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Dear John, I hope this finds you well as we find ourselves well and truly in the grips of winter. Weather has been a hot topic for our region recently with the enormous clean-up still underway in many areas following the huge rains we experienced a month ago. I spent as much time as possible across the electorate and am continuing to advocate for affected land and home owners – some who have suffered terrible damage to their private property through no fault of their own. The Government’s response has been minimal – in my view it has been slow, and the financial support has been untargeted and difficult to access. It’s a few weeks old now but, if you are interested, you can view my first General Debate speech here which I gave in Parliament not long after the floods occurred. The floods have also thrown into sharp relief the lack of interest this Government has in the Canterbury region – particularly in future-proofing our essential infrastructure. As I’m sure you’ll be aware, the Ashburton river bridge was compromised so badly that the South Island was cut in two. But rather than announce any support for the Ashburton District Council to build a second bridge, it instead announced a $785 million cycleway over the Auckland Harbour. What Labour should’ve done is used that $785 million to restore the funding it cut for regional roads. All up, the Government has short-changed the country $760 million worth of funding to maintain our regional roads – and that includes us here in Selwyn.
Fieldays at Mystery CreekRecently I attended Fieldays at Mystery Creek where the talk of the town was the Government’s proposed tax on 4x4 utes. Other than that, it was great to get around as many of our local exhibitors as possible and hear how business is going for them. I’m acutely aware of the fact our farmers and growers are increasingly feeling targeted and isolated by this Government and, quite rightly, fearful of the wave of compliance coming at them including the NPS on Freshwater, the NPS on Biodiversity and the Climate Change Commission recommendations to name just a few. This Government is making work more expensive and more difficult for those Kiwis who produce this country’s food and goods and has no regard for the consequences its policies have on the lives and livelihoods of New Zealanders. I am doing everything I can to support our agri sector and push back hard on the unworkable policies the Labour machine continues to churn out. I will be attending the Groundswell Howl of a Protest in Ashburton on Friday 16 July – if you are able, please join us in the Domain around midday.
Hate Speech LawsYou may have seen the recent announcement from the Government to strengthen its hate speech laws by essentially criminalising speech beyond the current threshold of ‘inciting violence’. We believe this is an opportunistic grab at one of our most fundamental rights, freedom of speech. Simon Bridges is leading the charge on opposing this and our position is that while the National Party condemns vile speech that is intended to insult, it is a big leap from condemning it to criminalising it. COVID-19 ResponseCovid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins’ recent comments that ‘there’s no major downside’ to New Zealand’s slow vaccine roll out are staggeringly naïve and demonstrate exactly why we are dead last in the OECD right now. There are two ‘major downsides’ to being the slowest in the developed world to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine - the first is that we are incredibly vulnerable to the highly transmissible Delta variant, which public health experts agree poses a real risk to New Zealand. The other major downside to being the slowest in the developed world to vaccinate is that any decisions around when we can open up to the world are delayed. New Zealand can only start this process once a significant proportion of our population is vaccinated. Our prosperity as a country is heavily reliant on our international connections, tourism and trade. New Zealand can’t remain a fortress forever but the longer we take to vaccinate, the longer we will be shut off from the rest of the world. At the same time the world is racing ahead of us.
ImmigrationImmigration is by far and away the number one issue people come to my office for help with. Since our border closed a year ago, many of our temporary visa holders have had their lives thrown into turmoil and our critical workers are being kept apart from their families. I have written a countless letters to the Government on behalf of people seeking emergency spots in MIQ for compassionate reasons – often in an attempt to spend days or hours with dying relatives, for migrants wanting to reunite their families, migrants wanting to extend rapidly-expiring visas to stay here and work, or on behalf of business people desperate for migrant workers – and all have fallen on deaf ears. Virtually every industry across New Zealand screaming out for migrant workers – whether skilled or unskilled – cannot get them into the country. Each week there are 2000 unused MIQ rooms that could be better utilised. National has raised a petition seeking for 12.5% of MIQ beds to be allocated to support the agri sector to address the labour shortage. National’s Immigration spokesperson, Erica Stanford, has gone into bat for thousands of migrants around New Zealand and she has kindly agreed to come to Rolleston and hear how government settings are impacting on the Selwyn region. Please do come along and tell us your story - we would love to hear from you. More details can be found here.
Dates for the DiaryWe have a busy events schedule for the second half of the year so I just wanted to send some provisional dates for you to mark on your calendar. We will send confirmed details nearer the time.
Friday 9 July Official opening of Nicola Grigg’s Selwyn Office – with Leader Hon Judith Collins Rolleston Square 4pm
Wednesday 14 July Erica Stanford – National’s Immigration spokesperson and MP for East Coast Bays Immigration Public meeting, Rolleston Community Centre 5pm
Monday 26 July National’s ‘Class of 2020’ (Nicola Grigg, Christopher Luxon, Simon Watts, Penny Simmonds, Joseph Mooney) Morning tea, Rolleston 10am
Monday 2 August Stuart Smith – National’s Climate Change spokesperson and MP for Kaikoura Climate Change Public meeting, venue TBC 5pm
Friday 27 August Nicola Willis – National’s Housing spokesperson and Wellington-based list MP Morning tea, Lincoln 10am
Kind regards,
Nicola Grigg
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