POTHOLES OR POU?

The ACT Party says money collected through fuel taxes and road-user charges should be spent maintaining and building roads—not on expensive artworks incorporated into roading projects.

It has highlighted the following examples:

·         $630,599 for the 12-metre Te Manu Rangimaarie sculpture at the Piarere roundabout near Cambridge.

·         $810,000 for the Te Waka sculpture on the Waikato Expressway.

Wellington watch - Treaty Principles Bill

The committee hearing submissions on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill has terminated the submission process early and reported back to Parliament with a recommendation that the Bill proceed no further. The Committee received 307,000 submissions to the Bill. 90% were opposed.

The matter will now go back to Parliament for its second reading and be voted down by every party except ACT. It will be a dead duck by Easter.

Perversely, the committee's decision to cut short the submission process brought howls from the likes of Labour’s Duncan Webb, who accused the committee of being anti-democratic, when the Labour Party had previously said the matter should not have been heard at all! 

ACT to stand candidates

 

For the first time ever, ACT is looking to stand candidates in local council elections.

ACT Leader David Seymour said “ACT has been focused on tackling the cost of living, wasteful spending, and co-governance in central government. But when I travel the country, I’m constantly told that local councils have failed to address these same concerns at the local level.”

He said it was time “for a clean-out”.

Disorder in the House

Parliament descended into unprecedented chaos when the Māori Party interrupted voting on the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill. Māori Party MPs confronted David Seymour with a haka that the Speaker described as "pre-mediated" and “appallingly disrespectful". Labour MPs and the public gallery joined the haka. 

To restore order the Speaker suspended Parliament and cleared the public gallery.  Willie Jackson and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke were suspended.

Everyone should now know that the Māori Party has a clear agenda to disrupt Parliament and challenge its sovereignty. In response, the public is hardening its attitude to racial activism, and some are calling for the seven Māori seats to be abolished.

Questions are being asked whether National has the backbone to stand up to the extremism. How parties respond to the activists may become a defining issue for right-leaning voters when they choose between National, NZ First, or ACT. 

Seymour Exposes Hikoi

ACT leader David Seymour has criticised media coverage of the hikoi to Wellington and asked why reporters have not disclosed the organisers links to the Maori Party. The catalyst for the protest is Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill which has just had its first reading in Parliament. 

Seymour noted that Eru Kapa-Kingi, the hīkoi leader, is employed by the Maori Party in Parliament and was a candidate for the party for the Whangarei electorate in the 2023 election. He is also the son of Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, the Maori Party MP for Te Tai Tokerau (Northland).  

The other leader of the protest is Kiri Tamihere-Waititi.  She is the wife of Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and daughter of the party president and Waipareira Trust CEO John Tamihere. 

Act and National say they would repeal Maori wards on local councils

Maori wards on local councils would be abolished, should National and Act form a government on 14 October.

Maori wards on local councils would be abolished, should National and Act form a government on 14 October.

A question to David Seymour

 

We put the following question to Act:

RE: Local government Māori wards – right of electors to demand a binding poll

Your website states, “Our Democracy or Co-Government paper sets out how ACT would restore universal human rights in New Zealand’s laws, public affairs, and constitutional settings. We would do this with the following policy changes…2. Repealing recent laws, such as the Three Waters legislation, local government representation legislation, and elements of the Pae Ora legislation, that give different rights based on identity.” https://www.act.org.nz/democracy

Should your party be in a position to do so after the October election, would it reinstate sections 19ZA to 19ZG of the Local Electoral Act 2001?

By way of background, those sections were repealed by section 7 of the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2021.

We look forward to your reply.