Napier MP Stuart Nash says he's stoked that the parental leave payments are increasing by over $20 per week. Photo / File
Napier MP Stuart Nash says he's stoked that the parental leave payments are increasing by over $20 per week. Photo / File
If I was to highlight the need for warmer homes and more time for working parents to spend with newborn babies, what would spring to mind?
It sounds pretty close to what our American friends might consider as precious as motherhood and apple pie.
Well the US might have hadits Fourth of July events this week, but we've gone one better. We rolled out a swag of important changes which came into effect on July 1.
I am a dad blessed with four great kids, and am personally very proud of our government's decision to increase entitlements for new parents.
This week the parental leave payments are increasing by more than $20 per week. This is on top of our move to extend the leave to 26 weeks – one of the first things we did in Government.
Paid parental leave makes a huge difference to a large number of families and is a priority as we work to improve people's wellbeing.
If you are one of the 600,000 Kiwis who are renting, or one of the many responsible landlords I meet, you will know the importance of warm, dry and healthy homes. From this week it became compulsory for floor and ceiling insulation to be in installed in rental properties.
Stuart Nash congratulates new police graduate Constable Violet Kimble at the Royal NZ Police College this week. Photo / Supplied
This is really just a minimum expectation, as many New Zealand houses can be terribly cold in winter. We know that asthma, colds and flu really take a toll on the vulnerable, especially children and the elderly. If you are receiving NZ Super, or support from Work and Income, there's also the Winter Energy Payment, of $140 a month, to help with power bills.
It's not just people who need help to keep healthy, it's our rivers and oceans and beaches.
I've heard good feedback about how people are adjusting to the end of the single-use plastic shopping bags which came into effect on July 1.
Mainstream supermarkets have already made the change away from single-use plastic shopping bags and they estimate this has stopped tens of millions of bags being handed out. Governments can only go so far, and in the end the drive to cut down on our waste problems is up to all of us. I can say that I am personally trying to get better at remembering to take the reusable bags!
These July 1 measures, by themselves, are a good mid-winter tonic to remind us that sometimes little things can make a long term difference. We want to keep making progress with the little things, and bigger goals too.
The long term benefits of parents spending more time with their newborns, people living in warm and dry and healthy homes, and healthy oceans and rivers should be obvious to all of us. They are all examples of us trying to make a difference.
It's the same with more specific, longer term measures here in Hawke's Bay, like investments in forestry and horticulture and irrigation through the Provincial Growth Fund. An investment I oversee at the Royal New Zealand Police College, churns out almost 80 new constables for the regions every month.
Just this week I attended another Police graduation. What a great bunch of new officers we have heading out to our communities. In Hawke's Bay, they have enabled our District Commander Tania Kura to establish a dedicated Gang Focus Unit.
In a short space of time, the Government has made good progress on our commitment to back the New Zealand Police with resources to keep our community safe.
My priority is to ensure police are fully resourced to prevent and reduce harm in our communities and to help the most vulnerable.
I'm confident that the additional police officers we have already put on the front line and in the organised crime forces, as well as the upgraded stations and new equipment being provided, will have a significant impact on reducing crime and harm.
The raft of July 1 changes are a bit like the celebrations for Matariki: we take stock of the year which has passed and look ahead to more progress in the year to come.
