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Temuka Clinics
October 23rd, 2011
St.Andrews, Pleasant Point, Lake Tekapo and Fairlie to get extra Police under Labour
October 20th, 2011The release of the Labour Party Law and order policy includes the commitment making all 62 one person stations in the country two person stations.
Labour Party Candidate for Waitaki Barry Monks said “The small local stations of St.Andrews, Lake Tekapo, Fairlie and Pleasant Point will have an extra officer in their neighbourhood keeping their community safe.”
Labour Party Candidate for Rangitata Julian Blanchard said “This is great news for our rural communities knowing that the local police will have back up and support and can continue work on crime prevention.”
Labour’s Law and Order spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove said “Labour is deeply conscious of the safety risks police face in their jobs every day. There is no way to ensure the safety of individual officers, but that doesn’t mean governments shouldn’t do everything they can to minimise risks.
“Since National came to office, however, police numbers have actually been raided in almost every district to pay for National’s election promise to put 300 extra police into South Auckland.
Labour will leave those extra police in South Auckland, but we will restore police staffing numbers in other districts. That will mean funding an extra 145 constables in our first term, including doubling the staffing of one-person stations. That maintains Labour’s commitment to community and police safety. National has only funded 30 new constables overall in the past three years.
“Labour wants to increase the number of police still further as the fiscal situation improves, with a short-term aim of keeping pace with population growth, but a long-term goal of improving the ratio of police to population,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
Our aim is to extend the community policing model we implemented in our last term. This means working with communities to determine the policing programmes they need to target particular crime hot spots such as youth crime, burglary and family violence.
Bigger Push for Sport Needed
October 19th, 2011Sport is the number one thing happening in this country at the moment with the Rugby World Cup and as a current cricket and rugby player I was pleased to see the release of the Labour Party Sport and Recreation policy last week.
While keeping fit is an important benefit of exercise, sport participation at the school-age level is about more than just getting active – it’s about having fun and learning important values such as commitment, teamwork, leadership and self-belief. The values, skills and teamwork learnt in through sport are beneficial in many other areas of learning and development, and the health benefits are significant. For these reasons, Labour will have a particular focus on increasing youth participation in sport.
We reject the National Party’s assumption that simply giving more bats and balls to schools, without any real support or capability development, will result in more participation in sport. We are all in favour of more resources for schools, but National’s simplistic policy fails to recognise that these days there are many competing influences for young people’s recreation time and simply providing sports equipment is not enough. We also need to support schools and sports clubs with resources and training so that they know how to persuade young people into physical activity and how to keep them interested.
Part of this plan is to look into school sport participation and look at reintroducing early finishing on some days to enable students to take part in midweek sport. The demand foe time especially on parents for the weekends is growing and working with schools and sports clubs into other time frames to get our kids into sport is a necessity.
It would be great that the new Riverside Sports Stadium could be utiilised for a range of competitive sports during the week involving schools teams and competitors. Funding grassroots sport in Ashburton will pay dividends. There are more than just the health benefits, but socially and economically also. The works of the Regional Sports Trusts as well must be continued and supported including the sharing of resources and information.
When it comes to the elite athletes too often funding decisions get politicised and and open to appeal. That is why Labour will leave the funding decisions to the Sparc Board. They are the experts and know what best to fund. National has set up a separate High Performance Board within Sparc which is unnecessary and money fromthat should go to funding athletes, not bureaucrats.
We understand the demands at grassroots level and want to make sure that schools and clubs are in the possible place to foster young people into sport and to retain them. Investing in grassroots now, pays dividends with elite athletes in the future.
Julian is currently President of Star Cricket Club in Timaru and plays for the Senior team. He also currently plays Rugby for Timaru Celtic in the Senior B competition and has represented South Canterbury in both codes.
Labour’s plan for lifting achievement in primary schools.
September 17th, 2011Labour today announced plans for lifting achievement in primary schools which included that schools will be no longer be required to implement national standards, although schools that want to continue using them will have that option.
Labour party candidate for Rangitata Julian Blanchard welcomed the announcement saying that the pigeon holing of kids was causing more harm than good.
