Hi John, here’s your October update.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge the passing of former Prime Minister, and local resident, The Right Honourable Jim Bolger ONZ PC.

I dare not try and summarise his enormous contribution to our country into just a few words, but at a local level he has been a huge encouragement to me and my family, and a loyal supporter for National even in his (semi-) retirement.

I'm sure I speak for us all in sending our love to his wife Joan, his children and grandchildren.

If you want to see my full tribute from Parliament you can watch it here.

October Update

I'm working across both the old Ōtaki Electorate (up to Foxton) and the new Kapiti Electorate (down to Whitby), fighting to improve healthcare, to make life more affordable, and to give us all a little hope. There are some great stories below of how this is happening in health, in education, in transport and in housing.

In this month's update:

• Are things improving?

• End-of-year morning tea with Judith Collins

• We've delivered a new local health facility

• How you can help

• Ō2NL is all go

• How much better are our children at reading?

• In the news (incl good news!)

• Weekly updates

• Local events

• Upcoming events

Are things improving?

I say yes, but I need to share a few stories with you to demonstrate that. I've also added a few reminders throughout this email of some of the things we've done over the last two years. Unless we stop and remind ourselves, sometimes we just focus on the next challenge and forget about all the progress we've made and just how dire some things were two years ago.

End-of-year morning tea with Judith Collins

Join us for an early-Christmas morning tea with the incomparable Judith Collins. This will be so much fun. Everyone is welcome. Please RSVP online at this link if you can, otherwise email Lorraine.

Below (right at the bottom) are details for a Christmas BBQ lunch with Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop, Sunday November 23rd, in Paremata. Just $10.

We've delivered a new local health facility

One massive highlight this week was announcing the new Breast Cancer Screening facility in Kapiti.

It’s no secret that I’ve been fighting hard to get more health services delivered locally. I'm making a difference. This is the second time I’ve had the Minister of Health in Kapiti announcing new local services being delivered (the last being radiology last year). 

This brand new facility in Waikanae is a huge win for all local women. From Horowhenua to Porirua, all will be able to use it.

Increasing the age band from 45-69 to up to 74 years old means thousands more women in Kapiti can access early detection, and this potentially saves the life of one of our local women every year.

I’m really proud of my advocacy in fighting to get this delivered in our region, and of the broader investment in health that the National Government is making.

I haven't finished and I'm well on the way to fighting for the next new service.

How you can help

With new electorate boundaries comes new opportunity. First, I need to build a local team of supporters. You're not committed to anything, but it means we can let you know when events are coming up, you can contribute to policy, be part of little campaigns (like flyer deliveries) or fundraisers. If you would be willing to go on my supports list please reply to this email.

If you want to pay the $5 required by law to join National, let me know that too. We need about another 100 local members to steer the local direction of National. If you want a say then sign up today.

Ō2NL is all go!

How good is this!

After six years of campaigning we've done it! The new expressway from Ōtaki to Levin has officially begun. I joined the PM and Transport Minister Chris Bishop for the official start, and despite the pouring rain, you couldn't keep the smile off my face.

Thank you to everyone who has done so much to help us achieve this. We had to fight when Labour cancelled it, when the Greens wanted to down-size it, and when NZTA produced a design with roundabouts. But at every stage we've been strong as a community and National have support me, and all of us, to get the outcome we all deserve.

Enjoy watching the progress as the road takes shape over the next couple of years.

How much better are our children at reading?

This is transformational. At the start of the year, just one-in-three students were at the level they should be at. Just 20 weeks later, thanks to our new 'structured literacy' approach, it’s at about 60%, with almost half of our students exceeding the expected level. That’s almost double what it was six months ago.

We see these increases for Maori, for Pasifika, for Pakeha, and in schools high on the equity index, what used to be called low decile, or having more barriers in life.

Our local teachers are doing an incredible job delivering National's new approach. At the start of this year, before the change, more than half of our new entrance children across the country needed targeted support with reading. Six months later and that has already dropped to just 33%. Just take a minute to think about that: more than one in three students who needed extra help don’t anymore. That statistic seems pretty transformational but imagine being one of those children or their parents. That’s huge, potentially life-changing. 

That is the difference structured literacy makes and that’s why we’ve worked so hard and so fast to bring in these changes.

Good news story

We all need a little bit of sunshine. Last week a person came in asking for my help. They were living in their car. That afternoon they had keys to a home. That's the difference a good local MP can make, and I have so many stories like that. You might not see these in the paper, but we are making transformational change in our community one person at a time.

