Dear John,

For a number of years I have been questioning the sense of the Government cutting all natural gas and coal exploration in New Zealand. As many of you know the result of these cuts has seen the importation of Indonesian coal to make up the energy deficit.

We have also seen the Government fail to provide better roads, better public transport or greater use of rail for moving freight. In Papakura we have seen the empty Te Huia train travel past on its way between Hamilton and Britomart but its contribution to cutting congestion on our roads has been minimal.

I have been looking into ways in which developments in technology can help New Zealand improve its productivity and become more energy efficient and more able to protect our natural environment. It is quite clear that New Zealand needs to produce more renewable energy from our natural resources like solar, wind and geothermal.

So I am pleased to be part of a National Opposition that wants to encourage investment in renewable electricity generation so New Zealand can double its supply of affordable, clean energy and become a lower emissions economy.

Our leader Christopher Luxon wants to lead a government that supports buses and trains that are powered by clean electricity, where we go on holiday in cars powered by clean electricity, and where industrial processing plants are powered by clean electricity, not coal.

To deliver on New Zealand’s climate goals, we need whole sectors of the New Zealand economy to switch to clean electricity.

It makes no sense to encourage the shift to electric vehicles if the power comes from burning coal. New Zealand must have enough renewable electricity to meet the rising demand. 

We need a planning and building consent system that removes barriers so that for example a new wind farm no longer takes ten years to complete. At the moment that could be eight years to obtain resource consent, and two years to build. The current Resource Management Act is the greatest barrier to New Zealand reaching its climate change targets. Labour’s proposed RMA 2.0 laws will only make this worse.

National has a plan to electrify New Zealand that will:

• Turbo-charge new renewable power projects including solar, wind and geothermal by requiring decisions on resource consents to be issued in one year and consents to last for 35 years.
• Unleash investment in transmission and local lines by eliminating consents for upgrades to existing infrastructure and most new infrastructure.
• Double the amount of renewable energy available and put New Zealand on track to reach its climate change goals.

Forty per cent of New Zealand’s emissions come from transport and energy. Switching those sectors to clean electricity could deliver almost a third of the emissions reductions New Zealand needs to reach Net Zero by 2050.

We don’t think that our Kiwi lifestyles should suffer – people need to be able to get out and about, heat their homes and continue to prosper through economic growth and productivity increases.

National is committed to meaningful action on climate change while growing the economy and we will be announcing more plans to lower emissions before the election.

Under National, New Zealand will play its part in the global effort to combat climate change through massive investment in renewable energy.

National will make it easier to use abundant green energy to achieve a low-emissions, high-growth economy and put New Zealand on track to meeting its climate change goals this decade.

ANZAC Day 25 April 2023

ANZAC Day is a day for remembering the 300,000 people who have served in New Zealand’s armed services and defence forces since April 2016. It was 108 years ago that New Zealand’s and Australia’s brave sons landed at Gallipoli and became known as ANZACs as a result of that heroic action which aimed to capture the Dardanelles, which were the gateway to the Bosphorous and the Black Sea, from the defending Turkish forces. It was not a successful campaign, but it created a bond between our two countries and the pride that ANZAC evokes, endures today. It has now become linked to Turkey as well, as many New Zealanders travel to Gallipoli to commemorate the ANZACs on 25 April each year.

ANZAC Day honours the 30,000 people who have died in Service and we remember all of them, some now several generations ago. Today our ANZAC spirit still lives on proudly and strongly in our society, as the people of Australia and New Zealand, even if their backgrounds are quite different, come together to remember with respect and gratitude, the sacrifices of those who have lost their lives in wars and conflict and what they did for all of us to preserve our democracy, freedom and way of life.

There are many ANZAC Day services being held in Auckland on 25 April 2023 and I will be attending some in the Papakura Electorate. For a full list of services and activities in Auckland South, see the Auckland Council website: ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Lest we forget.

Best wishes,
Judith