The Government’s so-called ‘Year of Delivery’ might not have delivered much, but the policy achievements that have happened have largely been as a result of the largest and most effective Opposition ever, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.

“National released ten Discussion Documents this year – the largest policy process ever carried out by an Opposition. As a result, the Government has taken some of our ideas and put them forward as their own, this included;

· The Container Deposit Scheme from our Environment Discussion Document

· Small Business Payment Guarantee from our Economic Discussion Document

· Rural Mobile Health Clinic from our Primary Production Document

· Expanding Alcohol and Drug Treatment Courts from our Law and Order document

“Before our Environment Document, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said the Container Deposit Scheme wasn’t on her work programme and was a low priority, so we’re pleased we pushed her in the right direction to get this done.

“We started the nationwide debate around bio-technology, got people talking about the major issue with gangs in our communities and showed what a real infrastructure programme looks like.

“We’ve had thousands of submissions on our Discussion Documents, we’re now working through the feedback before forming our final policies before the election.

“Our relentless pressure in Opposition also pushed the Government into launching the Cancer Control Agency, putting more money into PHARMAC, protecting high value soils, scrapping the Capital Gains Tax and introducing roadside testing for drug driving.

“We shined a light on the many failures of KiwiBuild, forcing the Government to reset the programme and acknowledge it had wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on houses that no one wants to buy.

“National is the largest and most effective Opposition New Zealand has ever seen. We’re ready to hit the ground running in 2020, we will continue to hold the Government to account and will fight hard to have New Zealand’s most popularly supported party return to Government.”

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