In the news

Here's a few headlines you might have seen:

• Why won't Labour back us on Law and Order? It's hard to understand. First they voted against a whole bunch of stuff like three strikes and going hard against gangs. They said a gang patch ban wouldn't work, but when it did they said it was a good idea but they still won't vote for it. Now they voted against the law that would make it illegal to protest outside someone's house and lead to the kind of event we saw with Winston Peters' house getting broken into. The Greens also voted against this law. We're cracking on anyway, but despite Labour MPs travelling with "protection" and a Greens MP stepping down because of intimidation, they won't support the law. They want it's protection but won't give it support. The Greens hosted the initiator of the protest at Winston's house, and they wrote a letter of support for the person convicted of attacking MP offices. When will their supporters wise-up??

• Labour have no position on anything at the moment. Check out my interview against Labour on NewstalkZB here.

• What are the Maori Party up to? Nobody knows. Their "reset" lasted about four minutes. They appear to have misled the speaker and all other parties, promising face-to-face that they would do the maiden speech and a waiata all within fifteen minutes. The 30 minutes of pure madness was a disgrace to Parliamentary standards. I walked out when the theatrics began. One of the things Gerry Brownlee has suggested in response is that he might publicise which MPs actually turn up each day. I would love to see that, and who turns up to Select Committees. I'm very proud of National's strong record.

• Why are the unions so upset? Don't be fooled. My kids have been sent home from school too, but this is not really about pay, or teachers. Most teachers tell me they don't want to be striking so late in the year, and just want to see students do their best in final exams. I believe that, and that requires union officials to come back to the table and negotiate in good faith, and teachers to stay in the classroom.

• Pay bargaining is important and I have no problem with that. What's not ok is when the union officials go straight to industrial action after only five days and won't come to the table. Secondary School teachers have told me there was no vote on the first round of strikes, which could be a breech of the law and really serious. Teachers should negotiate for their pay, but that means the union officials need to get off their ideology of "we will have a mass strike with all other unions" and actually represent teachers with a bit of integrity.

• I believe all the unions have just been trying to engineer a mass strike for about 18 months. They have almost admitted it. Remember unions have a 40% vote in Labour, and MPs only 20%. Don't blur the lines: union officials = Labour party.

• These are the same group of unions who fronted my Select Committee to talk about a Defence Bill. They clearly didn't know what they were talking about, and were just following the same ideological lines. The PSA said they "want all the levers" and seem willing to hurt our Defence personnel to get them; the CTU were just plain incompetent. Check out this video as an example, but there is more on my social media.

Weekly updates

Have you seen I'm putting out a weekly video update, explaining one current issue each week. They come out every Tuesday at 5pm, they're only two minutes, and you can find them on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook.

Watch the last month here:

• What kind of country do you want to live in? - Facebook | Instagram

• It has finally begun! (Ō2NL) - Facebook | Instagram

• How do we fix wait times at the ED? - Facebook | Instagram

• Transformation reading - Facebook | Instagram

• Compliance vs judgement - Facebook | Instagram

I'm also keen to hear if you would like other weekly email updates, such as recent Government announcements, what I'm working on, or what's happening in different policy areas. Send me your feedback and let me know if you want more or if you're happy with one big monthly email.

Local events

Here's a few highlights from the last month:

Golf for Good, the start of Ō2NL, meeting local sports teams at Kapiti Turf, meeting with Police at the station, and at the 105 Call Centre in Paraparaumu, holding a public meeting in Waikanae, visiting Paraparaumu College and the media studies class, visiting the council EOC, meeting a range of local ethnic groups for lunch with Minister Mark Mitchell, hosting the PM for a public morning tea in Mana, a lunch with Chris Bishop at Tatum Park, visiting Southwards Car Museum, Police Remembrance Day at the Police College, local Indian Onam Day celebrations, meeting local constituents to work on issues one-on-one, representing Government at the offical Passchendaele remembrance service, and visiting the office of Kapiti Island Nature Tours.

Upcoming events

Still plenty to join in at:

• October

  • Special dinner club fundraiser with Chris Penk. Email me if you're interested to know more.

  • 31 - my guest slot on Coast Access Radio, 4-5pm. Listen in for a special guest appearance by a certain Prime Minister...

• November

  • 6 - Early-Christmas morning tea with Judith Collins

  • 13 - Under 60s drinks and canapés fundraiser with Erica Stanford, $100 per person, 7-9pm Waikanae.

  • 23 - Supporters Christmas lunch with Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis! This is combined with other local electorates, and includes all regional MPs:

    • Mana Squash Club

      6c Pascoe Avenue, Ngatitoa Domain, Mana

    • 10:45am - Meeting
      12noon - Lunch & BBQ (cash bar available)

    • $10pp incl gst (children free) to cover costs

    • Payment to: 02 0500 0460556 003
      New Zealand National Party
      Ref: Surname, "Kapiti"

      We will have eftpos available on the day

• December

  • 6 - Kāpiti Food Fair - join us at our stall

That's it for this month.

Best wishes,

Tim

www.national.org.nz

41 Pipitea Street
Thorndon, Wellington 6011
New Zealand

Authorised by Tim Costley, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

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