Luxon sounds out volunteer groups
Nat leader visits Te Puke to gauge concerns in towns
Why I’m here today is because I think Government can’t do your job as well as you — they don’t know the pain, the hurt and the local people that need your support and services.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon was in Te Puke last week. During his visit he spoke to and with volunteers from a range of community and social organisations.
Te Puke is part of the Rotorua electorate and Rotorua MP Todd Mcclay had suggested the visit.
After a drive around town, the first stop was the Orchard Church for a morning tea with volunteers.
“Te Puke is a wonderful part of my electorate and without the work you and your organisations do, it would still be great but it just wouldn’t be as great as it is,” said Mcclay.
“We know how hard it’s been over the last few years and we know how hard it always is with volunteers, so we want to recognise that and to recognise you.”
Luxon said he wanted to talk to as many people as possible, “and get a sense of how your organisations are going and what sort of challenges and opportunities you see for us to do”.
He said he recognised that without volunteers, many things would not happen in New Zealand.
“I know you care deeply about the country and you care deeply about our communities.”
He said at the moment New Zealand has a government that wants to centralise and to control.
“Why I’m here today is because I think Government can’t do your job as well as you — they don’t know the
Christopher Luxon
pain, the hurt and the local people that need your support and services,” he said.
“I think what we’ve got to move to is a model where government frees things up for the enablers and removes the road blocks and empowers community organisations to get results.”
He said the Covid-19 response highlighted the importance of organisations and their standing in their communities.
“We struggled to get to some vulnerable communities around vaccination, and it wasn’t until we used the community organisations that knew those people well and could get to them that we actually got much better outcomes.”
At present he is trying to visit two or three towns across New Zealand each week.
“Every place I go I meet community organisations to understand what the challenges are.
“We want to know how we can use the community sector to really power up and to make social investment so we can get different outcomes for people’s day to day lives and give them a better shot in life too.
“If we are lucky enough to earn the trust of the New Zealand people and to form a government next year, we want to hit the ground running on day one at 100km/h.
“We’re not going to form working groups, steer teams and reviews. There’s enough collective knowledge about what’s working and what’s not working.”
Later in the day, he visited Puke Pine Sawmill, met some of the town’s business people and also met National Party supporters.