Кандидат от партии Act Пол Генри выступил с речью в публичном доме под конфедератским флагом

Paul Henry gives his speech at the Black Dog Tavern in Makotuku near Dannevirke under a Confederate flag. Photo / Jack Riddell High-profile TV host turned Act list candidate Paul Henry’s campaign tour took an unusual turn into a country pub near Dannevirke. Henry yesterday visited the politically charged Black Dog Tavern in Makotuku near Dannevirke, where he found about 60 enthusiastic supporters to share a tipple with. The event was billed as a meet-and-greet rather than a place for speeches, but Henry, sensing the crowd’s interest, took to the floor, unintentionally standing beneath a Confederate flag. He explained the fundamental principles of Act – smaller government, reducing debt, growing the economy and “one rule for all”. “We will go much harder and faster this time around than we did last time,” he said. Henry opened the floor to questions, which included genetic engineering and the ethics of AI. “Act doesn’t want us to stand in the way of our future,” he said of genetic engineering. “My biggest worry is our economy is in such a perilous position, we won’t be in the position as a country to take advantage of the benefits of AI, we will just suffer the downside,” he said of AI, adding the country couldn’t afford to say no to data centres. Henry answered questions about polls, explaining he didn’t believe in single results but believed in trends, and said Act would leave the Paris Agreement. He called the Opportunity Party “dishonest socialists”, before asking the crowd to vote for Act, but constituency vote National. He then took a swing at the Greens. “Look at the Greens’ list people. Seriously, look, they’re barely people.” Trump became a topic of conversation and Henry said Americans should have let Trump do what he wanted to do after he was elected in 2016 instead of protesting and tying him up in ”red tape”. Henry told Hawke’s Bay Today the reason he was campaigning so hard was that he couldn’t have lived with himself if he woke up on November 8 to a Labour government. “It would kill me if I hadn’t put a bit of effort in.” Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.