Dear John,
The Saturday just gone marked two months until the election - which means election campaign signs can go up around the country. I've had a tradition since I first ran in 2014 of getting signs up straight after midnight in all the public sites around the Hutt - and this year was no exception. Thanks to the awesome volunteers who got them up on Friday night/Saturday morning and subsequent days (quick video here). We are still looking for new sites around the Hutt, so if you want one on your fence, then please let me know! And if you want to help with the campaign (delivering leaflets for example) then please let me know.
Transport: Labour announced their transport plan yesterday and it is a big let down for the Hutt Valley. National has committed to building the Petone to Grenada Link Road and the Cross Valley Link in government, but there's no mention of either in Labour's plans. This is pretty astonishing given Labour promised to "prioritise" the Cross Valley Link in 2017! Six years later nothing has happened and Labour effectively cancelled Petone to Grenada back in 2018. As we all know, Melling was also delayed to 2028, but public pressure forced the government to finally back down.
This election there is a clear choice for Hutt voters: between a National government committed to Petone to Grenada and the Cross Valley Link, and investigation work on a second access into Wainuiomata and a Stokes Valley Connector to SH2, or a Labour party promising nothing. If you’d like to help on my campaign, please click here – there’s plenty of work to do!
GST: It was a busy day in the Hutt on Saturday, as Labour decided to launch their GST off fruit and veg policy in Waiwhetu. This was famously the policy that Nicola Willis announced for them a couple of weeks ago, and that the Finance Minister has previously called an "absolute boondoggle". Labour can't find a single tax or economic expert who thinks it's a good idea, but they aren't going to let that stop them. Their own Tax Working Group dismissed it as “complex, poorly targeted for achieving distributional goals and generat[ing] significant compliance costs. Is it popular? Probably, in the sense that of course people want cheaper groceries, but it simply won't deliver that. Most of the gains will go to supermarkets, not shoppers, and the average household is only a few bucks a week better off. The real answer is to tackle the underlying causes of inflation, and cut out the supermarket middle man by giving people a tax cut - that's National's plan. I think it is pretty telling that David Parker repeatedly refused to say whether he thought it was a good idea or not on Wednesday.
Parliament: It's been a busy week at Parliament as the government clears the decks before the election. On Wednesday the government pushed through its 3 Waters and RMA Reform Bills and I spoke in both debates. National has committed to repealing both – the RMA Bills by Christmas, and 3 Waters within 100 days of taking office. The RMA 2.0, as we call it, is a shocker. It’ll make it harder to get things done, and tie decisions down in endless litigation and uncertainty, whilst diminishing local democracy at the same time. It’s really important we get it off the statute books as quickly as possible and that’s what we’ll do if elected on October 14.
In the House this week I also questioned Acting Housing Minister Willie Jackson about remarks made by Dr Deborah Russell a few years ago about removing interest as a deductible expense for rental properties. Dr Russell (who is now the Associate Revenue Minister) said it “wouldn’t work” and it was a “bad idea”. Poor old Willie didn’t like it much – check out his reaction here.
Policy: You might have missed this last week – National has committed to banning cellphones in schools if we’re elected. I think this is a common sense change which many other states and countries are doing as well, including Labor governments in Australia. The reaction to it has been overwhelmingly supportive, and I’ve found some of the criticism a bit weird. On the one hand apparently it’s already being done in schools, and it’s also apparently too difficult to do? Doesn’t make a lot of sense
I'm at the Riverbank Markets tomorrow morning from 9am to 12pm - swing by for a chat if you're around.
Have a great weekend.
Chris
P.S Very sad to see Wishbone go under - I loved their ham egg and cheese sandwiches, although Jenna is more of a fan of the chicken and almond...
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Hoardings crew at midnight on Friday!
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Nicola Willis came and joined me for the Lower Hutt parkrun in the Hutt last Saturday. Getting fit to govern!
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Visit to Sailability Wellington
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Don Manning QSM is a living legend. 21 years ago he started Sailability, a sailing club for people with disabilities. Today they have 27 specially designed boats and three support boats and run amazing regattas. On Monday Don showed me their latest boat, the Jeff Dixon, a new class of sailboat for people with disabilities. Keep up the great work Don!
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First Burger in Burger Wellington!
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Smashing my first burger of the Wellington on a Plate Burger Wellington festival with Emma Chatterton at Gear St Union.
21-day dry-aged brisket patty, with house pastrami, Swiss and American cheeses, and Route 66 burger sauce, in a Rongotai Bakery glazed doughnut bun, topped with a poached egg and pale ale hollandaise, with tater tots.
Check out the pink!!!!
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Launch of NZ Cashmere & Woolyarns Expansion
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On Monday it was my huge pleasure to speak on behalf of my colleague Todd McClay (Shadow Minister for Trade and for Agriculture) and wearing my Hutt South hat at the launch of the Woolyarns Scouring and Dehairing plant, and the launch of the NZ Cashmere Company. NZ Cashmere goats are world-leading and there is big potential to sell NZ Cashmere to the world. Woolyarns is a great Hutt company and it's great to see them investing in this new area.
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Great to have Paul Goldsmith in the Hutt a couple of Fridays ago talking law and order to my local SuperBlues.
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Congrats to Hutt local and my good friend Prabha Ravi. Her short film ‘Anu’ won the Best audience award at the NZ International Film Festival a couple of days ago. The film has been selected to screen at the Melbourne film festival, Indonesian film festival, the Manchester film festival, and others!
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Just love getting out and about in the Hutt on the weekends and knocking on hundreds of doors.
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Absolutely hilarious morning last Friday. Got off plane in New Plymouth and found taxi driver and this sign waiting for me. Was a bit surprised and thought my office team were playing a bit of a prank. Anyway we started walking to the taxi and had got halfway there when the REAL Chrissie Bishop turned up and wondered why I had stolen her taxi!
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With the end of Covid restrictions, a #FlashbackFriday to our family outing to Maccas Petone after the first lockdown. Photo went all around the world!
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Wee boy just loves airports and planes!
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