As the October 14 general election draws nearer, hoardings have sprung up and campaigning is gathering momentum. 

The Waitaki electorate candidates are, in alphabetical order: Miles Anderson (National), Sean Beamish (ACT), Pleasance Hansen (Greens), Ethan Reille (Labour), and Roger Small (Democracy NZ).

The Waitaki App contacted these five candidates, and provided them with the opportunity to write one paragraph on each of the following issues relevant to the Waitaki: Housing and rentals, cost of living, tourism in the Waitaki, health services, and another issue they saw as of importance to the area.

Responses were received from Miles Anderson, Ethan Reille and Roger Small, and these are below.

Housing and Rentals:

Miles Anderson (National):

National’s Going for Housing Growth policy identifies three main areas to speed up construction.

1. Unlocking land for housing. Councils in major towns/cities will be required to zone land for 30 years’ worth of housing demand.

1. Infrastructure financing tools. Reduce the red tape for developers to fund infrastructure. Targeted rates to fund greenfield developments which will remove the need for councils to fund greenfield infrastructure from their balance sheets.

1. A billion dollar fund for Build for Growth incentive payments for councils that deliver more new housing. Funded by stopping existing programmes like Kiwibuild that haven’t given taxpayers value for their money.

Reform the RMA and repeal the two new planning acts rushed through parliament in the last week to speed up consenting time and make it cheaper.

Reform the building act to simplify rules around building and to increase competition in the building materials market.

Improving the rental market by restoring the interest deductibility, unlocking the build to rent as an asset class and backing our community housing sector to grow and provide warm and dry homes to Kiwis in need.

Ethan Reille (Labour):

I am stoked to be supporting the work our recently formed Waitaki Housing Taskforce are undertaking and to see our council's focus directed towards more housing solutions. I'd like to see a housing trust established to enable affordable housing alongside local developers that meets the needs of our community. 

I will advocate for more central Government funding for communities like Waitaki, through such initiatives as the Progressive Home Ownership and Affordable Rental Pathway models. Waitaki is a diverse community, with diverse housing needs.

I support the Resource Management Act Reforms which allow for more housing developments with a focus on the environment, which we haven't had for the past 30 years!

In 2017 we inherited the beginning of this housing crisis, in five years we have added over 16,000 new public and transitional homes - Waitaki has 120 of these.

The initial priority must be to ensure everyone has a dry, warm, safe and affordable home. That is my bottom line.

Roger Small (Democracy NZ)

Democracy NZ is concerned with the tenancy laws being very one-sided towards the tenant. 

These laws, like a lot of the government’s unworkable regulations, are adding a huge cost to the landlord and make it more attractive for them to offer their homes for AirBnB.

This has created a shortage of rental property for workers and their families. We would see more balance applied to the rules, to make it more affordable to rent .

Cost of living:

Miles Anderson

• Stop wasteful spending and get our books in order – the Government has borrowed so much money that currently repaying the interest on this money is New Zealand’s fourth largest expense behind welfare, health and education!
• Refocus the Reserve Bank on inflation
• Cut red tape that is adding cost to taxpayers
• Drive technology and innovation

Ethan Reille

New Zealanders deserve a Government that looks after our most vulnerable and is future-focussed. 

I will work on ensuring funding is fairly allocated towards NGOs and not-for-profits delivering goods and services for our most vulnerable - this funding is at stake as we head into this election.

I will continue to push towards ensuring we hold supermarkets to account. This Government is committed to enforcing fair price controls by creating a Grocery Commissioner role, and delivering a Grocery Supply Code of Conduct.

Things are tough, but numbers are heading in the right direction. Inflation has hit its peak and is decreasing. The last thing New Zealand needs is unfunded tax cuts for the rich that will not benefit the people of Waitaki and see essential services worse off. 

There is no easy fix, but I'm proud of the measures that have been rolled out to support our people, such as the cost-of-living payment, and the Winter Energy Payment - another popular initiative at stake this election. 

Roger Small 

There are a raft of unworkable rules that are just plain virtue signalling to the rest of the world, but have inflationary effects.  

The increases in energy costs due to government policies have a large impact on every day New Zealanders. Our economy has been largely market-driven until now, and made us very efficient at producing products.

Our fossil carbon emissions are very low per sq km and if the government used the correct science, our agricultural emissions in terms of methane are also of no consequence.

