Pansy Speak: National’s Post-Election Action Plan
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