The BFD | ACT’s Week in Action

This week, ACT is up in the polls! ACT has started its Honest Conversations tour and is packing out halls around the country.

In Parliament we’ve taken the Government to task on COVID-19, the inaction on housing at Ihumatao and Mark Cameron gave an emotional speech about mental health in rural New Zealand.

In the News

On the up

The latest UMR and Roy Morgan polls have the ACT Party on 11 per cent. We’re not taking anything for granted and we’re continuing to work hard on the issues that matter to New Zealanders.

ACT featured on 1 News this week about the progress it’s made in Opposition. The media like to make politics a horse race, but ACT and National are rising together in the latest polls, with ACT focused on changing the Government AND the direction of New Zealand.

The Political Editor of 1News acknowledged the great work that ACT is doing in Opposition.

Time to renounce the UNDRIP

ACT called on all other parties to renounce the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Helen Clark got it right when her Government refused to sign up. John Key got it wrong when his Government signed the Declaration. He may have thought it was just symbolism, but it is now creating great division with the He Puapua report demanding it transform New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements with ‘declaration compliance’ by 2040.

Abolish the Human Rights Commission

The revelation that Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt gave money to a criminal organisation is further evidence that the Human Rights Commission must be abolished. David Seymour was in the news after learning that the Commission gave koha to the Mongrel Mob at the same time it met with the gang.

ACT’s long-held view is that the Commission is a hard-left organisation masquerading as a government department and must be abolished. This is just another example of why.

Leading the way on COVID

We called out the Government for relying on good luck instead good management when it comes to COVID-19. And we revealed the sneaky wording change on the Ministry of Health website that shows the vaccine rollout has slowed down again – not that the Government will admit it.

ACT commented on MedSafe’s decision to approve the Janssen vaccine and questioned why the Government wasn’t more prepared.

ACT reveals car tax figures

ACT MP Simon Court revealed in the NZ Herald that more than 100,000 Kiwis could be stung by Labour’s new car tax. They’re taxing tradies to subsidise Teslas.

Defence Minister too quick to take offence

ACT MP James McDowall called out Defence Minister Peeni Henare after he interfered in a staff essay writing competition. Peeni Henare contacted the Chief of Defence and demanded that an award-winning essay, that he hadn’t even read, be removed from the Defence website. This is cancel culture in camouflage. The essay titled “Can the Army afford to go woke” raised a series of relevant points reasonable people could choose to agree or disagree with. It shows an unfocussed Minister spending too much time in the wrong foxhole.

IN THE HOUSE

ACT Leader David Seymour took a series of questions from his fellow ACT MPs about his Regulatory Standards Bill which is due to be debated soon in Parliament. ACT used a little known function of Parliament called Questions to Members.

David Seymour again took on Jacinda Ardern about the Government’s response to COVID-19 and asked why New Zealand doesn’t have a plan to recover like Australia does.

Brooke van Velden exposed that Government hasn’t had a single meeting about building houses at Ihumatao, and the steering group hasn’t been formed.

Brooke also tabled ACT’s petition to stop Labour’s Interest Deductibility changes.

Mark Cameron gave a powerful speech in Parliament about mental health in rural New Zealand. He spoke as part of the Zero Suicide Aotearoa debate.

You can check out some of ACT’s best moments from Parliament this week here including Nicole McKee’s cheeky retort to Chris Hipkins.

Parliament now heads into a three-week recess. But our MPs will keep their foot on the peddle. Our Honest Conversations Tour will continue around the country and we’ll be releasing three Discussion Documents.

Upcoming Events

Our national Honest Conversations Tour is underway. We’d love for you to join us. The times and dates are on our website. We can’t wait to see you there.

Around the Country

David Seymour spoke at a lunch in Christchurch on Thursday that attracted a crowd of 300 people. That followed a speech earlier in the day with a crowd of 100.