My first public engagement for the 2011 General Election was held at Chalmers Church in Timaru. Run by the Presbyterian Church, candidates were asked to give an opening address and prepared answers to four questions before the meeting was opened to the floor for further questions.
I'd like to extend a big thanks to Ron Paulin for organising the meeting, the Reverend Dr Susan Jones for chairing and to all those who came along.
Here's my opening address and prepared answers:
Madame Chair, fellow Candidates, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to thank you all, for giving me this opportunity, to speak to you. There's no mistaking, why we are all here tonight. There's a General election in less than 50 days, and I, along with my fellow candidates, would like to secure your vote.
As the polling currently stands, National are enjoying a handsome lead, with Labour floundering in the distance. United Future, the party that I represent, isn't even registering on those polls.
In saying that, it is my belief, and my argument tonight, that United Future deserves your consideration. United Future is a modern centre party, focused on New Zealand's best interests.
We promote strong families and vibrant communities. We seek a fair, and open society, free from poverty, ignorance and prejudice; a society that's based on innovation, self-reliance, justice and integrity.
We promote a sustainable environment, and a competitive economy, which encourages growth, prosperity, ownership and opportunity. We believe that these outcomes should be sought through market policies where possible, and government where necessary.
We want all New Zealanders, whatever their background, race or creed, to have the chance to enjoy everything that is good in our country.
For this election, our key policies are driven by fairness and choice.
Our flagship policy of Income Sharing is currently before Select Committee. Income Sharing is for parents with children. It allows them split their combined income down the middle for tax purposes.
Income sharing will be available for couples who are married, in a civil union or a de facto relationship; that have a child or children under the age of 18. This means that about three hundred thousand families could potentially benefit, from United Future's Income Sharing policy.
To give you an example of how Income Sharing can help, take a family where the main breadwinner is earning seventy thousand dollars from full-time employment, while the primary parent earns ten thousand dollars from a part-time job, giving a shared income of eighty thousand dollars. Under Income Sharing, both individuals would be taxed at forty thousand dollars. In this case, Income Sharing would give the family an extra 58 dollars in the pocket each week.
Income sharing is a great policy for two-parent families, but what about single parents? Single parents already have support structures in place for them. This includes childcare subsidies, the minimum family tax credit, the childcare rebate and the domestic purposes benefit.
United Future supports policy that enables families to thrive, and our Income Sharing Policy is a great example of this.
United Future also supports extending paid parental leave to 13 months, including one month for fathers.
This will enable infants to be cared for by their parents during the crucial first year of childhood, which has been shown to improve family stability, reduce child poverty and lay a foundation that reduces the incidence of child abuse.
In terms of other policies we've announced to date; Flexi-super, Winter Warmer and annual health checks rate a mention.
Flexi-super enables retirees to chose when they want to start receiving superannuation, with a graduated payment depending on how early they opt to take it. They can start as early as 60 or wait as late as 70. Coupled with this, United Future supports compulsorily KiwiSaver.
The Winter Warmer policy is for over 65's, where they can receive a fifty dollar subsidy on their power bill, for the coldest four months of the year. The subsidy would kick in for bills greater than 150 dollars.
The aim of this policy is to ensure seniors both keep themselves warm and keep themselves out of hospital. Each winter, an extra three thousand people per month are hospitalised, and a large proportion are elderly. At the heart of the Winter Warmer policy, is the philosophy, that prevention is cheaper than the cure.
The annual health check follows the same philosophy, whereby under United Future's policy, every* New Zealand would be given the chance to have a free annual health check.
It would be hard to ignore that New Zealand's economy is largely driven by agriculture, and that intensification of agriculture has led to further pressures on our fragile environment. United Future's vision for the environment, is that people have a right to sustainably operate in, and utilise it for their means; whether they be recreational, economic or purely aesthetic. The environment must be used in ways that does not cause permanent widespread damage or compromise the needs of future generations.
In saying that, it must be said that United Future strongly supports the agricultural industry as the back-bone of the economy.
The recent formulation of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and its Zone Committees are an excellent example of how interested parties can come together, to plan the future use and development of our waterways. United Future's policy is right in step with this approach, and I'd urge the public to show the committees, the support that they deserve.
In talking agriculture, it's also important to note the policy that we're not supporting. Labour's capital gains tax is an example of policy that United Future will not support. If implemented this policy would reduce the value of farmland and tie farmers to their land.
United Future has a proud history of working in Government with both Labour and National. We've proven ourselves as a sound coalition partner with sound and sensible policy. In the current Government we haven't always agreed with National, but we have always offered sound support.
