The day kicked off with a fantastic Kapa Haka performance by pupils of Wānaka Primary School before the Mr Luxon gave a presentation to businesses hosted at Ray White Real Estate.
We also enjoyed a visit to Aspiring Care Lifestyle Village, a great tradies’ lunch at Breen Construction and a well-attended public meeting at Hāwea Community Hall.
With just 24 sitting days of parliament until the election there is a lot of business to get through.
RMA reform is the biggest chunk of work in front of us.
We are well on the way to replacing the Resource Management Act 1991 with a new planning system that delivers on its commitment to unlock infrastructure and housing development, support New Zealand’s primary industries and drive significant growth while protecting what is important.
Another major policy is around KiwiSaver.
To give every child the best start to building financial security, from July 1, 2027 National will automatically enrol every baby born in New Zealand into KiwiSaver at birth and contribute a $1500 payment to begin their savings.
We’re also supporting mums and dads to continue building their KiwiSaver while on paid parental leave.
We know that welcoming a new baby can put financial pressure on many families as they adjust to life on a single income and more expenses, so many parents choose not to contribute to KiwiSaver during this time.
Another area we’re taking action on is helping New Zealanders save money on power.
If re-elected, the government will help lower bills and strengthen New Zealand’s energy resilience by supporting households to take up solar power.
We will introduce a Home Energy Fund, offering low-interest, long-term loans that are repaid over time through rates so households can invest in solar, batteries, insulation and other energy resilience measures without the large upfront costs.
National will also remove planning rules that make it hard for people to generate their own power on their home or farm.
Under the new resource management system, National will make small-scale renewables largely permitted so New Zealanders can install rooftop solar without a consent; put ground-mounted solar on farms as a permitted activity, with sensible safeguards; add small-scale battery storage; and run micro-hydro for onsite use, subject to standard environmental conditions.
Finally this week we’ve seen great news with the financial statements of the government for the 11 months to May showing core Crown revenue up $1.7 billion on the forecasts in the Budget and core Crown expenses $900 million lower than forecast.
The operating deficit was $6.8b, $3b lower than forecast at the Budget.
Net core Crown debt is now $3.2b lower than forecast.
These are a very encouraging set of accounts.
New Zealand has been through a difficult few years, but New Zealanders can take heart from the underlying strength of the economy.
