- Minister for Regulation and Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour delivered a speech to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce this morning.
- He claimed Labour had moved ‘radically to the left,’ far from Helen Clark’s Labour Party.
- He cited falling productivity and called for regulatory and investment changes.
Act leader David Seymour accused Labour of abandoning “economic orthodoxy”, arguing the party has moved “radically to the left.”
Addressing the Auckland Chamber of Commerce as Minister for Regulation and Associate Minister of Finance, Seymour spoke at length about New Zealand’s political landscape.
He said National had remained consistent in its policies while Labour had veered sharply from the centrist approach taken by previous governments.
“Think about Helen Clark’s Government and how it contrasts with the Opposition today ... Helen Clark’s Government was well to the right of the current Opposition. It’s not National that’s changed; they have been consistent. It is Labour who’ve moved radically to the left,” he said.
“We can no longer rely on a cross-party commitment to liberal democracy and economic orthodoxy.”
He took aim at Labour leader Chris Hipkins, suggesting his political career had been defined by avoiding accountability.
“Slipperier than an eel fed on sausage rolls, no politician has glided over failure like Chris Hipkins,” he said.
Speaking to media after the speech, Seymour said the Government remained committed to its intent of introducing the Treaty Principles Bill within 18 months of forming, which would happen within the next few months - though “whether it progresses to a referendum will be subject to further debate”.
On defence spending, Seymour said the Act Party has long maintained that more needed to be spent on defence to be equivalent with Australia.
He said the Government was working through its budget process for 2025, and a decision would be made in time.
When asked what he meant by a “reset” during his speech, he said every minister in the current government was involved in regulatory reform at some level.
“We’ve established the Minister for Regulation, the Ministry for Regulation, and the Regulatory Standards Bill,” he said.
“We’re also doing sector reviews. We’re going to roll those out every quarter now.”
On school lunches, Seymour said schools being served pies for lunch today was not a long-term plan and was a “one-off” celebration of one million meals delivered under the new system.
When asked if it was acceptable to serve pies when the intent was healthy lunches, he said, “There’s an old saying that you should have everything in moderation, including moderation”.
“I don’t think there’ll be a lot of complaints from the children, I suspect, but it’s also the fact that what we’ve done is really big and really ambitious and it’s saving the Government a huge amount of money and the feedback on school lunch quality is actually very positive.”
He said he was not caught by surprise by the issues with lunches, as “I expect the unexpected”.
In his speech, Seymour framed Act as a party committed to restoring what he called “commonsense economic policy” and spoke to the importance of regulatory reform.
“We know this country cannot change its size or distance to market, and better public policy is our best collective hope,” he said.
Beyond political ideology, Seymour used his speech to push for a four-year parliamentary term and Opposition-controlled select committees, arguing these changes would improve legislative scrutiny.
“The Government is committed to introducing legislation that would put a four-year term to referendum and make the select committees Opposition controlled,” he said.
He also reaffirmed Act’s stance on regulatory reform, pointing to declining productivity figures.
“In the year to June 2024, GDP per capita fell 2.7% ... If productivity growth had continued to grow at 1.4% a year since 2013, productivity, and therefore wages, would today be about 14% higher.”
Education policy was another focal point, with Seymour praising the success of charter schools.
“They are proven for raising educational achievement. Last year their achievement data showed students achieving at much higher levels than state schools in core areas of reading, mathematics and spelling.”
He also warned restrictive overseas investment rules were holding New Zealand back.
“The Government intends to simplify our overseas investment rules and I will be making an announcement about this very shortly,” he said.
Seymour made headlines in the past week for penning a letter to police during the Polkinghorne trial that Prime Minister Chris Luxon called “ill-advised”, and getting stopped by Parliament security for attempting to drive a Land Rover up the Beehive steps.
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