ACT New Zealand
Leader	Rodney Hide
President	Garry Mallett
Deputy	Heather Roy
Number of MPs in the House of Representatives	2
Founded	1994
Headquarters	Clovernook Road, Newmarket, Auckland
Political Ideology	Classical Liberalism, Neoconservatism
International Affiliation	Not Affiliated
Colours	Yellow and blue
Website	www.act.org.nz
See also:	Politics & Government Sovereign Governor-General House of Representatives Speaker of the House of Representatives Political parties Prime Minister Cabinet Elections Māori politics Foreign relations

The New Zealand political party ACT New Zealand espouses free market liberal points of view in the New Zealand Parliament. Rodney Hide (born 16 December 1956) is a New Zealand politician who became leader of the political party ACT New Zealand in 2004 Garry Mallett is a New Zealand politician He is currently the President of ACT New Zealand, a small centre-right liberal political party Political views Further reading * (Roy contributed a paper entitled "Health for all" Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism, Laissez-faire liberalism, Market liberalism or in much of the world Neoconservatism (or Neocon is a Right-wing political philosophy that emerged in the United States from the rejection of the Social liberalism, Moral relativism The politics of New Zealand takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic Monarchy. TalkCommonewalth realm.--> New Zealand The Governor-General of New Zealand (Te Kawana Tianara o Aotearoa is the representative of the Sovereign in right of New Zealand (currently Queen The New Zealand House of Representatives is the Legislature of New Zealand. In New Zealand the Speaker of the House of Representatives is the individual who chairs the country's legislative body the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand national politics feature a pervasive Party system. The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's Head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in The New Zealand Cabinet functions as the policy and decision-making body of the Executive branch within the New Zealand government system Members of New Zealand 's House of Representatives, commonly called " Parliament " normally gain their parliamentary seats through nationwide general Māori politics is the Politics of the Māori people who were the original inhabitants of New Zealand and who are now the country's largest minority The foreign relations of New Zealand are oriented chiefly toward developed democratic nations and emerging Pacific economies New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island A free market is a Market in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers This article gives information on liberalism in diverse countries around the world The Parliament of New Zealand consists of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives and until 1951 the New Zealand Legislative Council According to current party leader Rodney Hide the party stands for "individual freedom, personal responsibility (trusting people), doing the best for our natural environment and for smaller, smarter government in its goals of a prosperous economy, a strong society, and a quality of life that is the envy of the world". 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Rodney Hide (born 16 December 1956) is a New Zealand politician who became leader of the political party ACT New Zealand in 2004 ^[1] The name comes from the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, the organization out of which the party grew in 1993.

Supporters claim that ACT has become one of the more noticeable opposition parties, known for its frequent and vociferous criticism of the government. Critics of the party point out that ACT is more interested in scoring political points and gaining media exposure than in participating in constructive dialogue. Some of its rank-and-file members are also perceived to have more in common with neo-conservatism than classical liberalism. Neoconservatism (or Neocon is a Right-wing political philosophy that emerged in the United States from the rejection of the Social liberalism, Moral relativism Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism, Laissez-faire liberalism, Market liberalism or in much of the world ^[2] Supporters, however, say that ACT "keeps the government honest", and ensures accountability.

Contents 1 Philosophy 2 Policy objectives 2.1 Current issues 3 History 3.1 Origins 3.2 1996-1999 3.3 1999-2002 3.4 2002-2005 3.5 2005 election 3.6 2005-2007 4 Electoral results (1996-2005) 5 Office-holders 5.1 Organisational President 5.2 Vice-President 5.3 Parliamentary Party Leader 5.4 Deputy Parliamentary Party Leader 5.5 Members of Parliament 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

Philosophy

ACT bases its philosophy on individual freedom and on personal responsibility. ^[3] Perhaps properly described as "classical liberal", ACT states its principles and policy objectives as:

Principles

• That individuals are the rightful owners of their own lives and therefore have inherent freedoms and responsibilities
• That the proper purpose of government is to protect such freedoms and not to assume such responsibilities. Personal life (or everyday life or human existence) is the course of an individual Human 's life especially when viewed as the sum of personal choices Political freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government.

Policy objectives

• A prosperous, well-educated, healthy, and open society in which individuals are free to achieve their full potential
• A growing, dynamic, and open economy, in which individual choice is paramount
• Social policy that promotes and rewards hard work, enterprise, thrift, and personal responsibility
• A standard of living, and quality of life, that is the envy of the world. The open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson. As commonly used, individual refers to a Person or to any specific object in a collection Social policy relates to guidelines for the changing maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare. Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new Organizations or revitalizing mature Organizations particularly new Businesses generally in response to identified The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people

Current issues

ACT New Zealand currently focuses on two main policy areas - taxation and crime. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment On the subject of taxes, ACT says that tax rates should be lower, and also supports something approaching a flat tax, in which tax rates would not be graduated based on wealth or income, so every taxpayer would pay the same proportion of their income in tax. A flat tax (short for flat rate tax is a Tax system with a constant tax rate The flat tax rate that ACT wants to target would be approximately 15%. Aligned to the lower tax proposal, ACT also wants to reduce or remove some Government programmes which they see as unnecessary and wasteful and increase self-reliance by encouraging individuals to take responsibility to pay for services traditionally paid for by Government. Critics point out that those with greater wealth would tend to cope with such self-reliance, whereas those with lower income would have fewer choices.

