Dear John,



This week I am focused on our democratic right to free speech and our need for this government to take action on a number of other fronts and not just promise a budget for something that won’t happen like rolling out better mental health care.



The National Party believes that freedom of speech is a fundamental right. We will fight any attempts Jacinda Ardern’s Government makes to criminalise speech beyond the threshold of ‘inciting violence’, which is already provided for in New Zealand law.



While the National Party condemns vile speech that is intended to insult, it is a big leap from condemning it to criminalising it.

The Prime Minister needs to be clear about the intent of this law reform. At the moment it seems only approved opinions about some subjects will be allowed and questioning those opinions will be a criminal offence.  



The government has not said who will decide what opinions are acceptable.  The Minister of Justice is not clear on what “hatred” is and there is no clear threshold for punishment stated.



I invite every New Zealander to have their say on these changes on this government website, please click here <[link removed]>.



Covid-19 Vaccinations



This is simple – where are our vaccinations? The Minister has said New Zealand will run out of vaccinations on Tuesday 6 July - that is this coming week. After ordering a range of vaccinations last year in November and being told it was all sorted, someone then decided to order Pfizer vaccinations only.



Expectations were raised earlier this year that we would all be vaccinated by the end of this July. Now not even the online booking system will be live until 28 July.



It seems we can expect to be vaccinated by the “end of the third quarter” ie December 2021. We need 97 per cent of people to be vaccinated for good protection in our country for when our borders fully reopen. When this will be is now unknown.



On top of this do we know how much the Government is spending on Covid-19?



Half of the $10 billion Grant Robertson set aside in the case of a further COVID-19 resurgence has been spent funding Labour’s non-COVID-related ideas.



Following the recent budget only $5.1 billion is now left.



It appears that some of these funds have been spent on water safety, funding for the Olympics, house building acceleration and other projects.



If New Zealand has to have another major Covid-19 lockdown due to the infiltration of a more virulent strain of the virus and the fact that we have insufficient people vaccinated, $5 billion wouldn’t go very far in supporting businesses and New Zealanders through it.



Lack of funds for a resurgence will force the Government to create an even larger debt burden for our recovery, debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back.



Mental Health Crisis unchecked



Why has the mental health situation in New Zealand now reached crisis point?



A budget of $235million was set aside in 2019 for building facilities and providing expert staff for treating people with mental health and addiction issues.



We have now learned that just $500,000 has been spent and that has only resulted in five extra acute mental health beds across the whole of New Zealand.



Meanwhile too many children are waiting more than eight weeks to receive mental health treatment and care.



National would focus on building ‘bed’ capacity and supporting a workforce to deliver compassionate mental healthcare to Kiwis in need, starting from their first contact and all the way to treating acute conditions.



Corrections Officers need support



Under the current Minister there has been a 92 per cent increase in assaults on Corrections Officers in our prisons.



The number of corrections officers requiring medical treatment from assaults has increased by an alarming 80 assaults since 2017.



Sadly many of the people serving a prison sentence are violent offenders so this can result in attacks on other prisoners and Corrections Officers. The amount of violence in our prisons must be reduced and offenders held to account for their actions.



National wants Corrections Officers to have the tools they need to provide them with a safer work environment.



National’s plan includes:



- Requiring mandatory reporting of assaults to Police;

- Reforming the disciplinary regime;

- Creating a frontline safety improvement programme;

- Making sure PPE is fit for purpose;

- Trials of the use of tasers.



We owe it to our Corrections Officers to make sure their workplace is as safe as possible.



There are many issues besides these that my National MP’s and I have in front of us and we are all doing what we can to reduce the problems that the people in our Electorates and across New Zealand are facing as a result of them.



Kind regards,



Judith







Hon Judith Collins

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National Party Papakura - New Zealand

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