I am back in Auckland and have been out in a few different electorates catching up with small business owners and locals.
In typical Kiwi fashion, the people I meet put on a brave face. However, often after a few minutes of talking about their current reality inevitably tears flow.
In my twenty years in politics the only time I have experienced a similar feeling of absolute devastation for New Zealanders was when I was a Minister visiting Christchurch in the aftermath of the earthquakes. Lives are in tatters and, just like a natural disaster, the fault lies not with those whose businesses have collapsed or are collapsing.
Last year, we could blame Covid-19 for lockdown and restrictions. Not anymore. Jacinda Ardern’s Government has catastrophically failed to prepare for this Delta outbreak. With the country only 20% vaccinated when Delta entered the community via poorly managed MIQ facilities, Labour left us as sitting ducks.
Not enough ICU capacity. Failed vaccine roll-out. Broken MIQ system. No proof of vaccination. No rapid antigen testing. No boosters ordered. No plan. No hope.
I am angry, so angry. And I know that I am not the only one. That is why this weekend I called for a Royal Commission to investigate the Government’s handling of Covid-19. We must hold Jacinda Ardern and her Government accountable for the havoc they have wrecked on Kiwis’ lives.
So what are National doing about it? As you know Labour has a parliamentary majority and this makes it very difficult for us to stop their legislation, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t fighting. We are approaching it from two angles: oppose and propose.
We are fighting tooth and nail in the Debating Chamber and calling out the Government’s failings at every opportunity in whatever forum we can. If you haven’t watched our Shadow Treasurer Andrew Bayly defending small businesses in the debating chamber, I highly recommend you do.
We are have also launched both a Covid-19 plan ‘Opening Up’ and a plan to save livelihoods and unleash the economy called ‘Back in Business’. In these plans we have detailed what National would do if we were in charge and thankfully the Government seems to be adopting our ideas at a rate of about 1 or 2 per week currently. I encourage them to adopt both plans entirely. We continue to work on plans in other key areas and look forward to sharing them with you in the near future.
Your team of National MPs are fired up by the struggle and heartbreak we are seeing as a result of Government incompetence. We are utterly focused on how we can help New Zealanders in the short term and return to Government in 2023. New Zealand cannot afford another term of this incoherent, disastrous Labour Government.
We need your support – and I am not just talking about donations – we need you to team up with us to ensure Labour has no chance of a third term. Follow us on social media so that you can hear directly from us (the news doesn’t show everything).
Share our messages and tell your family that National have a plan and are taking Labour on every day.
Thank you again for your support.