ACT New Zealand
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| ACT New Zealand | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Rodney Hide |
| President | Michael Crozier |
| Deputy | Heather Roy |
| Number of MPs in the House of Representatives | 5 |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Newmarket, Auckland |
| Political Ideology | Classical Liberalism |
| International Affiliation | Not Affiliated |
| Colours | Yellow and blue |
| Website | www.act.org.nz |
| See also: |
Politics & Government Sovereign |
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The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2008) |
The New Zealand centre-right political party ACT New Zealand (commonly known as "ACT" and pronounced to rhyme with "fact"; though internal image-makers push the phrase "the ACT Party") espouses free market liberal points of view in the New Zealand Parliament. According to current[update] party leader Rodney Hide the party stands for "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natural environment and for smaller, smarter government in its goals of a prosperous economy, a strong society, and a quality of life that is the envy of the world".[1] The name comes from the initials of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, the organization out of which the party grew in 1993.
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[edit] Philosophy
ACT bases its philosophy on individual freedom and on personal responsibility.[2] ACT states its principles and policy objectives as:[cite this quote]
- Principles
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- That individuals are the rightful owners of their own lives and therefore have inherent freedoms and responsibilities
- That the proper purpose of government is to protect such freedoms and not to assume such responsibilities.
- Policy objectives
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- A prosperous, well-educated, healthy, and open society in which individuals are free to achieve their full potential
- A growing, dynamic, and open economy, in which individual choice is paramount
- Social policy that promotes and rewards hard work, enterprise, thrift, and personal responsibility
- A standard of living, and quality of life, that is the envy of the world.
[edit] Current issues
ACT New Zealand currently[update] focuses on two main policy areas: taxation and crime. ACT advocates lowering tax rates and also supports something approaching a flat tax, in which tax rates would not be graduated based on wealth or income, so every taxpayer would pay the same proportion of their income in tax. The flat tax rate that ACT wants to target would be approximately 15%.[citation needed] Aligned to the lower tax proposal, ACT also wants to reduce or remove some Government programmes which it sees as unnecessary and wasteful and to increase self-reliance by encouraging individuals to take responsibility to pay for services traditionally paid for by Government.
Other policies ACT advocates include:
- Re-instating private prisons; allowing private firms to free up police for "Zero Tolerance" policing; speeding up courts[3]
- welfare reforms similar to those instituted by the United States in the mid 1990s, based primarily on the reforms first undertaken in Wisconsin
- a greater spend on defence with closer strategic alliances with the United States of America, Australia and Great Britain.
Members of ACT's caucus in parliament voted 5 to 4 in favour of the 2004 Civil Unions legislation which gave the option of legal recognition to (among others) same-sex couples. A majority also supported[4] the legalisation of brothels by the Prostitution Reform Act 2003.
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
ACT grew out of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, although the organizations remain legally separate. Sir Roger Douglas and Derek Quigley, both former cabinet ministers, founded the association in 1993. The organization was intended to be a lobby group, promoting the economic policies that Douglas and Quigley stood for (sometimes known as "Rogernomics").
The following year, with the newly-introduced MMP electoral system making it easier for smaller parties to gain seats, ACT New Zealand emerged as a separate political party based on the association's views. Douglas selected longtime Labour Party activist Brian Nicolle to help him establish the party.
The Association of Consumers and Taxpayers still exists on paper, although it has little substance.[citation needed] The Association technically operates as a lobby-group promoting free market economics. It holds its annual general meetings during the annual general meetings of ACT New Zealand and the members of the Board of Trustees also serve as board members of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers.
Douglas led the party initially, but in March 1996 he stepped down, and Richard Prebble became the party leader.
[edit] 1996-1999
In the 1996 election, ACT gained eight seats in Parliament — one electorate seat and seven list seats. Prebble won election in Wellington Central; some[who?] believe that he won after Prime Minister Jim Bolger appeared to endorse Prebble over his own National Party's candidate. ACT had by this time adopted the role of a natural coalition partner with National (a significant departure from Douglas and Prebble's origins in Labour), and would have been assured representation in Parliament if Prebble won. Under New Zealand's MMP system, any party that wins an electorate seat qualifies for list seats, even if it does not get 5% of the vote. However, some observers pointed out that Prebble had a substantial lead well before the election and would have won even without Bolger's endorsement. It ended up being a moot point, as ACT won 6.1% of the vote, just over the MMP threshold. It remained outside the National-New Zealand First coalition government, although sometimes gave it support.
[edit] 1999-2002
In the election of 1999, ACT increased its numbers in parliament by one seat, giving it a total of nine, although Prebble lost his Wellington Central electorate seat.
