Local student takes my job!
Last week, Rimutaka student Chelsea Torrance took part in Youth Parliament as MP for Rimutaka. Chelsea sat in my chair in Parliament, debated with other youth MPs and attended Select Committee.
Youth Parliament is a nationwide annual event that first began in 1994. Each year, MPs select young people from around the country to take part.
Chelsea did a great job representing our local community. She took a particular interest in debates around the sale of alcohol and the Dominion Post were so impressed they covered her presentation to the Select Committee.
It’s important to have young people involved in politics. In recent years, we have seen a number of younger MPs be elected to Parliament. It’s events like Youth Parliament which have helped this happen.
Giving kids a great start
Our kids deserve the best possible start in life. During Labour's time in government we put a big focus on better education and better healthcare for our kids. Sadly many of the gains we made are being undermined by the current National government.
National's recent Budget cut funding for early childhood education, cut funding for health and cut funding for social services that support the youngest in our society.
We're holding a public meeting in Upper Hutt on Thursday the 29th of July to explain what these changes are going to mean. Our Education Spokesperson Trevor Mallard will explain the ECE funding cuts and our Health spokesperson Ruth Dyson will explain what is happening in the health and welfare areas. We'll also have local speakers to outline what it will mean for our community.
The meeting is open to everybody free of charge. It will be held at 7pm at the Family Works Centre in Exchange Street in Upper Hutt. It would be great to see you there.
National’s health cuts appalling
I’m appalled that the National Government’s funding cuts to health could force a local health provider to raise its fees by up to 100 percent. This is unfair and unacceptable. The service concerned in Pomare is doing exactly what a good health service should, focusing on providing high quality frontline health services appropriate to their community.
They have achieved better than most primary health organisation’s in conducting vaccinations, cervical screening and diabetes detection. The health services provided at Pomare are a great example of a community owned service providing an affordable ‘one stop shop’ for the health needs of the community.
The fees at Pomare are currently very low, with doctors visits free for children and older people and just $10 for adults aged between 18 and 65. That has made a huge difference in the community by making healthcare much more available to some of our most economically disadvantaged.
People could be put off going to the doctor if practices are forced to raise their fees due to these funding cuts. If people don’t go to the doctor because they can’t afford it we’ll all pay more in the long-run as more people end up at A&E or in hospital with much more serious problems. It’s so short-sighted.
Minister abandons state houses
It's outrageous that while thousands of families in the Hutt Valley languish on waiting lists for state houses, dozens of homes have been abandoned and left to rot by the current government. There are over 40 empty state houses in Pomare. Many of these have been effectively abandoned by Housing New Zealand. That's not good enough.
For sometime the residents of Pomare have been led to believe that a major redevelopment is being planned. In the meantime they've put up with increasing numbers of houses being left empty and now it's time to say enough is enough.
The government can't just keep turning this neighbourhood into a ghost town. It's time for them to get on with redeveloping the empty houses so that Pomare is once again somewhere people can look forward to living. Phil Heatley made big promises before the last election about upgrading state houses. The residents of Pomare are still waiting for him to make good on those promises.
Unfortunately he seems to have gone in the other direction, slashing the budget for acquisition and improvement of State houses by more than 80 percent and the Healthy Housing programme by 62 percent.
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