ACT's New Board
Members of ACT New Zealand have elected Garry Mallett as their new President and Trevor Loudon as Vice-President "ACT members have once again elected quality people with talent and passion", said outgoing ACT President Catherine Judd.
Regional Board Members
Auckland North: Brendon Cullen
Auckland South: David Seymour
Wellington: Michael Collins
Deputy Board Members
Auckland South: Warren Jones
Waikato/BOP: Ron Scott
Upper South: Andrew Falloon
I'm stoked with the new board. It's truly liberal and the average age is comparativelyly low. David Seymour and Mike Collins are both recent leaders of ACT on Campus and Warren Jones and Andrew Falloon are current AOCers.
AOC President Helen Simpson (who gave a great speech at today's ACT conference) will also have observer status on the board.
Allan Wilden has been co-opted onto the board for Scenic South. Central is hanging in limbo after a tied vote between Andrew Fulford and Anne Atkinson.
Garry Mallett gave an excellent speech to conference that also confirmed his liberal leanings.
Thanks to everybody who voted in the election. I think the new board will do you proud.
Regional Board Members
Auckland North: Brendon Cullen
Auckland South: David Seymour
Wellington: Michael Collins
Deputy Board Members
Auckland South: Warren Jones
Waikato/BOP: Ron Scott
Upper South: Andrew Falloon
I'm stoked with the new board. It's truly liberal and the average age is comparativelyly low. David Seymour and Mike Collins are both recent leaders of ACT on Campus and Warren Jones and Andrew Falloon are current AOCers.
AOC President Helen Simpson (who gave a great speech at today's ACT conference) will also have observer status on the board.
Allan Wilden has been co-opted onto the board for Scenic South. Central is hanging in limbo after a tied vote between Andrew Fulford and Anne Atkinson.
Garry Mallett gave an excellent speech to conference that also confirmed his liberal leanings.
Thanks to everybody who voted in the election. I think the new board will do you proud.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
3/25/2006 09:04:00 PM
10 Comments:
Given the liberal composition of the new board, there is a danger you will lose the conservative element of the Party, which is probably half of the membership. Losing half of what you have may would see your membership down to 500 or 600. Do you think the Party will ever gain 5% of the vote if it goes out on an "anything goes" social liberal platform? Seems to me you are going to become a campus based party. That I think is too many steps away from mainstream NZ to gain traction. Comments Trevor?
How will Central regions tied election be resolved?
When setting up AOC the idea was never to make ACT a campus based party, but certainly to have a strong youth sector of the party.
Luckily for ACT it has a few grey hairs and bald heads in there as well.
I'll have to reserve my view on Garry Mallett. That he led the charge in the most undemocratic behaviour I have ever seen (more undemocratic than around student unions) to oust fellow Board memmber and potential Presidential rival Robin Booth was abominable.
And just because Robin had the balls to challenge Garry's idol, then President Catherine Judd, and Robin raised the leadership issue suggesting it may be Rodney's time.
That he treated a twice democratically elected and nationally popular (Robin got over a third of the votes for President) board member so undemocratically was a strong reason for my leaving ACT. I am concerned that someone without a democratic bone in his body is now your President.
ACT needs for its long term survival to move closer to democracy, not away from it. I hope for ACT's sake Garry is a reformed character, as despite his behaviour I always found him personable, pleasant and hardworking.
Because of the fog that surrounds the true meaning of the term "Liberal" in this country I suggest we change the way we use it. FOr many, including some of ACT members, "liberalism" means wishy washy, anything goes with no responsibility attached. This in fact puts responsibility on to every one else and requires state enforcement to do so.
We believe in freedom WITH responsibility and should take every oportunity to point out the difference. A good start would be to preface the term "Liberal" with term "Classical" every time we use it and then we can slowly claim the term back so we have sole ownership of it.
Graham, since the Booth episode Gary has shown no signs of being the reformed character you hope for.
"Given the liberal composition of the new board, there is a danger you will lose the conservative element of the Party, which is probably half of the membership."
Anonymous-I am well aware of your concerns. ACT is not a libertarian party. That is the role of Libertarianz and I wish them well at it. ACT must embrace what I term "enlightened" conservatives, classical liberals and some strands of social democratic thought. I have often been criticised by non ACT people for attempting to build bridges to the likes of the Maxim Foundation, Locke Foundation etc. I was a conservative before I was a libertarian and I still embrace many of their values. I work very well with the more conservative people in ACT because I emphasise the many areas of agreement we have. I think turning ACT into a libertarian party would be disastrous. I am pretty sure most members of the board would share that view. I aim to unite the various strands of ACT behind a winnable programme, not tilt at windmills.
Graham
I know the details of Robin Booth's case reasonably well. I won't be further debating it here, but there are certainly some wounds that need to be healed. I will do my best to ensure that happens.
As you know I am fully committed to altering some party structures to increase members rights and responsibilities. I have emailed you about this and any suggestions will be welcomed.
I have high regard for Garry Mallett and share much of his philosophy and outlook. Give us both a chance Graham and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Andy
I think using the term liberal in our public work is too hard a task for a small political prty on 1% support. I think that noble project should be taken on by think tanks who don't rely on votes for survival. I am happy to use it with people who understand the term, but I think it is pushing the proverbial uphill to try and sell it to large numbers of Voters. I am personally in favour of de-emphasising the term in favour of more sellable, but equally accurate words like freedom, fairness or caring
"Thanks to everybody who voted in the election. I think the new board will do you proud."
You'd better.
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