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Dear John, I hope you are well as we head into the long weekend. Parliament's back in action next week, and I've used the break to get around the electorate as much as I can. This week, I've held four coffee meetings, my campaign launch, and last night pub politics at the new Thirsty Acres in Kirwee. I've also been around knocking on doors and delivering hundreds of fliers. With only 80 days until voting opens, it's certainly getting busy! It's not all good news though. The latest crime statistics released this week have confirmed what we already knew - crime is out of control in New Zealand, and it is getting worse under this Government. Throughout New Zealand, crime rose 16 per cent and violent crime increased 10 per cent when comparing the first four months of 2022 with the first four months of 2023. Here in Canterbury the trend continues, with reported crime up 28 per cent and violent crime up 40 per cent. Under a National Government, offenders will face consequences for their actions - we will not give criminals a free ride, whether they are youth offenders, ram raiders, or gangs. Our law-and-order policies will restore order back to New Zealand and allow ordinary Kiwis to once again feel safe in their homes, businesses and neighbourhoods. Read our plan to restore law-and-order here. Campaign LaunchThis week we officially kicked off our bid to change the government with our Selwyn campaign launch in Rolleston. The team and I are energised and ready to go! A great turnout and an opportunity to thank all the hard-working volunteers who have helped us out over the last few weeks to deliver my policy flier all across the electorate. In a month, hoardings will be going up across the district. If you are happy for us to pop a sign on your fence, or know someone who would, we’d love to hear from you! Hoardings are a great way to show support and I’d love to see the district painted blue! If keen, please flick the team a message at [email protected] and we’ll be in touch to get some more details.
Policy Announcement: Training More DoctorsWe all know the health sector is experiencing a workforce crisis. Sick and injured New Zealanders are waiting hours in emergency departments, weeks to see a GP and months on surgical wait lists. National understands the importance of growing New Zealand’s health workforce – this is why last week we announced that we will deliver more doctors by creating a medical school at the University of Waikato and increasing medical school placements. Increasing home-grown doctors is vital to delivering the public services that New Zealanders deserve and National sees this as an essential and long-term investment. This is in addition to our previously announced plans to boost nurses and midwives’ numbers by paying their student loan repayments if they enter a five year bonding agreement, and make New Zealand a more attractive destination for international nurses. We will also deliver all the beds, operating threatres, and radiology services in Dunedin Hospital that Labour removed. Only National can fix the health crisis. Read more about our plan to train more doctors here
Meet Christopher LuxonSave the date Selwyn! Come and meet National Party Leader Christopher Luxon and hear his vision for New Zealand. If you want to learn about our plan to reduce the cost-of-living, reduce crime, improve education outcomes, and fix the health sector then come along and listen to Christopher’s plan to get New Zealand back on track. More info: https://nicolagrigg.national.org.nz/public_meeting_with_christopher_luxon
Todd McClay visitNational is proud that our agricultural policies are built from the ground up - as opposed to the current Government’s approach to force unworkable rules and regulations on the rural sector that just make life harder. Last week, it was great to be joined in Selwyn by National’s spokesperson for Agriculture, Trade, and Hunting & Fishing, Todd McClay. We first met with a range of key stakeholders to learn more about important technology to help reduce agricultural emissions and improve water storage. After all, it is technology that will help us achieve our climate goals - not shutting down production and shifting the problem overseas. We also held three public meetings around the district to hear directly from farmers and gun owners to share our policies - and more importantly listen to their thoughts and feedback. Thanks to everyone who has talked to us to help shape our policy to get Wellington out of farming.
Three Waters and the RMAWith less than 100 days to go until Election Day, the Labour government is using the last weeks of parliament to ram two decidedly undemocratic pieces of legislation into law. Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty has announced he intends to pass the fourth piece of deeply unpopular water reform legislation before Parliament rises for the election - and to have it back from select committee by the end of July, giving barely a month for it to be considered. A shortened process will rob Kiwis of the chance to have their say on the Water Services Entities Bill. The previous bill attracted over 80,000 submissions – which were roundly ignored – but this time there is barely the time for anyone to pull together a submission. The second piece of legislation to be passed before the election is David Parker’s vanity project; the RMA 2.0. Don’t get me wrong – the RMA is by far and away the most complained about piece of legislation that my office deals with – and we agree that it needs a major overhaul. However, the Natural and Built Environment and the Spatial Planning Bills that have been reported back from Parliament’s Environment Committee make things a whole lot worse. The clear public feedback on the Government’s bills is that they will make it harder to get things done, will not improve the environment and will actually be worse than what we have got now. They will increase bureaucracy, significantly increase legal complexity and litigation, remove local decision-making, and put our decarbonisation goals at risk. New Zealand simply cannot afford the extensive litigation that the changes will inevitably produce. Click here to read my full opinion piece and Three Waters and the RMA Kind regards,
Nicola Grigg |
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