Dear John,

As we continue to read and hear and sadly for some, experience, crime in New Zealand is out of control under this current Labour-led government. In the latest Budget May 2023, they cut funding for Police by 6 per cent.

Since 2018, retail crime has doubled with ram raids increasing by 551 per cent.

Every day we read about gang activity proliferating which is unsurprising as there are now 3500 more gang members in New Zealand.

Businesses are closing because of safety concerns for their staff as well as the cost of trying to stop the robberies and violent thefts and ramraids that cause thousands of dollars-worth of damage to business premises. In turn this loss of the local shop is hard on our communities. Families cannot feel safe and now many cannot allow a child to take one of the proud steps to independence that going to the local dairy on an errand to buy milk used to provide.

National’s plan for tackling crime will include stopping people becoming criminals. It will bring in policies that include sending serious young offenders to military academies for rehabilitation.

Police will be given tough new tools to tackle the rise of gangs. These will include:

• Banning gang patches, which have been the recent fuel for the worst gun violence seen in New Zealand.
• Giving Police the ability to enforce “non-association powers” to prevent gang members from communicating and planning criminal activity. 
• Allowing Police to issue dispersal notices where gang members come together in public to intimidate, threaten, and sometimes assault members of the public.
• Giving Police the warrantless search powers they need to take the guns out of the hands of violent armed gang members.

Frontline Police are working incredibly hard to keep our communities safe but they are not feeling safe themselves. They were the victims of 1,100 assaults last year up from 631 in 2021. Offenders including those who are too young to feel the force of the law, know there will not be consequences for their actions because Labour is soft on crime. This has led to a collapse in respect for frontline officers who are now concerned about getting home at the end of a shift because they feel unsafe in their communities.

National will ensure offenders face tougher consequences. Under a National Government, anyone who assaults a first responder or prison officer will receive a minimum sentence of six months imprisonment.

My YouTube Channel

I have just launched a channel on YouTube and in my first video I gave the opening address for day two of the University of Technology’s tech week and the opportunities for New Zealand that developing our technology sector will bring. I will be posting regular videos on a Tuesday. You can see them here.

Budget 2023

The Government’s Budget announced in May 2023 proposed to help many families by dropping the $5 prescription charge. Most people in towns and cities have already discovered retailers who provide free prescriptions. The benefits of cutting prescription charges should be targeted to those who cannot afford them like Community Services cardholders and Supergold card holders. Did you know that women have been paying $5 prescription charges for contraceptives for the last six years and now these will be free? It is interesting that the Minister of Health did not know this.

Twenty hours free early learning childcare for two year olds looks like a great idea but not for children who are two this year as the policy does not apply to March 2024 when many of today’s two year olds will be three and so eligible for Fees Free under the existing policy.

The Early Childhood Council has now advised that the fish-hook in the new budget announcement is that childcare centres cannot charge any additional fees or require minimum attendance in order to fund the provision of 20 hours free. The current government funding for Fees Free isn’t enough to cover teachers’ salaries, current teacher ratios or building costs like rents, insurance etc. So childcare centres either need parents to commit to longer than 20 hours and to pay for the extra hours or they need to add an additional activities fee to the Fees Free component.

Free or half price trips on Public Transport are beneficial for families providing the public transport is available. It is important to note that full price fares and full fuel tax charges will come back on 1 July 2023.

For big ticket items like funding neglected infrastructure the government has set aside $71 billion but the trick is getting the work done. This government has promised money for many projects including mental health programmes and as we know the actual reality of completing such a project falls very short of what is urgently needed.

This government has given its attention to pet projects like centralising our health system and that has been a very expensive exercise. Locally in Auckland south it has not improved health services and has indeed seen many people with life limiting conditions, dropped off hospital waiting lists and surgery lists and waiting six months or more to be seen by a specialist or a surgeon. Now they have actually cut the Health budget.

Finally here we have a government telling you how to shower and how to wash your clothes to save energy and money and ironically they are going to launch a 16-page book on how you can make other energy savings and run an expensive advertising campaign to go with it. I am sure many people would rather just have the money spent on health or police or education?

None of this shows a wise government that cares for the people it claims to represent and I certainly do not agree with that. Good government cares about the positive results it can get for its people.

With best wishes for the King’s Birthday Weekend,
Judith