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Dear John, I was excited to launch the Demand the Debate publicity campaign last weekend. I think it will be a really effective way to communicate to the New Zealand voting public on important issues that are otherwise lost in the ‘news’. People are asking National for its policies and opinions and the new electronic billboards are a way of getting our message out as we want it and not a filtered version. The Demand the Debate initiative is a response to many Kiwis who are expressing their concern about the direction that the majority Labour Government is taking us in. They are centralising services like Health with a separate Maori Authority and the Three Waters plan that would see infrastructure for water supply and waste water treatment being amalgamated and then governed by four large boards. These reforms are poorly-conceived and will result in low accountability, bloated service entities, more bureaucracy, and messy cross-subsidising between neighbouring regions. The claimed scale benefits and cost-savings remain unconvincing. Now this week, the Prime Minister has suddenly announced new funding of $2.5 billion to go to councils to help them cope with the three waters amalgamation. I say this is a taxpayer-funded bribe, and an attempt to save reforms that were failing. Auckland Council was not keen to join the scheme, nor was the council in Whangarei. First, the government tried to scare ratepayers by going behind councils' backs with a taxpayer-funded propaganda ad campaign. As that hasn't worked, the government has now turned to old school bribery tactics. Let’s be honest, the Health or the water management professionals and specialists that will make up the new boards will probably be the same people as before. But we question the huge cost in time, human resource, and money for setting up the administration, premises and other new rearrangements that will be experimental at best. The results of local body amalgamation in Auckland in 2010 has not been the huge leap forward that Aucklanders expected. We have not seen the economies of scale and cost savings from reducing administration that was promised. In fact, there have been increased administration costs, increased staff numbers, and increased compliance costs. In addition, Auckland ratepayers have seen their rates and water charges go up every year and things like maintenance services scaled back. This is another reason to Demand the Debate. I know that there is a lot of concern about where our country is heading and that New Zealanders want to be included in the conversation. Like me, and my National opposition Members of Parliament, many people are saying the Government's parliamentary majority is not a mandate for Labour to promote their ideological wish list. As Leader of the National Opposition, I am encouraging all of my Spokespeople to be doing just that - speaking out about the huge number of issues that the Government’s working groups are producing at the moment. There is a lot of talk, but as we know there are still insufficient houses being built and there are increased numbers of homeless families. There are increased numbers of people with mental health issues who are not being treated, our road transport systems, even our railways, are not being improved to reduce traffic congestion which is a problem nation-wide. The Government is spending money on helping New Zealanders back into the country from Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown and paying for their time in MIQ hotels across the country. But they are not telling us how they will manage to get more of us vaccinated more quickly nor have they revealed how we will know who is vaccinated and who is not. For those who have been vaccinated, how does that little purple printed card guarantee that your vaccination is officially recognised? It doesn’t even record a person’s National Health number on it. Is the Ministry of Health or COVID-19 response going to provide something official confirming an individual’s vaccinations are complete? How and when? We have recently learned that almost 1800 border workers are not vaccinated and they are not being stood down from their border facing jobs until they are, they are allowed to keep working. What does this say to the rest of us? The Labour Government is spending money to help gang members run their own drug rehabilitation programmes, but why are they not expanding funding for the proven rehabilitation programmes run by the Salvation Army and other specialist charities? Our health system is under pressure as the Nurses’ pay dispute drags on and money for important initiatives like Mental Health services remain unspent. The National Opposition raised the issue of Mental Health outcomes and flagged that very little of what the Government has promised in its Budgets has actually been spent on improving the delivery of Mental Health services. The situation seems to have remained the same. Our senior doctors say increasing numbers of New Zealanders need, but can’t get, mental health care because there are insufficient clinical psychologists for the demand. So we need to see the budget being spent on training new psychologists, employing more carers, and increasing capacity at facilities. I am really pleased that our Demand the Debate billboards are going to help me to get the National Opposition’s views out to the public. We will keep pushing the Government to provide practical help for people and we will do our best to ensure positive outcomes for those like our farmers and landlords, who are negatively affected by their current policies. I celebrated one year in the Leader of the Opposition seat this week. I really celebrated because I am proud to be the representative for so many Kiwis who need me to work for their best interests and democracy in this, our beautiful country of New Zealand. I always feel grateful and blessed to live here and I hope you do too. Best wishes, Judith
Hon Judith
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