Act leader David Seymour says New Zealand is at a “tipping point” between “two invisible tribes” within society - “change-makers” and the “majority for mediocrity”.
He used his State of the Nation speech in Auckland on Friday to address the “tough times” New Zealand finds itself in and call for “tough choices to be made”.
As the Herald revealed on Friday morning, Seymour believes part of this involves moving past a “squeamishness” about privatisation.
He made a pitch for privatising assets not delivering returns and raised the idea of giving New Zealanders more choice about healthcare and education.
The Act leader believes such conversations are necessary to avoid the risk of New Zealand “losing its first world status”.
The change-makers Seymour referred to are those who “who act out the pioneering spirit that built our country every day”, including by growing their business, buying homes for others to live in, and studying to improve their skills.
He said these people don’t see others by their ancestry and argued ACT members are change-makers.
“We don’t just believe it is possible to make a difference in our own lives; we believe it’s an obligation,” he said.
In contrast, he said the majority for mediocrity believe their ancestry is destiny and other people are responsible for issues in their own lives. These people look for politicians who will cut tall poppies down, he said.
“They would love nothing more than to go into lockdown again, make some more sourdough, and worry about the billions in debt another day,” Seymour added.
Seymour said the division between New Zealanders who wanted another lockdown for the Covid-19 variant Omicron and those who didn’t “put the tribes into sharp relief”.
He pointed to a poll that had 48% of Kiwis in favour of another lockdown and 46% opposed.
“If you were a business owner who needed to open, a parent worried about missed education, a migrant missing their family, or just someone who wanted their life back, you wanted to open.
“When the Government finally lifted restrictions, many of those people left. Real estate agents report people selling because they’re moving to Australia every day. This is where the balance between these two invisible tribes comes into focus.”
He said many of those people “with get up and go” are leaving the country, tipping New Zealand in favour of that “mediocrity majority”.
“Motivated New Zealanders leaving is good news for the shoplifters, conspiracy theorists, and hollow men who make up the political opposition,” he said.
“A few more good people leaving is all they need for their Majority of Mediocrity. The more that aspirational, hardworking people get up and leave New Zealand, the more likely it is we’ll get left-wing governments in the future.”
He also said young people are looking at the housing market and seeing “little hope” and “wondering if they aren’t better off overseas”.
“Many decide they are. Those who stay are infected by universities with the woke mind viruses of identity politics, Marxism, and post-modernism.
“Feeling like you’ll never own your own capital asset at the same time as some professor left over from the Cold War tells you about Marx is a dangerous combination.
“This is the other political tipping point that risks manufacturing a majority for mediocrity.
“A bad housing market and a woke education system combined are a production line for left-wing voters.”
He said the “hard left prey on young New Zealanders”.
“They tell them that their problems are caused by others’ success. That they are held back by their identity, but if they embrace identity politics, they can take back what’s theirs.
“Their mechanism is a new tax on wealth.
“These are the opposite of the spirit brings New Zealanders to our shores in the first place. The state of our nation is that we’re at a tipping point , and what we do in the next few years will decide which way we go.”
Seymour said while change is happening under the current government – pointing to declining interest rates, not “wasting borrowed money” and less red tape – more “tough choices” need to be made.
“The Government cannot measure itself by just being better than Labour. Instead, we need to ask ourselves, is this policy good enough to make New Zealand a first world country that people want to stay in?”
He pointed to three areas of government activity – spending, ownership and regulation.
It is here where he raised the notion of privatisation and potentially providing Kiwis more options about how their money is used.
Seymour noted the large amount of spending on healthcare and New Zealand’s ageing population.
“Healthcare spending has gone from $20 billion to $30 billion in five years, but people are so dissatisfied that healthcare is now the third biggest political issue. Put it another way, we are now spending nearly $6,000 per citizen on healthcare.
“How many people here would give up their right to the public healthcare system if they got $6,000 for their own private insurance? 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?
He made a similar argument regarding education, asking whether people should be able to take the money that would otherwise be spent on their public education and have more control of it.
“Instead of spending next year because we did it this year, we need to ask ourselves, if we want to remain a first world country, then do New Zealanders get a return on this spending that justifies taking the money off taxpayers in the first place?
“If spending doesn’t stack up, it should stop so we can repay debt or spend the money on something that does.”
Seymour also said the Government owns about $570 billion worth of assets. He believes there “are greater needs for government capital” than holding on to some of those.
“We haven’t built a harbour crossing for nearly seven decades. Four hundred people die every year on a substandard road network. Beaches around here get closed thanks to sewerage overflow, but we need more core infrastructure.
“Sections of this city are being red zoned from having more homes built because the council cannot afford the pipes and pumping stations.
“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?
“If something isn’t getting a return, the government should sell it so we can afford to buy something that does.”
Speaking earlier at Ratana, the Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said any suggestion of privatisation should deeply concern New Zealanders.
“It’s not at odds necessarily with some of the words that we heard from our Prime Minister yesterday. The likes of overseas investment does seem to be a bit of a euphemism for privatisation and for overseas ownership of some of our critical infrastructure.
“That poses real issues to the resilience of that infrastructure but also that ownership and therefore the accountability that our government has to invest in the infrastructure that all New Zealanders believe in and rely on.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Thursday announced new moves to increase foreign investment in New Zealand, including the creation of the Invest New Zealand agency that will help market the country.
Act previously campaigned on what it called Student Education Accounts, which would give parents a choice about how to fund their children’s education.
Under that policy, the money the Government currently spends on education would be distributed across the students’ accounts. Parents would be able to see the balance of funding available and then choose how to fund their children’s education.
Its previous alternative Budgets delivered in Opposition have also suggested selling off state-owned assets.
Last November, Health Minister Shane Reti said he was interested in working more closely with the private sector to fulfil the Government’s goal of cutting waiting lists. But he said privatisation was not his “overt policy”.
Luxon has previously ruled out asset sales this term, including this week when asked about his vision for generating greater economic growth.
“We’ve made a commitment for this term, that’s not something that we’re looking at,” he told Newstalk ZB.
Seymour’s speech would have caught attention even without the mention of privatisation. He’s delivering it on the same day as the annual Rātana celebrations, which are being attended by every party bar Act.
The Act leader has always been opposed to needing to make the trek to Rātana, though it’s likely his Treaty Principles Bill will be the focus of many conversations there this year.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office
The Resources Minister came to the select committee sporting a Make NZ Great Again hat.