4. Homelessness.
Problems with homelessness vary across the country. It is important that we address the specific needs that are present in the Wairarapa electorate. This is not just a central government problem but a community issue. To address this correctly I would be sitting down with the appropriate agencies involved in this region to identify the resources and means to provide targeted aid to those that need it the most. Act considers that an important part of the state's role is to act as insurance for those who fall on hard times, but recognises that it is only to provide to those who could not otherwise provide for themselves.
5. Making streets safer.
Act believes that protecting the safety and property of its citizens is the government's most basic job - and the rights of victims should trump the rights of criminals. We already have introduced the three strikes law for violent offending and I would be supporting Act's policy to extend this to included home burglaries. As was the case when addressing the policing needs to tackle the meth problem, I would work with the local police to determine what resources are needed to ensure that we are able to keep our streets safe.
James Harold
INDEPENDENT
1.The destructive impact of P.
I believe that the destructive impact of P, as well as synthetics, is a direct result of the suppression of the cannabis plant. By waging a war on cannabis, it has become scarce and expensive, so P and synthetic sale and use is a natural progression when dealing in the illegal drug trade.
Cannabis is known as a "gateway drug". This is because we put it in the same market as other illegal drugs, thus exposing cannabis users to the likes of synthetics and methamphetamine.
I think the only logical way to deal with these major problems in society would be to legitimise and regulate the current illegal cannabis market, and allow people to grow for personal use. This action would create many legitimate jobs for people currently operating outside the law, and create a safe environment for the trade of a natural plant that has never killed anyone and is a proven medicine for many diseases including cancer, epilepsy and Parkinson's. A recent Newshub poll shows that over 70 per cent of people have tried cannabis.
Forcing people into the criminal world to find a source for a plant that was given to us all by mother nature is the problem.
2. Providing permanent, well-paying jobs.
New Zealand hemp industry, New Zealand medical cannabis industry, legitimise current recreational black market. These industries would bring massive amounts of money and jobs to rural areas. Hemp can be used to sequester carbon and produce an amazing amount of products that are environmentally friendly, it could replace the oil industry and provide an abundant source of food. Planting hemp in sensitive catchment areas will clean up the waterways. Because of the increased wealth and jobs in rural areas, pressure would be taken off main centres.
The medical benefits of the cannabis plant are constantly being proven to be a better alternative to many pharmaceuticals. The taxes on these industries would bring in huge amounts of revenue that our country needs. These industries would give New Zealanders a chance to get out of debt and make communities a whole lot better. More jobs and more money in stagnated rural areas, means less crime. Diversification of current agricultural practices, with an aim to create local resilience by producing what we need, where we live, to ensure we get the best produce that is not genetically modified or filled with poisons. Holding these industries back is a crime against New Zealanders.
3. Providing affordable housing.
According to hemp-technologies, a 3000sq ft house can be built for under $77,000 . We should definitely be doing this. Look into Hempcrete.
4. Homelessness.
Creating new, highly profitable, environmentally friendly industries,which in turn will create more well paying jobs and profits for New Zealanders. Building affordable housing, and encouraging a permaculture based approach within communities, will ensure that everyone is looked after properly. Bringing in 75,000 immigrants per year does not help.
5. Making streets safer.
By doing what I have set out above, communities will naturally become safer, happier and healthier places for us all to live together, and I will strive to achieve these goals.
John Hart
GREEN
1.The destructive impact of P.
We need to address the underlying reasons for drug abuse, like inequality and lack of education. Treating addiction as a health issue would put more focus on helping people and reducing the harm of P. Legalising cannabis would free up police resources to focus on P-related crime like dealing and burglary.
2. Providing permanent, well-paying jobs.
We urgently need a plan B for regional development after Ruataniwha. Rather than focusing only on the few per cent of the region, we could irrigate via water storage, I'd like to see 100 per cent of the region lift its productivity and profitability through sharing better practice and experimenting with new crops. I'm in favour of establishing a dry land institute to achieve this. Should I become an MP, I would make this a priority.
I believe our future lies in creating a rich food landscape that is adapted to local conditions, is resilient in the face of climate change, and that creates jobs by producing high value food that global consumers want to pay for.
