PM's resolve firm on 100-day plan

Prime Minister John Key intended implementing his pre-election 100-day plan "by hell or high water", he said yesterday.

"The opening of Parliament on Monday is an important day, with the introduction of a new Government elected on November 8 with a strong mandate for change.

"We campaigned on a number of initiatives contained in our 100-days programme. It will be a busy time as the House will take urgency for the bulk of the time to deliver the legislation which encapsulates that 100-days programme," he said in an interview during a visit to Dunedin.

Included in the programme, and first up for the Government next week, would be the passing of National's tax package into law before Christmas so it could start on April 1 next year.

Other parts of the plan included introducing a Resource Management Reform Bill to reduce the costs, delays and uncertainties in the Act, passing National's transitional relief package into law to offer extra assistance to New Zealanders hit by redundancy, introducing legislation to remove the right of the worst repeat violent offenders to be released on parole and making it harder for criminals awaiting trial to get bail.

The Education Act would be amended to set national standards in literacy and numeracy and requirements for primary and intermediate schools to report to parents in plain English on how their child was doing in relation to national standards and other children the same age.

The Ministry of Health and district health boards would be instructed to halt the growth in health bureaucracy and open their books on the true state of hospital waiting lists and the crisis in services.

Mr Key said he recognised he led a minority government and none of his coalition partners' votes could be relied upon outside of confidence and supply.

 

 

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