A Liberal Party for New Zealand?
December 09 10:13 AM
AUTHOR:
Every now and then, ever since the demise of Sir Joseph Ward, there is a call for the re-establishment of a Liberal Party in New Zealand. Occasionally, the flame flickers a little more brightly, as in 1963 when a Liberal Party actually contested the election that year with minimal success.
The call has been made again in some quarters following the ACT Party’s near demise at this year’s general election, but is not without its problems. For a start, the assumption that ACT was a Liberal Party to begin with is highly dubious, and, second we actually already have such a Party on the New Zealand scene.
The essence of modern liberalism, or radical centrism as it has come to be known in Britain is two fold – a commitment, as always, to personal and economic freedom, through open market economies and free trade, but balanced by the acceptance of government responsibility to look after the vulnerable through the education, health and welfare systems.
ACT may well qualify on the personal and economic freedom grounds, but fails the test completely in terms of social policy commitments. Indeed, the form of liberalism it espouses is more in line with that of 1870s Britain, and today is arguably more libertarian than liberal. Given that, and its apparent looming flirtation with the Conservative Party (the new religious right of New Zealand politics) it cannot credibly claim to be even just the ashes from which the phoenix of a new Liberal Party should arise.
There is another party which far more accurately qualifies for the description of New Zealand’s version of a modern Liberal Party, and that is UnitedFuture. Its economic credentials are certainly clear, and the Party’s principles show strong commitment to personal responsibility and the role of the state in caring for the less well off.
So, as the debate about whither the true Liberal voice in New Zealand politics picks up, it should be not so much a case of trying to create a “new” Liberal Party in New Zealand, but more one of recognising the one we already have, and bolstering its position.