Todd Talks with Todd Muller National MP

It's becoming more apparent weekly how little this government cares about the New Zealanders who work on our frontline, 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, firefighters … 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 per cent of patients that presented to a local ED between January and March this year were seen within six hours, compared to 86.7 per cent in 2020. This is partly due to border closures in the last two years, and partly due to the fact that we're competing with other countries to attract nurses, like Australia, where nurses get better pay and put on a pathway to residency.

Police, too are stretched to respond to every call for help and shoplifters know 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. Come and hear National's perspectives on law and order at my public meeting with Mark Mitchell on August 17. For more information, visit: www.toddmuller.co.nz/events