Securing a brighter future for New Zealand
Hon John Key
It has been a busy first year in office. National is delivering on our election promises and working hard to secure a brighter future for all New Zealanders.
We are continuing to engage with our ethnic communities to ensure your voices are being heard at the highest levels of government.
The issues that matter to our ethnic communities include law and order, the economy, health, and education. These are areas that the National-led Government has made significant progress on during the past year.
In law and order, we are taking action on violent crime to make our communities safer for families.
We have introduced tough new sentencing, bail, and parole laws to crack down on violent criminals and gangs.
We're boosting the number of frontline police by 600 by the end of 2011, and we've already put 135 extra police officers on the streets of South Auckland.
We've given the police extra tools, such as Tasers, to help tackle criminals and protect crime victims.
We're also investing in new programmes to turn young offenders away from crime - including military style activity camps for the worst youth offenders.
Our next steps include addressing the drivers of crime, tackling gangs and P dealers, and making our prisons work smarter.
After the worst global recession in 70 years, there are signs that the New Zealand economy is starting to grow again. This is great news for our ethnic communities who have played a vital role in supporting jobs during the downturn.
The government's focus has been to protect families from the sharpest edges of the recession. We've maintained entitlements such as NZ Superannuation and Working For Families. We've also provided a large economic stimulus through $1 billion of tax cuts in April and by boosting spending on frontline health and education services.
Now we're working hard to unleash the potential for growth and lift wages through a stronger economy.
We will ensure our tax system rewards effort, encourages savings, and helps families get ahead. We'll continue to get more out of spending on public services. And we'll boost infrastructure, encourage businesses to be innovative, and reduce red tape.
Our priorities in health are to put patients first and deliver better, sooner and more convenient health care.
We want reduced waiting times and better experiences for patients and their families. We want a more trusted and motivated health workforce. And we want better quality care and treatment.
Over the past year, we have delivered more elective operations - things like joint replacements, ear operations, and cataract removal - than ever before.
960 graduate doctors, nurses, and midwives have joined the first intake of our new Voluntary Bonding Scheme.
Now we're working to further reduce waiting times, improve primary care for patients, give doctors and nurses more say, boost the health workforce, and encourage health providers to work together better.
In education, we are tackling underachievement in our schools and lifting education standards.
National is determined to boost literacy and numeracy in our primary and intermediate schools through National Standards, where children's progress will be reported to parents in plain English.
We're also working to provide more opportunities in trades training in secondary schools with our new Youth Guarantee scheme and Trades Academies.
Our next step is to get the best out of National Standards, further boost trades and skills, increase participation in early childhood education, and tackle truancy.
National wants to secure a brighter future for you and your family. As we look forward to our second year in government, we remain focussed on addressing the issues that matter to you - and to all New Zealanders.
