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Dear John --
Great progress this afternoon on cancer drugs with Pharmac kicking
off the process to approve two of the new cancer treatments being
delivered thanks to our $604 million investment.
We announced
our cancer drug plan just last week and action is already being taken
to widen access to life-changing cancer treatments for
Kiwis.
On Monday, I shared our latest quarterly Action Plan,
containing 40 actions we’ll take in the next three months to keep
rebuilding the economy, restoring law and order and improving our
public services.
The Q3 Action Plan is particularly focused on
cracking down on criminal activity and making you and your community
safer.
Before the end of the quarter, we will have passed laws
to give Police tough powers to go after gangs by restricting their
ability to associate and banning gang patches in public.
We’ll
have also passed laws to give Police more power to get guns out of the
hands of criminals, increase access to rehabilitation for prisoners on
remand and improve efficiency in our court system so it’s easier for
victims to get justice.
This week, we’ve also shared more of
our plans to improve the things Kiwis care most about.
In
housing, we’re taking action to make houses more affordable by
requiring councils to zone for at least 30 years of housing demand at
any one time and scrapping rules standing in the way of increasing the
supply of affordable homes.
In education, parents can look
forward to having a clearer picture of their kids’ achievement thanks
to the consistent assessment tools we’re bringing in from next
year.
In mental health, we’ve set clear and ambitious targets
to deliver better services faster and we’ve set up a new Mental Health
Innovation Fund to scale up successful community providers of mental
health services so they can reach more Kiwis.
And in transport,
we’ve confirmed the next seven Roads of National Significance are
expected to begin procurement, enabling works and construction in the
next three years. That’s good news for anyone who’ll be using Belfast
to Pegasus (including the Woodend Bypass), the Hawke’s Bay Expressway,
SH1 Cambridge to Piarere, SH29 Tauriko, Takitimu North Link Stage 2,
Mill Road, or Warkworth to Wellsford.
Getting houses and
infrastructure built is part of our plan to rebuild the economy and
it’s only through a strong economy that we can invest in the
world-class health and education New Zealanders deserve.
Thank you,
Christopher
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