On the subject of crime, ACT advocates harsher penalties as the crime rate in New Zealand is higher than other comparable countries - in particular violent crime such as murder and violent assault. Some critics claim that New Zealand's high crime rate is due to the economic structural reforms known as Rogernomics instituted by Labour and National during the 1980s and early 1990s, although supporters point out that the crime rate has been growing since the 1970s and peaked at the end of the reforms. The term Rogernomics, a Portmanteau of "Roger" and "economics" was created by analogy with Reaganomics to describe the economic policies The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party The New Zealand National Party ("National" or "the Nats" currently forms the second-largest (in terms of parliamentary seats Political party

Other policies ACT advocates include:

• welfare reforms similar to those instituted by the United States in the mid 1990s, based primarily on the reforms first undertaken in Wisconsin
• a greater spend on defence with closer strategic alliances with the United States of America, Australia and Great Britain. Welfare reform is a movement for policy change in countries with a state-administered social welfare systems The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Wisconsin ( or wɪˈskɑnsɨn (French Ouisconsin) is one of the fifty United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States Defence The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands

Members of ACT's caucus in parliament voted 5 to 4 in favour of the 2004 Civil Unions legislation which gave legal recognition to (among others) same-sex couples. A majority also supported the legalisation of brothels by the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Prostitution and Brothel keeping are legal in New Zealand. Until 2003 advertising the sale of sex ('soliciting' running a brothel and living from the earnings

History

Origins

ACT grew out of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, although the organizations remain legally separate. The association was founded in 1993 by Roger Douglas and Derek Quigley, both former cabinet ministers. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Sir Roger Owen Douglas (born 5 December 1937) a New Zealand politician formerly served as a senior Cabinet minister Derek Francis Quigley (born 31 January 1932) is a former New Zealand politician The organization was intended to be a lobby group, promoting the economic policies that Douglas and Quigley stood for (sometimes known as "Rogernomics"). The term Rogernomics, a Portmanteau of "Roger" and "economics" was created by analogy with Reaganomics to describe the economic policies

The following year, with the newly-introduced MMP electoral system making it easier for smaller parties to gain seats, ACT New Zealand emerged as a separate political party based on the association's views. Mixed member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is an ' additional member ' Douglas selected longtime Labour Party activist Brian Nicolle to help him establish the party.

The Association of Consumers and Taxpayers still exists on paper, although it has little substance. The Association is technically a lobby group promoting free market economics. It holds its annual general meetings during the annual general meetings of ACT New Zealand and the members of the Board of Trustees also serve as board members of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers.

Douglas led the party initially, but in March of 1996 he stepped down Richard Prebble became the party leader. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Richard William Prebble CBE, born 7 February 1948, was for many years a member of the New Zealand Parliament.

1996-1999

In the 1996 election, ACT gained eight seats in Parliament — one electorate seat and seven list seats. Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of Voting systems used in multiple-winner Elections (e Prebble was elected in Wellington Central; some believe that he won after Prime Minister Jim Bolger appeared to endorse Prebble over his own National Party's candidate. Wellington Central is an electorate of New Zealand returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's Head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in Rt Hon James Brendan "Jim" Bolger, ONZ (born 31 May 1935) was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1990 to 1997 The New Zealand National Party ("National" or "the Nats" currently forms the second-largest (in terms of parliamentary seats Political party ACT had by this time adopted the role of a natural coalition partner with National (a significant departure from Douglas and Prebble's origins in Labour), and would have been assured representation in Parliament if Prebble won. The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party Under New Zealand's MMP system, any party that wins an electorate seat qualifies for list seats, even if it does not get 5% of the vote. However, some observers pointed out that Prebble had a substantial lead well before the election and would have won even without Bolger's endorsement. It ended up being a moot point, as ACT won 6. 1% of the vote, just over the MMP threshold. It remained outside the National-New Zealand First coalition government, although sometimes gave it support. New Zealand First is a Political party in New Zealand. It has had members in the New Zealand House of Representatives since 1993

1999-2002

In the election of 1999, ACT increased its numbers in parliament by one seat, giving it a total of nine, although Prebble lost his Wellington Central electorate seat.

