Act New Zealand launches $1 million election campaign
AUCKLAND: Act New Zealand is promising its biggest campaign in 15 years as it fights for more seats in Parliament after September’s election.
Act leader David Seymour has been the party’s sole MP since 2014.
While he has won the Epsom electorate, Act has struggled to get more than 1% of the party vote.
However, recent polls put support at about 3% — which means, if Mr Seymour retained Epsom as expected, the party would end up with four MPs.
At the party’s campaign launch in Auckland, Act president Tim Jago said membership had more than doubled in the past year.
‘‘You’ve seen the polls: certainly 3%, nudging 4% and we’re hearing stories that the other parties have us at 5%,’’ Mr Jago said.
‘‘We were being written off little more than a year ago as a oneMP party unable to climb above 1%.
‘‘We are the only parliamentary party that’s consistently over the past 12 months trended upwards.’’
Mr Jago told the crowd of 600 party faithful that they were aiming to get as high as 6% or 7% of the party vote, which would give Act eight MPs.
The party’s ‘‘campaign war room’’ was up and running, and a national bus tour was organised, Mr Jago said.
While Mr Jago was pitching this year’s election campaign as the party’s ‘‘most expansive’’ since 2005, it would also be its most expensive.
‘‘There will be no change out of a million dollars,’’ he said.
Act New Zealand used its campaign launch to announce two new policies — one targeting the welfare system and the other to overhaul the way mental health and addiction services could be funded and delivered.
Act’s thirdranked candidate Nicole McKee unveiled the party’s plan to bring in an employment insurance scheme for people who found themselves out of work.
There would be no changes to income tax, but 0.55% of the tax paid would be allocated to a ringfenced employment insurance fund.
If someone lost their job, they would be able to claim 55% of their average weekly earnings over the previous year — up to $60,000.
Act’s deputy leader, Brooke van Velden, announced the party’s policy to overhaul the way mental health and addiction services are funded and delivered.
She wants the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission — renamed as Mental Health and Addiction New Zealand — to be the central provider of funding.
Instead of channelling money through the Ministry of Health and district health boards, Ms van Velden said the beefed up agency would assess someone’s needs and contract the best providers for their care.
Mr Seymour used his speech at the campaign launch to hit out at the way the Government had handled the pandemic.
He said there was no strategy for dealing with the fallout from the pandemic and the Government needed a clear strategy and to seize the opportunity to be a world leader in public health.
‘‘We must openly pursue having the world’s smartest border, not as a rhetorical device, but a practical reality.
‘‘The goal should be smart borders that people and money can come through, but not Covid19,’’ Mr Seymour said.
He said there needed to be an open debate about just how long New Zealand could keep its borders shut and what the options were for safely opening up — and the criteria that would need to be met. — RNZ