Hi John, here’s your April update. See below for details about a morning tea with Erica Stanford on April 30th. Also this month: It’s been another busy month. I’ve been proud to attend more impressive local events like the Ōtaki Kite Festival, Central Districts Field Days, the SS Ōtaki Commemoration at Ōtaki College, the Our Lady of Kāpiti school gala and the Māoriland Film Festival where, along with Director Tainui Stephens, I attended the World Premiere of Shrek in Te Reo Māori. Between meetings with local community members whom I help one-on-one, I’ve learnt how to shear a sheep (can’t promise perfection but here’s the evidence) with RuralWorx, witnessed the first official journey of Turk’s new chicken truck in Foxton, spoken about business opportunities at the Kāpiti Chamber Event and hosted leadership workshops with local secondary students. Tornado in LevinI want to acknowledge up front all of those impacted by the tornado in Levin this week. I was in Parliament in Wellington, but I jumped straight in the car and rushed up to Levin to get out on the ground, to understand the scale of damage, to check in on those who were impacted, and to see how I could help. I was in regular contact with the Minister of Emergency Mangagement, and with the Mayor and council staff. I was really impressed by how well everyone responded and was proud to help out where I could. You can see my video from around the region here. Our new local Youth MPCongratulations to our new Youth MP; Aroa Al Masri. Each MP needs to choose one local person, aged 16-18, to act as a Youth MP. The Youth MP has a role helping me to give young people a voice in our community, and then attending the Youth Parliament in July this year. This takes places just once every three years. Aroa is also head girl at Kāpiti College, she's a Korean Reality TV star, a UN youth ambassador and chairperson of the Kāpiti Youth Council. Aroa will represent our region brilliantly. You can listen to an interview with her here. The economy and US tariffsData released in March for the December 2024 quarter shows that New Zealand’s GDP grew by 0.7%. This shows that New Zealand’s economy is turning the corner. I know there is some uncertainty in the world with USA’s tariffs, but our economy is protected better than many. There is still a lot to play out here, but our exports increased in the December quarter, and our progress with Free Trade Agreement with India, as well as completing FTAs with the UAE and Gulf States, shows we are diversifying and leveraging the opportunities around us. There’s more work to do, but with economic forecasts projecting further growth ahead, things are much better than in 2023. Anzac Day 2025As we approach Anzac Day this year there are a couple of significant things I'm proud to share that we're doing to support our Defence Force. We're taking Defence spending up to 2% of GDP for the first time since 1992. This includes new planes, navy helicopters, army communications and more, but most importantly includes support for our people who put their uniform on each day. $12bn of extra funding over the next four years is really significant in the context of an annual budget of $4.9bn. We're changing the law around Anzac Day so that it recognises and remembers all people who serve New Zealand in the Defence Force, not just those who served in war-time up until Vietnam.
This year I'll be at these services: Five pieces of good newsHere are five top highlights from Wellington (and India) this month: RMA Complete replacement: New planning laws will end the culture of ‘no’. The Government’s new planning legislation to replace the Resource Management Act will make it easier to get things done while protecting the environment. Read more. We back our Police: You’ve probably seen that the Greens want to abolish prisons and defund the Police, and Labour and Greens have voted together to oppose every piece of law and order legislation we’ve put through. Don’t worry, real consequences for crime are being restored. Kiwis can now feel safer knowing serious criminals will spend longer in prison with the Government’s sentencing reforms passing final reading in Parliament. Read more. Cost of living support coming for 1.5 million New Zealanders: More than 900,000 superannuitants and almost five thousand veterans are among the New Zealanders who received a significant financial boost at the start of April. Read more. Improving our local health care: Here are four pieces of great news. Seeing a GP faster. The Government is delivering on its commitment to fix New Zealand’s broken healthcare system by ensuring Kiwis get better access to healthcare. Read more. More locally trained doctors in primary care. We’ve announced further initiatives as part of a package to tackle shortages in general practice and improve access to primary care and health outcomes. Read more. A greater role for nurses in primary care. Boosting our nursing workforce will deliver immediate benefits to people seeking care Read more. Bowel screening changes to save hundreds of lives. Our Government has agreed to progressively lower the age of eligibility for bowel cancer screening tests to align with Australia. Read more.
NZ & India launch Comprehensive FTA negotiations: New Zealand and India have formally launched negotiations on a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. Alongside this our Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC), reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the horticulture sector. And both the NZ and Indian Prime Ministers released a joint statement detailing plans for further cooperation between the two countries across a range of areas. Including the announcement of a new Defence Cooperation Arrangement. Read more here.
Upcoming eventsIt's a busy year so let's just get a few markers in the diary nice and early.  |
April 30 - Members' Morning Tea with Hon. Erica Stanford. This is a free event for National members, or you can make a donation at the door to join. We'll take a koha for those that want to contribute to the cost of venue hire and morning tea. Wednesday April 30th, 10.30 for morning tea, speech at 11am. Whitby Bowling Club.
May 1 - Levin movie night. Contact Oliver for details. 9-11 - LNI regional conference (Rotorua) 12 - Super Blues (over 60s) morning tea, Paraparaumu, with Joseph Mooney, MP for Southland. 10am. I'll send full details closer to the time.
June 6 - Ōtaki Mid-winter dinner 8 - Lower North Island (LNI) regional meeting (Wellington) Special dinner club fundraiser
July 14 - Super Blues (over 60s) event in Levin, with Suze Redmayne, MP for Rangitikei (date to be confirmed) 26 - Annual Day at the races, Ōtaki Maori Racing Club
August 1-3 - National conference, Christchurch 15 - Annual soup and buns lunch, Waikanae Special under 60s drinks fundraiser
September October November 7 - Super blues morning tea 23 - LNI Christmas lunch, Palmerston North 29 - Levin Christmas lunch Special under 60s drinks fundraiser
December
That's it for this month. Best wishes,
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