2002-2005

In the 2002 election, ACT's strength in parliament remained unchanged, prompting some people to speculate about Prebble's leadership. The word leadership can refer to Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading However there were no obvious challenges, and Prebble remained in control until he decided to resign in 2004.

In 2003, allegations against Donna Awatere Huata, one of its MPs, came to embarrass the Party. Donna Lynn Awatere Huata (sometimes written Awatere-Huata previously known as Donna Awatere) is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament, and former activist It was claimed that Awatere Huata had diverted funds from a children's educational program for her own personal use, and an official investigation was launched. This investigation eventually led to Awatere Huata's arrest for fraud. As ACT had a reputation for vociferously attacking any perceived dishonesty by members of other parties, the charges against Awatere Huata were quite embarrassing. Awatere Huata refused to resign from Parliament, but was expelled from the ACT caucus. That November, she was removed from the party itself, becoming an independent. ACT tried to remove her from Parliament by invoking the Electoral Integrity Act, as her departure from the party left ACT with fewer seats than the public had chosen to give it at the last election. In November 2004, Awatere Huata was finally removed from Parliament after her last court challenge failed, and the next person on the ACT list, Kenneth Wang, was appointed in her place. Kenneth Xiaoxuan Wang (Chinese 王小选(born 1955) is a New Zealand Politician, and a member of the ACT New Zealand party

Towards the end of 2003, some people started discussion about a possible pact between ACT and the (larger) National Party. Although ACT had long portrayed itself as a natural coalition partner for National, there has never been a formal agreement between the two. Some right-wing politicians believe that an agreement is essential to the establishment of a new right-wing government, and point to the pre-election agreement between Labour and the Alliance in 1999. The Alliance, in New Zealand politics, is a Left-wing political party As yet, however, there has been no deal.

On 27 April 2004, Richard Prebble announced his retirement from politics. Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " An "indicative" ballot of the party's members selected Rodney Hide as Prebble's successor. Rodney Hide (born 16 December 1956) is a New Zealand politician who became leader of the political party ACT New Zealand in 2004 The other candidates were Ken Shirley (the party's deputy leader), Stephen Franks, and Muriel Newman. Kenneth Lex Shirley ( 12 August 1950 -) generally called Ken Shirley, is a New Zealand politician Stephen Franks was born in Wellington in 1950 and is a commercial lawyer working for Chapman Tripp, having been at one time Chairman and Partner of this company The leadership race saw considerable tension between two factions of the party - Rodney Hide, one of the two main contenders, was regarded as representing a "populist", high-profile approach, while his main rival, Stephen Franks, was seen as more ideologically grounded. ACT's founder, Roger Douglas, saw Hide's alleged "grandstanding" as detracting from the group's core message, and had spoken out in favour of Franks and Shirley. In the end, however, Hide was successful, and was announced as the party's new leader on 13 June 2004. Events 1525 - Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the Celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again "

2005 election

In the lead-up to the election in 2005, opinion-polls showed ACT support well below the 5% threshold. The 2005 New Zealand general election took place on 17 September 2005 and determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. ACT's best prospect of winning an electorate appeared the relatively wealthy National-held Epsom seat in Auckland, contested by Rodney Hide. Epsom is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The party was ruled out as "dead" by much of the media, possibly assisting the downward spiral (see: Wasted vote), especially as polls conducted in the Epsom seat had incorrectly shown Hide's support being far below National's candidate. In the study of Electoral systems a wasted vote may be defined in 2 different ways any Vote which is not for an elected candidate It was repeatedly put to the National Party that they could ensure the survival of ACT in Parliament as a potential coalition partner by supporting Hide in Epsom. While not emphatically ruling out the possibility, then National leader Don Brash stuck to the line that National "had no plans to do a deal". Dr Donald Thomas Brash (born 24 September 1940) a former New Zealand politician served as the Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader The Labour Party, however, saw the possibility of National supporters voting for Hide and encouraged their own supporters to vote for the National candidate in order to shut ACT out of parliament.

Hide won the seat by a moderate margin — only the second time that ACT had won an electorate seat. Nationwide, ACT's vote fell by a greater extent than any of the other small parties. It won only 1. 5% of vote, winning only one additional list seat, that of Heather Roy. Political views Further reading * (Roy contributed a paper entitled "Health for all" Roy has since become the party's new deputy leader, as the party's support had dropped enough to keep former deputy Muriel Newman from returning to Parliament.