3. Providing affordable housing.
Everyone should have access to safe and secure housing but at the moment an increasing number of people are homeless or in substandard housing. There are not enough state houses to address this problem. Building homes to sell to non-government housing providers should make more social housing available.
The Green Party would build 15,000 new homes, 10,000 of these would be sold over 10 years to households who can't afford a mortgage or deposit through the 'Home for Life' rent-to-own scheme. The remaining 5000 homes would be sold to community housing providers, including iwi. Non-government housing organisations would be free to use the homes for emergency housing, rented social housing, or to on-sell to tenants under rent-to-buy schemes.
4. Homelessness.
There is not enough state housing to address this problem. Building more state houses should help address this need. The Green Party would build around 450 new state homes. These homes would be built in the most high-need areas and would prioritise housing the homeless.
Construction of the new state homes would be funded by allowing Housing New Zealand, the government-owned corporation which owns and manages state housing, to retain its earnings rather than paying them to the government.
5. Making streets safer.
The best way to keeping families and communities safe is to address the causes of crime and where possible prevent it from happening in the first place. Prison needs to be the last resort as the evidence shows us that putting people in jail is often an expensive way of creating more crime.
We recognise that victims of crime have every right to be angry and to see offenders punished. This needs to be done in a way that does not create more crime and more victims. To help keep communities safe there needs to be a greater focus on victims' rights, restorative justice, crime prevention and rehabilitation.
Kieran McAnulty
LABOUR
1.The destructive impact of P.
Methamphetamine impacts on individuals, families and communities. There is no simple solution. When I first joined the volunteer fire brigade P was not much of an issue. Now we train on how to deal with a fire in a 'P house'. Despite promises of a 'War on P', the drug is now more readily available and cheaper. Everyone should feel safe in their homes and safe in their communities. We need to ensure that community policing is a priority. Labour has committed to giving police the resources they need to combat this drug in our community.
In addition, we must also make sure that those that are addicted get the treatment and support they need. Currently, when people reach for help some face a significant wait for treatment. And that treatment is often not available in rural areas. That's not good enough.
2. Providing permanent, well-paying jobs.
Labour's Regional Development Fund will make a big difference in rural areas like Central Hawke's Bay. This $200 million fund aims to unlock the economic potential of as many regions as possible. Providing jobs is a big part of that. For example, Labour can commit to incentivising businesses to move from larger urban centres to places like Central Hawke's Bay. If a medium sized employer leaves Auckland they won't notice, but I guarantee it will be noticed in Waipukurau. In addition to that, the fund commits to partnering with local councils with investing in the infrastructure they need to attract new employment opportunities.
3. Providing affordable housing.
We've got to build houses. And we have to stop speculators pushing buyers out of the market. Labour will ban foreign speculators from buying existing New Zealand homes. This will remove from the market foreign speculators who are pushing prices out of reach of first home buyers.
Labour will also establish an Affordable Housing Authority to work with the private sector to cut through red tape and get new homes built fast. It will partner with private developers, councils and iwi to undertake major greenfields and revitalisation projects, building affordable homes with KiwiBuild and the private market. These homes will be part of great communities built around parks, shopping centres and transport links.
4. Homelessness.
There is no question that homelessness has increased. This just shouldn't happen in New Zealand.
Labour will make Housing New Zealand into a public service rather than an SOE, and will substantially increase the number of state houses. Unlike the current government, Labour will not milk state housing for a dividend, and will end its programme of state house sales.
5. Making streets safer.
There are fewer police officers today than there were in 2014, even though the population of New Zealand has grown by 200,000 in the past two years. Community police stations have been closed.
Labour will provide funding to increase police numbers each year, with a total increase of 1000 extra police officers in our first term. This will bring the total number of police officers to 10,000, which will bring the police to population ratio back below 1 to 500.
Labour will support these additional police officers with $180m a year of extra funding. That will mean we not only have the extra officers we need but also the extra support staff, training, and resources they need to do the job.
Ron Mark
NEW ZEALAND FIRST
1.The destructive impact of P.