[edit] 2002-2005
In the 2002 election, ACT's strength in parliament remained unchanged, prompting some people[who?] to speculate about Prebble's leadership. However, no obvious challenges emerged, and Prebble remained in control until he decided to resign in 2004.
In 2003, allegations against Donna Awatere Huata, one of its MPs, came to embarrass the Party. Claims emerged that Awatere Huata had diverted funds from a children's educational program for her own personal use, and an official investigation was launched. This investigation eventually led to Awatere Huata's arrest for fraud. As ACT had a reputation for vociferously attacking any perceived dishonesty by members of other parties, the charges against Awatere Huata were quite embarrassing. Awatere Huata refused to resign from Parliament, but was expelled from the ACT caucus. That November, she was removed from the party itself, becoming an independent. ACT tried to remove her from Parliament by invoking the Electoral Integrity Act, as her departure from the party left ACT with fewer seats than the public had chosen to give it at the last election. In November 2004, Awatere Huata was finally removed from Parliament after her last court challenge failed, and the next person on the ACT list, Kenneth Wang, was appointed in her place.
Towards the end of 2003, some people[who?] started discussion about a possible pact between ACT and the (larger) National Party. Although ACT had long portrayed itself as a natural coalition partner for National, the two have never had a formal agreement. Some right-wing politicians believe that an agreement is essential to the establishment of a new right-wing government, and point to the pre-election agreement between Labour and the Alliance in 1999. As yet, however, there has been no deal.
On 27 April 2004, Richard Prebble announced his retirement from politics. An "indicative" ballot of the party's members selected Rodney Hide as Prebble's successor, in preference to the other candidates: Ken Shirley (the party's deputy leader), Stephen Franks, and Muriel Newman. The leadership race saw considerable tension between two factions of the party - Rodney Hide, one of the two main contenders, was regarded as representing a "populist", high-profile approach, while his main rival, Stephen Franks, was seen as more ideologically grounded. ACT's founder, Roger Douglas, saw Hide's alleged "grandstanding" as detracting from the group's core message, and had spoken out in favour of Franks and Shirley. In the end, however, Hide was successful, and was announced as the party's new leader on 13 June 2004.
[edit] 2005 election
In the lead-up to the election in 2005, opinion-polls showed ACT support well below the 5% threshold.[citation needed] ACT's best[citation needed] prospect of winning an electorate appeared the relatively wealthy National-held Epsom seat in Auckland, contested by Rodney Hide. Most of the media ruled the party out as "dead", possibly assisting the downward spiral (see: Wasted vote), especially as polls conducted in the Epsom seat had incorrectly shown Hide's support being far below National's candidate. It was repeatedly put to the National Party that they could ensure the survival of ACT in Parliament as a potential coalition partner by supporting Hide in Epsom. While not emphatically ruling out the possibility, then National leader Don Brash stuck to the line that National "had no plans to do a deal". The Labour Party, however, saw the possibility of National supporters voting for Hide and encouraged their own supporters to vote for the National candidate in order to shut ACT out of parliament.
In the event, Hide won the seat by a moderate margin — only the second time that ACT had won an electorate seat. Nationwide, support for ACT declined by a greater extent than that of any of the other small parties, falling to just 1.5% of the vote, sufficient to win only one list seat, that of Heather Roy. Roy then became the party's new deputy leader, the party's support having dropped far enough to prevent former deputy Muriel Newman from returning to Parliament.
[edit] 2005-2008
After the 2005 election, ACT set about restoring the party membership and finances, though to date[update] with limited success[citation needed]. The party polled well below the levels of support it had enjoyed in the mid-1990s. The 2006 ACT Annual Conference in Wellington (March 24 to 26) saw an almost entirely new Board elected, reflecting the need[original research?] for a change of direction within the party, and the emergence of a strong youth presence.[citation needed] Hamilton business-owner Garry Mallett won election as President, defeating Hawkes Bay farmer and former ACT Vice-President John Ormond. Christchurch's Trevor Loudon replaced Ormond as Vice-President, defeating Auckland's Barry Parkin. The Conference featured the attendance of Māori Party Co-leader Tariana Turia. While the Māori Party and ACT oppose each other's ideas in many areas, their policies on welfare, tax and education feature similarities. On completion of her speech, Turia received a standing ovation from the predominantly Pākehā and Asian crowd. Many[who?] saw her presence as a move by Rodney Hide to broker a coalition of opposition parties to contest the 2008 election against the then Labour-dominated coalition government.