If we stopped all of our emissions in New Zealand, the climate would not change, so we need to stop using ideology to drive policy and base it on true evidence. We are a country that adopts new proven technologies if it makes us competitive with the rest of the world and it helps our cost of living. Currently due to unworkable regulations we are not doing that, hence our cost of living crisis.

Tourism in Waitaki district

Miles Anderson

Tourism is becoming more important for the Waitaki district with a variety of attractions. 

The sector has encountered major difficulties in attracting and retaining staff for a number of reasons, red tape/cost of business and housing are two issues that many businesses have highlighted as major concerns. 

We are committed to cutting red tape and I have highlighted some of our proposals for housing/accommodation above.

Roger Small

Tourism in Waitaki is now recovering from the effects of the Covid pandemic and it is great to see small businesses getting back to work with more customers again. 

However, as above, we need to keep our cost of living low to make New Zealand an attractive place to come to, as currently we are seen as becoming too expensive. 

This could easily be achieved through practical policies working for the best interests of New Zealanders.

Ethan Reille

Currently we are seeing positive increases in the number of tourists visiting the Waitaki.

Being named New Zealand's first UNESCO Global Geopark proves the collective our community provides. However, the future of tourism remains a topical issue. 

The 2020 lockdowns allowed us to re-group, re-think and plan. It gave us an opportunity to envision how we'd like to welcome our visitors back. 

Like many, I look forward to seeing more visitors taking up the opportunity to be caretakers of our environment, understand and share our values, and contribute to a more sustainable future. 

I will continue to advocate for more regenerative tourism, to navigate opportunities to diversify our economy and make Waitaki the best place to be. 

Health services

Miles Anderson

New Zealand’s health system is in crisis. National has announced a number of policies to deliver a system that Kiwis expect.

• Incentives to encourage more Kiwis to study nursing or midwifery, bonding to keep nurses and midwives in New Zealand after graduating and competitive immigration settings to attract more overseas nurses and midwives.

• Services will be allocated on need not ethnicity and the Māori Health authority will be disbanded.

• Train more doctors, extend free breast cancer screening and extend the number of cancer treatments by 13 to help extend survival rates of Kiwis battling a cancer diagnosis.

• We have also committed to building Dunedin hospital as it was first planned (by the last National Government) providing all the services the region needs.

Ethan Reille

Myself, the health minister and Waitaki District Health Services are dedicated to resolving the current shortage of doctors in Ōamaru, after the recent closure of the Ōamaru Hospital Emergency Department.

Our hospital provides for 40,000 people and that number is growing, however this Government is the only one that has truly recognised the challenges it faces. The direct evidence of this can be seen in the new funding contracts issued providing $3.5m extra per year into WDHS thanks to the amazing hard-working team at Oamaru Hospital led by Keith Marshall. 

We are the only party which has offered any financial support towards the challenges our hospital faces. Being a rural and community-owned hospital does not allow us to attract mainstream funding like our Te Whatu Ora counterparts, however we don’t have to be left behind. I will continue to advocate for more equitable funding for community-based health services.

Our Government ensured our healthcare workers have fairer working conditions. When Labour took office in 2017, the top of the registered nurse pay scale was $66,755. Today it is $106,738.

Roger Small

It is sad to see the Oamaru Hospital having to close its Emergency Department at weekends and this is unacceptable. 

Government needs to stop its policies of driving the health system based on ancestry and get back to targeting the problem based on need. 

We should not have quotas in our medical schools based on ethnicity and while we are in crisis, we should be fast tracking suitably qualified overseas professionals to join our health system.

At the same time however, we need to focus on preventative health and never again should we mandate out medical professionals who have the trust of their patients. We have lost considerable experience over the last three years, and Democracy NZ never wants to see that happen again, due to someone's personal medical choice.

We believe in community-driven medical facilities for the Waitaki area and would fight very hard for them to be resourced.

Other issues…

(Miles is the only person who provided comment on this)

Miles Anderson - Education and Social investment

The importance of education is quite often overlooked as vital to the future success of New Zealand. Just 20% of year 8 students are meeting curriculum expectations for science, 35% for writing and 45% for maths. 

Our ‘Teaching the basics brilliantly’ policy is one step toward improving the educational outcomes for our children. 

Combined with reintroducing our ‘Social investment’ policies where children identified (through data) as those who are most likely to end up in the wrong demographics have wrap-around resources invested in them and their families, from birth, will lift the achievement of our children. 

We also, as parents, need to take more responsibility for our children and emphasise the importance of education.