Nicola's News: 30 June 2023

Petrol prices will rise tomorrow, inflicting more pain on already stretched households. Life is tough out there. The cost-of-living crisis is now dragging into its third year. Economic mismanagement has driven New Zealand into recession, even while the economies of Australia, the US, and our Asian neighbours are growing.

The Government’s books are going backwards – spending is up 80 per cent since Labour took office in 2017 and net debt has increased from $6 billion pre pandemic to around $71 billion today - and forecast to increase to $92.2 billion in 2024. New Zealand is now forecast to borrow an average of $82.4 million every day for the next year.

Between this financial year and next, net core Crown debt as a proportion of GDP is expected to rise from 38.5 per cent to 43.1 per cent. This up from 21.6 per cent when National left office.

The great shame is that there’s so little to show for this increased debt – instead we have potholes all over the roads, declining school attendance and achievement, growing health waiting lists and escalating violent crime.

It’s time for the excuses to stop. New Zealand needs solutions to fix our broken economy and help you get ahead once more. Most of all, what our country needs right now is hope. That’s what National will deliver.

We know that only a strong economy can fix the cost-of-living crisis, lift incomes and fund the world class public services Kiwis deserve. We know that success is good for the country, it’s good for the Government and it’s good for every New Zealander.

This election the choice is clear.

Real Consequences for Crime

Last weekend, National held its annual conference in Wellington where we announced our new law and order policy; Real Consequences for Crime. In just five years, violent crime has increased by 33 per cent, gangs are growing faster than police, and retail crime has doubled - something we are increasingly seeing here in Selwyn. One contributor to this spike in criminal activity is the weak consequences for offenders. Labour's policy of reducing the prison population by 30 per cent - while failing to reduce crime - is fundamentally flawed.

Unlike Labour, National’s priority is on public safety and victims. National will scrap the Government's misguided target of reducing the prison population and, instead, we will focus on genuinely reducing crime, recognising this is the only safe way to decrease the prison population over time.

Volunteer Challenge

At last weekend’s conference, we also launched a volunteer challenge to encourage like-minded New Zealanders to volunteer on local campaigns and help National get New Zealand back on track.

Grassroots campaigning is the best way to get National’s messages and plan for New Zealand out there - whether that be delivering fliers to your local area, helping construct hoardings around the region, or knocking on some doors.

If you’re keen to give me and the team a hand to change the Government, we’d love to have you! All you have to do is sign up on the website here https://www.national.org.nz/volunteer or simply email [email protected] and we’ll be in touch.

If you’re unable to give us a hand, there are still loads of ways you can help us out by spreading the word about our policies. The easiest way is to like my Facebook page and share posts with your friends and family, including these newsletters! As you know, the media is very selective about what makes the 6pm news, so sharing social media posts and email newsletters is a huge help to us!

You can like my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/NicolaGriggSelwyn

RMA 2.0 gone by Christmas

It's the most complained about piece of legislation that my office deals with - and now, thanks to the vanity of Labour, the RMA is set to get a whole lot worse.

The very clear feedback on the Government’s revised RMA is that it will make it harder to get things done, will not improve the environment, and will actually be a worse piece of legislation than we have now. It will increase bureaucracy, significantly increase legal complexity and litigation, remove local decision-making, and put our decarbonisation goals at risk.

This week we announced that, if elected in October, we will repeal Labour’s RMA replacement bills by Christmas. We all know the current RMA is broken, but any reform must actually improve things and be worth all the considerable cost of change.

National’s RMA spokesperson, Chris Bishop, has committed to begin work on a longer-term programme to repeal and replace the RMA, as well as to quickly implement some of the changes we have already announced such as one year consenting for major infrastructure and renewable energy projects.

Chris Bishop and I learning about how the new RMA will impact flooding issues in Hororata

Therapeutic Products Bill

National believes that the Medicines Act needs to be modernised but we oppose Labour’s Therapeutic Products Bill.

We supported it at its first reading in Parliament purely to send it to Select Committee so that an inquiry could address some of the major issues that we already had with the Bill.

It attracted huge amounts of negative public feedback – most of which, we agree with.

But while the Government addressed some of our concerns, a range of other key issues still remain - including a huge amount of heavy-handed overreach that will make the production and availability of natural health products highly regulated and highly expensive.

National cannot support this, and will continue to vote against it as it progresses through parliament.

Watch my speech on the Therapeutic Products Bill below

Upcoming Events

We’ve got a busy few weeks ahead while parliament is in Recess. If you know anyone who you think would be interested in any of these, please forward this email to them!

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.

Coffee Catch Up

I'll be at cafes around the region on Tuesday 11 July. Come and join me for a chat - no appointment needed, just show up! Simply look out for the ‘Meet your MP’ sign on a table once inside.

- 9:30am: Thirsty Acres, Kirwee

- 10:45am: The Fat Beagle Café, Darfield

- 12:15pm: Sheffield Pie Shop, Sheffield

- 1:30pm: Café on the Green, Glentunnel

Kirwee Pub Politics

If you’re not able to attend any of my daytime events at cafes around the region, then join me at the Thirsty Acres in Kirwee!

This casual event will run from 5:00pm on Thursday 13 July. Come along to hear about our policy announcements, discuss any issues or concerns you have – or just kick off the Matariki long weekend with a drink.

In the news


I attended the opening of Exquisite Wool Traders new shop in Yaldhurst	I talked to the Malvern News about our second agriculture policy announcement about reducing emissions
Click here to read about it	Click here to read (p. 10)

Kind regards,

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

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