National Party Regional Conference

Have been away in Palmerston North for the National Party Lower North Island conference. Good to hear John Key set out the policy initiatives that he wants to see in National's first budget in 2009 - "real tax cuts ... into the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders"; "substantial investment in infrastructure across public transport, roading, telecommunications, water and energy"; and "[reducing] the costs, delays and uncertainties of the RMA while reaffirming National's commitment to high environmental standards".

A much better perscription than Michael Cullen's platitudes. Just what does "grasping the nettle of sustainable development and climate change" and "changing the nature of the debate on taxation away from an obsession with self to one on Labour’s terms of the interests of New Zealand" actually mean!

Was a very interesting conference - one of the policy sessions involved listening to representatives of various groups working with under-privileged young people, mainly those that work at turning teenagers in trouble with the law away from bad influences. Interestingly, they all had the same challenges with Government policy when it came to securing recognition that their programmes worked better than Government Programmes and how they found securing funding overly bureaucratic.

I also made a policy pitch which was well received - a couple of senior Nats commented favourably on it, so I'm hopeful it will get accepted for National Conference.