New Zealand needs to get past the "squeamishness about privatisation", David Seymour has argued in his first major speech of the year.
In his 'State of the Nation' address on Friday, the ACT leader also said the country was at a tipping point between "two invisible tribes" and what the country does in the next few years would decide "which way we go".
He made the address in Ōrakei, Auckland, while his political counterparts attended the annual Rātana celebrations.
It was ACT's role to be the "squeaky wheel" in government, he said, and implored a careful focus on three areas of government activity "spending, owning and regulating."
"Why government spends a dollar it has taxed or borrowed, and whether the benefits of that outweigh the costs. Why government owns an asset, and whether the benefits to citizens outweigh the costs to taxpayers of owning it. Why a restriction is placed on the use and exchange of private property, and whether the benefits of that regulation outweigh the costs on the property owner."
He also spoke about healthcare, and said "we now spend $6000 per citizen on healthcare" asking the audience how many of them would give up their right to the public healthcare system if they got to spend on their own private insurance.
David Seymour giving his state of the nation speech. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"Should we allow people to opt out of the public healthcare system, and take their portion of funding with them so they can go private?"
On education, he referenced "$333,000 of lifetime education spending for each citizen" asking how many people would take that amount to spend on their own education.
He then referenced the "over half a trillion dollars of assets" the government owns, pointing to state houses, hospital projects, and farms with high levels of animal death, he said the government is hopeless at owning things."
"We need to get past squeamishness about privatisation and ask a simple question: If we want to be a first-world country, then are we making the best use of the government's half-a-trillion dollars plus worth of assets? If something isn't getting a return, the government should sell it so we can afford to buy something that does."
Two tribes
Seymour said he believed the nation "is dominated by two invisible tribes".
One he called 'Change Makers', people who "act out the pioneering spirit that built our country every day."
"Change makers load up their mortgage to start a business and give other people jobs. They work the land to feed the world. They save up and buy a home that they maintain for someone else to live in."
He cast "ACT people" - its members and voters - as those change makers, saying "we carry the pioneering spirit in our hearts".
The other tribe, he said, was people building a "majority for mediocrity".
"They blame one of the most successful societies in history for every problem they have. They believe that ancestry is destiny. They believe people are responsible for things that happened before they were born, but criminals aren't responsible for what they did last week."
He said New Zealanders leaving for Australia were "tipping us towards a majority for mediocrity", and the more aspirational, hardworking people departed New Zealand, the more likely it was "we'll get left-wing governments in the future".
"Motivated New Zealanders leaving is good news for the shoplifters, conspiracy theorists, and hollow men who make up the political opposition."
Seymour said a "bad housing market" and a "woke education system" combined were a "production line for left-wing voters".
He pointed to a "sunny" short-term outlook, "only because Labour was so bad."
"The truth is, though, it's easy to do a better job of Labour over 12 months. It's much harder to muster the courage to keep making difficult decisions over several years, even if they're not immediately popular."
He claimed New Zealand was in a "century of decline" and just stopping one government's "stupid stuff" and waiting for a "cyclical recovery" won't change the long-term trend.
"We need to act like a country at risk of reaching a tipping point and losing its first world status. We are facing some tough times, and tough times require tough choices to be made."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
