[ad_1]
David Unwin / Things
National Party leader Judith Collins spoke to the crowd at Rua Roa Commnuity Hall near Dannevirke on Tuesday.
National Party Leader Judith Collins has stressed the importance of how investment in construction will lead to New Zealand’s Covid-19 economic recovery.
Collins spoke Tuesday at the Rua Roa Rural Community Hall in the foothills of the Ruahine Range near Dannevirke, along with National’s Wairarapa candidate Mike Butterick. It was the last stop on his Hawke’s Bay tour this week.
Collins told the small gathering that the Covid-19 recovery started in places like rural Tararua.
He talked about how now was not the time for a Green, Labor government for business or agriculture; get rid of the Resource Management Act; and how the Labor Party had failed with its border controls.
READ MORE:
* Election 2020: Labor Launches Extremely Centrist Campaign
* Judith Collins tells Labor to cross the aisle on the border scheme
* ‘Game on’: national voters galvanized by the change of leader
Collins had announced earlier in the day a $ 400 million investment in Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings and said that was the kind of expense New Zealand needed.
He said the cost of the hospital was the same as a week’s Covid-19 wage subsidy from the government, which was unable to continue because money was borrowed.
“If we are going to continue spending and borrowing money, my opinion is that we will borrow that money to spend.
David Unwin / Things
National’s Wairarapa candidate Mike Butterick, left, and Collins speak in the Rua Roa Community Room.
“Whether you are building roads, water treatment, water storage, whatever, hospitals or schools, it has to be about building something.”
He said it was important to invest in infrastructure because, finally, the tap on wage subsidies had to be turned off.
“Build it now, don’t build it later. Keep people working. That is crucial. “
New Zealand was facing the worst economic situation in 100 years, it was time to start working, and the idea of the Labor Party was to get someone else to pay for it.
Collins spoke on agricultural issues, including the Zero Carbon Act and foreign investment in farms.
David Unwin / Things
Collins has been touring Hawke’s Bay this week.
He said that agriculture had done well, but that the whole world was going through an economic change
He was also asked how farmers could be better heard. Collins said there was a good representation of farmers in the National Party, but it was also important that farmers turn to their usual advocates.
A woman asked what National would do to solve the meth problem in places like Dannevirke, and Collins pointed to the party’s promise to fund an intensive treatment program and 13 detox beds.
