Act party rebranding

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quickymart

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# 251272 16-Jun-2019 18:28

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/113521522/more-colour-no-surprises-in-act-party-rebrand-but-hairy-goal-set-of-14-mps-at-next-election

Hadn't seen this mentioned here - will it do anything to save Act? I recall Prebble a few election cycles back confident that they would get "9 MP's into Parliament", yet both before and after the election they had...1. And now they want 14? Dreamin'.

Fred99

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# 2259234 16-Jun-2019 19:30

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Dear oh dear. "Tommy Robinson" in a suit.

Aredwood

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# 2259322 17-Jun-2019 09:56

Unless you live in the Epsom electorate. No advantage in voting for Act, compared to voting for National.

They dont deserve to have more than one MP in Parliament. Until they are willing to learn to constructively work with National. Unlike where they refused to support National on RMA reform, due to not getting exactly what they wanted. When Act should have remembered, that they got less than 1% of the party vote. So of course the RMA reform should be mostly how National wants it to be. As National got a far higher % of the party vote.

And then there is the Auckland super city council. Again something that is Acts fault.

Despite me being a center right voter, there is nothing to tempt me to vote for Act.

Fred99

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# 2259404 17-Jun-2019 11:36

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Seymour's ACT seems to want to promote the concept that we've got a "crisis" in freedom of speech "rights". It's BS, some examples:

The Canadian extremists being "de-platformed" was legitimate and fair. They weren't being prosecuted or silenced by censorship, a democratically elected council chose not to provide them with a platform. I'd have been very happy to see them denied work-visas (they weren't coming here for a holiday!) on character grounds, there was plenty enough evidence to show that they support threats of violence against others, even though they may not have done so overtly in NZ. It's simply not possible for alt-right / fascists to disassociate themselves from the historical fact of what they really stand for. When promoting a concept that "our 'race' is under threat of being annihilated", then some people sympathetic to that fake news will feel threatened and take matters into their own hands. As we've seen.

The alt-right moron who allegedly hurled verbal abuse and threats, and played Nazi music with a boom-box to families and friends of the victims of an alt-right terrorist attack outside the Chch court the other day was arrested and faces a maximum $1,000 fine. Alt-ACT probably thinks this is a "crisis", leading us down a path comparable to authoritarian China or the USSR. The worst punitive measure is comparable to a traffic infringement, we don't have gulags or re education camps. Bravo for the news media exercising their freedom by publishing a photo of him in action.

Brash being de-platformed at Massey was probably unreasonable, but the Uni Council is supposed to be independent from government stepping in to overrule a council decision except in the most extreme circumstances, and to take punitive action as was being demanded ("fire her!") is a double-edged sword. A government setting a precedent and taking punitive action because of a politically "unpopular" decision made by a Uni council is probably a worse outcome for "freedom of speech" than what may have been lost by not allowing Brash a platform. Brash isn't at risk of being locked up. There is no "crisis".

ACT have legitimate policy platforms classical liberal "libertarian" ideology, individual responsibility, low taxes, small government etc. It's sad to see them devolve and place such emphasis on an imported alt-right fake news platform.

elpenguino

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# 2260010 18-Jun-2019 09:32

I see the re-branding as a tactic in search of a point of difference. After all, if ACT's main policy is lower taxes you can just vote for national and get a party with that policy. Of course the whole issue of 'freedom' is a smokescreen and we saw one of the top things the party mentioned was in fact lower taxes and in true ACT fashion, only for those on higher incomes.

ACT have disappeared into irrelevance and this won't save them.

Fred99

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# 2260101 18-Jun-2019 10:47

elpenguino

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# 2260119 18-Jun-2019 11:29

So you're saying they're aiming to ride the wave of populist/alt-right in other countries?

I'm not sure if many NZers are radical enough to support that kind of BS. I guess we'll see.

sir1963

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# 2260161 18-Jun-2019 12:10

elpenguino:

I see the re-branding as a tactic in search of a point of difference. After all, if ACT's main policy is lower taxes you can just vote for national and get a party with that policy. Of course the whole issue of 'freedom' is a smokescreen and we saw one of the top things the party mentioned was in fact lower taxes and in true ACT fashion, only for those on higher incomes.

ACT have disappeared into irrelevance and this won't save them.

I don't want a tax cut. Getting the equivalent of a block of cheese back is worthless to me and anyone else. However put a million of those together and we get better funding for schools, health, roads, etc etc etc.

Fred99

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# 2260191 18-Jun-2019 13:07

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elpenguino:

So you're saying they're aiming to ride the wave of populist/alt-right in other countries?

I'm not sure if many NZers are radical enough to support that kind of BS. I guess we'll see.

I sure most NZer's aren't - but there are probably more of them than the 0.5% of the party vote that ACT managed to "achieve" (if that's the right word) in the last general election.