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Press Release
For Release 2:23pm, September 19, 1993

New Party Announced

REAL, the Egalitarian Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand feel that Suffrage Day is an appropriate day to announce its foundation. REAL is not a 'Women's Party' as such but it is founded by a woman and we believe its policies enable the values of women and of other under-represented groups to be expressed in society more fully than the policies of any other Party in our country.

The founder, Helen Marsh, is the philosophical leader of the Party. The Party does not at present have a high profile leader or a popular following but it does have policy which is radically different and philosophically consistent.

We are unlikely to be able to have a full field of candidates this election. Our policy is radically different and it will take people time to assess it. We believe, however, that there are many people in the country who are either not voting or voting for the lesser evil and feeling totally disenfranchised because there is no Party which seems to be addressing the fundamental inequity in our society. This special Suffrage Day we wish to give those people hope and invite them to seriously consider the alternative we offer. We believe they will find that we are what they are looking for and sooner or later they will be ready to help us to provide the government our country needs. We will stand at least two candidates in or around Hamilton.

The fundamental philosophy of the Party is a belief in Equal Individual Rights including the right to the total value of one's own labour. The primary policy expression is a change to the way property rights are defined. We recognise that no one person has any more right to the value of 'natural resources', which are a gift of nature and not created through anyone's labour, than any other person. This value would therefore be taxed away and distributed in a Natural Dividend. Property Rights in the value of products of labour would be protected. We thus combine the 'Land Tax' ideas of Henry George with the 'Universal Benefit' ideas popular in some quarters. We also enable 'Green Taxes' to be imposed without their usual undesirable feature of placing an unequal burden on the poor.

Helen Marsh has been developing these ideas for six years during which time she has submitted herself to a degree level course in economics and obtained a Post Graduate Diploma.

Fuller policy papers will be available within seven days of this announcement.