The latest from Parliament and around the Hutt

This week Christopher Luxon ruled out the National Party working with the Maori Party
Dear John,

I wrote to you last week about my first public meeting of the year with Mark Mitchell on Law and Order. Soon after it was sent Emma Chatterton, our Remutaka candidate, rang me to tell me she'd witnessed a robbery ([link removed]) first hand while handing out leaflets at a local dairy to advertise the meeting! Hard to find a better symbol for the law and order crisis we're experiencing at the moment around the country, including in the Hutt Valley in the Prime Minister's own electorate. You can read Emma's own words here. ([link removed]) Scary stuff. Our next public meeting is on Health with National's Health Spokesperson, Dr Shane Reti. Put it in your diary - Tuesday 30 May at the Ricoh Sports Centre at 7pm.

Maori Party: The big news of the week has been the ongoing shenanigans in Parliament with the Maori Party, and of course the drama in the Greens with Elizabeth Kerekere leaving to become an independent MP. The government started the term with 74 votes in Parliament (Labour 65 plus the Greens 10) and they're now down to 71. It's all very messy, and there are rumours of more defections. On Wednesday morning Christopher Luxon made it crystal clear that under no circumstances would National work with the Maori Party ([link removed]) after the next election to form a government. So, a vote for the Maori Party is a vote for a Coalition of Chaos between Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party. I spoke about this while leading off ([link removed]) for National in Parliament's General Debate ([link removed]) on Wednesday afternoon.
Fundamentally, the bridge between the Maori Party and National is just too big. They don't believe in equal citizenship or in one person one vote, and they're not the same party they were back in 2008 when Tariana Turia and Sir Pita Sharples were leading it.

Hutt Speed Limits: Have you seen the Hutt Council consultation on lower speed limits on many (probably most) streets in Lower Hutt? Check out the graphic below which shows a huge number of streets going to 40 kph in the western hills, and many more going to 30 kph, all over the Hutt. In fairness to the Council, this is being forced on them by the government - their hands are tied - it's the law. The consultation runs until 5 June and you can look at all the details here. ([link removed]) My own view is that lower speed limits around schools make sense, but blanket reductions don't make any sense. The government should focus on fixing and upgrading our roads, not slowing us down. I'm interested in your views - what do you think? (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Speed%20Limits)

Budget 2023: Next week is Budget week, and Grant Robertson said yesterday that he's apparently found $4 billion of savings for the next four years. By way of context, last year he spent an extra $38 billion over four years, and overall, Labour have ratcheted up government spending by an extra $1 billion each week since 2017. These "savings" are less than 1 per cent of overall government spending - and it's frankly pretty pathetic. Our view is that it’s time for a government that shows taxpayers’ money more respect. We need to stop what’s not working, push dollars out of the bureaucracy and into front-line service, cut and cap spending on consultants, communications staff, government advertising and other ballooning backroom functions, and stop the waste. And we need to adjust tax brackets for the high inflation we're experiencing! Nicola Willis calls it a "resignation letter". ([link removed])

Around the Hutt: I'm looking forward to the Korokoro Gala tomorrow - where you can bid on coffee and cake with me at Parliament in the auction, if you're keen to make a contribution!. One of the highlights of the last couple of weeks was the Hutt Citizenship ceremony last Thursday - I always love seeing our new citizens take their oathes and become New Zealand citizens. A special moment.

Have a great weekend.

Chris

P.S A big thank you to everyone who has signed up to deliver my first piece of mail for the election - we have a few more routes still to be assigned if you're keen to do some walking! As in the past, it's really easy - we either drop the mail off to you or you pick it up, and you just go and deliver it. Please sign up here. ([link removed])

Our health system is in real crisis in the Hutt - please come by and hear about National's solutions with our Health Spokesperson, Dr Shane Reti.
Law & Order Public Meeting

Thank you to everyone who came out our public meeting last Thursday night with Mark Mitchell. A great discussion. You can see our Backing Police & Tackling Gangs ([link removed]) policy here, as well as our Youth Offender policy here. ([link removed])
Hutt Speed Limit Changes

Chris Hipkins said he was stopping speed limit reductions to focus on the most dangerous 1 percent of state highways. Lowering speed limits around schools makes perfect sense. Blanket speed limit reductions don’t. What do you think?
New Citizens!
Five years ago the Sidi family arrived in NZ as refugees from Syria. I spent two years fighting the system so they could bring their daughter and her husband over. Last week they became NZ Citizens! Very special day.
Wainuiomata Morning Tea
Thank you to everyone who came to my morning tea in Wainuiomata on Monday. Good to talk about local and national issues. I run these regularly so if you’d like to come along please flick me a message. (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Morning%20tea)
Who wore it better?
The boss at the King's Coronation in London.
Off to conference in Napier!
Jeremy loves planes!
Visit to City Rail Link
The City Rail Link is an extraordinary project. Started by National, it is the largest transport infrastructure project undertaken in NZ. It doubles Auckland rail capacity and doubles the number of Aucklanders within 30 mins travel or the CBD. Was awesome to check it out recently with our Transport Spokesperson Simeon Brown. Can’t wait for it to be open!
Friday Funny

Got a bit of attention on Facebook. ([link removed])
Photo of the week

Can’t help crawling over to see his friend Ladyhawke 🙂

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