It’s becoming more apparent each day how little this government cares about the New Zealanders who work on our front line helping to keep us safe in emergencies. These are our critical workers and they are being treated abysmally by the government that promotes kindness.

Police, nurses, clinicians, fire fighters … their systems are all massively under-resourced while staff face increasing pressure in their workload. Our fire stations are under huge stress with some appliances going out under-staffed, and some stations having to close due to lack of staff. This poses increased risk for the safety of our first responders and for the people they hope to help.

Our hospitals and elderly care facilities are struggling to recruit or retain staff. Only 78% of patients that presented to a local ED between January and March this year were seen within six hours, compared to 86.7% in 2020. This is partly due to border closures over the last two years, and partly due to the fact that we are competing with other countries to attract nurses; in Australia nurses are put on a pathway to residency with higher pay.

Police are too stretched to respond to every call for help and shoplifters know that the Police are not allowed to pursue them, even if there were enough officers available. I was sad to see Papamoa Plaza suffer a ram raid last weekend and Fashion Island has been regularly targeted by blatant thieves; small business owners everywhere are being badly affected by this Government’s soft approach in their attempt to keep prison numbers down.

I hope to see you if you’re free to attend my Papamoa public meeting next month to hear National’s perspectives on law and order with Opposition Police Spokesman Mark Mitchell.

Kindest regards

Todd Muller
MP for Bay of Plenty

Upcoming Events

• Wednesday 17 August, 6 pm, Public Meeting on Law & Order at the Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club with Mark Mitchell, Opposition Police Spokesman. Book.
  
  
• Monday 22 August 11 am, Morning tea with Penny Simmonds, Opposition Spokesperson for Tertiary Education, Matapihi (Email to request invitation)
  
  
• Monday 29 August 3 pm  – Business in the Bay – Te Puna business networking and social event for constituents who own, manage or work in businesses in Te Puna: Book.
  
  
• Friday 2 September - Dinner with Nicola Willis, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Oropi (Email to request invitation)
  
  
• Thursday 8 September 10-12, Matapihi - Into Work seminar with Louise Upston, Opposition Spokesperson for Social Development & Employment. A roadshow for employers, educators and community workers to connect with local people seeking employment and share ideas to encourage transitioning from welfare to work, removing barriers to employment (Email to request invitation)
  
  
• Thursday 8 September 4.30 - Business at the Beach, networking and social event for constituents who own, manage or work around the Bayfair, Papamoa and Matapihi regions. Cleaver & Co at Bayfair: Book.

July highlights

Electorate Visits by MPs

Leader of the Opposition Christopher Luxon spent a day in neighbouring Rotorua electorate where he addressed a meeting in Te Puke attended by Rotorua MP Todd McClay and Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell. We appreciated hearing about Christopher's recent travels to Singapore, Ireland and the UK where he connected with key government and business leaders. 

East Coast Bays MP Erica Stanford spent a day in the Bay of Plenty electorate connecting with education and business stakeholders before addressing a public meeting in Welcome Bay together with Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell. Erica's portfolios of Education and Immigration are very relevant to many in our community who appreciated hearing her perspectives on current issues. 

Simon O'Connor visited from the Tamaki electorate to meet with Bay of Plenty constituents who enjoyed chatting with him over morning tea and hearing about his porfolio areas of Corrections, Customs and Foreign Affairs. 

Professional Fire Fighters

I appreciated hearing from the Tauranga and Mount Maunganui crews about what they deal with on a daily and weekly basis, fighting fires, rescuing people from cars and providing emergency medical assistance. They do so much for our community and they deserve to have their value recognised by FENZ. Click the image to view my video with the crews.

Papamoa Volunteer Fire Brigade

Soft Packaging Recycling

Until recently our family, like many others, has had to drive to Bethlehem to recycle our soft plastics as these are not included in the Tauranga kerbside collection. It's great news that we now have soft plastic recycling at a number of supermarkets around our city, thanks to Foodstuffs, The Packaging Forum and Future Post. Our local Pak n Save has a new bin which is a big help, thanks Jon.

Youth Parliament

It was a great week in Wellington for 120 Youth MPs at the Youth Parliament which is held every three years. My electorate of the Bay of Plenty was represented by Tom Catto of Te Puna and Sam Uffindell's Tauranga Youth MP was Ben Cosgrove. 

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