Dear John,

Happy New Year! I hope you managed to enjoy some time off over the holiday period.

National Party MPs have been busy beavering away in our electorates over the summer and, with less than two years to go until the next election, we are ready to hit the ground running! We are heading to Queenstown on Sunday for a two day caucus retreat where we will pull together our battle plan for 2022 and beyond. We are excited and energised and absolutely ready to take it to the Government this year.

Covid-19

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Government’s Covid response, this year looks a lot like the last year. Labour’s lack of preparation for Omicron has unnecessarily put New Zealand in a worse position that we needed to be. For much of 2021, New Zealand had the slowest vaccine rollout in the developed world. Now Omicron is here, and we are the fourth slowest in the developed world for boosters. Rather than spending the last month urgently boosting as many people as possible and buying stocks of rapid tests, the Government went into ‘go slow’ mode over summer. This is a stunning indictment on the Government’s lack of planning and lack of urgency.

Until recently, rapid antigen tests were technically illegal and they are still extremely hard to come by now. New Zealand companies are waiting weeks for permission to import them, while in other countries like Australia, you can walk into the supermarket and buy one off the shelf.

The Government has now resorted to seizing rapid tests from the private sector to try and hide their incompetence from not ordering enough of them sooner. A number of Selwyn-based businesses have shown me emails from suppliers who’ve had stocks commandeered. Rather than just negotiating in good faith with the saliva testing provider, the Government pushed a law through under urgency to allow them to seize its assets.

We need to vastly increase the availability of rapid tests, urgently upgrade ICU capacity, and ensure we have stocks of the treatments we need.

Immigration

At a time when supply chains are already frayed, the Government’s inaction on border class exceptions for time-critical workers could have an impact on food production and distribution in New Zealand.

As most will be aware, the summer months are peak harvest season and I’m sure you’ll all know of someone in Canterbury absolutely desperate to get offshore workers in to bring in the harvest.

On 12 December 2021, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced that he had created new border exceptions for 200 mobile machinery operators, 40 shearers, and 50 wool handlers. However, instead of enabling those, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi went missing in action. He did not sign off instructions allowing these workers to apply for visa until 21 January 2022 – six weeks after the announcement was made.

This unbelievable incompetence by the Immigration Minister could have a huge impact on food production and supply in New Zealand. Time critical workers for the grain harvest are needed now, but because of the Minister’s inaction, this will not happen.

The ineptitude shown by the Immigration Minister has now resulted in over 150 mobile plant operators, who had expressed an interest in working in New Zealand, giving up on the process, leaving just 40 applicants still in the mix. These critical workers were desperately needed to harvest crops to ensure that essential food like bread makes it to our shelves. Without these workers, the likely result will be late and limited supply and therefore higher food prices – and that’s on Minister Faafoi.

New Leadership & Portfolio

It has been almost two months since we elected my friend and fellow Class of 2020 colleague Christopher Luxon as leader of the National Party. Chris has made a huge impact in the past couple of months, which has been reflected in the latest polls, and he has committed to winning back the trust of New Zealanders who so desperately want us to return to government.

Chris has energised the team, and we are looking forward to hitting the ground running this year and to continue to hold this Government to account.

With a new leader comes a refreshed team. Representing and advocating for our primary industries is one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Parliament and it a great privilege to be the National Party Associate Spokesperson for Agriculture, as well as the Spokesperson for Rural Communities, Animal Welfare, Land Information, and Women.

As the MP for Selwyn – a region with one of the most innovative and productive agri-industries in the country – I hear every day the issues facing our farmers. Farmers who care about their communities, care about their stock, and care about our environment. I’m really proud of my farming background, and am looking forward to representing our world-leading farmers in Wellington.

Here to help

As usual, if you have any issues you need assistance with, please feel free to contact my Electorate Office on [email protected] or 03 344 2800 and someone from my team will be happy to help.

Kind regards,

Nicola Grigg
http://nicolagrigg.national.org.nz/