Dear John,

At the start of the month, the National Party caucus met in Queenstown to plan the year ahead. It was a highly productive couple of days, and we’re looking forward to rolling out our policy ideas and keeping the pressure on the Government for its failures.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon visited Christchurch recently to talk to some of Canterbury’s  key business operators about how they’ve coped with the constantly changing covid-related rules and regulations. It’s very clear that South Island businesses have had a hell of a tough time over the past 18 months or so, which is why it is really important for MPs to be out and about across the country, meeting with employers and employees, to hear from them about what they need to rebuild and get going again.

Time and time again I have heard from businesses across Selwyn that they just need to know the criteria on which the Government makes decisions so they can adapt and try to stay operational.

Parliament returns tomorrow for a three week sitting block and we’ll continue to put the pressure on for more transparency.

Christopher Luxon’s Speech

I often get asked what National would do if in government. Last week Christopher delivered an excellent speech outlining our approach to lifting restrictions and healing the divisions appearing across the country.

I’m hearing every day from irate, highly distressed New Zealanders who are just utterly over it. I get it.

As Christopher says, the Government must step up and begin to heal the deep divisions it has created in our society before they get worse. The key to that is a plan on what criteria they will use to begin lifting vaccine mandates.

It’s out view that mandates are becoming increasingly less relevant in our highly-vaccinated population and we believe they should begin to be removed progressively once we are through the peak of Omicron.

You can watch Christopher’s speech here or read it here.

Rising rents in Selwyn

The nationwide housing shortage is beginning to bite in Selwyn, with residents under increasing pressure from skyrocketing prices.

New data out this month shows that the median rent for houses in Selwyn was $450 in October 2017 when Labour came to office and in December 2021 the median rent is now $540. This is a staggering increase of $90 per week, meaning renters in Selwyn are now paying $4,680 extra per year just for housing.

This comes at a time when we have a cost of living crisis, with inflation at a 30-year high - outstripping wage growth by double.

Last year the Cabinet was warned that its proposals to remove interest deductibility and increasing the brightline test would increase costs for landlords – which would be passed on in increased rents.  Labour went ahead anyway and now New Zealand renters are paying the price.

National has sensible solutions to balance the scales again in Selwyn, and continues to propose constructive ideas, including:

• Reducing the land, building and compliance costs that drive up the cost of new housing
• Increasing long-term rental options with our Build-to-Rent Housing Bill that would unlock investment in purpose-built rental properties
• Boosting social and affordable housing by backing community housing providers
• Ensuring everyday Kiwis can get mortgages, by fixing the Consumer Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act which has cut access to bank lending; and
• Assisting first-home buyers onto the housing ladder with Help-to-Own schemes

I’d be very interested in your feedback on this.

Staying in touch with local business

This month, I visited Pegasus Engineering, one of the South Island’s leading structural steel suppliers – and yet another business that is feeling the impact of the border closure, with a lack of labour and disrupted supply chain. Pegasus has provided steel throughout the country for the past 43 years for major projects like hospitals and sport stadiums and even the new research blocks at Lincoln University.

Rapid Antigen Tests

Last week, National launched a campaign to demand that the Labour Government allow pharmacies and supermarkets to sell rapid antigen tests (RAT), much like they currently are in almost every other developed country around the world. In Singapore, they're in vending machines. In the UK, they're sent to your home.

Thanks to our ongoing pressure, the Government have announced that RATs will be available for sale in retail outlets in the coming weeks.

I have also written to the CDHB last week urgently requesting that they provide a local testing facility in the Selwyn region to help alleviate the pressure in Christchurch and to provide more accessible testing to people in our region.

Today, I am pleased to have had a response from the CEO of the CDHB informing that they have plans underway to establish Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) distribution points in Rolleston and Darfield. With the rise in community cases, having RATs available will enable locals to get their results quickly, rather than up to five days from a PCR test.

The CDHB are also working with the Selwyn District Council to establish RAT pickup facilitates across the district to significantly expand the range of locations accessible to our communities. In the meantime, you can find more information about general practice teams who are currently providing COVID-19 testing here: https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/canterbury/

He Waka Eke Noa

Consultation has been underway this month on options being considered by He Waka Eke Noa, a primary sector partnership made up of various agriculture organisations and MPI, to identify and consider a pricing mechanism for agricultural emissions.

It is vital that New Zealand farming businesses remain profitable and internationally competitive - so this is your chance to have a say on the proposals.

For our part, the New Zealand National Party does NOT support farming being brought into the ETS. However, we do believe that doing nothing is not an option, and we do believe that improvements can be made to HWEN’s proposals. That’s why it’s so vitally important to have your say - this is agriculture’s chance to shape policy that works for the sector.

The advantage of one of the HWEN proposals – either an on-farm levy or a processor levy – is that they reward on-farm emissions reductions, they recognise sequestration from the likes of shelter belts and riparian planting, they account for a split gas approach and recognise methane as a flow gas, and they propose reinvesting revenue gathered back into agriculture.

I totally acknowledge many are sceptical – and even resentful – and that’s why I’m urging everyone to make a submission. You can email [email protected] with your thoughts.

Here to help

As always, if you have any issues you need assistance with, or want a meeting with me, 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/