United Future's Achievements
to Date

• secured $28 million of funding over four years and the passage of legislation to establish the Families Commission, which will ensure that all government legislation will be tested for its impact on families (as per the supply and confidence agreement)
• ensured that the long-delayed Victims' Rights Act, welcomed by victims' rights support groups throughout the country, could be passed (as per the supply and confidence agreement)
• lobbied for an increase in funding for Victim Support, which subsequently received an additional $2 million in the 2003 budget to establish a new district structure.
• ensured that Family Support payments and family tax credits are indexed to the cost of living from 1 April 2004
• worked closely with the government to ensure that the Land Transport Management legislation provides local communities with the option to bypass Transfund, and seek alternative funding for major projects that will help to unclog congestion (as per the supply and confidence agreement)
• negotiated a reduction in the amount of petroleum excise tax that is diverted into the Crown Account for non-road purposes from 18.5c per litre of petrol sold to approximately 15.5c per litre, amounting to $900 million over ten years.
• ensured that the Government has not moved to change the legal status of cannabis, despite the obvious agenda of many Government MPs to do so (as per the supply and confidence agreement)
• initiated a select committee inquiry into the implementation of the NCEA qualifications system
• lobbied successfully for more money for schools and NZQA to implement NCEA, to overcome the deficiencies identified by the select committee inquiry (2003 Budget)
• tidied up the clumsy and expensive board structure originally proposed for Television New Zealand and its subsidiary companies, by recommending that TVNZ and THL be separate stand alone Crown companies, rather than the original cumbersome arrangement of an over-arching board of directors, with additional boards for each company
• enabled the government to pass much needed amendments to the Resource Management Act that had previously been stalled for over three years. Amongst other changes, United Future ensured that meaningless terms like “spiritual”, “cultural landscapes”, and “ancestral landscapes” were deleted from the proposed legislation so they couldn’t result in further uncertainty and delay for resource consent applicants
• argued successfully for more resources for the Treaty settlements process to reflect the desire by all New Zealanders to see these claims resolved expeditiously and fairly. As a result, the Office of Treaty Settlements and the Waitangi Tribunal received additional funding in the 2003 Budget directed specifically at means by which the claims process can be accelerated
• ensured that new dog control laws do not create compliance costs that are too onerous on dog owners, while supporting increased public safety measures. Changes were also made to ensure local authorities will be accountable for their enforcement of dog control
• amended gambling legislation to ensure that the Government’s ability to levy the gaming industry would be transparent and accountable to those paying, and that an independent Gambling Commission to oversee gaming law was established.
• convinced the Government to amend censorship legislation to clarify and re-establish the censors’ ability to classify lurid images of young children and other matters brought into doubt following several court cases (the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Amendment Bill is presently before the House)
• amended the Consumer Credit Bill to increase the maximum prison sentence handed down to convicted perpetrators of property buy-back schemes from 3 months to 12 months
• convinced the Government to bring about legislation which will make sex offences gender-neutral, following several high profile cases of older woman taking advantage of young boys (the Crimes Amendment Bill No.2 is presently before the House)
• ensured that the fiscal impact of the Government’s decision to give local authorities the power of general competence will be reviewed by the Local Government Commission
• convinced the Government to launch a probe into the recent deaths of patients on waiting lists at Wellington Hospital at a time when the private Wakefield Hospital had spare capacity
• convinced Dr Cullen to reduce the withholding tax amount on employers’ contributions to super funds from 33% to 21% for employees earning under $38,000, and 15% for employees earning under $9500. This will help prevent over-taxation on employer-based super schemes and further encourage long-term savings
• proposed the independent annual review of Air New Zealand Ltd by the Finance & Expenditure Committee
• worked to convince the Government that the full legal and beneficial ownership of the seabed and foreshore should be vested in the “people of New Zealand” via a public domain title, instead of the original proposal that ownership would not be vested in anyone.
• lobbied for a Ministry of Health study into the effects of spraying for the painted apple moth for those who live in the spray zones.
• secured $250 million extra over the next four years for mental health, to ensure that the government maintains its commitment to the Mental Health Commission’s blueprint (2004 Budget).
• secured $4.4 million over the next four years for restorative justice initiatives, in an effort to support successful programmes that reduce future demand for spending on police and corrections services (2004 Budget).
• secured another $1.5 million in funding for victims’ support groups(2004 Budget)
• secured another $230,000 over the next two years to extend the social workers in schools programme (2004 Budget)
• secured a further $39 million over the next four years to fight the methamphetamine scourge (2004 Budget)
• secured another $66 million over the next four years for schools’ operations grants (2004 Budget)
• secured a doubling of EECA funding for homeowners to take up solar energy in their homes and to encourage other home energy efficiency improvements (2004 Budget)
• successfully lobbied for an increase in the parental income thresholds for student allowances, thereby widening eligibility for allowances for an estimated 36,000 students. The ultimate impact of this measure will be to reduce reliance on the student loan scheme and the long-term burden that creates.
• supported the extension of the government’s Future Directions budget package to middle-income families, and the creation of a gap between working families and those on a welfare benefit through the in-work payment.
• successfully lobbied the government to reduce the costs passed on to exporters resulting from tighter border security legislation.
• initiated the government’s decision to match donations to flood relief efforts in the lower North Island resulting from the February 2004 floods on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
• ensured that the matching of donations was repeated in light of flooding in the Bay of Plenty in July 2004.
• persuaded the government to increase the maximum amount of non-renewable generation investment by electricity lines companies from 25 megawatts to 50 megawatts.

United Future Parliamentary Office: Bowen House, Lambton Quay, Wellington
Email: Phone: (04) 471 9410