When it comes time to vote, I urge you to consider supporting the continuation of United Future's role in Government. Thank you.
Questions
1. Child Poverty
Poverty and in particular child poverty is of real concern to United Future. As mentioned in my opening address, United Future supports extending paid parental leave to 13 months, including one month for fathers.
Once again we feel this will improve family stability, reduce child poverty and lay a foundation that reduces the incidence of child abuse.
We are also concerned about some beneficiaries who lack the necessary skills to prioritise their children's needs, before their own behavioural, gambling or substance addictions.
We feel that these beneficiaries need to be better managed, by using the likes of food vouchers, and to have their power bills paid directly out of their benefit. Otherwise these families will still struggle, and their children will continue to live in poverty.
2. Alcohol Legislation
First and foremost, we have to admit that we have an alcohol problem in New Zealand. We have a binge drinking culture that ranges across the age spectrum. This in turn leads to violence and other related problems in society.
In terms of policy, United Future has supported the move away from conscience based voting on alcohol legislation, other than the drinking age. The reason why we supported this move, is that it encourages political parties to form policy on alcohol, instead of hiding behind their individual member's conscience.
United Future also believes in personal responsibilities and having legislation that allows people to drink responsibly.
I have personal concerns around excessive alcohol advertising and targeting of high alcohol content alcopops to young drinkers. I have a view towards a having an off-site and on-site age difference, and perhaps even a price differential. This would attract more young people who'd otherwise binge drink at homes, into bars where they could be more effectively supervised.
United Future also supported the recent changes to drink-driving laws which now sets a zero breath alcohol limit for under 20's.
3. Youth Unemployment
The easiest and sure-fire way to curb youth unemployment is to re-instate the minimum youth wage. The last Labour Government got rid of it. Then Act tried to bring it back this term, but to no avail. As far as I'm aware, no party other than Act, and not even National, will support the re-instatement of the minimum youth wage. Because of this, unemployed youth are consigned to having a higher than the average proportion of total unemployed.
On a person for person basis, youth don't have the same life skills and work experience as an experienced worker; and they simply can't compete on a dollar for dollar basis.
If you feel strongly about the re-instatement of the minimum youth wage then you need to let your local politicians know, because as it stands, politicians feel it has no public support.
United Future has two applicable policies in the area of youth unemployment. Firstly we would like to encourage more people into industry training through modern apprenticeships, and secondly we have a policy around earning or learning; where youth can't find employment they would be encouraged into training.
4. No Growth Economy and Dependence on Fossil Fuels
There's no such thing as a no growth economy. We simply cannot prosper without long-term growth in the economy. New Zealand's economy is the sum of all financial activity within the country. The economy although growing in the long term, is by nature, cyclical in the short term. It has ebbs and flows, ups and downs. There is no changing this with policy. What we can do is tinker, to try and put the brakes on when it's growing too fast and to try and kick start it when it's on the way down, or bottomed out.
United Future believes in letting market forces determine the direction of the economy, with government intervention as a last resort.
The question also asks about dependence on fossil fuels. If fossil fuel prices were to double or quadruple within the next 5 to 10 years, then we have two options, grow the economy to the extent that we can still afford to buy fossil fuels or stop using fossil fuels. I'd expect the reality to be somewhere in between.
We have to do two things to mitigate our risks, in terms of fossil fuel reliance. Firstly, and most importantly, we need to drastically reduce our energy consumption. And secondly, we need to ensure that we have a robust National transmission grid.
Fossil fuels and in particular petroleum represent a fantastic energy resource. It is simply irreplaceable, especially in terms of transportation.
People look to electricity and electric vehicles as a direct replacement for fossil fuels. But electricity is the transportation of energy. Electricity is something that you need to firstly create and then store in a very high density, if you want to use it to replace petroleum.
We have good renewable energy prospects in New Zealand, with wind at the tops and bottoms of both Islands, geothermal in the central North Island, and to a lesser extent solar in the Nelson region along with the potential for tidal in the Cook Straight.
But even with all that generation, we can't come close to powering a national fleet of electric vehicles equivalent to our current fleet. No doubt there will be some electric vehicles come onto the market, with a resulting jump in demand for electricity. This will compete with the current uses we have for electricity, and push prices skyward.
United Future supports both ensuring the security of supply; that is making sure our transmission grid is robust enough; and encouraging the efficient use of electricity through EECA's programmes.
For further information on United Future and our policies, go to the United Future web site:
www.unitedfuture.org.nz
Footnotes/Corrections:
* The proposed annual health check is for over 65's and not every New Zealander as stated in my speech.