Speech to ACT's Wellington Regional Conference; the Museum Hotel, Cable St, Wellington; Saturday July 7 2007

Welcome and thank you for coming today.

Thanks also to hard-working Boardmember Dave Moore and to our great Deputy-Leader Heather Roy who have organised this event.

I've organised a few of these and I know - all too well - those moments of pure terror when it seems like the whole thing is turning to custard.

I'd also like to acknowledge the support of Chris Parkin, owner of the magnificent Museum Hotel, who has for a number of years generously allowed us to use these great facilities.

There are a few other matters I must mention - we have three fundraisers today and I hope we'll all be very generous: • ACT on Campus is raffling a $100 bill - and who knows, with the recent appreciation of the currency, maybe someday in the future $100 will actually be worth $100 again.

• Wellington Central is selling First Aid kits - clearly expecting some feisty debate today • And the Wellington Region is running a wine raffle.

• Also tonight we are all invited to attend dinner at the Back-Bencher where the guest speaker will be Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast.

• Unfortunately - due to the impending arrival of our next child - I'll be flying home to Hamilton. So I'll miss the great meal, outstanding speaker and superb company.

• But my absence does create an opportunity - there is now an opening for someone else to fill the traditional role of loud-mouth drunk, making ridiculous bids at the fundraising auction.

• But, while I do miss out on a great evening, at least I won't have to destroy my credit card statements before my wife sees them.

Members, the next election is fast approaching. So it is worthwhile taking stock of ACT's current position. Firstly,I strongly believe we are in a better position now than we were approaching the 2005 election.

1. Rodney has done, and continues to do, a great job in Epsom. He and his team have really taken Epsom issues - and, indeed, wider Auckland issues - by the scruff of the neck.

2. Rodney has been advocating clear, principled ACT solutions and - wonderfully - these solutions are proving very popular.

a. Rodney was prominent in the campaign against the waterfront stadium. A campaign that was both right and popular

b. Rodney has taken a leading role in the 'One Auckland' campaign.

Another campaign that is both right and popular

c. And I truly doubt there is a harder working electorate MP in the nation.

We are slowly, but surely, turning Epsom into an ACT fortress; more importantly, more and more people are reaching that same conclusion.

We must never be complacent. I know that there is much work planned and much work to be done - but I'm confident that we will go into the 2008 election with a secure electorate and, so, avoid that dreaded 'wasted vote syndrome' that hurt us so badly at the last election.

Secondly - John Key becomes Helen Clark. Under John Key, National has moved to port (that means leftward in sailing terms, in case you're unaware).

I'm not here to judge or criticise John Key. In fact, it may be just what he has to do in order to lead the next Government.

But it certainly leaves an awful lot of open space for the Party of Freedom, Choice and Responsibility. Here are just some examples…

There is no one, but ACT, strongly defending individual rights.

There is no one, but ACT, strongly defending the free markets and free enterprise There is no one, but ACT, who truly respects and encourages productive New Zealanders - and I mean productive on any scale.

ACT stands with any and all productive New Zealanders:

* be it a school-leaver eagerly approaching his first job

* be it a solo mum nervously re-entering the work-place after raising her children

* be it the exhausted owner of a small business - strangled by red-tape, rising costs, excessive taxes and ACC levies earning no more the wages but too damned proud to let either his customers or his staff down

* or be it a captain of industry earning mega-bucks and controlling millions of investment dollars - it is those millions of dollars of investment that stand beside every worker in this country raising that worker's productivity, raising that worker's wages and raising the standard of living of every New Zealander

We in ACT know that the proper way for an individual to advance and prosper is through work and creativity - not through handouts and welfare.

And ACT is an equal opportunity respecter and defender of productive New Zealanders - irrespective of size or scope.

