National leader pleads party case at Waipu meeting

JULIA WADE

20 April, 2022

Starting early on the campaign trail, National Party leader Christopher Luxon dropped into Waipu recently to introduce himself to locals and outline a brief overview of his party’s current concerns and aspirations for the future, and also faced some heat around the recent closure of the areas long-standing oil refinery.

Accompanied by National MP Dr Shane Reti, the politicians fronted a crowd of over 100 Bream Bay locals at Waipu’s Celtic Barn on April 20, with Luxon first sharing his story of the ‘how and why’ of entering politics before stating where the current government is going wrong and what National would do differently ‘to get a bigger bang for our buck’ if elected in 2023.

“There’s been a big focus with this government around centralisation and control, the bottom line is they think they can take all the polytechnics… Three Waters and health boards… and merge into one big entity and run it from Wellington,” he says. “We come from a different place, that there are three big actors in society – the community, business, and local and central government – and we believe in localisation, not amalgamation and bureaucracy.”

Besides questions on what National will do about rising inflation, the ‘villianisation of farmers’ and how the party will afford their promises, the recent closure and conversion of Marsden Point oil refinery to an import-only terminal for refined fuels, was the hot topic raised from the floor, with some locals eager to hear if Luxon’s government would do a U-turn on the shutdown: ‘How will you keep our ability to produce here, to stop the removal of our refining capabilities and New Zealand manufacturing, operating at rates that equal the cost of living?’ and ‘Sounds like you’re actually positive for Marsden Point, can we take that as a ‘yes’ that you are going to be committed to saving our refinery?’

While saying National would like to get the facility back up and running, Luxon was unable to commit due to not knowing the current condition of the plant, ‘is it acutally recoverable or has it been made completely inoperable’.

“It’s a strategic piece of asset and infrastructure… and the loss of the jobs is a real big blow for this region. We don’t understand why the government has mothballed the plant instead of having it available so we can put it back on stream again, that’s worrying to me,” he says. “I’m also concerned about the model which says we’re going to be reliant on storage tanks to meet New Zealand’s fuel needs when we now can’t rely on global supply chains, which was highlighted by Covid, so local resilence is important.”

Luxon did confirm however, to a round of applause, the four-lane highway which Labour axed, would go ahead if National won the 2023 election.

Out to meet the locals, National leader Christopher Luxon made an appearance at Waipu recently to outline his election case for 2023, accompanied by a small police presence and a handful of Marsden Point protestors. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

“We come from a different place, that there are three big actors in society – the community, business, and local and central government – and we believe in localisation, not amalgamation and bureaucracy.”

- Chris Luxon, National Party leader