Act leader David Seymour was in Te Puke last week.

Invited by Te Puke Economic Development Group, he spoke to an audience made up of representatives from Zespri, kiwifruit post-harvest providers, professionals, retailers, real estate agents, farmers and hoticulturists, property development, tourism and manufacturing.

Seymour said he felt New Zealanders were spending too much time on what he called “transactional activities”, which meant they don’t have enough time to be productive.

He said there is, in New Zealand, a regulatory state that governed people’s lives to an unnecessary degree.

 “There are so many rules. People spend so much time following rules they don’t have time to build houses or manufacture food.”

He said the Act party’s aim was to “tame the regulatory state” and there was a need to ask what problem various regulations were trying to solve, what are the costs and benefits and do the costs outweigh the benefits.

In response to questions, he also spoke on a range of other issues and party policies.

He said he favoured a phased raising of the superannuation age, questioned whether there had been any improved education outcomes from a fee-free first year of tertiary education, argued for tax cuts and reduced public spending, and said the Department of Conservation should be given the means to raise more money through charging for experiences to finance conservation and environmental work.

He spoke about the Treaty of Waitangi, Three Waters and co-governance, mining on conservation land, and said the cost of living crisis was really a production crisis.