“Schools, principals and parents don’t like national standards as it doesn’t have flexibility for those kids who learn at different rates and offered nothing for those who excel or fall behind” said Mr. Blanchard.
“Parents want their kids to be the best they can be and that means judging them on where they were to where they are now and where they can go” said Mr. Blanchard.
Education Spokesperson for Labour Sue Moroney said about national standards “They are not moderated; they differ from school to school and are therefore neither national nor standard”.
“We believe that lifting education achievements is best left to the experts in partnership with parents and our plan allows that to happen” she said.
Primary schools will instead be required to use recognised assessment tools and teacher judgement to:
- Determine the NZ Curriculum level a child is achieving.
- Show a child’ rate of progress between reports over the course of a year.
- Identify children not achieving within the curriculum level appropriate to their year at school.
- Decide and report the next learning steps.
- Report this in formation in plain language to parents at least twice a year.
The money and resources spent forcing National Standards on schools will be re-directed to assist students who are under achieving and to create the conditions where all teachers can excel.
The rest of Labour’s education policy will be released at a later date.
Blanchard promises constituent clinics in Temuka.
September 17th, 2011
Labour party candidate for Rangitata Julian Blanchard announced at a public meeting in Temuka on Tuesday night that if elected as the local Member of Parliament he would hold regular constituent clinics in Temuka.
Around 50 local people came to the meeting organised by the Temuka Labour Party Branch to address a number of issues affecting the area.
“Temuka residents made it very clear to me tonight that they are sick and tired of promises being broken to them and want someone to stand up for them.” Said Mr. Blanchard.
Access to healthcare after hours, the rail crossing and the general increase in the cost of living were the major issues addressed.
“In terms of the after-hours health care the residents want to know when the Government is going to step in and help get a resolution. They feel abandoned and hope that the meeting organised by Temuka Greypower will see the Government attend with some options for them”. Said Mr.Blanchard.
“I am going to hold some clinics in the town before the election as well, because a number of the issues need attention now.”
Capital Gains Tax Shouldn’t Target Family Home
July 6th, 2011Labour Party Candidate for Rangitata Julian Blanchard said “Personally, I would be very disapointed if a Labour Government was going to tax the family home and I am sure that next week when the taxation policy is released that if a capital gains tax is in there Labour won’t be doing that”.
The Labour taxation policy is due to be released by Labour leader Phil Goff next week.
“The taxation policy will show how Labour will pay for its policies in Government and it won’t include selling our assets” said Mr. Blanchard.
“If a capital gains tax was going to be introduced like many countires around the world I would like it to take into consideration the way in which many Kiwis invest their money into property especially as nest eggs for their children. I would like to see it targeted more towards property speculators than people who have a home and a bach.” said Mr Blanchard.
Labour believes this is a time for bold decision making to turn our economy around. We are fighting for the future of our country. The policy that Labour announces will be focused on paying off debt, keeping our valuable community-owned assets and growing the economy to create jobs and security for all New Zealanders.
Greypower Speech 16 June 2011
June 16th, 2011Good afternoon my name is Julian Blanchard and I am the Labour Party Candidate for Rangitata. Thankyou for the invitation to come and talk to you this afternoon. I want to acknowledge the Greypower Executive, as well as Gerrie and Jo my political oppoents. It is nice to John Button again who I run into at different events and meetings. It was great to see John become the Patron of Literacy SC where I am on the goveranance board. It is wonderful that people like John and many others here give there time, knowledge and experience to the community in such a postive way. Despite this though because you are over 65 National government doesn’t think you should sit on a jury with the Simon Power Juries Amendment Bill 2011 going through its first reading.
What would expect from Simon Power though given what he does to well known seniors citizens of Timaru. http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Legislation/Bills/BillsDigests/d/e/f/49PLLawBD18561-Juries-Jury-Service-and-Protection-of-Jury-List-Information.htm (2nd point under purpose)
It is of course election year and I am reminded of A little kid who asked his dad at bedtime, “Do most fairy tales start with ‘Once Upon a Time?’” The dad replied, “No, every three years most fairytales of start with, ‘If elected, I will…’”
I want to start by reading a couple of headlines from the Ashburton Guardian.
