Today, ACT Leader David Seymour released a video asking New Zealanders to Party Vote ACT to avoid inaction and instability. You can watch the video by clicking the image below.

“ACT is making one final appeal to voters before the polls open tomorrow. Only a vote for ACT is a vote to avoid more of the same, or chaos. It’s a vote for a strong ACT voice in a stable, two-party government,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“One more seat for ACT is the difference between a stable, responsible ACT-National government and something else entirely.

“New Zealanders can’t afford to just change the government, they need a government of real change. ACT is being upfront by saying exactly what we’ll do to achieve this.

1. We will fix the economy by removing the wasteful spending and red tape that can be cut immediately – So we start to get your living costs down, from Day One.

“ACT has shown in our alternative budget how we can get $25.5 billion of savings for taxpayers, just over three times National’s reductions. ACT’s plan would reduce Net Core Crown Debt by $6.8 billion in 2026/27, twice as much debt reduction as National.

“It’s not about who gets what and how much, it’s about setting New Zealand back on a path to prosperity, with a strong economy that will serve generations to come. ACT will fight for responsible economic management like this as part of the next ACT/National government.

2. We will ensure that public services - the healthcare, water and education that you rely on - will be delivered on need, regardless of race - because the Treaty promises equality, not racial discrimination.

“New Zealand can’t continue this path where different sets of rights are offered based on factors beyond peoples’ control. Where will New Zealand be in fifty years’ time if the current path continues, where Kiwis are offered different rights based on their ancestry?

“ACT has relentlessly fought for equal rights. We were the first political party to address the issue of co-governance and we’re the only party wholly committed to ensuring New Zealand’s future as a liberal democracy where everyone has the same rights, regardless of ethnicity.

“Only a Party Vote for ACT this election will bring about a government which treats all New Zealanders as equals.

“All of this is only possible if New Zealand elects a stable, responsible ACT/National coalition ready to deliver real change. The alternatives are inaction, or instability.

“You may never have voted for ACT. You may not always agree with what we say. But if you agree our country needs fresh ideas. If you want real change for the better. Who do you trust to achieve that? Party Vote ACT.”

A transcript of the video is here.

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Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More