Hi John, I hope you're well.

In this month's update: 

• Update on boy racers
• Expressways
• Inflation is dropping
• Local wins
• Promoting our food and beverage sector
• Local and coming events

July morning tea is now lunch in August

Due to Civil Defence emergencies on the East Coast, Mark Mitchell's diary has been significantly disrupted so there is no morning tea with him this Friday (26th). Instead, we are holding a lunch on Friday August 23rd, Waikanae Community Hall, Utauta St. I'll send more details soon, but pencil it in your diary from 11.30am with Dana Kirkpatrick, MP for East Coast, who will give some firsthand accounts on what's happening over there. Suggested koha for this event (including 'soup and buns' lunch) of $10-20 per person.

Update on Boy Racers

Last month I was writing about the terrible boy racer events that took place in Levin and Ōtaki. I promised I'd work with Police to ensure that at Matariki weekend there was a strong response to planned events.

I'm proud to report that over that weekend multiple cars were impounded, arrests made, tickets issued, not just locally but across the wider region. I've been in regular contact with locals who were impacted in early June, and I'm so grateful to our local Police for a job done well.

We're taking law and order seriously, and this shows what a Government focussed on results can achieve.

Expressways

Great news: Ō2NL is the next Expressway to start construction. It will start in 2025, though there are some side aspects (like the roundabout on Tararua Road) starting this year. Again, a change of Government has meant significant progress at last. Once a date is known I'll share it with you.

I'll also provide an update soon about changing the Kāpiti Expressway to 110km/hr.

Inflation is coming down

This is the best news in a while. Inflation is down from well over 7% to 3.3%. Once inflation gets under 3% then interest rates could start to come down (interest rates are controlled independently by the Reserve Bank Governor - not Government). This means mortgages on family homes and business loans get cheaper, it means prices stop spiralling up, and it would signify that the back of the cost of living crisis has been broken.

It's still tough out there; I fully understand that. Fixing Labour's inflation and six years of economic madness takes time, but I want you to know this remains our number one priority, and we've made significant headway. I'm hopeful of some positive news on interest rates by Christmas but let's go one step at a time.

Local wins

I'm proud that I've been able to secure some great local wins for members of our community. Here are four examples:

• Fixing a poor immigration decision which would have seen a young family deported;
• Getting people the treatment they needed, in one case an operation that they'd been waiting four years for;
• Helping get access to better support from ACC after a workplace injury;
• Getting people the correct payments from WINZ when they were incorrectly paid.

These often go unnoticed by the wider community, but for these families they make all the difference. It is a privilege to be part of the story for these great local people. It's what motivates me to keep serving you all.

Can you help me locally?

We want to keep getting these great wins for our community. But I need some help. I'm looking for a few people who might be willing to volunteer, support us, or even join the local National team in our region.

We can't do as much without a strong support base, and unless we can grow our local team it's hard to keep fighting the good fight and making sure our region gets heard loud and clear in future years. If you would consider joining my local team, I'd love to hear from you. Email/phone/text. Anything works.

Promoting our food and beverage sector

I think our region is under-rated. You might have read my local columns about how we need to make more of our amazing coastline and leverage our beaches to drive domestic tourism. The other aspect is our food and beverage sector.

Some people know we grow lots of fruit and veges here, but not many realise the diversity of quality produce that comes from this region: fruit, veges, beef and lamb, dairy, olive oil, chocolate, candy, distilleries, coffee, breweries, artisan breads, sauces; I could go on and on.

I'm on a mission to improve awareness and here are two ways:

• I'm hosting a special event in Parliament to celebrate and promote our food and beverage sector and our region. This has never been done before and is shaping up to be a great night.
• I'll be part of the Kāpiti Food Fair on November 30th. Always a great event, I'll be on stage (with very little skill to back it up) and also running a BBQ to raise money for the food bank.

If you want to help me on this mission and join my team, or even sponsor one of these events, please reach out.

Local Events

There is another long list of all the places I've been. The best thing to do to get a taste is look at my facebook or instagram. Follow me to see what I'm up to regularly.

I got to almost every public event over Matariki weekend; I met Louise Duncan who is heading off to the Paris Olympics with her horse Showcase; I visited businesses; I spoke at various community groups; I visited both hospices in our region; I met C.A.B, I met with potential new JPs, and with lots of constituents one-on-one; I held pop-up public meetings; I attended a business awards event and two local shows. On top of this was my Parliamentary work, in particular a focus on growing NZ's trade and meeting with our exporters in different regions. If we can double the value of trade (and we plan to) it will significantly grow our economy so we can afford better public services. I try and limit my days travelling away from our region, but this work is really important.

Coming events

Will you join us this Saturday at the races? It's not too late.

This is a fundraising event and promises to be lots of fun. Join us for the day, including catered lunch. If you want to know more or sign-up to come (and we'd love you to), then click here to email Oliver.

And remember our lunch on August 23rd.

Please feel free to share this update with others, or they're welcome to subscribe at national.org.nz/timcostley.

Finally to Louise, our own local Paralympian, wishing you all the very best in Paris!! Go Team Kiwi!!

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