National has today released the ninth and tenth in our series of discussion documents, which contain a range of proposals to ensure New Zealand has the high-quality housing and infrastructure it needs to prosper, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“National gets on and builds things. Whether it’s first-rate social and economic infrastructure or Roads of National Significance, New Zealanders have come to know National as the party that delivers on its policies.

“The current Government cancelled or stalled all of the former National Government’s plans to build New Zealand. This has left Kiwis worse off as congestion grows, our economy slows, and the number of people waiting for housing has skyrocketed in two short years.

“National will make sure New Zealand’s infrastructure is fit for purpose for the 21st century.

“We’ll deliver economic infrastructure that will grow our economy and create jobs, as well as social infrastructure that will see our kids taught in world-class facilities and provide us access to the best healthcare possible.

“We will get New Zealand moving again by investing in the safe, efficient high-quality highways that motorists deserve in return for all the tax Labour has stung them with.

“We will keep the Kiwi dream of home ownership alive by freeing up planning rules and restrictions around consenting to make sure houses and infrastructure gets built.

We are committing to:

• Repeal and replace the Resource Management Act
• Develop a clear pipeline of major infrastructure projects
• Repeal the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax and not increase fuel taxes in our first term
• Use private capital to build the critical infrastructure New Zealand needs
• Introduce legislation that will implement roadside drug testing

We are proposing to:

• Complete our Roads of National Significance (RONS) and begin a second generation programme
• Introduce new funding for Roads of Regional Significance
• Introduce a target to reduce the time it takes to house priority clients on the social housing register
• Increase support for community housing providers
• Introduce new transport authorities in Wellington and Canterbury
• Introduce a performance auditor for Auckland CCOs, including Auckland Transport
• Establish a new Water Infrastructure Fund to help councils improve water quality.
• Decrease the use of random speed cameras and increase signposted cameras
• Move to congestion charging and road user charges for all vehicles over time

“Quality infrastructure gets us to work on time in the morning and home again to our families at night. It grows our economy and gives the places we live vibrancy as well as functionality.

“National is the party of infrastructure. We’re doing the hard work now so we can hit the ground running in 2020.”

Welcome to the launch of our Infrastructure and Transport, and RMA Reform and Housing discussion documents. While they are clearly two standalone discussion documents they are both also clearly about the same fundamental thing – building New Zealand.

Transport and Infrastructure

When I first became a Member of Parliament I had the grand plan of becoming the Minister of Justice and reforming the justice system. But John Key had other plans for me and consistently gave me economic and infrastructural portfolios. I’m glad he did.

As minister in areas such as Energy, Communications, Transport and Economic Development I got hands-on and led teams that got things done, as I’ve said, building New Zealand.

We invested more in transport, for example, than any other government in history.

I want to do that again as leader of the party of infrastructure.

I agree with something Paul has said in this discussion document. We’ve been too conservative as a country in the past in this area.

Chris is also right when he says that in government we did a good job of turning around our infrastructural deficit but we need continuous, significant and growing investment.

Sadly it’s stalled.

We can get it moving again.

And not just for the sake of it. But because energy, broadband and transport allows mums and dads to get kids to school on time, businesses to power up, goods to get across town, and start-ups – whether in Kaikohe or Kaikōura – to get online, innovate and take on the world.

Infrastructure frees up family time and grows our economy. It creates more higher-paying jobs and makes us more productive.

Next year you will see our plan; a pipeline of projects for the long-term.

Because we have the experience and the ability, it won’t be a pie in the sky plan that never gets delivered.

Jacinda Ardern promised light rail down Dominion Road would be done by 2021. Now the Government isn’t even sure if it will start in the 2020s.

They say they will have an infrastructure package to announce in the New Year. It sounds like it will be our projects that they stopped, and we welcome that.

But we know announcements aren’t the same thing as delivery, and that’s what is needed.

We will have quick wins and longer-term work.

We will deliver; doing whatever works, without ideology holding us back, to get things done.

The Government I lead will leave infrastructure as one of its biggest legacies.

Today isn’t the pipeline plan but it is a sense of our ideas.

Next year you’ll see that plan, and it will be bigger and bolder than before.

RMA Reform and Housing

That same boldness is required on RMA reform and housing, as is the same can-do approach of ‘whatever works’ to get things done.

That’s why National will repeal and replace the RMA and will reform New Zealand’s planning rules.

If we don’t, not only will the infrastructure I have spoken of be harder to deliver but so will homes for our families.

The RMA has been amended 80 times since first legislated in 1991 to become an 800-page monster. Along with planning rules, it is largely the reason why home ownership has become and continues to get harder.

