The summer holidays are over, and the House has resumed sitting, with all the parties trying to score points in the long run up to the election on 7th November. There is a saying that the election campaign starts the day after the last election, and I have been working hard to meet lots of different community groups over the last 2 years, but this will be even more important this year.
You, our members, can help with this work by sharing the success stories of this government in your everyday conversations. We have had significant achievements at both a national and local level – amazing improvement with student reading and maths levels; huge reduction in ram raids and youth crime; the Piarere roundabout; the Waikato medical school underway; 4-laning of Karapiro to start this year; approval for the southern links; and securing a free trade agreement with India. There is still so much work to be done to get the economy humming, as a nation, we cannot afford to hand over the Treasury benches to profligate spenders from the left. Equally, we would prefer to have coalition partners who don’t drag us into divisive and distracting side issues, so we need to encourage voters to give two ticks for National.
My Parliamentary workload for the next few months will be primarily focussed on the budget (as Deputy Chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee) and on the reform of the Resource Management Act (as a member of the Environment Committee). They are both major pieces of work having wide ranging impacts.
Within caucus, I am heading up policy development for the Justice, Treaty and Governance portfolios. These cover corrections, courts, internal affairs, Treaty of Waitangi negotiations and other topics. I'll be kept busy.
But not so busy that I can't have some fun rivalry with my colleagues in our manu challenge. I am being coached in the best technique by some of the regulars at Wellington beach and have a new found respect for their skills. My bomb had over 130,000 views - way more than I get for policy comments!
I was delighted to attend the opening of the new BNZ Regional Theatre last month. It has been a long time coming but was well worth the wait. Hamilton and the Waikato have a fabulous new asset which will draw a wide range of interesting events to the city.
Hamilton's becoming known as the city of the future, which is evident in the new businesses being established here. I was pleased to meet Drs AJ Seine and Alistair Brown at the opening of their new dermatology and dermal therapy clinic in Puutikitiki Street Hamilton East (what was Von Tempsky Street). We are extremely lucky to be served by such high calibre medical facilities.
As always, I love meeting with our ethnic communities and enjoyed hanging out with our Pakistani community at their (social) cricket day at Steel Park.
To find out what we've been doing click on the above link and it will take you to our "latest news" page. Don't forget to check out the "What we've delivered for you" page to get some useful taling points as people start discussing the election.- just click right here.
Our next branch meeting is Monday February 23rd, 6:30pm at Multi-cultural Resource Centre in Boundary Road.
The electorate AGM will be held at the same location at the same time, on Monday March 16th.
I encourage you to come along to both meetings.
It is so easy! You can click on the National logo above (www.national.org.nz/my/sign-in) to find out whether you are a current member of the National Party, and renew your membership online. From now on your membership lasts for 12 months from the date you pay not 1st January.
You will also be able to click on the menu on the website to keep up to date with what is happening and get the real news.
One of the privileges of this role is being able to help constituents who are struggling with an issue like these two constituents:
- one who had major issues with a Housing New Zealand tenant next door. It had been going on for quite a few years, but the tenant was eventually moved to a different area.
- someone who had been paid the incorrect pension rate for 5 years and was having a bit of a battle with MSD to get the right amount. We were able to help settle the issue so he is now on the correct rate with backdated pay.
Please feel free to contact me to if you have any issues where you think I can help navigate or if you have any concerns about our community. I promise I will listen to you.
My Senior MP Support team are Carina Fraser, Yan Liang and Lya Haveman. We can all be contacted on 07 853 5640 or Ryan.Hamilton@parliament.govt.nz .
Follow me on Facebook. In the search bar enter Ryan Hamilton 4 Hamilton East.
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the electorate and the nation.
Electorate Chair: Sarkaw Randhawa sarkaw@hillcrestspinal.co.nz
Electorate Secretary: Ron Williams hamiltoneast@national.org.nz
Membership: Anne Aitken anne@stillaitken.co.nz
Treasurer: Ian Black ian.black@auctus.co.nz
Kind regards,
Ryan Hamilton