While he has no ambition to stand for Parliament, he is helping behind the scenes.
The Rotorua farmer is listed as a member of the party’s governance team and as spokesman for primary industries and co-operatives. He is the only farmer on the board who lives outside Northland.
The party’s president is Ken Rintoul, from Okaihau, Northland, the co-founder is director of a civil construction firm and a beef farmer. Adele Maraki, a rural chartered accountant and beef farmer from Okaihau, is the party treasurer. Board members include Les King, from Hokianga, described as a “business owner and consultant – beef, dairy and forestry”, Joe Carr, from Okaihau, a beef farmer, John Vujcich, from Kaikohe, a deer farmer, and Steve McNally, from Kerikeri, a dairy herd manager.
The vice-president is Julian Fairlie, an Auckland businessman and secretary Christy Gordon an Auckland office manager.
The party was registered at the end of January and has about 800 members, Rintoul said. Many were self-employed people and small-business owners.
The number of Northland members reflected the party’s establishment by a group of people who had made submissions challenging Far North District Council rates increases, complaining that they targeted the productive sectors in the Far North District. They decided in August 2012 to set up a new political party, initially named the NZ Rural Party but the name was changed as the membership broadened.
He will stand for Northland at the general election.
“I know a lot of people in Northland and know their concerns”.
But McKenzie is happy to be in the background, on the board, “helping them develop their principles, their constitution and the governance side of things”.
“Certainly a lot of people have asked me to put my name forward but I decided I’m too busy now.”
He said he had grave concerns about “the way we are going in NZ under our electoral system”.
“MMP has created an environment where we have lolly scrambles at every election and election bribes – 75% of households get some sort of payment from the Government.
“We don’t need it. If we reduced the tax take people could keep what they earn.
“You don’t then have it go through a government department and have it handed back to you,” he said.
“The debt levels on councils, the excessive wages and so on among regional and district councils around NZ have a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of future generations.”
The Rotorua District Council – to which he pays rates – once had virtually no liabilities, he said. But it had stacked up $165 million of debt in the past 10 years even though the last census showed the population was down a few hundred people
“So you can’t say they had to borrow money to build infrastructure for a growing population.”
Rintoul said he knew of one Forum NZ member who previously had supported ACT but most were disaffected National supporters.
“Their [National’s] policies are not conducive to the provinces.”
A major strategy meeting had recently been held as “we wanted to be a party of substance and hold to what we believe in”. Policies would be coming out in the next few weeks.
“The best way we can describe it is we are about common sense.”
Raising living standards and improving the performance of provincial economies were two aims.
“The Government is forgetting about the productive areas that keep us afloat, except we aren’t afloat – we are borrowing more every month.
The party was “dead against” the Trans Pacific Partnership. The Resource Management Act needed overhauling and there needed to be more emphasis on economics and communities when policy decisions were made.
“They are building houses in Auckland but we’ve got 6000 empty houses out in the provinces,” Rintoul said.
“Why aren’t we attracting businesses to the provinces and putting work forces in to those houses? It’s cheaper than building motorways and expensive houses in Auckland.
“We used to have thousands of small industries out in the provinces.”
The party was not big enough to stand candidates in every electorate but he thought there would be four in the Auckland region.
