Viewpoint – More mahi to do

I hope everyone’s year started well and you managed to get some time to relax over summer with family and friends. Our Labour team started back on January 22 when we had the first meetings of our Ministers, MPs and the Prime Minister, before the official start of Parliament on February 11.

The Government hit the ground running with the launch of our Big New Zealand Upgrade infrastructure programme. With an additional infrastructure spend of $12 billion over four years, this is the biggest investment in infrastructure in a generation. It will help to improve road safety and public transport, help upgrade almost every public school in the country, fix up hospitals and help lower our carbon emissions.

Last year, as the first part of our wider infrastructure package, we announced that we would bring forward urgent school property improvement, with the largest capital injection for school maintenance funding in 25 years. Schools in Rodney are real winners, receiving a total of nearly $4.5 million additional funding to help accelerate upgrade projects already planned. This is on top of the investment we have made in over 700 new classrooms across the country.

From my visits in and around Rodney, I learned that many of our schools have seen rapid roll growth over the last few years. This has put significant strain on school space and resources. Over the last decade, funding for building classrooms fell behind the growth in students. As a result, too many children ended up being taught in libraries and school halls. Many schools have had to put off building projects, making do with patched up classrooms and playgrounds. This simply is not good enough.

But following the capital injection for school maintenance, it was exciting to hear of the plans of schools like Mahurangi College, which has changing rooms long overdue for an upgrade. Meanwhile, Matakana School is looking at accelerating projects for outdoor learning spaces, roof replacement and upgrading drinking fountains.

The Government has made good progress on many issues over the past two years, but there is still more mahi to do – and we’ll never lose sight of that. We’ve started the year as we intend to continue – with energy, enthusiasm, and determination. We’re going to be upbeat as we always are because we know you prefer positive politics to bickering and negativity. We’ll be telling the truth, both about what we’ve achieved so far and the work ahead of us.

There’s still plenty of mahi to do in the electorate as well. You can trust that I will continue with integrity; wearing my values on my sleeve, staying in touch with local people and local issues, and fighting hard for the things that matter to us here. Because with a boss like mine, who leads by example every day, whether here at home or on the world stage, no other style of politics will cut it.

Marja Lubeck, Rodney-based MP
marja.lubeck@parliament.govt.nz