Farming Leader Announced As ACT Candidate

ACT New Zealand leader Don Brash today said that he was delighted to announce former Federated Farmers President Don Nicolson would be standing as an ACT candidate in the 2011 general election.

“Don is highly respected, not just among farmers but throughout the business and political sectors. He’s been a strong and tireless advocate for property rights in particular and for much less government intervention in the lives and businesses of all hard-working New Zealanders, so I think he is an ideal candidate for ACT,” Dr Brash said.

Mr Nicolson said he identified strongly with ACT’s core principles of individual freedom, choice and personal responsibility, and that he was particularly concerned about spiralling government spending and the costs and constraints on economic growth imposed by the Resource Management Act.

“I’m very pleased to be standing for the party that will hold the government to account over its borrowing and spending. I look at it like this: I’ve spent my working life paying back my borrowings out of earnings, but now find the government is borrowing around $4,000 a year for every New Zealander.

“If bigger government is good – and the total crown cost has multiplied by a factor of 2.5 in 11 years to almost $100 billion – then why is it that health, policing and education never seem to have enough money?

“With the government having more than doubled its spending I ask: do we feel twice as well served by the state? The answer is an emphatic no. So we have to cut back state spending and meddling and allow free enterprise and innovation to flourish.

“As a farmer, probably the worst example of state interference we face is the Resource Management Act, so it’s fitting I’m standing for the ACT Party whose policy is wholesale reform of the dysfunctional RMA.

“I’ve worked hard over the years representing farmers and I’m very excited about what could be a fantastic opportunity to represent not just farmers’ interests, but the interests of all owner operators, and indeed all New Zealanders,” said Mr Nicolson.

Mr Nicolson farms sheep, cattle, bloodstock and forestry in Waimatua, 12km east of Invercargill.