Dear John,
Wow what a couple of weeks! The Olympics, bitterly cold weather, the National Party Annual Conference, lots of COVID-19 news... and Parliament. I'm looking forward to recharging the batteries a bit over the weekend (although watch out for me on Q and A on Sunday morning if you're up early!).
The big news of the week of course is the "re-connecting with the world" plan outlined by the PM yesterday following the release of Professor Sir David Skegg's report the day before. The direction of travel is pretty good - moving towards no MIQ for doubly vaccinated people coming from low risk countries, self-isolation for medium risk countries, for example - but the key now is the vaccination roll-out. We simply can't do anything until we have a "high level" of vaccination coverage in the population. Sadly at the moment we are still the slowest in the OECD and ranked 120th in the world by speed.
National broadly welcomed the Prime Minister's speech and announcements. It's good news that the vaccine programme is available for everyone from September 1. Please book your vaccine in once you can - and remember everyone is eligible from September 1. Let me know if you need a hand and my office can help. We have also put forward a range of constructive suggestions about how to improve the roll-out and we hope the government listens to them.
I strongly think New Zealand needs an ambitious vaccination target, or range of targets. A target would encourage uptake by mobilising the team of five million to come together behind a common goal. It would focus the system on achieving that target and hold the Government to account for reaching it. It’s not good enough for the Prime Minister to settle with just only offering a vaccine to everyone by the end of the year and saying we need a "high level". What's "high-level?" We need an ambitious target based on sophisticated modelling linked to border outcomes.
Also in the news this week was the debacle at our ports, where 36 per cent of workers are still unvaccinated. This should really be a major scandal - the PM said in February that everyone at the border would be vaccinated in 2-3 weeks, then she said people would be redeployed if they didn't get a vaccine in April, yet here we are in August and action is only being taken now. Just this week the government belatedly allowed all people working at ports to go and get vaccinated - previously it's been restricted to a limited range of roles.
Anyway, I could write about COVID-19 all day (I haven't even mentioned the interesting case of the COVID-19 positive UN worker who was transported to Auckland, saliva testing, problems with syringes, the issues with MIQ), but instead, did you know Wellington on a Plate kicks off today! A three week long festival of incredible food in Wellington, including the Hutt. I'm a particular fan of the "Burger Wellington" series... make sure you check out everything that's available in the Hutt at the website. And let me know your favourite burger! There's a Hutt City pop-up burger village on this Sunday from 11am.
My focus in the Hutt continues to be housing and transport. A week ago I put up a very long facebook post about how we solve our housing crisis in the Hutt. It's had some great feedback and heaps of comments - please check it out and let me know what you think. With the average house in the Hutt about to hit $1 million, and rents at record levels, we simply have to add more supply urgently. That's why I'm continuing to promote a second access way into Wainuiomata to help unlock the land for housing.
Have a great weekend.
P.S Did you see that the southern hemisphere's first fully electric ferry is almost ready? It'll be launched next month. Can't wait.
P.P.S Great to see ex-HIBS lad Ben Sears in the BlackCaps squad for the first time!
|
|
|
Riverbank Markets this weekend!
|
|
|
I’ll be at the markets on Saturday. Swing by for a chat.
|
|
|
Still can't believe this decision from government. Apparently the government is considering scrapping it and bringing forward a second harbour crossing... which is National Party policy.
|
|
|
National Party Conference
|
|
Huge pleasure to address the National Party Annual Conference on the weekend on COVID-19.
I floated introducing a points system for MIQ. What do you think?
|
|
Burger Wellington, as part of Wellington on a Plate, starts today! I've been profiling burgers on my Facebook page and some of them look outstanding. In this photo is the "Texas Crutch" from Dirty Burger Petone.
200g Primestar beef pattie, 12-hour smoked beef brisket with emmental cheese, cumin pickled red onion, dill pickles, hot smoky BBQ sauce and habanero mustard mayonnaise in a buttered and double toasted white bun, with buffalo chicken fries.
|
|
When I first became an MP, the average house in Lower Hutt was under $400,000. It was possible to buy a house for $280,000 or so in parts of Naenae and Wainuiomata.
Now the average price in Lower Hutt is over $900,000 and it is likely to be $1 million by the end of the year. We have some of the most expensive housing in the developed world - in Lower Hutt!
Labour has demonstrably failed on housing, as this graph shows. Tinkering with tax law hasn't worked. Not a single KiwiBuild house has been built in the Hutt (400 were promised).
The massive increase in house prices drives increased rents, the record social housing waiting list, homelessness, and kids growing up in motels.
National has a plan and a solution.
|
|
|
There was a big crowd at the Indian News Immigration Forum a couple of weekends ago in Auckland. Erica Stanford and I represented National. Labour has 65 MPs and not a single one has bothered to show up. Erica has recently released our new "COVID Contribution Visa" policy - check it out here.
|
|
|
Have you tried Two Worlds Paella before? It’s made right here in Lower Hutt, in Petone in fact. Every pack sold supports Wellington City Mission.
|
|
|
From the Health Select Committee last week. Flick me an email with a good caption!
|
|
|
Date night at the rugby on Saturday night!
|
|
|
Boom! A limited edition hand-crafted ball by ball line by line scoresheet of the famous NZ v India World Test Championship final. Will take pride of place in my office. One of just 776 produced worldwide. Awesome.
|
|
|
|
