Once upon a time many of us said ‘beware the smiling assassin’ when we talked about John Key. These days, the warning should be ‘beware the smiling clown’.
David Seymour’s chirpy countenance masks a grim future for Aotearoa New Zealand should he and his running mates get their hands anywhere near the levers of power, either in this election or the next.
Who knows – or cares - what ACT’s policies really say?
With voting already underway, I hope some of those who are looking at possibly voting ACT may think again, and understand where an ACT influenced government might really take this country.
I sacrificed some hours on a glorious sunny Sunday taking a closer look at the policies available on the offical ACT website. For sure I would rather have been at the beach. ACT’s promises make grim reading for anyone who thinks our society should be grounded in social, economic, Tiriti and ecological justice.
The overall drift is as it always was for ACT – much less government, lower taxes, privatise as much as possible of what now rests with the state, and reduce incomes and conditions for paid workers and beneficiaries alike. You’re welcome to read more here https://www.act.org.nz/policies, but in the meanwhile here are a few extracts from their hopes for the nation:
Covid-19/Public health
· Open the border to international tourism markets as quickly as possible.
· High value tourism operators to bring in and isolate tourists themselves.
· Shorter quarantine times for ‘better tested & lower risk’ tourists.
Workers:
· 90 day trial periods in all workplaces.
· Three years without lifting the minimum wage, currently $18.90 an hour.
· Change personal grievance processes so they are ‘less open to abuse by employees’.
· Amend the Health & Safety Act which is seen as ‘unfairly weighted against employers’.
Welfare:
· Introduce an employment insurance system which cover workers for a limited period after they lose their jobs, after which they will go on to the Jobseeker benefit.
· Move sole parent and unemployed beneficiaries to an ‘income management’ system which means the state controls almost all of people’s benefits, apart from a small amount of discretionary cash. This would apply to:
o People who have children while on the benefit.
o Those whose employment insurance has run out.
o People who ‘seek hardship assistance repeatedly; have received an imprisonable criminal conviction; have committed benefit fraud; or have a primary incapacity of substance or alcohol abuse.’
· Guns: Repeal the 2020 Arms Amendment Act and create a whole new regime they see as being in the interests of firearms owners.
· Abolish the Human Rights Commission.
· Repeal existing hate speech laws.
Housing
· Replace the RMA with a law that lets people build without zoning restrictions like the Metropolitan Urban Limit.
· No council involvement in building consents and inspection; introduce mandatory private insurance for new housing.
· There is no mention that I can identify of the state playing any role at all in providing housing for the homeless and all those currently forced to survive in substandard, overcrowded and unhealthy conditions.
Education
· Introduce a voucher system for all levels of education to ‘increase choice’.
· Support widespread Partnership Schools ‘creating a vibrant marketplace of opportunities’.
· State schools will be able to convert to Partnership Schools, ‘freeing’ teachers from union contracts.
Environment
· Repeal the Zero Carbon Act.
· Fast track mining consents, opening up land ‘with little conservation value’ to resource extraction of all sorts.
· Repeal the ban on new offshore oil & gas exploration permits.
· Encourage private sector tourism on the conservation estate.
· Free up farmers from restrictions so they can ‘go about their business with minimal interference’.
One last little beauty: In the name of saving the environment, ACT aims to ensure politicians cut their flights to Wellington by 25%. They would like MPs to sit 23 weeks a year instead of 30. Perhaps the less these pernicious politicians meddle with the details of legislation and government the better.
And what do we know about the nine people behind Mr Seymour on the party list who may join him if their polling holds up? From information posted on ACT’s website three are noted for their involvement with firearms and seven at least are from the business sector. None are exactly well-known in the wider community. Should they enter parliament in two week’s time they’ll be on a fast learning curve, and so will we.
But it’s the policies they’re promoting that really need to concern us at this stage. ACT as an influential partner in a National-led government would take us down a radically conservative and dangerous path.
Mr Seymour acts like a colourful clown, but so did Jair Bolsonaro, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. We like to think we are immune from the rise of the far right here, but we are not.
It’s easier to spend our time being offended by the mass rallies and outrageously anti-scientific approach to Covid-19 being promoted by Billy Te Kahika than it is to look more closely at what David Seymour is promising should he and his party become part of government.
Some folks may bemoan the fact that a party of the poor and vulnerable can organise mass rallies in Queen St on the back of a deranged agenda, but I’m far more worried about the clowns in suits whose projects are far more dangerous.