2005-2007

Since the 2005 election ACT has set about the task of restoring the party, in terms of membership and finances. This has had limited success and the party remains a long way off the levels of support it enjoyed in the mid-1990s. The ACT Annual Conference was held in Wellington over the weekend of March 24-26 2006. An almost entirely new Board was elected, reflecting the need for a change of direction within the party, and the emergence of a strong youth presence. Hamilton business-owner Garry Mallett was elected President, defeating Hawkes Bay farmer and former ACT Vice-President John Ormond. Garry Mallett is a New Zealand politician He is currently the President of ACT New Zealand, a small centre-right liberal political party for the New Zealand politician see John Davies Ormond John Ormond (1923 - 1990 was a Welsh poet and filmmaker Christchurch's Trevor Loudon replaced Ormond as Vice-President, defeating Auckland's Barry Parkin. Trevor Loudon is a New Zealand political activist who was vice president of the ACT New Zealand Party from 2006 to 2008 The Conference was most notable for the attendance of Māori Party Co-leader Tariana Turia. The Māori Party, a Political party in New Zealand based around Māori citizens formed around Tariana Turia, a former Labour Party Tariana Turia (born 8 April 1944) is a New Zealand politician While the Māori Party and ACT do oppose each other in several areas, policies on welfare, tax and education are very similar. On completion of her speech, Turia received a standing ovation from the predominantly Pākehā and Asian crowd. New Zealand European Pākehā are New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry Her presence is seen by many as a move by the ACT Party's Rodney Hide to broker a coalition of opposition parties to contest the 2008 election against the Labour minority Government.

Hide has also sought to "rebrand" the party. While not moving away from ACT's key tenets of freedom, choice, and personal responsibility, Hide has said that provided the governing Labour Party promise (amongst other things) significant tax cuts, ACT could provide the centre-left party with support. Choice consists of the mental process of Thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting This is seen by many as a departure from ACT's position of being a staunch National ally. Others point out that ACT is a centre-right liberal party (as opposed to National, a conservative party) and as such have many areas of agreement with Labour (seen as more liberal than National).

This new approach by the ACT Party has prevailed (at least publicly) since Rodney Hide and deputy-leader (and fellow-MP) Heather Roy returned from a privately funded tour of Europe. Political views Further reading * (Roy contributed a paper entitled "Health for all" During this trip, Hide and Roy met with a number of political parties, including the Irish Progressive Democrats, and the German Free Democrats, both parties with similar ideologies to ACT, but with substantially better electoral records. The Progressive Democrats (An Páirtí Daonlathach lit The Democratic Party) commonly called The PDs, are a Free market liberal party in

Electoral results (1996-2005)

Election	# of candidates nominated (electorate/list)	# of seats won	# of party votes	% of popular vote
1996	65 / 56	8	126,442	6. The 1996 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament. 10%
1999	61 / 65	9	145,493	7. The 1999 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the 46th session of the New Zealand Parliament. 04%
2002	56 / 60	9	145,078	7. The 2002 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. 14%
2005	56 / 59	2	34,469	1. The 2005 New Zealand general election took place on 17 September 2005 and determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. 50%

Office-holders

Organisational President

• Rodney Hide (1994-1996)
• Roger Douglas (1996-2001)
• Catherine Judd (2001-2006)
• Garry Mallett (2006-present)

Vice-President

• David Schnauer (1999-2000)
• Rodney Hide (2000-2001)
• Vince Ashworth (2001-2004)
• John Ormond (2004-2006)
• Trevor Loudon (2006-2008)
• Michael Crozier (2008-present)^[4]

Parliamentary Party Leader

• Roger Douglas [Interim Leader] (1994-1996) (outside Parliament)
• Richard Prebble (1996-2004)
• Rodney Hide (2004-present)

Deputy Parliamentary Party Leader

• Ken Shirley (1996-2004)
• Muriel Newman (2004-2006)
• Heather Roy (2006-)

Members of Parliament

• Deborah Coddington (2002-2005)
• Derek Quigley (1996-1999)
• Donna Awatere-Huata (1996-2003)
• Gerry Eckhoff (1999-2005)
• Heather Roy (2002-present)
• Ken Shirley (1996-2005)
• Kenneth Wang (2004-2005)
• Muriel Newman (1996-2005)
• Owen Jennings (1996-2002)
• Patricia Schnauer (1996-1999)
• Penny Webster (1999-2002)
• Richard Prebble (1996-2005)
• Rodney Hide (1996-present)
• Stephen Franks (1999-2005)

See also

• ACT on Campus
• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy
• Liberalism in New Zealand
• Act Party's Caucus and Acts MPs' responsibilities

Notes

External links

• ACT New Zealand official site
• ACT on Campus ACT's Youth Wing
• Rodney Hide's personal website
• New Zealand's New Zealots by R.W. Bradford — 1997 Article for Liberty magazine, about ACT and the Libertarianz
• Is this the end of the road for Act? - NZ Herald Article
• Open Directory Project ACT - The Liberal Party

Liberty is a leading Libertarian journal founded in 1987 by R Libertarianz is a Political party in New Zealand (hence the suffix -nz based on the political platform of Libertarianism favouring self-government

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