David Seymour explains ACT's new environment focus
ACT is making a determined pitch for environmentally engaged voters. With special audio feature.
ACT is making a determined pitch for environmentally engaged voters who might be put off by the Green Party's more Left-tinged economic policies and by National's innate emphasis on conservatism rather than conservation.
Speaking to NBR political and economic editor Rob Hosking, Mr Seymour says his proposal to sell state-owned farm company Landcorp and use the funds to develop and preserve New Zealand's environmental heritage is a serious policy proposal.
The rhetoric he uses, intriguingly, is less individualistic than most ACT members would be used to hearing from their MPs: Mr Seymour speaks of harnessing the immense community enthusiasm for environmental projects already under way, in places like Wellington and Nelson, and says every town should have one of these.
But the question is how to fund that and he wants an arm's-length body set up with the proceeds of a sale of Landcorp to provide the financial base for such a venture which he calls Sanctuary New Zealand.
The idea, floated in his party conference speech on the weekend, is part of a wider effort to expand ACT's market-liberal philosophy and Seymour did not stint on this: property rights need to be at the core of environmental protection, he says.
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Mon, 29 Feb 2016
Mon, 29 Feb 2016
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David Seymour explains ACT's new environment focus
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