Hide also sought to "rebrand" the party. While not moving away from ACT's key tenets of freedom, choice, and personal responsibility, Hide stated that provided the governing Labour Party promised (amongst other things) significant tax-cuts, ACT could provide the centre-left party with support. This brought into sharp relief the position of ACT within New Zealand politics. Traditionally a strong ally of the National Party on economic policy, ACT with its classical liberal tradition, comes closer on some issues (such as same-sex unions and legalized brothels) to the more liberal elements of Labour than to the more conservative elements of National members. This new approach by the ACT Party has prevailed[citation needed] (at least publicly[original research?]).
During 2006, Rodney Hide and deputy-leader (and fellow-MP) Heather Roy took a privately funded tour of Europe, meeting with a number of political parties, including the Irish Progressive Democrats and the German Free Democrats, both parties with similar ideologies to ACT, but with substantially better electoral records.
[edit] 2008 election
In the New Zealand general election 2008, ACT fielded 61 list candidates, starting with Rodney Hide, Heather Roy, Sir Roger Douglas, John Boscawen, David Garrett and Hilary Calvert. See Party lists in the New Zealand general election 2008. The election marked an improvement in ACT's fortunes. Hide retained his Epsom seat and ACT's share of the party vote increased to 3.65%. The combination allowed the party five MPs in total.[5] In addition, the centre-right National Party won the most seats overall, forming a minority government, the so-called Fifth National Government of New Zealand, with the support of ACT as well as the Maori Party and United Future. John Key offered both Hide and Roy posts as Ministers outside Cabinet: Hide became Minister of Local Government, Minister for Regulatory Reform and Associate Minister of Commerce, while Roy became Minister of Consumer Affairs, Associate Minister of Defence and Associate Minister of Education.[6]
[edit] Electoral results (1996-2008)
| Election | # of candidates nominated (electorate/list) | # of seats won | # of party votes | % of popular vote |
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| 1996 |
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| 1999 |
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| 2002 |
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| 2005 |
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| 2008 |
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[edit] Office-holders
[edit] Organisational President
- Rodney Hide (1994-1996)
- Roger Douglas (1996-2001)
- Catherine Judd (2001-2006)
- Garry Mallett (2006-2009)
- Michael Crozier (2009-Present)
[edit] Vice-President
- David Schnauer (1999-2000)
- Rodney Hide (2000-2001)
- Vince Ashworth (2001-2004)
- John Ormond (2004-2006)
- Trevor Loudon (2006-2008)
- Michael Crozier (2008-2009)[7]
[edit] Parliamentary Party Leader
- Roger Douglas [Interim Leader] (1994-1996) (outside Parliament)
- Richard Prebble (1996-2004)
- Rodney Hide (2004-present)
[edit] Deputy Parliamentary Party Leader
- Ken Shirley (1996-2004)
- Muriel Newman (2004-2006)
- Heather Roy (2006-)
[edit] Current Members of Parliament
- Rodney Hide (1996-present)
- Heather Roy (2002-present)
- Roger Douglas (2008-present)
- John Boscawen (2008-present)
- David Garrett (2008-present)
[edit] Past Members of Parliament
- Donna Awatere-Huata (1996-2003)
- Deborah Coddington (2002-2005)
- Gerry Eckhoff (1999-2005)
- Stephen Franks (1999-2005)
- Owen Jennings (1996-2002)
- Muriel Newman (1996-2005)
- Richard Prebble (1996-2005)
- Derek Quigley (1996-1999)
- Patricia Schnauer (1996-1999)
- Ken Shirley (1996-2005)
- Kenneth Wang (2004-2005)
- Penny Webster (1999-2002)
[edit] See also
- Act Party's Caucus and Acts MPs' responsibilities
- ACT on Campus
- List of liberal parties
- Liberalism in New Zealand
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rodney Hide, "Speech to ACT Auckland Regional Conference, 30 July 2006"
- ^ ACT's Pledge To New Zealand, reported on 19 May 2008
- ^ "The 20 Point Plan - Policies in summary form". http://www.act.org.nz/policies. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. "Action: Bring back private prisons - now best practice overseas. Let private firms free up cops for 'Zero Tolerance' policing. Speed up courts (eg. night courts) to reduce unfair delays."
- ^ Taylor, Kevin; NZPA. "Barnett celebrates 'historic moment' with prostitution bill". http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3509424. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ Chief Electoral Office: Official Count results: Overall status.
- ^ New Zealand Herald, 'Key's Government', 17 November 2008.
- ^ "The ACT Board of Trustees". http://www.act.org.nz/contact/act_board. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
[edit] External links
- ACT New Zealand official site
- ACT New Zealand Multimedia Website official multimedia site
- ACT on Campus ACT's Youth Wing
- Rodney Hide's personal website
- New Zealand's New Zealots by R.W. Bradford — 1997 Article for Liberty magazine, about ACT and the Libertarianz
- Is this the end of the road for Act? - NZ Herald Article
- Open Directory Project ACT - The Liberal Party
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