Neil Sands
ACT Party leader David Seymour has urged New Zealanders to ditch their “squeamishness” about privatisation and allocate government resources where they are most effective.
During a State of the Nation address in Auckland this afternoon, Seymour also railed against overspending and excessive regulation, saying New Zealand was “at risk of reaching a tipping point and losing its first-world status”.
He said tough decisions needed to be made and ACT’s record on the Treaty Principles Bill, which has drawn widespread protest, showed the party was “prepared to stand up when it’s not easy and it’s not popular”.
David Seymour
“We need to get past squeamishness about privatisation and ask a simple question: if we want to be a first-world country, then are we making the best use of the government’s half a trillion dollars-plus worth of assets?” he said
“If something isn’t getting a return, the government should sell it so we can afford to buy something that does.”
Seymour cited housing, questioning why the government needed to own 60,000 homes.
“The government doesn’t need to own a home to house someone. We know this because it also spends billions subsidising people to live in homes it doesn’t own,” he said.
“On the other hand, the taxpayer is paying $10 billion a year servicing debt, and the KiwiBuild and Kainga Ora debacles show the government should do as little in housing as possible.
“There are greater needs for government capital… we need more core infrastructure.”
He also took aim at healthcare spending, suggesting the $6,000-per-head that the government spends annually in the sector could be better used by private operators.
“Should we allow people to opt out of the public healthcare system and take their portion of funding with them so they can go private?”
Two tribes
Seymour said over-regulation was “infantilising” New Zealand’s culture and chipping away at the Kiwi spirit.
“If we want to remain first world, we need to change how we regulate,” he said.
“No law should be passed without showing what problem is being solved, whether the benefits outweigh the costs, and who pays the costs and gets the benefits.
“These are the basic principles of the Regulatory Standards Bill that the government will pass this year.”
While ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill appears set to be voted down later this year, Seymour said it has set the stage for debate.
“It may still succeed this time, or it may be one of those bills that simply breaks the ground so something like it can proceed in the future,” he said.
Seymour characterised New Zealanders as two tribes – change makers, with “the pioneering spirit in our hearts”, and “the majority of the mediocre”.
“They blame one of the most successful societies in history for every problem they have. They believe that ancestry is destiny,” he said.
“They believe people are responsible for things that happened before they were born, but criminals aren’t responsible for what they did last week.”
Seymour said ACT would continue agitating for change and remain the “squeaky wheel” in the government coalition.
“To all the change makers who proudly put us there, thank you, and no matter how daunting this tipping point may feel, together we can ensure our best days are still ahead of us,” he said.
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