Collins' Comments

Judith Collins Clevedon MP
12 September 2005

National’s Action Plan for New Zealand – The first ten things we will do………

To provide the right incentives for people to stay in New Zealand, work hard and get ahead, we will reduce Labour’s $7 billion surplus by implementing our Fair Tax Plan commencing 1 April 2006, and cutting personal income taxes so that 85% of New Zealand taxpayers pay 19% or less on their incomes.

To recognise childcare costs and interest on Student Loans as legitimate working expenses for mainstream Kiwis, we will legislate to make interest on student loans and pre-school childcare costs (up to $5000 per child) tax deductible from 1 April 2006.

To ensure New Zealand builds a road system and other much-needed infrastructure to allow us to remove congestion and get ahead as a country, we will introduce a substantive RMA amendment bill before the end of 2005, and pass it before July 2006, so that planning applications can be processed quickly and costs reduced.

To ensure that every New Zealand child has the chance to reach their potential we will introduce nationwide maths and English standards in 2006, hold schools accountable for achieving them, and provide reading and maths vouchers to parents whose children are struggling.

To reverse New Zealand’s drift to racial separatism and put Treaty grievances behind us we will require all historical Treaty claims to be lodged by the end of 2006 and use direct negotiations and an accelerated settlement process to complete Treaty settlements by the end of 2010.

To keep New Zealand safe from career criminals, we will introduce and pass legislation to abolish parole for all violent and repeat offenders by 1 July 2006.

To ensure New Zealand school-leavers receive valuable and meaningful qualifications, we will overhaul NCEA before final exams in 2006, and we will introduce Plain English Report Cards so parents and students are given easy to understand grades.

To reduce the waste of having 300,000 working age New Zealand adults on benefits and to ensure all of those on benefits really need the help, we will introduce more thorough medical checks for those on invalid and sickness benefits by 1 April 2006, and we will implement a comprehensive work for the dole scheme by 1 April 2007.

To ensure that Government focuses on providing taxpayers with value for money, we will increase our investment in frontline education, health and police services in the 2006 Budget, while cutting Labour’s culture of wasteful programmes like Radio Singalong courses, Treaty Information advertising and Prisoner Compensation.

To ensure one law for all, and to make sure Government acts on the basis of need not race, we will remove all references to the “Principles of the Treaty” from the relevant Acts of Parliament by 1 April 2008, and we will abolish Maori seats in Parliament before the next General Election.

This newsletter is available on my website www.judithcollins.co.nz. If you have a friend who wishes to subscribe to this newsletter or if you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter please send an email to clevedon.electorate.office@xtra.co.nz

ENDS

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