On the 7 April, it read Elderly using lessons learned in the depression. This is a story about Greypower president Joy Jaine saying that during these tough times elederly people are using lessons they learnt in the depression on the 1930’s to get them through 2011. She had stopped buying fish and would not even think about buying a leg of lamb. http://www.ashburtonguardian.co.nz/news/ashburton-news/3842-elderly-using-lessons-learned-in-the-depression.html
Four Days later on the 11 April it said. Superannuitants better off under National. This was the column by local MP Jo Goodhew. She said that because of tax cuts and increasing wages seniors are better off. http://goodhew.co.nz/index.php?/archives/397-11-April-2011.html
One of these is a fairytale.
This is on top of budget advisory services here and in Ashburton telling stories about how some superannuitants had not considered insuraing their houses as they struggled to make ends meet.Five years ago Super anniutants did not have to go to Budget Advice. Now along with Superanniutants people with full time jobs are using the budget advice service not just in South Auckland but in Timaru, Temuka, Ashburton, simply to make ends meet. http://www.ashburtonguardian.co.nz/news/ashburton-news/3842-elderly-using-lessons-learned-in-the-depression.html Jo is correct wages in saying wages have increased. Minimum wage went up a whole 25c last year. We all know that not only wages have gone up but prices have with the cost of living. Here is a CPI graph showing the increase of wages vs prices.
Campbell Live on TV did a comparison of basic food items which showed a 20% increase in 8 months. (Campbell Live TV3, 9 May 2011)
We have seen a huge increase in the price of fruit and vegetables, up 12.8 per cent in the year to May. All food prices have risen 7.4 per cent.
Locally we seen our food banks in much larger demand than ever with. Presbyterian support has had a 40% increase. Anglican Care and Salvation Army have also had large increases which only a percentage being attributed to the earthquake.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/5062596/Food-parcel-demand-rises-70pc
What has been the government response. John Key telling us that poor lifestyle choices put people in this position. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10706851
We get Jo Goodhew telling “Without the latest round of tax cuts we would be worse off” – Timaru Herald 27 May.
40% of the tax cuts went to the top 10% of earners. We are borrowing $44 million per week to pay for that. http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2011/06/07/gordon-campbell-on-revelations-about-government-borrowing/
So what would labour do.
Labour has announced that it will increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. That will increase wages and see your super increase.
Labour will rebalance the tax system so that everyone pays their fair share.
Labour’s fairer tax plan includes:
• introducing a new tax-free zone so that New Zealanders won’t pay any tax on the first several thousand dollars they earn.
Lots of countries have tax-free sonxes. Australia, Germany, UK, USA, Japan, but not us.
• cracking down on tax avoiders and the loopholes they exploit.
• create a new rate for the very top earners. Which will be in the six figure bracket.
Everyone needs to pays their fair share.
Labour would remove GST from fresh fruit and veges.
By Removing GST from fresh fruit and vegetables will help people make up some of the ground they are losing under National.
SC people need to be able to afford to make choices around the type of food they put in their supermarket shopping trolleys. Fresh fruit and vegetables can’t become luxury items because of the increasing cost of living.
Like me you will see in the Supermakrets that junk food is no more promient in trolleys than fruit and veges.
I want to talk about healthcare.
The cost of healthcare has gone up. National scrapped the cap of doctors fees and havent we seen them go up. Dr Bryan Moore in the Timaru Herald in August 2009 said “GP’s in SC are unhappy because our patients cannot get the care they need”. “They talk about how ell the SCDHB is going profit wise, it is because they are cutting back services, you can’t get people operated on and the elderly are being mistreated more and more”. http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/2728879/Rest-home-care-limits-annoy-GP
Timaru Herald reported on 30/07/09 Timaru Hospital In the coming year the emergency department will attempt to cut patient numbers by around 5000, and radiology services will be reduced by 10 per cent, which would potentially affect 2400 examinations. The emergency department cut will mean more work for GPs as patients are directed back to primary care. The DHB also confirmed that it would be axing up to 200 elective operations per year because of a cut in Government funding.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/2702352/Timaru-Hospital-to-cut-services
Have you tried to get to a GP after hours here locally. Well over $150 for a GP visit after hours.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/53912/After-hours-fees-up-to-150
Tony Ryall finally admitted this week that the budget this year had a $156 million short fall in it.