As Judith has said in the discussion document, the dream of home ownership is drifting further away as regulations and red tape replace building homes with filling out forms. But it’s even worse than that, with the RMA failing to deliver either development or environmental protection.

That’s why we are considering splitting the RMA into two acts so we can do both jobs better; ensuring environmental bottom lines while recognising that our environment isn’t in peril if a bedroom or deck is extended in a suburban home.

In this document you’ll also see other practical proposals to get more people into home ownership, whether it’s by utilising programmes that we know work from experience, such as Special Housing Areas and the KiwiSaver HomeStart scheme, or looking at helping reliable state tenants buy their homes, say on a rent-to-buy or deferred payment basis.

And you’ll see proposals from Andrew to make the building and construction sector stronger through ideas like allowing competition in the consenting process, and a building warranty scheme so councils aren’t overly cautious, stopping necessary developments.

Conclusion

These are our ninth and tenth discussion documents and show National has the ideas and momentum in New Zealand politics while Labour is stuck in a rut, failing to deliver on its promises for New Zealanders.

In short, these documents are part of the biggest policy development process by an Opposition, ever.

We hope you like them but more importantly that you enter into the contest of ideas with your feedback.

You can read our discussion documents here

The half year economic and fiscal update (HYEFU) proves Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson’s 2017 fiscal plan never added up and they simply can’t be trusted on the economy, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“This week, Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson broke their promise to New Zealanders to run surpluses and reduce debt below 20 per cent of GDP by 2022.

“Despite inheriting massive surpluses as far as the eye could see, the Government has blown them in just two years by putting the books back into a $1 billion deficit.

“HYEFU proves Labour’s 2017 fiscal plan, reviewed by BERL, did not add up. Labour said it would run a $6 billion surplus in 2020 but the latest figures show it’s going to run a $1 billion deficit instead.

“Over the entire five year period forecasted by Labour in 2017, it underestimated its operating spending commitments by $23 billion, double what we estimated at the time.

“Over the same period, the surpluses Labour projected in 2017 were $11 billion higher than those at HYEFU.

“National always said Labour’s fiscal plans didn’t add up and HYEFU proves we were right all along. Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson have blown the budget.

“Its fiscal plan and budget responsibility rules were only created because Labour knew New Zealanders didn’t trust it to spend wisely. That lack of trust has been fully justified.

“The Government would not need to break its debt promise if it hadn’t wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on failed experimental policies like KiwiBuild, Fees Free or the Provincial Growth Fund.

“A National Government would restore confidence and revive our economy by getting on with infrastructure, by making it easier for businesses, large and small, to get on with it and by being disciplined and effective in Government.”

On behalf of the National Party I send my warmest congratulations to Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his election victory today, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“Boris Johnson is a firm friend of New Zealand. He enjoyed discussing trade and other areas for greater cooperation with New Zealand when he visited here as Foreign Secretary in 2017.

“Significant opportunities exist for our countries to do more together post-Brexit.

“I’m sure that once the United Kingdom is in a position to further cement these areas of greater cooperation, including a Free Trade Agreement, New Zealand will be at the front of the queue.

“My best wishes to Prime Minister Johnson and the UK Government, I look forward to the continued development of our countries’ friendship and am excited to work with you in the future.”

National has today released our eighth Discussion Document which focusses on health and outlines a range of policies which will enable more Kiwis to access high-quality healthcare, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“We believe all New Zealanders should have the opportunity to live well. When we need care, we should be able to access it no matter where we live or how much we earn.

“National wants New Zealand to be a healthy society with a health system where illnesses are prevented as much as possible and care is easily accessible. Intervening early to target emerging health problems is a core part of our Social Investment approach.

“The previous National Government set challenging targets in healthcare and reported back on those every three months so Kiwis could see how their local DHB was performing. These targets saved lives and ensured years of continuous improvement.

“Under this Government, six thousand fewer New Zealanders were able to access an elective surgery in the past year, waiting times are increasing and targets have been scrapped.

“This Government has broken promises on health to New Zealanders and just isn’t delivering the care they need. Kiwis are missing out.

“We’re proposing a range of measures to ensure our health system is well managed and gives Kiwis the care they need and deserve.

Some of our commitments include:

• Re-establishing National Health Targets, which will be updated and extended to primary providers that receive public funding. Performance against targets will be published;
• Creating a common points system across DHBs and specialties to eliminate access inequities to surgery;
• Establishing an independent cancer agency outside the control of the Ministry of Health and DHBs;
• Ensuring services are delivered as close to patients as possible, with provision managed locally;
• Restoring PHARMAC funding and increasing it at the same rate as DHB cost pressure increases;
• Expanding the ‘Daily Mile’ programme to more New Zealand schools, with an expectation all schools take part by 2025; and
• Requiring Plunket nurses screen for postnatal depression.

