Statement from John Banks on gift basket
On a personal trip to Hong Kong I received a gift basket at my hotel from Mr Kim Dotcom. I did not accept the gift and gave it to hotel staff. I did not give the matter any further thought.
I have learned through the media today that the gift was supposedly worth more than $500, an amount which requires disclosure under the Register of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests.
Subsequently my office sought clarification from the Registrar on the appropriate course of action. As we are unable to confirm the actual value, their advice was to make an addition to my return as set out in Standing Orders Appendix B 20(1) which I have now done.
ENDS
Statement by John Banks re: 2010 Auckland Mayoralty Campaign Return
John Banks today welcomed the news that there will be a second investigation into his 2010 Auckland Mayoralty Campaign electoral return.
“As I have said previously, my electoral return was filed in accordance with the law as set out by the Local Electoral Act 2001. I am 100% confident that the investigation will conclude in my favour,” Mr Banks said.
Comments by a former employee of Mr Dotcom in today’s New Zealand Herald confirmed the anonymity of the donation. They said “they had personally deposited the cheques into Mr Banks' campaign account. It was “… deposited just through a normal bank process. It would have just come up as a $25,000 deposit."
“I was not aware that Mr Dotcom had made this donation to my campaign.
“I did not call him to thank him as the donation was made anonymously.
"I can confirm that I had contact with Mr Dotcom on other matters, including thanking him for the generous $500,000 donation that he made to the ratepayers of Auckland for the 2010 New Year’s Eve fireworks display, however I never called and thanked him for any donation to my Mayoral campaign. I could not have as any such contribution was anonymous.
“As this matter is under investigation, I will not comment further until the investigation is complete,” Mr Banks said.
ENDS
Introduction Of Spending Limit A Victory For ACT
Today’s announcement that the Government will introduce a spending limit into the Public Finance Act is another welcome victory for the ACT Party, ACT Leader John Banks today.
“ACT has long believed in the need for a legislated spending limit to keep politicians’ spending in check. It is for this reason that we pushed so hard to have it included in our Confidence and Supply Agreement with National,” Mr Banks said.
“The provision in the Public Finance Act will limit spending increases to population growth and inflation, but will exclude natural disasters, asset impairments, finance charges and unemployment benefits.
“If the limit is exceeded, the Minister of Finance will be required to explain to Parliament the reasons for doing so.
“The introduction of a spending limit will create greater accountability and transparency in government spending and could prevent future spending blow-outs.
“Too often politicians spend up large in the good times, leaving nothing in reserve for when things get tough. We saw this type of spend up occur under the previous Labour Government.
“The spending limit will force politicians to be more accountable and upfront about their spending promises, and therefore more likely to stick within a budget.
“The Minister of Finance deserves praise for the improvements he is making to the Public Finance Act to strengthen fiscal responsibility as part of New Zealand’s evolving fiscal and monetary frameworks,” Mr Banks said.
ANZAC day speech - Newmarket Business Association Sevice
We remember, O God; the wars we have endured; the killing, the grief, and the courage. For the evil that was done, we ask your pardon. For what was great and honourable, we give you glory.
We are gathered here today to honour all our war veterans.
On this day 97 years ago, New Zealand soldiers were in a fight for their lives on the shores of ANZAC Cove. Members of the Auckland Infantry Battalion were the first to land that fateful day. They were among the onslaught of three thousand New Zealanders. By nightfall six hundred were dead.
The Gallipoli campaign caused profound misery and palpable grief. Our casualties were enormous. Everyone knew someone who would never return. Our soldiers stood proudly in the face of dangerous fire and grave adversity.
Day after day, night after night, in searing heat, swarming flies and dysentery; month after month in trenches filled with freezing water and death; with little or no food and water and no sanitation, soldiers made their own hand grenades from empty bully beef cans.
They were ordinary people committed to extraordinary duty.
The courage of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps humbles us all. And it reminds us of the strength within each of us – our capacity to meet fear with courage, and to meet adversity with endurance. It has been said, our nation, was then born.
