Investing in New Zealand’s future

If elected, National will offer New Zealanders minority shareholdings in four state-owned energy companies and Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand has operated successfully under this mixed ownership model for almost a decade.

The Government will keep at least 51 per cent of these businesses and Kiwis will be at the front of the queue for shares. We expect around 85-90 per cent of these companies will be owned by New Zealanders.

It’s important to remember that we’re talking about less than 3 per cent of taxpayers’ total assets of $245 billion, which will still grow by $22 billion over the next four years.
The alternative is a lot more debt, which is what Labour is promising.

The mixed ownership programme will free up billions of dollars for the Future Investment Fund to invest in new priority assets such as modern schools, hospitals, and public infrastructure - without the Government having to borrow more from foreign lenders. We would rather pay dividends to New Zealanders than interest on more debt to foreigners.

Finally, it will give New Zealanders – many of whom lost money in collapsed finance companies - an opportunity to invest in this country’s future.

The mixed ownership programme will achieve all of these things while ensuring our country doesn’t go deeper into debt.

This is a smart policy that will strengthen the New Zealand economy.

For more information, click here.

National’s plan to build a stronger economy

National is committed to growing our economy so we can provide more jobs and higher wages to help raise the standard of living of New Zealanders. We are doing this by providing the right economic incentives, and regulating responsibly to maintain safety and protect the environment, but without strangling businesses in red tape.

National has set out its building blocks for a stronger New Zealand economy, in a 120-point economic development action plan.

The action plan complements National’s strong and responsible finance policy to get New Zealand back into surplus within three years and to start paying down debt. Our plan details National’s commitments to building modern productive infrastructure, improving regulation, developing a skilled workforce, and investing in innovation and trade.

It is crucial that we have all our export industries working positively if we are to turn New Zealand into a more competitive economy that provides better jobs and growth for all New Zealanders.

For more information, click here.

National to ramp up immunisation targets

National is working hard to protect and grow our public health service. We’re focused on delivering the healthcare Kiwi families need.

By the end of 2014, National will make sure we are immunising 95 per cent of eight-month-old babies with three scheduled vaccinations. We know children are more likely to complete all vaccinations if they begin early. All babies will be automatically enrolled with a GP and WellChild provider.

Early intervention can help families get a good start and set up youngsters for a happy and healthy childhood. We will bring local maternity professionals together to regularly review births, expand the number of midwives in our voluntary bonding scheme, and grow B4 school checks. We also announced $54 million in new mother and newborn baby services in Budget 2011.

Boosting immunisation and maternity services is part of National’s special focus on children. We want to give all Kiwi kids the opportunity to succeed.

For more information, click here.

Building confidence in the welfare system

Our welfare system is one of the most generous in the world and, under National, that safety net will always be there to help New Zealanders in need. For most people, this is a temporary support while they get back on their feet.

However, a small number see welfare as a free ride on the taxpayer, and there are those who are facing a future of life-time welfare dependency.

National will invest in helping those at risk of long-term dependency find work. There will also be a stronger, more proactive stance against those who abuse and defraud the welfare system.

Jobseekers whose recreational drug use gets in the way of a job will face having their benefit cancelled. For those with genuine addiction problems, we will help them get support to deal with their drug or alcohol addiction.

Beneficiaries on the run from the Police will have their benefit cancelled if they continue to evade Police with arrest warrants. And National will make it easier to catch fraudsters sooner by data matching with other government agencies.

For more information, click here.

Safer roads under National

National is determined to keep reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. We will invest about $620 million a year from the National Land Transport Fund to improve road safety.

Since coming to office we have focused on tackling our road toll as we work to build a safer New Zealand. We are on track for a record low road toll this year but there is still work to be done.

National will continue to make changes that build on the solid progress we have made in the past three years. We will introduce legislation to stop drivers staying on their learners and restricted licenses for long periods so they learn to drive properly. We will also introduce a tougher restricted licence test and strengthen motorcycle licence testing.

A big focus in the road safety area is making major improvements to our high-use highways through the Roads of National Significance programme. We will be investing $12.2 billion on improving the highway system across New Zealand over the next 10 years.

For more information, click here.

National to step up trade missions

National will lead at least 28 high-level trade missions to Asian countries over the next three years to expand trade and business links.

The party’s trade policy also says National will continue to pursue high-quality trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership and bilateral free-trade agreements.

Enhancing and growing New Zealand’s international trade links is a key part of National’s plan to build a stronger economy and create more jobs with higher incomes.

