John,

We’re focused on holding the Government to account for their lack of delivery on issues that affect the lives of all New Zealanders, like the cost-of-living crisis, making our communities safer, and delivering outcomes in health and education.

Catch up on the latest in politics with our Week in Review below.

Nicola Willis: New data shows cost of living crisis worsening

Inflation under this Labour Government is so out of control that the Reserve Bank is having to increase interest rates faster than at any previous time in New Zealand’s history. A family with an 80% mortgage on an average priced home will pay nearly $350 more per week in interest payments today than when Labour came to office.

Adding to the stress for families, Statistics New Zealand food price data out today shows grocery prices up 7.6 per cent compared with a year ago.

Labour has no plan to do its bit to address the domestic drivers of inflation. Instead its economic mismanagement has made the cost of living crisis worse.

The Government should adopt National’s five point plan to fight inflation – return the Reserve Bank to a single focus on price stability, reduce costs on business, remove bottlenecks in the economy, restore discipline to government spending, and prioritise tax relief for workers.

Read more from Nicola Willis.

Shane Reti: Health Minister rejects health workforce cries

The Health Minister continues to deny a health crisis in New Zealand despite 93.5 per cent of doctors saying there is one.

No one believes Andrew Little when he says he has responded to the health workforce shortage. He could start by acknowledging it is a crisis, and then he needs to explain why he is deliberately stopping international nurses from getting immediate residency.

A survey, conducted by the New Zealand Women in Medicine Charitable Trust, collated the responses of more than 900 doctors working across 30 different areas of medicine. Authors of the survey said ‘the results indicate that we are at risk of a catastrophic collapse of the healthcare workforce’.

Instead of addressing the critical issues right now, the Minster’s focus has been on rearranging the health system in the middle of a pandemic. New Zealanders deserve better. This Government doesn’t know what it’s doing when it comes to health, and now it refuses to acknowledge its failings.

Read more from Dr Shane Reti.

Chris Penk: Govt gang announcement is too little, too late

Gangs will not lose any sleep over the package of measures announced by the Government this week. The new proposals don’t go far enough and we need to back Police and give them the tools they need to tackle gangs so our communities can feel safe again.

Labour has completely failed to deliver safer streets. Since 2017, there has been a 21 per cent increase in violent crime, nightly ram raids and gang members conducting drive-by shootings.

The only thing that the Government has delivered is a 40 per cent increase in gang membership.

National would:

• Ban gang patches
• Give police non-association orders for prevent gang members communicating and planning criminal activity
• Allow police to issue dispersal notices where gang members come together in public
• Give police the warrantless search powers they need to take the guns out of the hands of violent armed gang members.

Read more from Chris Penk.

Chris Bishop: Kāinga Ora is a basket case

Documents leaked to National show that Kāinga Ora is a mess, with market debt set to hit over $20 billion by June 2026, a $4 billion blow-out on previous projections. Kāinga Ora, the Government’s state housing arm is still projected to be paying off debt in 60 years, with forecasts showing $9 billion outstanding as late as 2081.

Their net deficit is projected to get as high as $662 million for 2023/24, significantly more than the $152 million actual deficit in 2020/21.

Kāinga Ora is a basket case. In the last four years, they have spent a staggering $24 million on its own office renovations and hired 1,700 additional staff, and these documents show they plan to hire an additional 485 more staff by June 2023.

Despite this, they have added just 21 net new state homes in the year from June 2021 to May 2022.

Labour has failed on housing. KiwiBuild is a sham, the state house waitlist is up to 27,000 people, and 4500 families are living in motels at the cost of $1 million per day.”

Read more from Chris Bishop.

Other stories in the media

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Watch: Chris Luxon and National's plan for dealing with gangs.

Watch: NewsHub on the impact of Government spending on inflation.