While Gallipoli is often the focus of this remembrance day, we cannot forget other battles that left their scars on our nationhood – The Somme, Messines and Passchendaele. Soldiers, some as young as 14, enlisted in the name of patriotism. Some, in innocence, that an adventure awaited them. Others, simply to escape the clutches of depravation. Whatever it was, none could have imagined their awful destiny.
The names of our glorious war dead, our sisters, our brothers, and all our heroes, are inscribed on memorials like this in Asia, Europe and North Africa and the islands of the Pacific.
On this day of so many solemn memories and gratitude for what others have given for us, the most fitting, the most worthy honour we can offer in their emory is to pledge ourselves to the same cause for which they paid the ultimate sacrifice. We commend them with abounding thanksgiving.
God, Our help in the past and our hope for the future, we commend to your care those who have fought and died from war. As the sounds of battle die away, may the comradeship live on and the memories of sacrifice strengthen our resolve to strive for peace and justice.
ENDS
Teacher Surplus No Surprise
ACT Leader John Banks today expressed sympathy for the hundreds of frustrated graduate teachers unable to find employment, but says this outcome is no surprise.
“This is what happens when Government believes it can ‘pick winners’ better than the market can – it doesn’t work,” Mr Banks said.
“Approximately $19 million was invested by the Government to attract more New Zealanders to the teaching profession. It worked, too well. Now instead of working, a lack of jobs is forcing qualified teachers onto the dole queue, or worse, overseas for jobs, taking the taxpayers’ investment with them.
“The underlying cause of the teacher shortage was not a lack of Government assistance, but because of strict collective agreements that gave little room to increase teachers’ salaries to attract more people into the profession.
“If schools and their Boards had the flexibility and freedom to determine the salaries of their teachers, they would have had the tools to deal with the initial shortage themselves. But instead Government chose the path of central planning which created a teacher glut.
“This could have been avoided, and that money saved, if we had instead left it to the market to correct the problem instead of relying on Government intervention,” Mr Banks said.
Putting the Reward Back in Effort
We face a perfect economic and political storm.
There is economic decline.
It threatens the future of our nation.
At the heart of this storm is the inability of the New Zealand economy to generate the prosperity our citizens’ desire.
In 1974 our level of income was equal to Australia.
Today there is a 40 per cent gap.
Our incomes have fallen behind every single Australian State.
Consider these 71 jurisdictions:
The fifty states of America.
The four territories of the United Kingdom.
The ten provinces of Canada.
The six states of Australia.
That’s 71 English speaking jurisdictions.
New Zealand ranks 70th out of the 71 for income.
If we were a state of Australia we’d be poorer than Tasmania.
Low incomes threaten our way of life.
New Zealanders are responding by voting with their feet.
Our best and brightest are more likely to live abroad than any other OECD country except Ireland.
Twenty-four per cent of our tertiary graduates have fled.
In the last decade a net 280,000 New Zealanders have chosen Australia as their home.
Our way of life is under threat from our loss of economic sovereignty.
And what makes this worse is the political numbness to challenge these facts of life.
The election gave us two important messages.
First, MMP is here to stay.
That means all future governments will be coalitions.
If it’s going to be a centre right coalition, then somebody needs to put the reinforcing steel into the centre-right.
The second message is that New Zealand has taken a major turn to the left.
The people of New Zealand have elected a parliament in the majority that is to the left of what our Australian cousins call socialists.
Quite simply, without ACT, we are staring in the face of two decades of Labour, the Greens and Winston in Government.
The fear of that is enough to keep me coming back to Parliament for another six terms.
Effort must be rewarded.
In the shift to the left we seem to have forgotten that any government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take from you
everything you have.
The policies of the left have disconnected effort from reward - and success from failure.
With no interest, there is no point in working to pay off your student loan quickly.
And you’ll pay higher taxes for the rest of your life to pay for everybody else’s loans.
Many now work past the age of 65.
But all still pay taxes for pensions handed out at 65, whether it is needed or not.
