A couple of hours at ACT’s State of the Nation address, and then collaring an ACT MP afterwards.

Carpe diem – and all that.

I never used to be much interested in politics, until gender ideology raised its ugly head. Then politics became very important indeed. I’m a member of the Women’s Rights Party NZ, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what other political parties are up to, as well. Although the mainstream media covers most political events, sometimes they aren’t all that unbiased in their reported version of them. I’ve learned that if you want to hear what gets said minus anyone else’s interpretation, it’s good to go along and listen for yourself. However, this RNZ report seems to be a fairly accurate repetition of what was said there, if you want to read it. Anyway, Sunday 15 Feb saw me at ACT’s State of the Nation address in Christchurch.

What I thought I would do in this blogpost, is just give an account of my own experience of that couple of hours, and how I collared ACT MP Karen Chhour afterwards.

Karen Chhour

To begin with, for those who don’t know, ‘ACT’ is an acronym for Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, which began as a group in 1993, and morphed into a political party by 1996. They’re described as “a right-wing, classical liberal, right-libertarian, and conservative political party”. There was a time when I would only have said their name with a curl of my lip. But, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since I was a Green Party member and voter, and, to be honest, I don’t know if I’m as clear-cut about my political persuasion these days.

No ACT event would be complete without protestors, and indeed there they were across the road from the venue, kept in check by a strong police presence. I suspect it was an easy gig for the police that morning, as there were only around thirty-ish protestors. Mind you, there was a sou’wester blowing in Christchurch, so that might have dampened some enthusiasm for turning up. They contented themselves with brandishing their “Boycott Israel” and “GE Free” placards, and waving the Palestine and E tū Union flags from their designated position. According to the above-mentioned RNZ report, though, some protestors did get inside the venue with sirens. I must admit, I only heard a vague noise at one stage, and the police likely moved them on quickly.

The event included brunch before ACT Party leader - and the coalition government’s current deputy Prime Minister of NZ - David Seymour gave his address. I made a joke to some of my table-mates that as a vegan I’d be a rare bird at an ACT event. This was made funnier when MP Laura McClure, who opened the event, said that the food would be arriving shortly, and any dietary requirements …. there are the exits over there. Lol! It turned out that she was pointing to them in case of emergencies, but forgot to finish the “dietary requirements” sentence first.

She went on to introduce the speakers we’d be hearing from, who were “the lovely Brooke van Velden” first, and then David Seymour, with his titles stated, but no “lovely” for him. The guy sitting next to me and I had a chuckle about that, too. In fact, he and I had a right good ol’ chinwag before the speakers got up. During our conversation he said that he “identified as gay”, which I thought was a rather peculiar way to say he was gay, and asked him why he said it that way. His explanation wasn’t entirely understandable, but I think it might be because it’s become common to identify as something now, rather than just be something, and it’s rubbed off on him. He wasn’t a young guy, either – 55 years old, as I found out from simply asking him outright, using my cheeky older-lady status. In truth, he wasn’t as much younger than me as I thought he was. Must live a good life.

But, who’da thought that a gay guy and vegan would not only rock on up to an ACT political event, but find each other 😊

David Seymour’s talk was polished, of course, and had the inevitable swipes at the Green and Labour leaders, but Te Pāti Māori (the Māori Party) got dismissed in its entirety. Considering the state of them at the moment, it wasn’t unjust. David’s an entertaining and engaging speaker, imo, and, as was his job that day, he talked up the ACT Party’s achievements and upcoming election aspirations, interspersed with the quips he’s so good at.

There was no Q&A afterwards, which I believe is par for the course at a State of the Nation address, so once Laura McClure had closed the event, I made a beeline for an ACT MP before they disappeared. They were all there, from what I could see, but my headlights picked out Karen Chhour as possibly the best one to collar to ask if she knew anything about the Law Commission’s report, which recommends putting ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression’ into the Human Rights Act.

This report is currently sitting with Paul Goldsmith, the Minister of Justice, and will have a decision made by March about whether it will be accepted or rejected. Karen Chhour didn’t know anything about it. I explained about it as briefly as I could, because I could see an ACT staffer waiting to take her away. She responded with quite some surprise, agreed that it didn’t sound good, and said she would look into it.

Knowing that there was every possibility she would forget five minutes after talking to me, I followed up by emailing a letter to her once I got home. We’ll see what happens, if anything, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?