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New Zealand First is back in parliament
This week marks the official start
of the 54th parliament of New Zealand, and New Zealand First welcomes
the privilege it is to have been returned to the halls of parliament.
We will work tirelessly to represent the people who have voted for us,
and we remain grateful to the many kiwis who have supported us over
the past three years in our steep climb back to office.
As part of the new coalition
government, New Zealand First brings eight Members of Parliament to
the house, and we congratulate them on the portfolios that have been
appointed to them.
The portfolio’s covered by our
Ministers are a clear indication of the pledges we made during our
election campaign. This suite of common sense policies was then
negotiated into our coalition agreement with the National Party, and
we are excited to see our new Ministers represent our Party’s values
in Wellington with their contribution.
First speech in the house
from Rt. Hon. Winston Peters
Coming out swinging in his first
speech in the house today, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters showed
exactly why New Zealand First is back. He ended his fiery speech with
a simple message: “We are proud to have joined this coalition,
to save this country”.
Speech from the Throne
The Governor-General, her
excellency Dame Cindy Kiro addressed Members of Parliament today in
the Legislative Council Chamber with her speech from the throne,
outlining the government's priorities for the next parliamentary term.
As with the first 100-days plan, many of the policies stated were
taken from the coalition agreement between New Zealand First and the
National Party.
Our longstanding focus on common
sense policy solutions has been clearly highlighted in the
Government’s aim to improve the lives of all New Zealanders, while
leading a unified and confident country. This is based on the belief
that all of us can achieve more by working together, and that
co-operation will enable greater reach into communities, particularly
those with high needs, to effect change. The Government will restore
law and order and personal responsibility, so Kiwis feel safer where
they live and work.
The First 100-Days Plan
The strength of our representation
in parliament is highlighted by some of the following policies
outlined in the Government’s first 100-days plan. The immediate focus
will be on rebuilding the economy, easing the cost of living,
restoring law and order, and delivering better public
services.
- Begin work to repeal the
Therapeutics Products Act 2023
- Stop all work on He
Puapua
- Begin work on a National
Infrastructure Agency
- Make gang membership an
aggravating factor at sentencing
- Introduce legislation to extend
eligibility to offence-based rehabilitation programmes to remand
prisoners
- Begin work to crack down on
serious youth offending
- Require primary and intermediate
schools to teach an hour of reading, writing and maths per day
starting in 2024 and appoint an Expert Group to redesign the English
and Mathematics curriculum for primary school students
- Begin work on delivering better
public services and strengthening democracy
- Introduce legislation to
disestablish the Maori Health Authority
- Repeal amendments to the Smokefree
Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and
regulations
- Repeal the Water Services Entities
Act 2022 (Three Waters)
- Withdraw central government from
Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM)
- Stop central government work on
the Auckland Light Rail project
- Repeal the Spatial Planning and
Natural Built Environment Act and introduce a fast-track consenting
regime
You can read our full coalition
agreement here
Hitting the ground running
New Zealand First welcomed the
government's decision to reserve against the proposed amendments to
the World Health Organisation (WHO) health regulations also known as
the ‘International Health Regulations’ (IHR). Meeting the 1 December
submission deadline was one of the 49 actions of the government’s ‘100
day plan’, released on Wednesday 29 November.
Before New Zealand accepts any
agreements from international agencies that may limit national
decision-making, they will be subject to a “National Interest
Test”.
Ensuring that New Zealand’s
domestic law holds primacy over any international agreements sends a
clear message that we value our sovereignty. New Zealand First will do
what it can to protect our nation’s interests, laid out by this
commitment and many others in our coalition agreement.
New Zealand First Action
https://www.nzfirst.nz/
