UnitedFuture - where to from here?
AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
Since the election many peolpl,e have asked me where to from here for UnitedFuture. My response is best summed in the comments I made in a post-election speech to the Rotary Club of Central Wellington, as follows:
"There is still a place in New Zealand politics for a party committed to the enduring liberal principles of freedom of expression, conscience and belief, which promotes economic and individual freedom but accepts these must be tempered by social responsibility, and which regards families and communities as the basis for a thriving society.
There is still a place for a party that speaks for those many thousands of politically dispossessed New Zealanders who see the National Party as simply too conservative, the Labour Party as too focused on promoting the power of the state, and the rest as too hard-line or extreme to be a credible political home.
And there is still a place for a party that is proud to seek New Zealand’s future as the best multicultural country in the world, and is unafraid to promote the political and constitutional changes necessary to achieve that.
While the UnitedFuture flame may flicker faintly at the moment, it will continue to burn, so long as there are people keen to see these values and principles represented on our political spectrum."
My invitation now is straightforward. This is the time for everyone who agrees with those principles to get involved with us, to help rebuild the Party to ensure these values can continue to be represented in the New Zealand political scene. I look forward to your response.