Luxon finds blue wave of support on Taranaki call
Young and old turn out to meet National leader in New Plymouth and Stratford
National leader Christopher Luxon was in Taranaki on Friday, taking National’s big blue campaign bus, dubbed “Fiscal Prudence” on a tikitour around the region, stopping at Stratford’s Fieldtorque store in the afternoon.
Prior to his Stratford stop, Luxon had visited residents at Jean Sandel Retirement Village where he joked his timing wasn’t ideal as his visit coincided with the screening of the All Blacks’ World Cup match against Uruguay. He spoke to residents about a range of themes, including farming regulations and his desire to ban gang patches in public spaces.
Resident Janet Darrah had already voted for National, and told the Herald the amount of farming regulation was “ridiculous”. Asked how cutting regulation would impact the environment, she said many farmers were planting and not getting credit for their work.
“Farmers are still the backbone of the country whether the townies like it or not.”
She said NZ First leader Winston Peters was “very intelligent but he’s lost his way”.
On Luxon’s ability to juggle Act and NZ First in a government arrangement, she said she wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know. With Winton stirring things up, he’s an unknown quantity.”
Luxon then went on to Paritutu Centennial Park where he unveiled National’s plans to fast-track investment in off-shore windfarms.
He said there would be further investment in Port Taranaki to support the development of such farms and confirmed the South Taranaki Bight was still the preferred site for the first major windfarm project.
During a walk through New Plymouth’s central business district, Luxon and his team received a friendly toot and wave from Labour MPs Andrew Little and Glen Bennett who were driving past in a car. Centre City marketing manager Rebecca Johnson said she would be voting for National because she agreed with their policies to address the cost of living and welfare dependency.
Also while in New Plymouth Luxon apologised for not always being accurate in saying who gets what in National’s tax package, before immediately repeating his error.
The party has been under fire for selling the tax package as delivering “up to $250 a fortnight” for a family with kids on the average income, but sometimes omitting the words “up to”. Labour says this would have led the average family to think they would be $250 a fortnight richer under National, but that was a “scam” given only a fraction of 1 per cent of families would qualify for that amount. Questioned about it while in New Plymouth,Luxon apologised for the times the words “up to” had been missing, something that had even happened in one of the party’s official press releases.
“If I’ve missed that a couple of times, I apologise for that.”
He then made the same mistake in explaining what the policy meant for certain people.
“If you think about the 130,000 families that actually will be entitled to our family boost tax care rebate to deal with the early childhood costs that they have — that’s another $150 a fortnight.”
Prompted about whether he should have said “up to”, Luxon said: “I said ‘up to’, up to $150.”
Once Luxon and his team arrived in Stratford, they were greeted by about 100 people who had turned out to greet them at Fieldtorque Taranaki on Broadway.
Luxon was accompanied by fellow National MP Harete Hipango. Hipango, who is currently a list MP, is National’s candidate in Te Tai Haua¯ uru — the party’s first candidate in a Ma¯ori seat since 2002.
National candidates Carl Bates (Whanganui) and David MacLeod
(New Plymouth) were at the informal meet and greet that included a
sausage sizzle.
Among the people keen to meet Luxon were Olli (10), Lucy (7) and Milla (13) Dent, who were with their grandad Dave Dent. Clutching placards almost as tall as themselves, they told Hipango they had come “because we wanted to meet Christopher Luxon”.
Hipango told them she would make sure they got their chance, a promise also made by Whanganui candidate Carl Bates. Asked what they wanted to say to the National leader, the three children, prompted by their grandad, agreed they all wanted to tell him they supported National.
“I want to say to him, to keep being positive,” said Olli, while Milla added - — “and win the election”.