Dear John,

It’s been an extraordinary week as the mourning surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth II continues to dominate news coverage here, and even more so in Britain. The skillful choreography and pageantry of the Queen’s memorial, and the proclamation of King Charles III’s ascension, reflects centuries of tradition in the British monarchy. The Queen’s funeral will begin at 10pm (NZT) on Monday. New Zealand’s own memorial service for her, and the accompanying public holiday, will not take place until Monday 26 September.

As a mark of respect, Parliament sat on Tuesday only to offer tributes to The Queen, and then the House adjourned until next Tuesday. I led tributes on National’s side with this speech and if you’d like to watch more of our team’s contributions, you can see Nicola Willis here, and Paul Goldsmith, Simeon Brown, Gerry Brownlee, Ian McKelvie, Harete Hipango and Chris Penk. All the team did us proud with their respectful reflections.

The mourning period has subdued the usual political contest, but the daily reality of the Labour Government’s poor management of the economy continues to be felt by every household in New Zealand. Figures out yesterday showed the economy grew by just 1 per cent in the past year. More important than GDP to most families who are already coping with inflation running at 7 per cent was the worrying Food Price Index update earlier this week. It showed the cost of food increased by 8.3 per cent between August last year and August this year – the largest annual increase for 13 years. Among that overall figure were record price increases for items including eggs (up 26% over the year) chicken pieces (+19%) the cheapest meat pies (+31%) and muesli/cereal bars (+18%).

These are all common foods in Kiwi kitchens so mums and dads and flatmates doing the supermarket run are finding that feeding a household within its budget is becoming harder and harder. A National government will address labour shortages that are contributing to rising prices, and we'll lower taxes so that people keep more of the money they earn. We also have a five-point plan to lift economic growth.

With Covid restrictions now lifted at Parliament, it was back to the media scrum in the hallway on the way to National’s weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday.

As I’m sure many of you did, I welcomed the end of the ineffective traffic light system to manage Covid risk. It was an unhelpful complication and complexity when just simple rules were needed. Mask wearing is now a personal choice for individuals, albeit still necessary in health and aged care settings where the greatest Covid risks sit.

Best regards,
Christopher

Nicola Willis: Kiwis going backwards as economic growth falls

Falling annual economic growth at a time of high inflation means Kiwi households are going backwards under Labour.

Official figures from Statistics New Zealand show the economy grew by only 1 per cent in the year to June 30. Annual growth is much lower than Australia and many of the other countries New Zealand typically measures itself against.

At the same time, in the year to August 31 food prices rose by 8.3 per cent - the highest in 13 years, suggesting inflation is becoming more and more embedded in New Zealand.

New Zealand needs a real economic plan which will unleash enterprise and lift wages. Labour’s only response to current economic woes is to spend, spend, spend – and increase taxes to pay for it.

Simon Watts: Three Waters consultants’ fees break the bank

Over $16 million has been spent on Three Waters consultant fees, which included $14,570 to produce one job description and almost $2 million for communication services. 

This is yet another example of wasteful spending from this Labour Government. There is no way to justify such an eye-watering amount, particularly for items like job descriptions.

Three Waters has been a giant sink hole of cash from the start. These numbers don’t even include the more than $2 billion in council bribes under the “better off” funding scheme, or the millions paid to groups like the Scottish Water Commission.

Despite a huge amount of taxpayers’ money being spent, the ideologically-driven changes continue to be unworkable and unsupported by an overwhelming majority of Kiwis. National would repeal and replace Three Waters.

Lastly, National's 2023 campaign is continuing to take shape with the appointment of Chris Bishop as campaign chair. Chris is a formidable talent and has the right mix of skills and relentless energy to chair our campaign.

New Zealand needs a National Government with the capability and competence to rebuild our economy and in turn deliver effective public services and improve the lives of all New Zealanders.

If you want to see a National Government in 2023 and can help us win, you can follow this link to donate to our fighting fund.