National has made substantial progress in improving New Zealand’s access to other countries’ markets, and we aim to build on that progress.

For more information, click here.

Government targets loan sharks

Preying on vulnerable people by loan sharks has to stop, and the National Government is doing something about it. The Government plans to overhaul consumer credit laws to protect unwary consumers from being preyed on by unscrupulous credit companies.

There has been significant and much-needed reform of the investment side of the financial sector over the past three years. However, credit providers remain largely unregulated and have no conduct requirements, leading some to exploit vulnerable people, resulting in severe financial hardship and spiralling debt.

Cabinet has approved a package of changes that was shaped by the Government’s Financial Summit, held in August, which brought together 250 people from community groups, budgeting services, NGOs, banks, financial regulators, and credit companies to look at ways of tackling irresponsible lending.

These changes represent a multi-pronged approach towards promoting responsible lending by increasing consumer protections, requiring lenders to give borrowers more information, and beefing up the powers of enforcement agencies.

Because this is a complex area, the Government intends to release draft legislation for consultation on the proposed changes in advance of introducing final legislation to Parliament.

For more information, click here.

National committed to protecting communities

National is building a safer New Zealander. Since coming to office in 2008 we’ve embarked on a comprehensive programme of reform to protect communities, prevent crime, and put victims first.

We’ve strengthened sentencing, parole and bail. We’ve cracked down on gangs and P, and put more Police on the beat. National is putting victims first and giving them the support and services they need.

If re-elected National will stay tough on criminals, we will screen parole applications to reduce unnecessary hearings, increase penalties for child pornography, and introduce civil detention order for the most high-risk offenders who are at imminent risk of serious sexual or violent re-offending.

For more information, click here.

Strengthening our health workforce

National will keep increasing the number of elective operations, reduce waiting times, and deliver faster, more convenient healthcare for all New Zealanders.

Under National, 500 extra people a week are getting important elective surgery including hip and knee replacements, and cataract, tonsil, and gall-bladder removals.

We will reduce the waiting time for elective surgery from six to four months by the end of 2014. National will also make sure an extra 4000 people a year get the elective surgery they need.

We'll work to make sure emergency patients, those waiting for important tests, and cancer patients have much shorter waiting times. All cancer patients ready for radiation treatment currently get it within the world gold standard time of four weeks, and we will expand that to include chemotherapy patients.

For more information, click here.

Shorter clinical waiting times and more medical professionals

National will further strengthen our health workforce to deliver New Zealanders the responsive and robust service they deserve.

In the past three years, an extra 800 doctors and 2000 nurses have been employed in our District Health Boards.

We will expand our successful Voluntary Bonding Scheme for health graduates to include medical radiation therapists, medical physicists, and other hard-to-staff areas as needed.

National will also expand rural training initiatives such as the Rural Immersion Scheme, to better support rural GPs and the rural health workforce.

National will work with clinicians to further reduce waiting times for important diagnostic tests such as CT scans, MRI scans, angiograms and colonoscopies.

For more information, click here.

Building a stronger primary sector

The primary sector is the backbone of our economy. National is proud to champion our farmers and growers. We’re delivering the solutions needed for an innovative, prosperous, and competitive rural sector, and we’re working hard to improve its performance.

We will establish the Crown Water Investment Company and provide up to $400 million from the Future Investment Fund to make equity investments in well-designed irrigation projects that help increase productivity, grow our rural economy, and create jobs.

We have already received proposals for our $35 million Irrigation Acceleration Fund to support the development of irrigation proposals to the ‘investment-ready’ prospectus stage.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research suggests this could boost exports $1.4 billion a year by 2018.

We are also reducing ACC levies for our rural businesses – including a 21.3% reduction for dairy farming and 13.8% reduction for sheep and beef farming in April 2012.

For more information, click here.

Protecting our environment and responding to climate change

Our environment is a valuable resource that must be protected. It’s a big part of our quality of life and central to our international reputation, primary sector, growing tourism market, and wider economy.

National believes sensible management of our resources can go hand-in-hand with faster economic growth and job creation. A stronger economy can better provide the means to restore, maintain, and enhance our environment.

We will introduce new environmental reporting systems, pass legislation to protect our Exclusive Economic Zone, and clean up nationally-significant lakes and rivers.

We will also continue to make sure New Zealand does its fair share on climate change with policies that carefully balance the costs to households and businesses with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That's why we intend to slow the phasing in of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) - as recommended by the Review Panel - from 2013 to 2015, at which point we will look to align our scheme with that in Australia.

For more information, click here.