Dear John --

Season's Greetings!

It's been a very busy month since my last newsletter, with Parliament getting back underway, learning my new role as the Minister of State for Trade, Minister for Women, and Associate Minister of Agriculture (Horticulture), as well as keeping busy around Selwyn. 

As many of you may know, I will be taking some time off over the coming months for parental leave. However, in my absence, both my Electorate Office in Rolleston and my Ministerial Office in Wellington will both be fully operational. 

In this final newsletter for the year, I just wanted to provide an update on what's been happening in Wellington and around Selwyn. 

I also want to take the opportunity to thank everyone once again for your support of me throughout this year, and to wish you and your family a very relaxing Christmas and New Year!

An update from Parliament

We have just come to the end of three weeks of Parliament sitting, and we have been getting straight to work. We know this country needs a huge turnaround to get back on track, and we've wasted no time in making much-needed legislative changes.

Over the last few weeks, the Coalition Government has: 

• Passed a Bill to make inflation the sole focus of the Reserve Bank.
• Scrapped the 'ute tax' that punished those who rely on utes for work.
• Removed Labour's ineffective blanket speed reductions and will be restoring higher speed limits where safe to do so.
• Agreed to introduce and pass legislation early next year to repeal Three Waters.
• Replaced the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ensuring that farmers aren't punished by unworkable freshwater regulations and all New Zealanders can benefit from freshwater quality. 
• Repealed Labour's new RMA that was longer, more complicated, and would have made it much harder to get a consent for things like renewable electricity generation.
• Extended 90-day trials to all businesses.

I also made my first speech to the House in the 54th Parliament to lay out the Government's plan to support the agricultural sector and let farmers get back to farming - which you can watch below. 

You may have also read that there was more assaults and unlawful behaviour at Oranga Tamariki's Te Puna Wai Youth Justice Residence in Rolleston last week. This has been a local problem for a number of years now, with constant assaults on staff members, Police call outs, and offenders breaking out of the facility and being bribed with fast food to stop. 

I wrote multi times to then-Minister responsible, Kelvin Davis, who let this continue under his watch. This stops under the new Government. If people within youth justice facilities cause trouble they should expect to see real consequences for their actions. We are going to take action by restoring the value of right and wrong to support and protect the local Oranga Tamariki staff and Police. 

When Parliament resumes next year, we will continue to implement our 100-day plan which you can read here.

Ministerial Update

Since being appointed as a Minister, I've been keeping as busy as I can, getting out of the office and meeting as many people in person as I can.

With my new role as Minister for Women, I paid a visit to the Ministry for Women and had a morning tea with staff. We all share the same goal - to improve the lives of women and girls in New Zealand. 

We have a lot of work to do - women are disadvantaged in many ways, including in employment, economically, socially, and often in health and education too. These are the key areas that the Ministry will be focused on improving.

Previous National Governments made significant improvements to the pay gap, gender representation, health outcomes, and workforce participation - and our government is determined to do the same. 

I'm also thrilled to be the Associate Minister of Agriculture with a newly-formed responsibility for horticulture. Horticulture is such a key industry to New Zealand, with horticultural exports reaching $7 billion this year. 

I had the opportunity to meet sector leaders and growers and speak at the Horticulture Industry Forum held in Wellington recently. It was important to hear their concerns and priorities for the sector, so the Coalition Government can support the goal of doubling export revenue in the next decade.

I also spent a day in Hawkes Bay to meet with winegrowers and orchardists still cleaning up after February's cyclone. Although the ongoing challenges growers face will not be fixed overnight, I was able to get a much better understanding of the issues and can now work in with my government colleagues to find the solutions.

In the first week I was appointed Minister, I also paid a visit to both the Christchurch and Wellington MPI offices to meet their staff and to get a deeper understanding of the operational side of MPI. 

Out and about

It's also been a busy few weeks around the district, with Selwyn hosting such a great range of events in the lead up to Christmas. 

In the spirit of Christmas, there was no better way to kick off the season than with the Leeston Santa Parade earlier this month! Fantastic weather and a great crowd and something I enjoy attending every year.

I also really enjoyed chatting with so many of you who popped along to our National Party stall at the West Melton Christmas Market - it was great to see such a crowd enjoying the sun and the market, and really encouraging to hear the amount of support for our 100-day plan!

Finally, I had the pleasure of attending the 126th anniversary of Rewi Alley's birthday in Springfield. Rewi Alley was born in Springfield in 1897 and then lived and worked in China. During that time, he was committed to building relations and finding common ground between NZ and China.

It is widely acknowledged that Rewi Alley and his efforts to improve the livelihoods of those around him was respected by many worldwide, so it was a privilege to celebrate Rewi's memory and achievement as the MP for Selwyn, and on behalf of the New Zealand Government.

Christmas Shutdown

It's certainly been a huge year in politics, and my team is taking a well-deserved break. My Selwyn Electorate and Community Office in Rolleston Square will be closed over the holiday period. The office will close at midday today and reopen on Monday 22 January.

During this time, messages will be checked periodically and only urgent enquiries will be responded to.

Once the office reopens, we will be operating as usual from Monday to Friday, 10:00am – 4:00pm. We can be contacted by emailing [email protected], phoning 03 344 2800, or by just popping in.

Merry Christmas to all,

Nicola Grigg
https://nicolagrigg.national.org.nz/