particular uses lawmaking as a populist tool rather than a way to help people resolve conflicts.

“Try being a farmer, a landlord, a miner, an employer, or, heaven forbid, a law-abiding licensed firearms owner.

“This Government treats each group on a spectrum between a pariah and terror organisation.

“Meanwhile, they’re doing next to nothing to address the big issues facing New Zealanders as they seek to raise their families and stay in meaningful employment.

“ACT is offering a real solution to this bad lawmaking; we want to supercharge our constitutional infrastructure.

“To do this ACT will be campaigning on three initiatives:

1. The Regulatory Responsibility Bill

2. Independent select committees

3. A four year term.

“New Zealand has the constitutional arrangements of a teenage nation and it is time for us to grow up.

“I look forward to returning to Parliament next week and taking the contest of ideas on all these issues to a shallow Government unwilling to honestly tackle the real crises this country faces.”

ENDS

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