Selwyn MP Update

For those of us still in a summer holiday daze, the news that inflation has hit a thirty year high will be an unwelcome reality check. At 5.9 per cent, inflation is now the highest it has been since 1988 and, with wage growth of only 2.4 percent, New Zealanders are going backwards. First home buyers from around Canterbury, and New Zealand, have in recent years flocked to Selwyn to buy what were once affordable house and land packages but news like this will be a real cause for concern for them. It is largely being driven by huge Government spending, which has been 40 percent higher than under the previous National Government. This year Grant Robertson is planning to raise that to a staggering 68 percent more at $128 billion, with $6 billion in new spending. While elevating spending was appropriate through much of the pandemic, some easing off is now required. National isn’t necessarily calling for no new spending but there needs to be a much greater focus on the quality of it, as well as some form of debt repayment plan. As well as rapidly rising housing costs and fuel costs, you’ll likely notice your grocery bill blowing the budget. The cost of food is impacted by the massively increased cost of production, which is being driven by a terribly tight labour market. This week we have learned of an unbelievable level of incompetence from the Immigration Minister that will have huge ramifications for food production and supply in New Zealand. On December 12th, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced he had created new border exception classes for 200 mobile plant machinery operators, forty shearers and fifty wool handlers. But, instead of enabling those, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, went missing in action. He didn’t sign off on the new immigration instructions that would allow these workers to apply for visas until January 21st, six weeks after the announcement was made by Minister O’Connor. As rural Canterbury will know, these are time-critical workers. They need to be here in February for the grain harvest, but with Kris Faafoi’s lack of action, it simply won’t happen. It turns out that of the one hundred and fifty harvesters who had expressed an interest in working in New Zealand, just forty applicants are still in the mix, with most having just given up and gone to Australia. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that if the 2022 harvest is late or reduced because of a lack of workers, this will directly impact the price of basic food items like flour, bread and potatoes. If ever there was a government that fiddled while Rome burnt, it’s this one. Nicola Grigg, Selwyn MP.

Are you considering selling in the near future? I have buyers looking for a variety of properties from sections to lifestyle blocks. Give me a call for a confidential chat.

Min Cookson

Ph: 03 341 4301 M: 027 249 5417 E: min.cookson@xtra.co.nz

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