Thirdly - there is no one, absolutely no one truly campaigning to:

1. return choice and control in education back to parents

2. return choice and control in health back to patients

3. return choice and control in retirement savings back to New Zealanders

Fourthly - To the eternal shame of our Parliament. To its eternal credit, ACT was the only Party - the only Party - that stood resolutely shoulder-to-shoulder with the parents, families and children of our nation in defending the right of parents to exercise their judgment in determining whether or not to use reasonable force (you know, smacking) in raising our children and teaching them right from wrong.

Anyway, you get the point - that there is no on else taking these principled stands on behalf of decent, law-abiding, hard-working New Zealanders; no one but ACT.

Just recently the media cottoned on to ACT's new approach. For the past year Rodney and Heather especially, but also your Board, have been formulating a somewhat different strategy for ACT. We haven't got a sexy name for it, but some of its key components are:

1. ACT presenting itself as a truly independent MMP Party - able to work constructively all the parties in Parliament. So you'll have seen less of ACT attacking other Parties and more of ACT trying to work with, persuade, amend and influence all of the other Parties big and small. I categorically state that this does not mean 'selling-out' our principles.

2. Obviously, of the two major Parties, ACT has more in common with National than Labour. But as National moves to port, as its positions become more 'Labour-like', as John Key becomes Helen Clark - then clearly there may be situations where working with Labour is much the same as working with National and quite possibly of greater benefit to New Zealanders. But again I categorically state that this does not mean 'selling-out' on our principles.

3. In fact this re-positioning doesn't change our principles at all and has negligible, if any, impact on our policies - but it will make ACT a more effective influencer in and out of Parliament.

a. You want proof? Just look at last week's success in moving Rodney's Regulatory Responsibility Bill through its first reading. This Bill passed by a vote of 114 to seven - 114 to seven! b. This is a Bill promoted by the Leader of the second smallest Party in Parliament - and, what's more, an Opposition Party! c. And is this Bill important? Here's what the Accountant's Society had to say: "Rodney Hide's Regulatory Responsibility Bill affords New Zealand a tremendous opportunity to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government. That improvement in turn would translate into a better society."

d. That is an astonishing endorsement of Rodney's Bill from a highly respected, and, most importantly, impartial body. I strongly recommend you go to the website (www.cutredtape.org.nz) and view the full article.

4. Also, this approach makes ACT more independent and less a tactical appendage to National.

Now, I just said that the media have cottoned onto this new approach - and good on them - they're obviously paying attention. But that doesn't necessarily mean they report it right.

There's a saying in media that "if it bleeds - it leads." Basically it means news stories must be dramatised to the max in order to be appealing or interesting to the public.

Last week some media decided that ACT's new approach was newsworthy - which, of course, it is. But, unfortunately, simply reporting that ACT was engaged in 'good-faith' discussions with Labour over the problematic Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill wasn't spicy enough.

The media couldn't find a corpse so they tried the next best thing - they looked for blood.

So this week we had a 'NZ Herald' article leading by saying that ACT and Labour had reached an 'accommodation' over the Bill - with all the suspicious connotations that implied.

Actually the 'Herald' article - if you read it all the way through - was reasonably accurate, and quoted Rodney saying, "we haven't done any deals."

The same day radio reported that ACT was supporting the Bill. This was simply wrong and, after being so advised, the station - to its credit - corrected the error.

Both of these incidents highlight the fact that even our highly educated, competent, honest, savvy and intelligent media struggles with reporting on a Party of principles that is prepared to break out of the old left-right paradigms and actively engage in 'good-faith' discussions with all parties in a genuine effort to find solutions.

Now I want to end on a high note - you're just probably happy that I want to end! Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the US - often called the Great Communicator - said this in his farewell speech from the Oval Office January 1989:

"And that's about all I have to say tonight. Except for one thing. The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the "shining city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.

And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back.

My friends: we did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all."

Now I say to you that, in the New Zealand context, and I don't think its too big to say - that the ACT Party, and only the ACT party, can see that Shining City on the Hill.

That the ACT Party, and only the ACT Party, has a vision of New Zealand becoming a Shining City on the Hill.

And my dear friends we are the ACT party.

Thank you for listening and let's have a great conference.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz

© Scoop Media