Act Leader Jamie Whyte is promising his party will cut the environmental ‘green tape' businesses are being lumped with when trying to improve their properties.

During a visit to Tauranga this week to outline four issues his party will campaign on this election, Jamie told SunLive only Act is going to electorates with a promise to cut regulation.

Act Leader Jamie Whyte brought his party's four campaign issues for this election to Tauranga yesterday.

'Act believes the growth in local body council regulations symbolises the growth in government and Act will campaign to ‘cut green tape'.”

Cutting regulation is one of Act's four campaign issues, along with getting tough on crime, pushing for low flat tax and promoting their party slogan ‘One country, One law' which aims to stamp out the effect of race-based laws.

'Green tape is the new red tape – red tape is just meddlesome bureaucracy demands from the Government, this compliance culture you've got to do – all these regulatory hurdles you have to jump to get on with doing business.”

'A lot of these nowadays are environmentally driven so we're calling it green tape and we hope it will catch on.”

Jamie says the Resource Management Act is a classic example of green tape.

'Actually it's not a piece of green tape; it's a whole ream of green tape. It's a monumentally burdensome piece of legislation.”

Jamie says Act wants to fundamentally change the RMA because it is a solution looking for a problem.

'We used to have a many rather specific pieces of environmental legislation and the RMA replaced them all. Any law that is trying to be that sweeping is rather ill-formed.”

'Its main problem is it's got incredibly unclear central elements. If you look at its purposes and principles it involves notions that are religious. It's a like a piece of theocratic law.”

On Korotangi Paki

Asked if the Maori King's son, Korotangi Paki, escaping conviction on drink-driving, theft and burglary charges due to his eligibility to the throne flouts Act's party slogan ‘One country, One law', Jamie says: 'Oddly, no”.

Jamie says it's not a problem of race-based law.

'It isn't a case of what Act is against.

'But I do think he made a mistake because the point of that rule – you can't become a Maori king if you have got a conviction – is to stop people committing crimes.

'Whoever came up with that rule, they should be very angry because the judge has just subverted the purpose of that rule.”

On Tauranga issues:

Asked what Act offers Tauranga voters Jamie says the party doesn't do short-term election bribes.

'We've always got to give a long-term or structural offering. The message is the same for everybody: we will promote policies that promote economic growth, like cutting taxes – and the beneficiaries of that are not just businesses.

'When you cut tax you get more economic activity, it creates opportunities for employment and companies have to compete for workers and wages go up.”

Jamie thinks many of Bay of Plenty's farming community could benefit from Act's stand on green tape, as 'farming is really being damaged by it”.

'Profit margins are going down because they're getting all these compliance cost heaped on them.

'Cutting green tape will be a direct benefit to them – and we're the only party saying we're not going to have any green taxes on any kind.”

He also believes the ‘One Country, One Law' party slogan may attract the interest of Tauranga voters.

'It offends most people's sense of justice – which is that the law should treat everybody equally without regard to their race – and I sense there's a lot of hostility towards these racial preferences here in Tauranga.”

Jamie's says his party's next move is to secure a Tauranga electorate candidate for this election, and he's seen some interest in the position.

'We haven't got a candidate yet, but we're trying to pin that down over the next few weeks.”