Many save the public health system money by funding their own healthcare.
But they still pay tax as if they used it.
Others scrimp and save for their children to have private education only to lose their share of state education funding.
Young people would like to own their own home.
But draconian town planning has put home ownership out of reach for an entire generation.
The policy of Working for Families has weakened the connection between work and financial reward.
No wonder our economic performance is so weak when effort and reward are so discouraged and disconnected.
However, all is not lost.
The people of Epsom wanted a centre-right Government and voted accordingly.
The ACT Party is in Parliament and we are making a big difference.
Our Confidence and Supply Agreement is making a real impact on New Zealand’s policy settings.
Before a problem can be properly solved it must be properly understood.
That’s why we are having Treasury report more rigorously on our economic performance.
We have extracted a commitment to give speed to the long overdue review of the Resource Management Act, which the 2025 Taskforce rightly said is the
biggest single impediment to growth in New Zealand.
ACT wants to replace welfare cheques with pay cheques. And dole days with pay days.
We have a commitment from the National Party to continue reforming welfare.
We are going to put in place, this year, a cap on future government expenditure, so that if the Labour Party rabbits are ever in charge, they can’t eat too many
of the Treasury lettuces.
It is designed to stop politicians going on spending binges with your money.
Our Regulatory Standards legislation will fortify business against costly and poorly thought out regulations.
Our charter school initiative, led by Catherine Isaac, will give hope to the 20 per cent of young New Zealanders out of school, out of training, out of work and
out of luck.
We continue to push National back on the most disturbing aspects of the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Not a bad start for a caucus of one.
And we could achieve much more with more ACT Members of Parliament.
For the sake of our future we must lead this party back to Parliament with a good muster of MPs as a rejuvenated political influence.
MMP means that without ACT, John Key will not be Prime Minister after 2014.
We want a centre-right government steering our country forward.
Our principles are clear and our values are rock solid.
They are what we stand for and define what we stand against.
ACT’s role in life is to give speed to National’s direction - restoring the connection between effort and reward for a more prosperous New Zealand.
We stand against middle class welfare.
The ACT Party says that the interest free student loan bribe has created the wrong incentives.
We stand for students paying interest on their loans.
We stand against everybody else being taxed for tertiary graduates to have a free ride.
Countries across the developed world are raising their retirement ages.
The Retirement Commissioner says we must raise ours.
We agree with her.
Every second child born today can expect to live to 100.
The ACT party stands for those taxpayers who want the pension age incrementally raised.
We stand against obstinate refusals to do anything about it.
We stand for hard working families.
We stand for lower taxes for hard working families.
We stand against the vast middle class welfare scheme called Working For Families.
This means getting off the backs and out of the pockets of families by taxing them less.
Not handing back the change after feeding Government excess.
ACT supports those who take pressure off the public health system by taking out health insurance.
We stand against those same people having to pay twice - once through their taxes and once through their insurance premiums.
People who take out health insurance should get a tax rebate for doing so.
We stand by those who save, and often make sacrifices for private education.
They save the taxpayer money, and yet they also pay twice.
This policy compliments our charter school policy that says the most disadvantaged students should have choices like the wealthy.
We stand alongside the emerging tenant generation who would like to buy a first home.
We stand against the army of council bureaucrats.
Their out of control spending and planning has put the dream of home ownership out of reach of a whole generation.
We have a message for the tenant generation.
New Zealand does not belong to the council planners and tin god bureaucrats who zone it out of your reach.
If you work and save, then land will be available for you to build a life as the generations before you have.
The ACT Party is nearly two decades old.
It is an opportune time to look forward two decades.
What will be the character of New Zealand in the next 20 years?
Will we be a nation that continues to borrow and spend?
Or a nation that earns its keep?
Will we still have our economic sovereignty?
Or will we hock it to countries that save and pay their way - as well as ours?
I know what I want.
I know what ACT believes in.
If we do the right thing and we do it right we can come through this period with our pioneering spirit reborn.
So where are we heading?
Everyone with an opportunity for a world class education
Safety and security on the streets, and in our homes.
