Dear John,

It was more than just the polar blast ripping across the country this week that forced many New Zealanders to shiver. Everyone with a mortgage will have felt a chill when the Reserve Bank announced its fifth consecutive significant rise in the Official Cash Rate, which underpins everyone’s borrowing costs for their house, business, farm or personal loan.

The average value of new mortgages signed up in August was $358,000, but across New Zealand, there are also 100,000 people with mortgages of $1 million or more. Whatever the size of someone’s mortgage, re-fixing it this year or next year will require many couples and single people to find hundreds of extra dollars to meet their repayments. Many will incur very real hardship to do that. Some simply won’t be able to. This is a significant part of the cost-of-living crisis. It’s occurring at the very same time that the latest Crown accounts revealed that the Government’s increasing tax take equates to an additional $15,000 per household per year, compared with when National was in office five years ago. I’m sure you and your family could make better use of that $15,000 than the Government does.

A National Government will be disciplined in its spending. We will cut waste in the bureaucracy, stop some low priority projects, and get more value from existing government spending. Spending less will also offset the cost of tax relief for all working New Zealanders. It’s the opposite of Labour’s approach which is to throw your money around, then hit you up for more.

It was a pleasure this week to sit down with Lynette, Louise and Janet – three women who were generous enough to share with me their experiences of breast cancer shortly before I announced that a National government will extend the breast cancer screening programme to include women aged 70-74. We are making this commitment based on work by National’s Health Spokesperson, Dr Shane Reti, and Women Spokesperson, Nicola Grigg. This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month so it's the right time to announce this new policy. It will save lives so long as – just like every other screening programme and preventive intervention – people actually use it. The earlier cancers are detected, the greater the chance of a better outcome. As the New Zealand Herald noted, this extension to breast screening was also something Labour said it would do, but despite spending an extra $1 billion more per week than National was spending when it was in government five years ago, Health Minister Andrew Little hasn’t made this a priority. Perhaps less restructuring of the health system and more focus on delivery is something the Minister should consider.

My visits around the country this week have included everything from meeting farmers down in Waitaki, to visiting the SPCA in Hobsonville. My discussions have included talking to India’s visiting External Affairs Minister about the tense international situation, to talking to Lifewise in Auckland about solving homelessness among Maōri youth. Every one of these visits is stimulating – it’s always inspiring to meet people who are so passionate about what they do!

For more of what I’ve been up to, please follow me via Instagram and Facebook.

This weekend I’m looking forward to being at Diwali, and the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Go the Black Ferns!

Have a great weekend,
Christopher

Dr Shane Reti and Nicola Grigg: National will extend free breast cancer screening

Breast cancer is the most common cancer for New Zealand women, with one in nine women being affected by it in their lifetime. Around 80 per cent of women who succumb to breast cancer are aged 50 years or older, and the next National Government will extend free breast cancer screening for those aged up to 74 years.

The current breast screening age in New Zealand is up to 69 years which is five years behind other countries such as Australia, Canada and the US, who all screen up to 74 years.

Extending the breast cancer screening age will mean that over a lifetime, the number of free mammograms a woman can have will increase from 18 to 20. This will have the potential to save up to 65 lives per year.