Labour announces more houses and more Plunket nurse visits

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and entourage rolled into Hawke's Bay yesterday to make housing and families announcements as well as visit local education and horticultural organisations.

At Maraenui about 100 people gathered at the shopping centre where Ms Ardern - joined by Napier MP Stuart Nash, Ikaroa-Rawhiti Labour MP Meka Whaitiri and Tukituki Labour candidate Anna Lorck - announced that Labour would commit to building 240 more houses for Hastings and Napier if elected.

She said there was nothing more basic than getting housing right.

"Having a home is a right - just in this area there's maybe up to 1400 people who are homeless - either couch surfing or living in places that are not up to scratch.

"Home ownership is down in Napier by 10 per cent and there's 150 people on waiting lists for housing."

She noted the land just across from the Maraenui shopping centre had previously been a site of state houses that had since been taken down.

"How can you take down state housing when you have people waiting for a home?"

She said half the 240 houses promised for Hawke's Bay would be state housing and half would be entry-level affordable houses for first-home buyers - they would be built under the party's Kiwibuild programme.

Because the infrastructure was already in place where previous state houses had been located, she said the rebuild could start quickly dependent on the labour being available.

After stopping in at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Taradale where she received an enthusiastic welcome from hundreds of students, she headed to the Napier Plunket Community Hub at Onekawa where babies were held and she made the second announcement of the day.

This was to provide an extra $10 million in funding to allow five extra Plunket and Well Child Tamariki Ora nurse visits, on top of the seven made currently, to 18,000 of the country's most vulnerable families.

Two of those visits would be before the babies were born to help Plunket nurses build a relationship with those families.

"We want to increase the role of Plunket and Tamariki Ora in people's lives and this would see 100 extra nurses across the country."

She said the initiative was evidence-based, and a range of criteria, such as families with young mothers, or who were isolated or facing deprivation, would be used to determine where the extra visits would be made.

Ms Ardern said the nurse visits would not change the role midwives played.

The whistlestop tour concluded with a visit to the Johnny Appleseed packhouse in St George's Rd near Havelock North, where she caught up with several employees in between shifts.

There, Ms Ardern recalled her childhood growing up on her family's orchard near Morrinsville, where they grew nashi pears, apples and tamarillos.

"I have happy memories of me and my sister working on that small orchard - I know it's hard graft and appreciate the work you do and how much love goes into working in horticulture."

With just 12 days to go before the election, she reminded those gathered that they could start voting now, or at least she asked them to do so on polling day.

"Wherever your views may sit, use your voice - there's nothing more upsetting for politicians than if people don't show up to vote."