Two years of effective Opposition
Over the past two years National has held this Government to account while working on our positive plans to continue the
nine of years of progress we made in Government, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges says.
“National is the most popularly supported party in Parliament. We have a track record of effectively governing and
delivering on what we promise.
“Over the past two years in Opposition we’ve released four discussion documents on the economy, primary sector,
environment and international affairs. We have four more discussion documents on the way.”
In these discussion documents we have made a range of commitments including;
• Requiring all government departments and agencies to pay their contractors within 30 days
• Overhauling the Resource Management Act
• Repealing 100 regulations in our first six months in Government
• Eliminating two old regulations for every new one we introduce
• Introducing a Primary Sector Visa which will address workforce shortages
• Increasing penalties for biosecurity offences
• Modernising the rules around biotechnology
• Introducing Mobile Rural Health Clinics.
National has also committed to;
• Indexing tax thresholds to the cost of living
• Not introducing new taxes
• A $200 million cancer fund
• An Independent Cancer Agency
• Smaller class sizes
• Bringing back partnership schools
• Reinstating maternity services in Lumsden and committing to maternity care in Wanaka
• Introducing roadside drug driving tests.
“We’ve taken a constructive and bipartisan approach to the Child Poverty Reduction Bill. We improved this with a number
of amendments. We supported the introduction of a Climate Change Commission and we supported the first trach of the
firearms legislation following the terrorist attacks in Christchurch.
“We’ve outlined constructive changes that should be made to legalisation including the second tranche of the Firearms
Bill, the Terrorism Suppression Act and the Zero Carbon Bill.
“I’m proud to lead the largest and most effective Opposition this country has ever seen. Our 55 MPs will continue to
hold this Government to account and we’ll be ready to hit the ground running should be have the privilege to Govern in
2020.”