Candidate Question/answers to Tauranga & WBOP Grey Power Assn
By Annee-Marie Andrews for NZ First candidate for Coromandel
HOUSING
At our 2016 birthday party Mr. Peters was talking about immigration and housing problems. I asked him directly what he was going to do to solve the problem? His answer was “We can stop immigration tomorrow. The housing is going to take a bit longer but we are going to start building affordable houses again.
In the New Zealand First manifesto the Rt Hon Winston Peters MP says ” There is more than enough housing at the top end of incomes and serious shortages at the bottom end.” New Zealand First will provide smaller and more affordable houses on smaller sections in Special Housing Areas.
New Zealand First is committed to empowering senior citizens to enable them to remain independent for as long as they wish. Other points you may be interested in are: –
• New Zealand First will provide low cost government funding to local authorities for new elderly persons housing and public rental housing projects.
• New Zealand First will actively discourage local councils from selling off key strategic assets including pensioner housing.
• Develop a specific Industry Training Organization for the eldercare sector.
• Ensure that planning for the eldercare sector incorporates the capacity for family home carers.
New Zealand First will ensure that New Zealand’s housing stock is restricted to New Zealanders.
• Non-residents who are not New Zealand citizens would be ineligible for home ownership except if a genuine need to do so can be demonstrated.
APPRENTICESHIPS
NZ First will:r
• promote apprenticeships and internships as a concrete means of addressing youth unemployment, with particular focus in industries where there is a skills shortage.
• Encourage the use of temporary special measures, such as targeted scholarships, to encourage young women and young men into non-traditional industries.
• The apprenticeship scheme will be broadened to include areas where we have skill shortages e.g. truck drivers.
• Maximize employment prospects so that fewer New Zealanders travel abroad in search of work.
• Provide real opportunities for young people to gain quality education and skills that will enable greater involvement in the economy.
• Work to remove barriers for internships inside willing businesses that provide opportunities for young people to gain industry standard qualifications without incurring debt and with no cost to business.
• New Zealand First has a Business Linked Internship Scheme matching young people wanting work experience in a particular field with a business needing a certain set of skills that is willing to train and support the young person.
• Workforce Planning and forecasting will be amended with industry placements capped and ensuring greater fit between students and fields of study.
NATIONAL SUPER
I am so pleased to represent a party that says, ‘We value you’ and ‘You are worthy of care’. ‘We can afford you’ and ‘You can retire at 65’.
The Rt Hon Winston Peters MP says “New Zealand First’s objective is to preserve the entitlement of New Zealanders to retire and receive New Zealand Superannuation (NZS) as it now is with eligibility at 65 years and as a universal non-contributory publicly funded pension scheme with no means-testing.”
We must increase our productivity and reduce immigration. NZ First intends to double GDP over the next 30 years and says at 4.8% of GDP superannuation is affordable. When the economy picks up we will increase super.
We can’t do this with mass immigration and giving full super to migrant parents after 10 years. There is currently an unfairness to NZ Citizens and taxpayers who have lived and worked in NZ their entire lives. The parent reunification program is flawed as is the Social Security Act 1964, sect 70 for overseas pensions.
EDUCATION
‘Education with Escalators’ is a phrase used in our policy. It speaks to an education system where all students have equal opportunity and access and to go as high as they want.
Education is seen as an investment by NZ First. Tracey Martin MP has developed a comprehensive Education package which puts more planning into career and educational choices to address the 43% non-completion rate at tertiary level.
• New Zealand First has a Business Linked Internship Scheme matching young people wanting work experience in a particular field with a business needing a certain set of skills that is willing to train and support.
• Workforce Planning and forecasting will be amended with industry placements capped and ensuring greater fit between students and fields of study.
• The apprenticeship scheme will be broadened to include areas where we have skill shortages e.g. truck drivers.
HEALTH
New Zealand First sees health as a critical investment in New Zealand’s human resource – not a balance sheet item. When last in government New Zealand First undertook to remove the profit focus from the health system. Five years ago New Zealand First ensured an additional $530m for eldercare.
Our ultimate aim must be to provide our citizens with certainty about their healthcare and ensure timely access to quality services.
When in government NZ First will provide three free health checks and one specialist eye examine per year to Super Gold Card holders.
In regards to equal access wherever you reside there are a few of points of interest.
New Zealand First will: –
• Increase rural health services and ensure good access to basic healthcare equitably throughout the country including the immediate development of a rural and provincial health services plan with a view to early injections of health funding to ensure the continuity of essential services.
• Use a range of measures to ensure the adequate recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural areas…
• Ensure a high quality ‘rural service’ specialization is available in our medical schools.
• Require consistency in the provision of emergency health services such as ambulance and helicopter services and ensure the adequate funding of a core of fulltime employees.
WATER
New Zealand First says, “Water is our most precious resource”.
The Rt Hon Winston Peters says, “If foreign companies want our water they will pay for it”.
Under New Zealand First Principles: –
• Priorities for granting water rights must place public benefit before private benefit.
• Rights to take and use water are available only to NZ people (citizens and permanent residents) and NZ owned companies, and must not be aligned to overseas persons or interests whether directly or indirectly.
• Water must not be taxed or subjected to any charge beyond the recovery of capital, and the operational costs (including a fair rate of return) of taking storing and reticulating it for the uses intended.