Compassion for the sick.
Dignity for the elderly.
And hope and aspiration for the young built on the timeless ideals of individual freedom, choice and personal responsibility.
These are ACT’s principles and values at work.
With your support, we will lead an electable ACT Party into the next election.
It will be a party worthy of multiple seats in the next Parliament.
It will have high quality candidates.
It will have policies that address New Zealand’s most urgent challenges.
Our ideals are more relevant and our values are timeless.
The simple proposition we are taking to New Zealand voters is this:
We will restore the connection between effort and reward in New Zealand.
ENDS
(Speech to ACT Annual Conference 2012, NZICA Conference Centre, Parnell Auckland)
Housing Affordability Inquiry Reveals Emergence of Tenant Generation
The Productivity Commissions report into housing affordability has revealed the disturbing emergence of a tenant generation, ACT Leader John Banks said today.
“Bad urban planning policies are denying the dream of home ownership to a whole generation of New Zealanders,” Mr Banks said.
“These policies have increased costs and created delays at every step of home building process.
“Council restraints on the supply of land for residential houses have had a big impact, pushing land prices up and with it the average price of a modest home.
“This upward price rise is reflected in our housing statistics. Home ownership rates have plummeted, largely because house prices have skyrocketed. The ratio of house price to income has doubled since the 1980s, while home ownership rates have fallen as low as 60 per cent.
“The proportion of 35-44 year olds renting has doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. One wonders whether our children and grandchildren will ever afford to be home owners.
“The inquiry reveals a number of steps that could be taken if we are serious about reversing this trend.
“ACT would like to see action taken immediately to lift the restrictions on buildable land so that more New Zealanders, particularly the young, can afford to own their own piece of New Zealand,” Mr Banks said.
ENDS
Queue Jumping Should Not Be Tolerated
The refugees intent on coming to New Zealand without following proper process need to be told don’t bother, ACT Leader John Banks said today.
“There are only one set of protocols to be adhered to when coming to New Zealand as refugees and this group is not following it.
“New Zealand is a blessed country and we deserve the right to have our laws and processes respected.
“Queue jumping is also incredibly unfair on the refugees that follow the proper process and we must respect their rights as well.
“The Government needs to send a message to all would be asylum seekers that queue jumping is not the way we do business in New Zealand. Not to do so would encourage further breaches of our laws and protocols.
“The journey from Australia to New Zealand is fraught with danger and being upfront about our position would deter these refugees from putting their lives at risk,” Mr Banks.
ENDS
Queue Jumping Should Not Be Tolerated
The refugees intent on coming to New Zealand without following proper process need to be told don’t bother, ACT Leader John Banks said today.
“There are only one set of protocols to be adhered to when coming to New Zealand as refugees and this group is not following it.
“New Zealand is a blessed country and we deserve the right to have our laws and processes respected.
“Queue jumping is also incredibly unfair on the refugees that follow the proper process and we must respect their rights as well.
“The Government needs to send a message to all would be asylum seekers that queue jumping is not the way we do business in New Zealand. Not to do so would encourage further breaches of our laws and protocols.
“The journey from Australia to New Zealand is fraught with danger and being upfront about our position would deter these refugees from putting their lives at risk,” Mr Banks.
ENDS
Queue Jumping Should Not Be Tolerated
The refugees intent on coming to New Zealand without following proper process need to be told don’t bother, ACT Leader John Banks said today.
“There are only one set of protocols to be adhered to when coming to New Zealand as refugees and this group is not following it.
“New Zealand is a blessed country and we deserve the right to have our laws and processes respected.
“Queue jumping is also incredibly unfair on the refugees that follow the proper process and we must respect their rights as well.
“The Government needs to send a message to all would be asylum seekers that queue jumping is not the way we do business in New Zealand. Not to do so would encourage further breaches of our laws and protocols.
“The journey from Australia to New Zealand is fraught with danger and being upfront about our position would deter these refugees from putting their lives at risk,” Mr Banks.
ENDS
