Rebuild Fiji links, Brash tells NZ election launch |
writer : Source: NEW ZEALAND HERALD |
New Zealand Act party leader Don Brash continued to push rebuilding ties with Fiji during the party’s general election campaign launch in Auckland yesterday.Reaching out to Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and rebuilding the relationship with Fiji were again stressed by Dr Brash, who has made the same call previously.
“We need to rebuild a positive relationship with that country - encouraging the regime towards its professed aim of building a vibrant colour-blind democracy, based on one vote one person,” Dr Brash said.
During his launch address he told the crowd which had greeted him with a standing ovation:
“We will push to rebuild our relationship with Fiji.
“The Act Party has long been in broad agreement with the thrust of New Zealand’s foreign policy: in particular, we favour the drive for building new relationships with China, India and other emerging countries in Asia, and for working hard to bring the Trans Pacific Partnership to a successful conclusion.
“We have supported the government in its determination to fulfil New Zealand’s commitments in Afghanistan until next April. We continue to regard a close relationship with Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada as fundamental to our security.
“But we’ve come to the conclusion after extensive talks with Fijians now living in New Zealand, and New Zealanders with long experience in the Pacific, that our present policy of holding the Bainimarama regime at arm’s length is not working for New Zealand or for Fiji.
“Fiji has long been family: many New Zealanders holiday there and a significant number have business interests there. Many New Zealanders were born there.
“Only a party vote for ACT will lead to a re-examination of our relationship with Fiji.”
The Act Party is aiming to position itself to be part of a centre-right coalition government led by National Party leader John Key. ACT sees itself as a counter to recent improved polling by the New Zealand First Party led by Winston Peters ahead of the election on November 26.
Dr Brash is himself a former National Party leader when it was the Opposition. He is also a former New Zealand Reserve Bank Governor.
Act is stressing the line that National needs Act by its side so a centre-right coalition can happily ignore Mr Peters.
This was reinforced last week when Prime Minister Key had a well publicised cup of tea with an ACT candidate in a key electorate.
Dr Brash told the Act Party launch New Zealand is a great country - “nobody gets shot” over political disagreements. But it was at risk, and most of its social problems were because of a stagnant economy.
The International Monetary Fund predicted that the economies of 148 countries were going to grow faster than New Zealand’s in the decade to 2016, he said.
“We would have been in a state of national mourning if even one other country had beaten us at rugby. We seem relaxed at being 149th in the economic growth stakes.”
He outlined Act’s policy priorities, which included:
l Capping future government spending to increase only at the rate of inflation and population growth, except in national emergencies.
l Reduce government spending; with savings to be put towards cutting the top personal tax rate to 25 per cent and the company tax rate to 12.5 per cent.
l Reduce bureaucracy, particularly changing the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act to loosen the control local authorities have over development.
l Axing the Emissions Trading Scheme.
l Giving parents more choice in which school to send their children, and publishing more information about school, teacher and pupil performance.
l Promote cross-party support for changes to NZ Superannuation; Act believes the timetable proposed by the Retirement Commissioner of raising the eligibility age to 67 is too slow.
l Enshrining the right to self-defence in the Bill of Rights Act, and taking a no tolerance stance on minor offending by youths.
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