NEWS: Key launches action plan

13 Comments
04 November 2008
NEWS: Key launches action plan

National Party Leader John Key has today laid out his plans for the first 100 days of being sworn into office, should National be elected by New Zealanders on Saturday to lead the next Government.

"There are big challenges ahead. National is ready to deliver a fresh approach. That will start almost straight away, with a strong economic plan, and improvements to law & order, health, and education.

"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, I will see to it these first actions are carried out in our first 100 days."

"New Zealanders need to have the confidence that a new Government will be ready to embrace the challenges that lie ahead and has a strategy to deal with them. That's why I am releasing this action plan today."

Mr Key says his first actions on the economy include:
• The introduction and passage of National's tax package into law before Christmas, with tax cuts beginning on 1 April 2009.
• Updating and publishing 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.
• Appointing a Minister of Infrastructure and begin implementing National's infrastructure plan.
• The introduction of an RMA reform bill to reduce the costs, delays, and uncertainties in the Act.
• The introduction and passage of National's transitional relief package into law to offer extra assistance to Kiwis who are worst hit by redundancy.
• Calling in public service chief executives and instruct them to undertake a line-by-line review of their department's spending.

On Law and Order, Mr Key says National will:
• 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.

In education, Mr Key says a National-led Government will: • 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 the 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.

And in health, National will:
• 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 agreeing to work in hard-to-staff communities or specialties.

This is not an exhaustive list of National's policies, but a concise summary of the party's first priorities.

"Our commitment to move immediately to tackle the issues that matter demonstrates our determination to build a brighter future for all New Zealanders."

Click here to get the Action Plan in PDF

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#1 - Peter Naylor 2008-11-04 21:04 - (Reply)

Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it the Seed of an equivalent or a greater Benefit. Personally I think that the words of Napoleon Hill are incredibly important at a time like this. New Zealand has the opportunity to emerge from this “recession” (which by the way I have decided NOT to join), in a much better shape than when we went in. One of my goals is to get others out of the recession mindset! As other countries struggle free from their own challenges, New Zealand can leap ahead. For New Zealand a return to growth should be easy to achieve. We just need to change our THINKING! All we need is, A POSITIVE, DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP (rather than a “proven” management) to encourage, motivate, cajole and inspire us. It needs to start from the top. It is amazing the difference a single person can make, as positivity is contagious. As a country we have time and again proven our inventiveness, our resourcefulness and our ability to lead the world in all sorts of endeavours. Lets do it again, but even better, faster, smarter and more efficiently. We are small enough as a nation that we can react quickly, the world is much closer, lets find the opportunities and exploit them. Can we have a think tank on how to take *ADVANTAGE* of the world wide recession as part of the action plan Once again I congratulate you John on running a positive campaign, in that you are not running a negative campaign against the opposition. Your plans are positive, your goals are positive but can you portray the POSITIVE Future you have for New Zealand even more POSITIVELY and PASSIONATELY.

#2 - Darren 2008-11-05 16:30 - (Reply)

1st 100 days. SHIFT NON-PRODUCTIVE STAFF ! TOTALLY AGREE WITH "HR explosion tracks bureaucracy boom" by Gerry Brownlee. I work for a very large Government Dept that has done exactly this... ie. they have taken on HUGE amounts of HR advisors, Businees Advisors, System-Advisors, Business Analysts, "Strategy" areas, "Risk" areas, Communications advisors, and middle-tier Managers - some of them ex-producive front-line staff (but also lots of private sector theory-only people) who now spend their days re-inventing the wheel (and Job Expectations and plans and plans and plans...) - (over coffees and day-long meetings of course) - and driving the rest of us nuts with requests for manual data! Cut them by 50% by moving them to front-line services (ie. answering phones, counter calls, letters and emails from the public). PLEASE IMPLEMENT THE ABOVE ASAP - AS THE WORKERS ARE SICK OF THE TALKERS GETTING PAID MORE FOR DOING NOTHING!

