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New Zealand’s triparty government says it’s determined to hand back the power of government to the people.

Written off as “extremists” by the “princess of politics” Ardern-loving press, NZ’s fresh leadership is as resolute about ending co-dependency on the State as it is ending far-left activism disguised as education.

This latest State of the Nation address, delivered by ACT (Association of Consumers and Taxpayers) leader David Seymour, reasserts the NZ Libertarian Party’s commitment to reversing democracy in decline.

“Our backyard is a contested space, and it’s part of a worldwide trend of democracy in retreat.

“Since the GFC, fewer and fewer countries practice democracy, and those that do, practice it less sincerely. The underlying narrative of the last 30 years – that the good guys always win – is fading to uncertainty.”

Seymour then explained,

“Nothing sums up the retreat of democracy better than the extraordinary presidential election playing out in the United States.

“Half the people think the leading Republican nominee [Trump] is corrupt, and the other half think the justice system is corrupt for saying so; you have a problem of division.”

Attrition and Dependency

Criticising New Zealand’s previous National Party and socialist Labour governments, the ACT leader named denial, nihilism, and bad policies as drivers of racial division and political paralysis in the country.

Slamming the bureaucratic castes’ self-extinguishing amoralism, he exclaimed:

“They said there was no housing crisis when ownership rates were in free fall and houses cost ten times income…

“They told us the gradual erosion of liberal democracy was new and enlightened biculturalism.

“They eroded the simple idea that a person can make a difference in their own life… [Now we live] in a world where your identity matters more than your actions.

“They hand out more rights, with fewer responsibilities. Increasing benefits for people who don’t work became a political contest, while the responsibility to work became an afterthought.”

On these grounds, the New Zealand’s Libertarian leader called for “real change.”

Amping up the reasoning, Seymour, who is also Minister for Regulation, stated,

“Over the last quarter of a century, these governments have all eroded the simple idea that YOU are the person that makes the difference in your own life.

“There’s been a cultural shift towards the idea that if there is a problem to be solved, or if life is to get better, the people in [government] Wellington will do it for us.”

He said, “We accept that by identifying these problems, we are responsible for solving them,” adding, “With a Government that accepts reality, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.”

Back to Basics

During the address, delivered at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Seymour slammed the quagmire created by feel-good, “go along to get along” policies, saying,

“The sad truth is, the values that made New Zealand strong, unified, and productive have been eroded over the last 25 or so years.”

New Zealanders have lost the value of individual responsibility, and personal freedom, and had their potential squandered because “few people stood up to publicly defend these basic values.”

“Worse,” he said, “too many people are afraid to speak out because doing so means you get labelled or cancelled.”

Notably, Seymour warned,

“The forces for more government in your life haven’t gone away. Standing up to them will take courage and initiative.”

“There are hundreds of noisy groups who don’t want us to see the right values put into practice. The media will give them a platform every night at 6 p.m. And it’s too easy for governments to back down in the face of negative headlines.”

Acknowledging this, he gave a nod to the challenge ahead and doubled down.

“ACT will continue to proudly defend these values, even if no one else does because we have to face the root cause of our problems head-on.”

“We are at a turning point. We can put the right values back in government. But we shouldn’t underestimate the massive challenge that lies ahead of us if we try to do so.”

The ACT Party’s State of the Nation speech concluded with a resolve to live out the pro-freedom, antidote-to-woke mandate handed to the government.

Fight for Freedom

His words hit the same notes being shared across the globe by emerging libertarians.

It’s a strong possibility that Independent 2024 United States Presidential Candidate, and traditional leftwing royalty, Robert F Kennedy Jr., will run as a Libertarian.

Asked about the rumours by CNN, he replied, “That’s something we’re looking at. We’re talking to the Libertarian Party.”

Kennedy’s outspoken pro-freedom stance during COVID-19 and position on protecting classical liberal freedoms have endeared him to a cross-section of the political arena (see four instances here, here, here, and here).

A somewhat political marriage of convenience, RFK’s possible Libertarian ticket to the Oval Office makes sense.

The Libertarian platform is finding the spotlight. Whether Libertarians can deliver on what they promise is yet to be seen.

Nevertheless, they are an attractive alternative to desperate duopolies in weakening nations by their capitulation to irrational, wobbly, woke overreach.

New Zealand’s problems may not be as hard-pressing as Javier Milei’s need to solve Argentina’s socialist slide into insolvency.

Nor is NZ close to the same tragedy unfolding in the United States, between an elderly career politician weaponising the judiciary against political opponents, especially against the former citizen president.

To illustrate just how bad things are in Joe Biden’s America, violent offenders are treated as peaceful protestors if they advance the agenda of Democrats, and peaceful protestors are treated as violent offenders if they show any passive dissent.

Few alternatives to Death to America Democrats seem willing or capable of basic grassroots campaigning to stop the “that racism isn’t racism, because it’s anti-racism” woke rot.

The same goes for activists in government legislating bad logic, bad laws, and bad policies, because evidence-based reasoning, good laws, and good policy are “the language of the oppressor.”

For Kennedy, Milei, Seymour, and dare I say Ron DeSantis, the sentiment is the same: this regressive retreat is reversible; it’s sink or swim time for democracies in decline.

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Originally published at Caldron Pool.