UnitedFuture voters believe we need to encourage and fund local communities to make local decisions. If you live outside of Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, chances are you love where you live but also worry about whether your kids or grandkids will have a future in your town. Concerns are growing that our provinces are being starved of investment, as…
In October this year we have Local Government and District Health Boards elections. Traditionally voter turnout is not great. As someone seeking a third term on a local Council and a second term on a DHB this article is my ten cents worth on why I think public interest is limited and will include a…
The question that most people ask first when they find out I’m involved in politics is ‘why?’ then ‘why a small party like UnitedFuture, why not one of the bigger parties?’ The simple answer is that I want to make a difference and you can’t do that from the sidelines. This is exactly the mantra…
A really boring sounding piece of legislation was introduced to Parliament last week – the Social Security Legislation Rewrite Bill. At first glance, it is hardly a show-stopper, or something to get too excited about, or so it would seem. The Bill is actually straight out of the UnitedFuture playbook, making significant changes to supporting families…
The debate about the melanoma drug Keytruda is an important one, with some very familiar elements to it. At its most basic level, the question is should or should not Keytruda be funded by Pharmac so that affected patients can potentially benefit from it. So far, Keytruda has been registered by Medsafe, the medicines regulator,…
New Zealand’s tax system is generally well-regarded. In part that is because of our focus on a broad base, low rate approach to personal and corporate taxation, and in part it is because our system is relatively easy to comply with as a consequence. While businesses can offset some of their expenses against their tax…
UnitedFuture has been advocating for children and families to be at the heart of policy making for all of its 14 years as a Government support partner. Our achievements in that time include the establishment of the Families Commission, now Superu, whose purpose is to “increase the use of evidence by people across the social sector, so…
Brussels Attacked, UNAOIL Corruption, Panama Papers, Brexit Referendum, Refugees Returned to Turkey, Da’esh selling Middle Eastern antiquities online, all these and more are negative news in a world slowly going mad. But what about the positive stuff? Here are some: The recent Intelligence Review has produced good recommendations including merging the three main Intelligence agencies, GCSB, SIS and the Prime Minister’s…
Although I am not a catholic, I have always been attracted to the catholic social principle of subsidiarity when it comes to how we organise and govern ourselves as a society. Subsidiarity is the principle of devolving decisions to the lowest practical level and the intention is to have better services, better democracy and better…
“The government’s new-found (and I think genuine) interest in the plight of vulnerable children and dysfunctional families is welcome. Putting children and families at the centre of policy making has been key UnitedFuture policy for years. It was one of the main reasons why we established the Families Commission (now known as Superu) in 2004…