http://www.asms.org.nz/Site/News/Top_Story/09_Jun_2011.aspx
More than 1200 Canterbury elderly have had their home-help hours cut or reduced since a new assessment service began five months ago. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3264289/New-assessment-cuts-home-help-for-1200-elderly
A report into aged care was done with Greens and Labour along with greypower. Greypower helped facilitiate the inquiry on behalf of its members. Grey Power Submission read “Both facets (rest homes and home help) of elder care has become increasingly urgent because the present government has refused to acknowledge the problems associated with the industry and are continually failing to recognise that the problems do in fact exisit. http://labour.org.nz/sites/labour.org.nz/files/Aged%20Care%20Report.pdf
The issues in aged care are happening locally and South Canterbury is wearing the brunt of it.
A $24 million dollar bowel cancer trail went to Waitemata DHB despite having the lowest bowel cancer statistics in NZ. SC has the highest. It was lost to us.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/4442823/Cancer-stats-no-help-as-trial-lost
What would I do. I would fight for this region. I would fight to make sure our region who pays its fair share gets a fair share. To be a strong advocate for the rights of all constituents. To make sure we have strong and accessible government departments here locally that are not cut. We have had a large influx of people into the region. Where is our extra support for agencies because of this. There is none. Jo talks about the Community Response Fund, which was set up for the financial crisis not the earthquake.
As a local MP I will answer the questions people want to know. I will fight and stand up for thr region. We wont win them all, but we won’t roll over.
One of the reasons I joined Labour is that we are prepared to go out and listen to the community. To admit mistakes and to go out and listen to those people who know more about it than we do. As part of the Labour Policy Council I know that when our policy is released on aged care a number of recommendations that Greypower members have put forward in this report and others will be in there.
This country needs a long term plan. The Government’s aim to repay the debt is good but selling off our assets and cutting KiwiSaver isn’t the way to do it.
Selling our assets is like selling your house to pay the mortgage then renting your house from someone else who will keep putting the rents up.
Why should we be told that we could buy these assets when we already own them?
Only a few will be able to afford to buy shares – probably the same ones who benefitted so much from National’s tax cuts for the rich. Many ‘mums and dads’ I know can barely afford the power bill let alone a power company.
The only winners will be foreign companies who take our profits offshore.
The Government claims Contact Energy is owned by ‘mum and dad’ investors but 80% of its shares are owned by 0.1% of investors. At least two-thirds of Contact Energy’s dividends now go overseas – in excess of $100 million last year and almost $1 billion in total since privatisation in 1999. http://www.contactenergy.co.nz/web/shared/annualreports?vert=in#a2010
http://www.contactenergy.co.nz/web/shared/annualreports?vert=in#a1999
When Contact was State-owned, 100% of the dividends went into the public purse.
$1.7 billion in taxpayer funds were used to build the Clyde Dam. There were up to 1000 people working on the dam at any one time and it took 14 years to complete. Now it’s largely foreign-owned.
‘Dam or disaster?’ Listener, 23 April 1994, p.32
The four State-owned energy companies returned $732 million to the Crown last year. These dividends could pay for:
-
- 10,300 teachers (source: Ministry of Education, average pay for secondary teachers at $71,000)
- 12,600 new police officers (based on a starting salary package of $58k, source: NZ Police website).33,000 number of hip replacements (source: Health Funds Association of New Zealand, cost of $22,000)
So what would Labour do.
Under Labour there will be no asset sales. We are going to build up our assets so they are part of growing the economy, and part of providing a secure future for you and your family.
The KiwiSaver cuts damage our national savings because they’ve moved the goalposts again and undermined confidence in the scheme. It means once again middle and lower income earners will be hit.
If they serious about making savings they should have reversed some of the tax cuts for our highest income earners.
When times are tough we all need to pull our weight .
Labour has a plan. Rebuild an export oriented economy with more good jobs through economic development, innovation, up skilling and monetary reform.
We have an opportunity here locally to help rebuuild Christchurch.
