| ACT on Campus | |
|---|---|
| President | Peter McCaffrey |
| Vice President | Hayden Fitzgerald |
| Treasurer | Sam Bonner |
| Secretary General | Jayne Ihaka |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Ideology | Libertarian |
| Mother party | ACT Party |
| Website | ACT on Campus |
ACT on Campus is the autonomous youth wing of the ACT Party; a classical liberal political party in New Zealand.
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ACT on Campus was first formed in 1996 at the Victoria University of Wellington and was originally called 'Prebble's Rebels' after former ACT Party leader Richard Prebble.
On 28 November 2000, the group's name was changed to 'ACTivists' (2) and became ACT on Campus in 2004, although is also known colloquially as 'Killer Beez'[1].
ACT on Campus membership is open to anyone under-30 or in full time study. The organisation operates on all university campuses in New Zealand and regularly receives national media attention for their campaigns.
ACT on Campus received further national attention in late 2006, as part of the Keep It 18 campaign. Headed by Wellington student Christopher Bishop, the campaign included the youth wings of ACT, the Greens, National and Labour and was widely followed by the media. While polls showed the public largely in favour of raising the drinking age back from 18 to 20, the bill, sponsored by Labour MP Martin Gallagher, was convincingly defeated on its second reading. A notable part of the campaign was petition in the form of a large calico banner. ACT on Campus members had the banner signed by thousands of students on several campuses before presenting it to Members of Parliament in Wellington.
In 2007 they have been active in fighting the proposed BZP ban, joining the Libertarianz in promoting an anti-BZP ban petition and catching out anti BZP campaigner Jacqui Dean with the well known Dihydrogen monoxide hoax.[2] When interviewed on the radio by Marcus Lush on September 14, 2007, Jacqui Dean referred to the members of ACT on Campus as "left wingers" and suggested that there were no lessons to be learned from her attempts to call for a ban on water.[3]
In 2008, the Auckland Branch of ACT on Campus protested the banning of BZP by selling BZP alongside AOC memberships, annoying Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton. [4]
On April 1, 2008 (The Day after the BZP ban) Act On Campus announced a sale of BZP in defiance of the new law, at midday this was revealed to be a hoax, drawing attention to a press release attacking the BZP ban and challenging Jim Anderton's 'hypothetical' youth supporters to a debate on the viability of prohibition. [5]
Act on Campus have been primary supporters of the Education (Freedom of Association) Bill by Sir Roger Douglas and Hon Heather Roy; the bill is currently going through the Whole Committee stage of the House where it will be debated and then read a third time before its likely passing into law due to a combined campaign of Act on Campus and Young Nationals at getting National Party Members of Parliament to support the bill, which was ensured when the second reading of the bill was passed and National committed to the passage of the legislation into law. The bill has a commencement date of the 1 January 2012 and will take effect then once the Royal Assent has been granted by the Governor-General. The bill has been opposed by the NZUSA,[6] which has lost several important funding member bodies, since information about its behaviour was made public; likewise, individual student unions and associations have made claims that the Bill will reduce service due to the end of compulsory membership and compulsory fees.[7] Evidence about the numbers of voting members and several scandals around some of these associations and their executive teams have also been raised as reasons for the Bill's support by Act, Act on Campus, Young Nationals and the National Party. [8][9][10]
ACT on Campus have often gained media coverage for their campaigns:
2004
2005
2006 Drinking Age
2007 Jacqui Dean DHMO Hoax
2007 Essay Competition
2008 Electoral Finance Act
2008 BZP and Party Pills
2008 Student Loans/Alloance/Debt
2009 Voluntary Student Membership
2010 Earth Hour
2010 OUSA Wasteful spending
http://web.archive.org/web/20010620004207/http://www.rebels.org.nz/
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