We’re also proposing or asking for New Zealanders’ feedback on:

• What services and support should be put in place in first 1000 days of a child’s life for children most at risk of adverse outcomes;
• A centralised approach to the commissioning of mental health services;
• Improving access to treatment and rehabilitation for arthritis;
• How we can best support disabled people into employment;
• Increasing government’s contribution to hospice care to 70 per cent of the cost of maintaining services;
• Streamlining the ACC claims process; and
• Whether DHBs should still be elected.

“National believes all New Zealanders should have access to high-quality care. We’ll restore confidence in New Zealand’s public health system and deliver care for you, your children and family.

“This document is part of the biggest policy development process by an Opposition ever. The current Government has overseen fewer elective surgeries, a measles outbreak and DHB deficits have ballooned. It’s failing to deliver for New Zealanders.

“We’re doing the work in Opposition now so we’re ready to hit the ground running in 2020.”

You can view the discussion document here

I’d like to welcome you all here for the launch of our eighth discussion document, this one on health.

A friend of mine has just had a significant surgery. While they have been waiting for it and even now as they recuperate, nothing else in their life matters as much. The pain took over everything and right now they are 100 per cent focused on getting back to normal.

That’s how important health is. Without it, we have nothing, and so government has a responsibility to ensure all New Zealanders have access to the best care possible.

Some think National bangs on about the economy too much – heck, Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern seem to think we do. But that’s because National knows how much depends on a strong economy. The health sector depends on it and in particular the ability for a country to do the sort of things we outline in the document whether it be better cancer drugs, more cochlear implants, income equity for midwives or more for our hospices, depends on it.

Simply put, when you have a stronger economy you can afford to do more.

National will revive the economy and, as I have said many times, we won’t waste money on the likes of Fees Free, Shane Jones’s slush fund or embassies in Stockholm but on investment in health, education and infrastructure.

This is what I mean when I say, our bottom line is you. We’ll strengthen the economy and spend your taxes on you, not other people.

The reality is that as the economy has gone from the best part of four per cent to two per cent growth under Labour our economy has lost several billion dollars and about $800 million in tax each year for each percentage point dropped. That tax would buy a heck of a lot of healthcare.

Under this Labour-led Government, healthcare is getting worse. I’m conscious some won’t believe that because Jacinda Ardern often talks about how much she cares about such things. But when you strip back the soaring rhetoric, less funding has gone in than we forecast when we were in Government we’d invest, and targets, measures and accountabilities have disappeared. Deficits have ballooned and the sector is struggling. Meanwhile waiting times grow, and numbers of elective surgeries and immunisations shrink.

If you take just the elective surgeries, which was what my friend needed, the numbers barely increased under the last Labour Government before we took them from 118,000 to 174,000 a year. And now, for the first time in at least a decade, they’re going backwards. As with immunisations, that’s because if you don’t measure it, target it and hold yourself accountable by publishing it, results will worsen. That means ultimately your health will worsen.

The ‘nine years of neglect’ Labour talks about was in fact nine years of progress – and what’s so tragic is that they’ve reverted to type in health with less frontline healthcare but more backroom bureaucrats as shown in this discussion document.

National will re-establish health targets and hold ourselves accountable by bringing back the publishing of data. That will be in areas such as elective surgeries and immunisation.

We understand health requires a stronger economy that provides more funding but also leadership and targets, measures and accountabilities for us to deliver for you. Without either you get what we’ve seen before from Labour and we are starting to see again.

Of course we understand this is about much more than healthcare workers treating people in GP clinics and hospitals. It’s also about Social Investment and prevention through early intervention. That’s why you’ll see proposals such as ‘the daily mile’ programme to get kids running 15 minutes a day and a renewed emphasis on school dental services including the Childsmile programme around good oral hygiene and daily supervised teeth brushing in nurseries. At the other end of our lives it means such work as assisting older New Zealanders to continue living longer independently in their home.

There is so much more in this discussion document that merits mention but I will leave the specifics to our health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse.

Let me finish with just two wider points.

Our health team has more experience and expertise in healthcare than the rest of Parliament combined. From Michael, who for years ran Mercy Hospital in Dunedin to Dr Shane Reti, a decades-long provincial GP and DHB member, and Matt Doocey, a mental health practitioner with years of experience. All have postgraduate degrees in health and perhaps that’s why they haven’t been afraid to get out and talk to many hundreds of healthcare specialists in the past couple of years, asking what they think we should do. I want to acknowledge the role those health professionals have played and will continue to with feedback on this document.

