frogblog

Act says the Government is not spending enough taxpayer money!

I didn’t think I’d ever read that sentence in the newspaper with my breakfast of flies and water. But, alas, this morning I did. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised: Act is for small government, except where it comes to law and order and defence, when all of a sudden a more bloated state is the solution to all of society’s great ills.

No matter that New Zealand has always lagged behind other Western countries on defence spending (the focus of our foreign policy being elsewhere), and that all Western countries have also cut defence spending through the 1990s (usually by more than us) as an acknowledgement that the Cold War is over. No, Act is worried we’re not pulling our weight.

Perhaps the party (and the Nats, who’ve been singing from the same song sheet) could broaden its concern for our standing as an international citizen, and join the Greens in advocating an increase in our aid budget which, at 0.23 percent of GDP, is only about a third of our international obligation (0.7% is the UN target which we’ve signed up to)?

I recognise that Rodney’s into guns and all, but won’t helping our poor Pacific neighbours improve their governance, cut down on corruption and provide their people with basic services do more to ensure our country’s (and our region’s) security than buying a few more weapons and war toys that we won’t, in any case, ever use?

And I know that Act is going through an identity crisis, but isn’t this kind of thing, like, a egregious diluting and confusing of its small government brand?

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