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Dear John, After one of the wettest winters in living memory I, for one, am very pleased to see the arrival of Spring. I am also very pleased to see Labour’s u-turn today on plans to apply a tax to New Zealander’s KiwiSaver - a policy proposal that didn’t even last 24 hours given the public backlash. Suffice to say, it is yet another example that Labour will stop at nothing when it comes to inventing taxes to fuel its spending binge. At a time where Selwyn’s economy has continued to surge ahead of the rest of the country, ratcheting up a very strong 6.2 per cent GDP growth in the year to June, it will be cold comfort to those doing the graft knowing that this Government continues to spend money like the proverbial drunken sailor. So much so that it earned a sharp reprimand from the Auditor-General this week for its poorly thought-out cost of living payment. The A-G’s report confirmed it as being desperately rushed out with no attention to detail and has been proven to be an expensive failure – the A-G’s exact words were ‘good stewardship of public money required greater care when designing and implementing the [cost of living payment]’. As a Caucus, we are relentlessly focussed on holding the Government to account – but being mindful of proposing, as well as opposing. I’m really looking forward to taking our policy plans to the electorate next year – it’s time to offer New Zealand some hope again! As always, if you need any assistance my office is here to help - you can email [email protected] or phone 03 344 2800, and someone from my team will be happy to help. MP VisitsAs the MP for Selwyn, it is important to me to always ensure our communities are well informed about the issues the country is facing. This month, I invited Paul Goldsmith here to talk about the so-called ‘Fair’ Pay Agreements, and Chris Bishop to provide National’s view on the housing and land market in New Zealand. We are deeply concerned about the Government’s plan to overhaul New Zealand’s labour laws, which will take away the rights of individual employees to negotiate terms, conditions, and rates with their employers. Paul and I met local business owners to discuss the impact that this would have on them. The common theme that we heard was the lack of flexibility these agreements will impose on businesses, which will reduce their productivity and will impact the economy.
Chris Bishop’s visit really sheeted home to me Labour has absolutely failed on housing. Here in Selwyn, house prices have risen more than 30 per cent over the last year, with the average rent increasing by $90 per week since Labour took office. Around New Zealand, 8000 Kiwis are currently living in emergency accommodation, including 4000 kids. Worse than that, 228 kids are registered as living in cars – four times what it was in 2017. There are now 27,000 people on the State house waiting list – up 400 per cent on 2017. National believes that the Government can and should be doing much more with the community housing sector to get New Zealanders out of cars and motels and into housing, and Chris is working on ways to make that happen.
Live ExportsThe debate continued in parliament this week over the Government’s decision to ban the export of live animals. The National Party opposes this ban because we think there is an opportunity to create a world-leading industry through regulations that would ensure the safe and humane transport of animals, as well as an ongoing importer-licensing regime that would ensure the destination farms continue the high standard of care that our animals should, rightly, be given. I put up a proposal to introduce an exemption mechanism for the Director-General of MPI to recognise that, in some circumstances, exports of live cattle may be permissible on a case-by-case basis. This would be a principle-based mechanism that enables a "Gold Standard" approach to be implemented if and when the Minister is satisfied that strict statutory criteria are met, based on both robust data and science and thereby allowing the Director-General to approve shipments of live cattle on an individual case-by-case basis, where the exporter is able to establish that the strict criteria are met. You can read more here and watch my questions to Damien O’Connor in parliament below:
Taumutu Farm VisitLast month I was contacted by Tim Sanson, a Taumutu farmer who lost three-quarters of his land in the July floods after the seawall that has protected his land for 40 years burst and covered the property with sand and debris. Tim got in touch as he was caught in a bureaucratic gridlock, with none of the authorities willing or able to help. Environment Canterbury said they do not collect rates to manage coastal erosion and that landowners would be left to solve the issue themselves. I contacted ECan and the Selwyn District Council on behalf of Tim, who subsequently organised a visit to his farm to see the damage first-hand, and I hope some further support can be agreed to - and provided - going forward.
Foreign AffairsEarlier this month, I joined the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee on a trip to Suva to meet with members of the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji. The trip gave us a chance to understand Fiji’s democracy in the context of a pending election, New Zealand’s aid programme and also the committee’s inquiry into illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, which it initiated in July 2021. You can read about what the committee did and view photos of the trip here.
In the news
Kind regards,
Nicola Grigg
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