Finally, this is our eighth discussion document and shows National has the ideas and momentum in New Zealand politics while Labour is stuck in a rut, failing to deliver on its promises for New Zealanders. In short, this document is part of the biggest policy development process by an Opposition ever.

We hope you like it – but more importantly that you enter into the contest of ideas with your feedback.

You can view the discussion document here

The average Kiwi renter is paying an additional $2800 a year in rent as a result of this Government’s poor policy making decisions, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“New figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) show that the median monthly rent is up $55 a week under this Government.

“A three bedroom house in Auckland is $66 more expensive. Today’s figures show it is $686 a week, compared with $620 when the Government came in. 

“Families are doing it tough under this Government. New and increased petrol taxes have increased the cost of filling up the family car, decisions like the oil and gas ban will flow through to higher electricity bills and there is no sign of tax relief after the Government cancelled tax cuts that would have benefited the average earner by $1060 a year.

“The Government has failed on housing. KiwiBuild has been a flop and extra regulations on landlords are being passed onto tenants in higher rents and discouraging the supply of rentals.

“The Government claims it wants to be kind but its bad policies are having consequences that are hurting the very people they are trying to help.

“National will release its Housing Discussion Document next week with our positive plans for building more houses and keeping rents affordable.”

New Zealanders are missing out on the health care they need with the number of elective surgeries decreasing by almost 6,000 in the year to June, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“New Zealanders deserve the certainty of knowing when they are sick or in pain they will get the healthcare they’re paying for with their taxes.

“This is the first decrease in annual surgery numbers in a decade. Every year National was in Government, the numbers of people getting the surgeries they needed increased. Throughout our time in Government the number of elective surgeries carried out increased by 55,000.

“This was entirely predictable. David Clark removed health targets at the first opportunity he got, and after two years in Government, still hasn’t replaced them.

“In the year to June, 18 out of the 20 DHBs saw a decrease in the number of elective surgeries. It’s a complete failure to deliver. 

“The Minister then tried to cover it, taking almost five months to release this data because he didn’t want to admit the numbers were down. This from ‘most open and transparent Government ever’.

“The Government has now said it won’t publish elective surgeries data online anymore. Kiwis deserve to know how their DHB is performing.

“New Zealanders are getting less from our health system and the Government is trying to avoid accountability for its failures.

“When you have a strong economy you can afford to do more. National will revive the economy so we can invest more in health, education and infrastructure.

“We’ve had a series of preventable measles outbreaks, waiting times have increased and the Government had to be embarrassed into action on cancer. The Labour-led Government is failing to deliver on health.”

The Prime Minister has serious questions to ask Minister Kris Faafoi about his failure to declare a conflict of interest in an immigration case, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“Revelations from Newshub that Kris Faafoi messaged a friend offering to get involved in an immigration case, claiming to ‘have a plan’ and offering to talk to ‘people who can speed things up’ are incredibly serious.

“Minister Faafoi acknowledged in his messages that if he dealt with it, it would be a ‘direct conflict of interest’ and asked his friend not to go public about it. He knew it would be a breach of the Cabinet Manual.

“The Prime Minister didn’t know anything about this when she was contacted. She needs to immediately ask Mr Faafoi what went on here.

“When it comes to immigration matters there must not be special treatment for some people. Not everyone has a friend in Cabinet they can call to ask for a favour.

“What’s really sad for the Prime Minister is that Kris Faafoi appeared to be one of her only competent Ministers. Now, even he’s let her down.

“The Prime Minister needs to show some leadership and deal with this matter quickly so New Zealanders can be assured that the immigration system is fair for everyone.”

The annual Labour Party conference will be a sombre affair this year as they reflect on how little has been delivered for New Zealanders in the so-called ‘Year of Delivery’, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised New Zealanders so much, but it was all talk and no action and so little has eventuated.

“Kiwis have less in their back pockets. Economic growth has almost halved under this Government and monthly job growth is down almost 70 per cent.

“Cost of living has increased sharply with Kiwis paying more tax at the petrol pump and rents rising an average of $50 a week.

“Seven out of nine measures of child poverty have worsened under this Government. Food grants have doubled under Labour.

“There have been no significant roading or other major infrastructure projects started under this Government, in fact, it’s cancelled the projects we had planned.

“New Zealanders are less safe with the Government’s soft on crime approach resulting in 1400 new gang members.

“Fewer than 300 Kiwibuild houses have been built for first home buyers.

“The ‘Year of Delivery’ has been a failure. New Zealanders will be left asking themselves what’s been delivered for them in the past year and the answer is not much.”