Nicola's News: 16 June 2023

We are just under four months to Election Day, and just under one month until the campaign is officially underway. 

National is continuing to release a steady stream of policies, while Labour is continuing to make life for everyday Kiwis harder. Yesterday, we learned that New Zealand has fallen into a recession. Labour has mismanaged the economy and New Zealanders are paying the price.

It's time for strong economic management. National will end wasteful spending, deliver tax relief and back hard working Kiwis in businesses all over the country to help grow our economy out of its current mess.

Policy announcement - Harnessing Biotech

We have announced two agricultural policies in the last week – our Reducing Agricultural Emissions which I highlighted earlier this week and Harnessing Biotech. 

National believes it is time for New Zealand to responsibly and safely open up access to the benefits of gene technology. Biotechnology has the potential to deliver enormous benefits for New Zealand, from combatting climate change and making advances in health science to lifting agricultural productivity and boosting exports.

Breakthroughs in scientific techniques like gene editing (GE) and genetic modification (GM) are being used around the world to make progress towards solving major health, economic, and environmental challenges.

National’s Harnessing Biotech Plan will:

  1. End the effective ban on GE and GM in New Zealand.
  2. Create a dedicated regulator to ensure safe and ethical use of
    biotechnology.
  3. Streamline approvals for trials and use of non-GE and GM
    biotechnologies.

Read more about our Harnessing Biotech Plan here.

Ellesmere College

You may have heard about the Ministry of Education’s decision to delay the planned rebuild of Ellesmere College by four years.

Then-Education Minister, Chris Hipkins, proudly announced in 2019 (alongside Jacinda Ardern) that the Labour government would fund the rebuild of Ellesmere College - with the project due to be completed by the end of 2024. Hipkins said in 2019 that the buildings were built in the 1970s, with no significant update since then, and that “all but two of the school’s buildings are temporary relocatable classrooms and have experienced significant wear and tear. That’s not good enough and we are fixing it”.

Instead, the school has spent the last four years dealing with stonewalling, complications, and delay after delay.

Rather than campaigning on more empty promises, Chris Hipkins and the current Education Minister Jan Tinetti should do the right thing and honour the commitment they made four years ago. The staff, students, and community all deserve better.

Speed Limit Reductions

It’s official: Labour is planning on slowing Selwyn down, rather than making our roads safer. The below map from NZTA details the proposed blanket speed reduction that the Government wants to implement across Selwyn.

Just so we’re clear:

🟡 30km/h

🔵 40 km/h

🔴 60 km/h

🟢 80 km/h

This means that most of Rolleston, Lincoln, Leeston, Dunsandel, West Melton, Prebbleton, Kirwee, Templeton, and Darfield would be slowed down to 30km/h, and most of our rural roads across Malvern and Ellesmere will be cut to 60km/h.

This is just nuts! Instead of funding Selwyn District Council to fix potholes, and improve safety and efficiency, it is evident that Labour would rather us all spend more time in our cars, more time stuck in congestion (pumping more emissions into the atmosphere) and more time commuting and away from our families. Never forget these funding cuts are purely to pour money into its Auckland-based vanity projects like light rail and cycle lanes! 

National opposes blanket speed limit reductions, and we will put a stop to this nonsense.

Chris Bishop Visit

Earlier this month, National’s Infrastructure and RMA spokesperson, Chris Bishop, joined me in Selwyn to visit some local groups and hear first-hand the issues that the current RMA legislation is causing – and how bad the Government’s new RMA will be.

We first visited the Central Plains Water scheme near Sheffield - a brilliant scheme that supplies irrigation to 45,000 hectares of land in Selwyn. Started under the last National Government, CPW allows local farmers to significantly boost their productivity – with Canterbury alone gaining an extra $592 million per year in increased production, creating 700 new jobs. However, despite this success, the Government’s new RMA would be disastrous for this scheme.

We also met with the Malvern River Protection Group to hear the issues they are facing with flood mitigation in Hororata and the surrounding area. Following the floods of 2021, serious concerns were raised about the inability of farmers to do work on local rivers to prevent them from flooding in the event of heavy rain and floods. We hear you, and policy to address this issue will be released in the coming months.

Upcoming Events

Public Meeting with Todd McClay

On 4 July at 5:30pm, I am hosting a public meeting with National’s Spokesperson for Agriculture, Hunting & Fishing, and Trade, Todd McClay, and I’d love to see you there!

This will be an opportunity to learn more about our agriculture policies to date, as well as to ask any questions you may have!

If you intend on coming, please RSVP to [email protected] or 03 344 2800 to help us with the event planning.

Leeston Coffee Catch Up

Selwyn is a big electorate, so I try my best to get around as many places as possible to make myself available to you.

I'll be at Suburban Eatery on Friday 23 June at 12:30pm for my regular drop-in session. Come and join me for a coffee and a chat - no appointment needed, just show up! Simply look out for the ‘Meet your MP’ sign on a table once inside.

Time Out Tour

TV presenter turned sheep and beef farmer, Matt Chisholm, is bringing his ‘Time Out Tour’ to Darfield on Wednesday 5 July, in his role as Ambassador for the Rural Support Trust to talk about mental wellbeing.

The Rural Support Trust do some fantastic work for our community, and I can highly recommend getting a ticket for this event before they sell out. More details are below or at https://www.rural-support.org.nz/Time-Out-Tour

In the news

I wrote an opinion piece for the NZ Herald about what the National Party wants for New Zealand women

I joined Christopher Luxon, Todd McClay, and Simon Watts to announce our plan to reduce agricultural emissions

Click here to listen

Click here to read

Kind regards,

Nicola Grigg
http://nicolagrigg.national.org.nz/