ACT’s economic policies

Don Brash gave a speech last week outlining ACT’s economic policies. People may be interested in a summary of them:

• ACT would promptly re-introduce youth minimum wages – or better still, abolish minimum wages entirely for those under 20.
• further reform of employment law so it is less heavily stacked against employers
• scrap the Emissions Trading Scheme
• radical reform of the RMA
• seek to reduce government spending to below 30% of GDP, the level it was at at the end of Labour’s second term in office in 2005
• Longer term, as the economy grew, we would want to get the government share of the economy to a lower level, perhaps 25%, as it was for much of our history up to the mid-seventies
• harmonise the top personal, company and trust tax rates at 21%; or
• radically reduce the company tax rate, to perhaps 10 or 15%, with the top personal and trust tax rates remaining at, say, 28%
• age of entitlement for NZ super has to rise gradually over the next 10 years or so
• favours the sale of government-owned businesses
• see legislation passed which would constrain the future growth of government spending
• see legislation passed which would make it harder for governments to pass laws and regulations which would impinge on the rights of citizens
• see the Bill of Rights amended to protect the property rights of citizens

While I don’t agree with every single item, there’s a lot I do agree with, and they would definitely help push New Zealand faster in the right direction.