#2.1 - Marie 2008-11-07 14:34 - (Reply)

I agree wholeheartedly. I will be sooo disappointed if national does not move to reduce the bureaucracy ie.paper shufflers employed in government depts in the last 9 years! For me holding numbers at current levels is NOT enough. Wellington has for too long lived off the taxpayers of NewZealand with excessive wages and numbers in the public service. it would have been ok if we got improved services but they have all got worse. I mean why should a school with a leaking roof have to send a number of communications to Wellington in order to get it fixed,one phone call should have been enough! People suffering and maybe dying because their health records get lost in the system as we saw on TV One can only happen because there are too many people shuffling the papers,please get rid of them John and spend the money on the folks that pay your wages Us the taxpayer!

#3 - Mark Brown said:
2008-11-05 17:28 - (Reply)

I have just set up a Facebook page: 'Prime Minister John Key' to join head to: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=34268038892 bye bye aunty, more time for skiing!

#4 - Anne Fitzgerald 2008-11-05 18:23 - (Reply)

When you call in the CEO's, please make sure its not the little people who are axed. There are so many tier managers in these government departments, all attending very very important meetings!!!!!! the lower income earners - who do most of the grunt work are the ones' who will most likely to be let go. CEO's and their lower tier managers (as in: General Managers, National Managers, 1st tier Managers etc etc right down the line) are very very well paid for the little they do. So please Mr Key, remember your own background and make sure these very low income earners are looked after, the momeny to be saved is in the Managers costs, not the workers costs. Good luck on Saturday, I hope you win outright and don't need anyone else to form your government, and good on you for not playing the smear game with Helen Clark who I feel is not all that interested in winning this election. She has offered very little in this election, and I personally will be glad to see her retire.

#4.1 - RJM 2008-11-05 19:22 - (Reply)

Anne you are so right but I would add that if John asks the the CEOs to fix the problems he will in general be asking those that are part of the problem. Middle management has expanded under the control of the CEOs. Just another example of using other peoples money in a uncompetitive market. He also should not overlook the pure exploding waste that goes on in local bodies. RAY

#4.1.1 - Moana Allan 2008-11-05 21:00 - (Reply)

i'm not really replying to anythinbg. i reallly want to ask a question or two. What for example is your social welfare policy. I think we need to put a restriction on the amount of years beneficeries recieve the benefit. those applying or recieving should only be allowed the benefit for those children up to the age of 5. After that, they ought to seek employment. Also, having extra children whilst on the benefit is not to be condoned. why should tax payers pay for those irrisponsible woman who continue to have children and more than likely do not want them. what is your plan here? Also, what is you policy on improving the Maori situation? I am tired of hearing about Maori being statistics. clearly I am of Maori heritage and am sick of being part of the negative stats about maori. How do we break the cycle which seems to have etched it's mark on Maori people. My opinion is throught education. Not just educating our children but educating the whole whanau. we need money poured into re-educating our people. what do you think? regards Moana

#5 - Darren 2008-11-05 20:15 - (Reply)

Great comments :) Suggestion for John Key: Defnitely look at asking the longer-termers in an organisation who have chosen to stay as productive workers - rather than trading it in for a title and more money. Hard to identify admittedly - but hopefully not impossible. Blogs such as this are a good way of getting insight. ps. Helen is desperate to stay in power tho - thats why I dont respect her anymore !

#6 - Rosalie Ardagh 2008-11-06 12:36 - (Reply)