Sadly in the past three years I have seen first hand how this vile drug can destroy young lives and disrupt, even break up, what were stable loving homes. So as the elected MP for the Wairarapa electorate I would fight for extra front-line police in our region. New Zealand first is committed to getting an extra 1800 front-line police like the 1000 extra I got back in 2005-2008. I will fight for some of these extra police to come our towns. Secondly, I will support legislation to ban all criminal gangs. And watch out for a major announcement from Winston Peters soon.
2. Providing permanent, well-paying jobs.
I will support increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour with tax breaks for businesses who employ young New Zealanders. NZ First will promote education to increase productivity and driver licence training as a core subject in schools. Supporting the export sector in the provinces by running an export lead economy by amending the reserve bank act and running a managed exchange rate are key to this. As is reducing compliance costs for businesses by reviewing such things as the onerous OHS laws, the new Fire Service levies, the RMA and the Earthquake prone Building legislation all passed by National.
3. Providing affordable housing.
Build more houses ... The government most demonstrate leadership here. This is a basic supply-demand issue, the government is adding demand with uncontrolled mass immigration but then asking the market to solve the housing. If the government interferes with one part of supply demand they have the reasonability to help with the other. We will boost supply and lower demand with controlled strategic immigration.
4. Homelessness.
Again, build more houses. If we had enough houses, we would not talk about homelessness. Everyone New Zealander deserves a house, homelessness is not an acceptable by product of mass immigration.
5. Making streets safer.
Again, I am committed for police stations to have police in them 24 hours a day. It is New Zealand First's policy to end the use of sole-charged police stations. We need minimum double staffing in all existing stations as well as more police on scheduled night patrols. Again we will increase police numbers by and extra 1800 over the next three years and we will fund police better than National so that they can do their job. Having police running to the justice sector slush fund begging for money to pay wages will not happen under a New Zealand First government as it has under National. Police will be funded to keep rural police stations open.
Alastair Scott
NATIONAL
1.The destructive impact of P.
Drugs and the people that peddle them are putting our regional communities at serious risk. Reducing the harm of methamphetamine and other drugs in the Wairarapa is a priority. National will invest in a range of measures to crack down on organised crime and drug dealers - with more effective community policing, disrupting supply networks, and holding offenders to higher account.
It is also important to address the harm of drug addiction to make a real difference within our local communities - by working to expand our addiction services, developing innovative new treatment and prevention measures, and improving education about the dangers of meth.
2. Providing permanent, well-paying jobs.
The primary sector is the backbone of this country. A strong primary sector in our region boosts the economic growth of the local towns, creating more jobs, exports and opportunities. I will continue to support the agriculture sector. I want to see more of our products on more shelves around the world. National are setting the ambitious goal to have 90 per cent of our goods exports covered by free trade agreements by 2030, up from 53 per cent today.
In a strong commitment to our farmers, National have reaffirmed that we will not bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme until we have an economically viable way of reducing on farm emissions. We are the only party to have made that commitment. The Labour Water and ETS policies lack understanding of regional areas, financially penalising instead of supporting good practise with incentives, innovation, and scientific evidence.
3. Providing affordable housing.
The key to improving housing affordability is land supply and building more houses, which is what National is focused on.
A re-elected National-led government will introduce new fit-for-purpose urban planning laws separate from the Resource Management Act to encourage more responsive local planning, faster development, and better protection for the environment in our growing regions.
4. Homelessness.
The expansion of the successful National Housing First programme will provide help to more high need individuals. The programme supports people into permanent housing and addresses the root causes of their homelessness through the provision of targeted, one-on-one wraparound services. Hopefully this initiative can continue to expand as it comprehensively addresses the issue, instead of offering a band-aid solution.
Ultimately, we all want more people across New Zealand who are sleeping rough to be supported into stable housing, and provided with the broader help they need to improve their lives.
5. Making streets safer.
Earlier this year the National-led Government announced a half-a-billion investment for police and the wider justice sector to boost police capacity, and improve the speed of police to attend emergencies and respond to crime in our communities.
Over the next 12 months, our electorate will see additional police officers in Dannevirke, Woodville, Pahiatua, Masterton, and a new high priority offenders unit to target illegal gang activity across the Wairarapa. And National will continue to deliver world-leading rehabilitation and prevention work to drive down offending and put more criminals and young offenders on the path to better lives.