Christchurch building companies are currently laying off staff and over 3,400 building industry workers leaving the country in the past year, including 350 just in January. http://www.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/ViewTable.aspx?pxID=8f6c2483-5bc1-4f31-9456-c8784178b40c
Yet Key says the market will take care of providing all the building trades people – they’ll magically appear when demand picks up and he has no intention of increasing training or working to make sure we hold on to our skilled workers.
http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/7573
I would be fighting to get modern apprenceships back. We have an opportunity here to help Chch that I want to fight for as the MP. National seems to want to make deals with Auckland casinos and BMW dealers than it does in tackling the real issues.
Labour has demonstated in government that we can reduce debt through prudent fiscal management and along with other changes, Labour will make your town, my town a better place to live in.
You may have sat here today listening to us thinking, that fairytales do begin with “If Elected, I will..”, but I think that we need to aim high to be positive and give it all you got.
We simply cannot hope for a better future. You need to vote for one. Thankyou for your time.
Food parcel demand rises 70pc
May 28th, 2011
Demand for food parcels in South Canterbury has increased by up to 70 per cent during the past four months.
Some of the extra demand could be attributed to the influx of Christchurch people to Timaru after the February earthquake, but several support organisations said rising living costs were also a big factor.
Salvation Army social worker Jane Ferguson said that so far this month it had distributed 147 food parcels. In April, the total was 122. In both cases, this was at least a 70 per cent increase in demand on the same period last year. Ms Ferguson said demand for certain products remained high.
“Fresh veges would be awesome, and we never say no to milk or milk powder. We’re keeping up with it at the moment, just because of the supplies that came in after the earthquake, but we are chewing through that pretty fast,” she said.
Presbyterian Support Family Works team leader Denise Cocks said the organisation had experienced a 40 per cent increase in foodbank applications since February, compared with the same period last year.
“Maybe half of that could be attributed to the earthquakes, and the number of people who came from Christchurch to Timaru,” she said.
“Demand is such that we have to spend an extra $250 a month just to keep the foodbanks full. We were geared up for the earthquake response, but right from the start of the year we saw an increase in the number of people self-referring to us.”
Anglican Care South Canterbury divisional manager Gwenda Kendrew said that in the past four months, it had issued 160 food parcels, compared with 120 during the same period last year. This was not including demand caused by the earthquakes.
“You can talk about things like `cost of living’, but the people who come to us don’t use those terms. They just know things are more expensive but they don’t know why.”
The organisations’ comments came after a meeting with Labour deputy leader Annette King, who was in Timaru yesterday. Ms King said she was taken aback by the numbers, but it was a story reflected throughout the country. “Everywhere I’ve been over the last few weeks, I’ve heard similar stories,” she said. “But Timaru has had extra pressures since the earthquake. It should be considered an outlier for Christchurch. The organisations are doing the best they can, but they are not getting the funding assistance they would have got if they were based in Christchurch.”
Mrs King said the party’s proposed increase in the minimum wage from $13 to $15 an hour, along with no tax on the first $5000 of earnings, would go some way to assist.
“We have people saying we can’t afford to pay $15 an hour. Well, people can’t afford to live on $13 an hour.”
Kiwisaver Cuts Are Dumb Economics
May 11th, 2011The impending cuts to Kiwisaver tax credits signalled by the Government today is a further kick to low and middle income workers according to Labour Candidate for Rangitata, Julian Blanchard.
“This is dumb economics and shows a lock of foresight and vision by the Government” said Mr Blanchard.
Prime Minister John Key this morning confirmed his Government will reduce KiwiSaver’s Member Tax credit – the 2 per cent subsidy the Government pays to savers in the scheme.
“It will be left to the individual and employers to make up the difference and given the increases in cost of living and doing business, this is another kick for not just the workers but also business owners.” said Mr Blanchard.
“Giving tax credits to encourage savings makes good economic sense and something that I am sure Labour will do in Government. If I am the local MP that is what I will be fighting for.” said Mr. Blanchard.
“The one good thing that John Key said today is that the changes won’t come in until after the election. This gives voters a clear choice on the future they want to vote for”.