Hi John My concern is with the new Early Childhood Funding Regulations. They are complex and complicated and unmanagable. From one funding period to another there is no guarantee that you will make the ratios, due to the increase in teachers moving around which is driving up the cost of wages astronomically. The bulk funding subsidies are not being reviewed and increased in accordance with what the industry demand. 5 years ago The centre Supervisor was earning $20.00 per hour (low wages for woman in care and education) Today A student doing centre based training is earning $19 per hour unqualified The funding regulations are driving the demand and this needs to stop immediately. Please inform us Nationals intentions to review the funding regulations urgently. I am happy to give you examples of what is not working and some suggestions for improvment. A suggestion that may help families cope with the burden of the recession is to increase the earning level for families to get winz support. Many woman will be responding to the need to meet the mortgage and food costs etc., by increasing the hours, the days of work. It is better to give your money into the direct hands of the family for the service required to support them in making their payments than the devastation of loosing homes. The emotional disturbance will increase crime and all the negative that go with the struggle. If it is good enough to support the banks then I believe it is more important to target the money to the areas of most concern. Another suggestion to improve incomes for families is to remove secondary tax . Encourage people to work as hard as they need to to meet their committments and do not punnish them with secondary tax. As an entrepeneur you understand that any business to survive must be able to respond to market forces the Free Policy does not allow for this. Please outline the improvements National intends to make to the Free 20 hours (it is not free, it is complex an complicated). Good Luck and keep focused on the issues. Remember every individual is connected to a family. If you focus on families you will improve the outlook for the nation greatly.

#6.1 - Happy Voter 2008-11-13 22:03 - (Reply)

Excellent post by Rosalie. The whole EC regulations are “Nanny-state” stuff – removing parental choice in place of a Government knows best mentality. The argument for this Government control is to improve “quality” but I’ve not seen any improvements in quality in the past nine years. On the contrary, many experienced and skilled carers have been forced out of the sector by Draconian regulations; they are replaced by young academics waving degrees who do not have any interest in child care (but the money is now much better and the hours shorter than primary school). Childcare needs to be more accessible and more flexible for parents – not controlled by bureaucrats in ivory towers. Parents should be able to choose based on their needs and their own judgement about what they want from a childcare provider. We don’t need an academic dictating what we need. Three years ago National said they would introduce tax rebates for childcare at a similar level to housekeeper rebates. http://www.national.org.nz/files/Childcare_Policy.pdf To me, this would be a much fairer and simpler system than having yet more bureaucrats paid to create complex and costly systems for delivering subsidies to parents and controlling the whole childcare sector. Let parents choose whether they want their child to be looked after by the lovely lady across the road or the uniformed Ms Trunchbull at the ABC. What has been the growth Ministry of Education employees to administer all this bureaucracy? And what has been the growth in childcare places over the past 3 years? The Teachers Council is another area that requires urgent attention. It has no clear guidelines or regulations for the EC sector – take a look at their web site. The Council is able to make arbitrary decisions about whether an applicant is suitably trained to be a registered teacher. The Council is elitist, academic and self-serving. It is more interested in academic qualifications than whether a person is capable of caring for a toddler. In fact, I cannot see how anybody at the Teachers Council is qualified to determine whether a person is suitable to look after a two year old. The Draconian regulations have created a national shortage of child carers with the result that anybody with the right piece of paper (teacher registration) is snapped up and retained no matter how useless they are. Come on National - start undoing this Nanny State mentality that pervades the Government ministries.

#7 - Deborah 2008-11-06 13:19 - (Reply)

Please prioritise acitons that will improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealand children. It is all too easy for children to be marginalised in political processes because they don't vote. However, they are critical to the future of the nation and they deserve to be at the centre of all policy and planning. It is unsustainable to leave children on the margins. NZ rates poorly on a number of important measures when it comes to children - especially poverty and maltreatment. These are both areas in which public policy and political leadership can make a big difference. All politicians need to be bold for the nation's children - and this includes retaining the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act.

#8 - Paul McLachlan said:
2008-11-07 10:20 - (Reply)

Dear John, The defining difference between Labour and National government is the focus on wealth distribution or wealth creation. If we are changing to a wealth creation focus then lets start with economic development. One of the essential components in this will be the development of an effective and interconnected Research and Technology and Trade and Enterprize departments. There is urgent work to be done in this area. Opportunity is passing us by. I look forward to hearing that you will address this need early in your anticipated term of government. Kind regards Paul

#9 - Maureen Preece 2011-01-20 12:20 - (Reply)

Just wondered if all NZ did not vote in the elections this year, that the Politicians and councilors that are supposed to be here to represent US (not them selves) would get it????

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