ACT is a party which cares about personal liberty and individual freedom. ACT stands for a small but essential role for government, a business-driven economy, and opportunity and choice for everyone. Our current priorities are getting the population back into work through incentivising the creation of jobs, reforming the mental health system to provide more options to patients while increasing spending on frontline services, and encouraging an honest conversation about what the rising national debt means for younger generations. A party vote for ACT means more people in Parliament who are prepared to challenge the status quo and provide fresh solutions to Aotearoa’s issues.
Three top priorities for young people from Ōtautahi
1. Mental health services. Mental heaolth is a huge issue for rangatahi in Canterbury and has been for some time. Replacing the broken CDHB with one centralised mental health and addiction agency which commissions care providers on behalf of patients would provide far more options and efficient use of funding. The one-size-fits-all approach does not work and has not worked for too long, youth deserve services which are suitable to them and free from the conflicting interests of the DHB. 2. Educational equity. Some students in Christchurch have no choice but their local school, while others have a selection of private options to pick from. Greater diversity in available educational pathways is needed in order to provide for all students, especially those wh feel unsupported in the public system and deserve other opportunities. Funding of schools should also be more equitable with more resources spent on classroom needs and not Ministry bureaucracy. 3. Jobs. Increasingly young people feel they need to leave for the North Island to start their careers. Ōtautahi should be a more attractive place for businesses to base themselves in order to keep employment opportunities in the city.
Three priorities to address inequity in education
1. Provide more options in the availability of schooling to address the specific needs of individual students and entire communities. 2. Equitable funding based on the choices of students and their whānau on which school to attend 3. Directing education resources into classrooms and not layers of management in the Ministry of Education
Three priorities to address inequity in healthcare
1. Greater diversity in health care providers, including options which align with specific cultures and are inclusive of language 2. Attracting more healthcare professionals to rural New Zealand and providing funding incentives for care in isolated communities 3. Reforming the DHB structure to mitigate incentives for commissioning their own providers of care rather than any which are the best suited
Three priorities to address high youth suicide rates
1. Robust, diverse, and better-funded mental health services which cover early intervention and checkups all the way to specialised care for those most at risk of suicide 2. Active acceptance and inclusivity of LGBT individuals within schools and the wider community 3. Accessibility to education and employment which keeps young people engaged and believing that they have a future
Three priorities to address mental health issues
Abstain
Three priorities to address climate change
1. Implement a carbon tax which penalises emissions rather than production 2. Encourage innovation in technology which contributes to the fight against climate change, allowing New Zealand to be world leaders by sharing our developments with countries who can make a much bigger impact 3. Provide carbon credits for trees which are used to create wood products that hold carbon for over 50 years
Three priorities to address racism in Aotearoa
Abstain
Three priorities to address child and youth poverty
1. Lower the cost of living by making housing more affordable. A significant aspect of this is removing the outdated regulation which prevents supply from keeping up with demand.
2. Foster employment opportunities, as well as suitable education and training, so that everyone who wants a job can have one.
3. Strong and suitable mental health and addiction services because these issues are a driving force of the cyclical poverty trap.
Three priorities to address and support youth employment
1. Allow 90-day trials for all businesses so they feel comfortable taking a risk on inexperienced youth
2. Hold off on further increases of the minimum wage to avoid young people being priced out of employment
3. Make the temporary increases in apprenticeship funding permanent to support businesses in training new staff
Three priorities to support the pacific nations
Abstain
What are three things your party will do to ensure that young people engaging with politicians will be safe?