Wednesday, 01 June 2022 08:55

Searching for problems

Written by  Peter Burke
National Party leader Christopher Luxon. National Party leader Christopher Luxon.

Christopher Luxon says the present government has spent much of its time running around with problems in search of solutions.

He says a lot of stuff has been piling on the rural community and likened it to sitting on the other end of the tennis court, getting 10 tennis balls thrown at you at the same time and you can't hit any of them. He points to the problems of rising inflation, increasing fuel and other input costs and supply chain challenges.

"We have had a situation where fruit has been sitting on trees rotting because orchardists can't get workers into this country.

"You are buried under a mire of regulation and this is coming from a culture within government that is really rooting in centralisation," he says.

Luxon hit out at the expansion of the bureaucracy during Labour's time in office, claiming the addition of 14,000 more 'pen pushers' in four and half years. He also points to what he describes as some dumb ideas being generated by bureaucrats, such as the plan to spend $800 million on a walking bridge across the Auckland Harbour that might draw 3,000 people on a good day.

More like this

Charm offensive

OPINION: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been on a charm offensive with farmers.

$2b boost in NZ exports to EU

New Zealand’s trade with the European Union has jumped $2 billion since a free trade deal entered into force in May last year.

Featured

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Trump's tariffs

President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports into the US is doing good things for global trade, according…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter