10 positive reasons to vote National
Policies have not had a huge amount of coverage during the campaign, so here’s my list of good policies from National. I’ll do separate posts on the good and bad policies of Labour later today or tomorrow.
- After having an unprecedented no extra spending budget in an election year, will maintain fiscal discipline to get NZ back into surplus by 2014/15 – four years earlier than projected in the 2008 PREFU under Labour.
- Welfare reform. 52% of those on the DPB went onto it as teenagers and have stayed there ever since. Work testing will stop the DPB being an income source for life
- Health. Tony Ryall has done such a great job in health that it hasn’t even featured in any of the debates. Elective surgery waiting lists to be reduced from six months to four months
- Education. $1b to double the capital budget for schools, and retention of national standards so parents know in plain English how their kids are doing, but as importantly so the Government can identify the schools that are less effective and deliver more resource to them.
- Science. As massive increase in investment in Science, including transforming IRL into an Advanced Technology Institute.
- RMA Reform. A six month deadline for consenting medium sized developments
- Ultra-fast Broadband. National will continue rolling this out without delay. 100 MB/s will be available to 75% of NZ.
- Law & Order. Tighter bail laws and increased penalties for breaches of protection orders
- Industrial Relations. New employees will no longer be initially forced to join a union if there is a collective, and can decide for themselves on day one whether to join a union or not.
- Youth Unemployment. National’s Starter Wage will mean not so many young people are priced out of the labour market.