Pansy Speak

National’s Post-Election Action Plan

National has a comprehensive plan to tackle the issues that matter to New Zealanders. Our policies have been fully costed and funded. If National is elected to lead the next Government, we will see to it that these first actions are carried out in our first 100 days after being sworn in to office.

FIRST ACTIONS ON THE ECONOMY

• Introduce and pass National’s tax package into law before Christmas, with tax cuts beginning on 1 April 2009.
• Update and publish the economic and fiscal forecasts to gauge the true state of the Government’s books and determine the on-going effects of the international economic crisis.
• Appoint a Minister of Infrastructure and begin implementing our infrastructure plan.
• Introduce an RMA reform bill to reduce the costs, delays, and uncertainties in the Act.
• Introduce and pass National’s transitional relief package into law to offer extra assistance to Kiwis who are worst hit by redundancy.
• Call in the public service chief executives and instruct them to undertake a line-by-line review of their department’s spending.
• Establish a Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee to oversee the review of departmental spending and ensure savings are focused on the front line.
• Begin a regulatory review programme to identify and remove inefficient and superfluous regulation.

FIRST ACTIONS ON LAW AND ORDER

• Introduce legislation to remove the right of the worst repeat violent offenders to be released on parole.
• Introduce legislation to clamp down on criminal gangs and their drug trade.
• Introduce legislation to toughen the bail laws to make it harder for criminals awaiting trial to get bail.
• Introduce legislation to tackle increasing violent youth crime by bolstering the Youth Court with a range of new interventions and sentences.
• Introduce legislation to require DNA testing for every person arrested for an imprisonable offence.
• Introduce legislation to give police the power to issue on-the-spot protection orders to help them protect victims of domestic violence.
• Introduce legislation to compensate victims by levying criminals and putting the money into a Victims Compensation Scheme.

FIRST ACTIONS ON EDUCATION

• Amend the Education Act 1989 so the Minister of Education can set agreed National Standards in literacy and numeracy.
• Publish requirements for primary and intermediate schools to report to parents in plain English about how their child is doing compared to the set National Standards, and compared to other children their age.
• Begin work on allocating an additional $500 million capital investment in schools in preparation for our first Budget to start future-proofing our schools.
• Introduce a “voluntary bonding” scheme which offers student loan debt write-offs to graduate teachers who agree to work in hard-to-staff communities or subjects.
• Amend the Education Act 1989 to increase the current fines for parents of truant children from $150 and $400 for first-time and repeat offenders respectively, and allow the Ministry of Education to take prosecutions.

FIRST ACTIONS ON HEALTH

• Instruct the Ministry of Health and DHBs to halt the growth in health bureaucracy.
• Open the books on the true state of hospital waiting lists and the crisis in services.
• Fast-track funding for 24-hour Plunketline.
• Instruct that a full 12-month course of Herceptin be publicly available.
• Begin implementing National’s Tackling Waiting Lists plan.
• Establish a “voluntary bonding scheme” offering student loan debt write-off to graduate doctors, nurses, and midwives who agree to work in hard-to-staff communities or specialties.

FIRST ACTION ON ELECTORAL LAW

• Repeal the Electoral Finance Act 2007 and reinstate the Electoral Act 1993, with the sections in the Electoral Finance Act relating to donations retained.

Pansy Speak will resume after the election. See you then!

Pansy Wong

www.pansywong.co.nz
www.national.org.nz

Join the conversation www.johnkey.co.nz

ENDS

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