Tuesday, 9 December 2008

Should We Get Our Hopes Up?

At his Speech From the Throne today, John Key said :

"In pursuing this goal of economic growth my Government will be guided by the principle of individual freedom and a belief in the capacity and right of individuals to shape and improve their own lives."

There are things that John Key wants to do, that will be applauded by Libertarians. However, as Lindsay Perigo notes, is it all rational to get our hopes up? There are still many anti-freedom elements to the new regime.

Nevertheless, it's still much better having a government that will actually listen to its citizenry (RE: electoral finance act, anti-smacking*) and will at least hold self-responsibility as its ideal, than the all-arrogant and all-pervasive Labour Government of 1999-2008.

*Admittedly, Key had a role to play in this as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Callum
Thanks to Mr Key and the National Caucus all NZ parents are subject to arrest for parental discipline.
that our protectors the NZ Police have a modicum of leeway i"if it is in the public interest" to disregard same is as you know Bullshit as that means nothing.
CYF will of course be notified anyway.

So I say Be wary, very wary until Mr key proves himself.
I voted ACT to keep him straight.
MikeNZ

Callum said...

Mike, as true as what you're saying is, and as great as the amount of work we need to do is, what the Key government represents for the freedom lovers of NZ is an opportunity, more than ever, to promote our ideas to the rulers of the country. This government actually listens to us, and that is a great opportunity for ACT and Libz alike.