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21 Dec 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit is calling on the government to sack the board and the CEO of Kiwirail following today's announcement that all its long distance passenger services are going to be cancelled.
We also want the government to put in sufficient funding to ensure these services remain in place.
Biofuels mandate the ultimate in hypocrisy
15 Dec 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Today's announcement by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods of a biofuels mandate for the transport sector is the ultimate in hypocrisy when she is not prepared to take action to keep the Marsden Point oil refinery operational.
Marsden Point is the only facility in New Zealand capable of blending biofuels with fossil fuels to achieve the mandate targets and of extending into production of biofuels.
Punishing doctors is actually punishing patients
05 Dec 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The government’s refusal to let GPs, midwives, and other specialist medical staff who are unvaccinated continue to work has no medical foundation and is simply punishment because of their refusal to be vaccinated.
That situation has nothing to do with patient safety.
It is now firmly established that both vaccinated and unvaccinated medical professionals can pass on corona virus to their patients so barring those unvaccinated from working is actually punishment of their patients as well.
Fuel price will increase with refinery closure
26 Nov 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit leader Chris Leitch is predicting the price of fuel will increase once the refinery shuts down.
That increase will be felt across the board by motorists, transport operators, airlines – everyone who uses fuel currently produced by the refinery.
Refinery closure a disaster on every level
22 Nov 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Today’s decision by the Refining New Zealand board to shut down the plant and become an importer of overseas refined fuel is a disaster on every conceivable level.
It’s a disaster for the country’s skill base with highly skilled staff forced to move offshore, taking with them with the expertise needed to move us forward into producing bio-fuels, advanced jet fuels and other new technology solutions to move away from total reliance on fossil fuels.
Refinery rethink welcomed but still shortsighted
02 Nov 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit welcomes the release of the government’s rethink on the potential closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery, but calls the cabinet paper “lacking in depth and missing significant wider issues that it should have considered”.
Widespread pressure to keep the refinery open from unions, groups like the Sustainability Council, and our petition has clearly driven a major re-think on the government’s position on the closure.
Three Waters proposal should be flushed down the drain
28 Oct 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Ratepayers and water users are being forced by the government to provide a guaranteed gold plated return to wealthy bank shareholders and New Zealand and overseas investors who will be salivating at the prospect.
The monopoly nature of the water companies means millions of customers will have no choice of supplier, no choice but to take the water, and no choice but to pay for it. Millions of captive monthly payments in perpetuity: an investors dream.
Call for treatment kits to be issued to home isolatees
15 Oct 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit calls on the government to issue home treatment kits to those who have caught Covid-19 and are to be isolating at home under the just announced scheme.
With fears about our hospitals being swamped with Covid cases, it defies common sense that early treatment is not undertaken with proven medications to substantially lessen the chances of hospitalisation for those unlucky enough to have caught the virus.
Banks rush to raise interest rates on created money obscene
7 Oct 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The obscene rush by the ASB and Kiwibank to increase mortgage rates within minutes of the Reserve Bank increase in the OCR is just cynical, extreme, profit gouging.
Those excuses are the biggest load of bulldust that’s ever been advanced for putting up prices, especially when their costs have barely moved.
And here’s why.
Taxpayers’ Union confused on political party funding
6 Oct 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The Taxpayers’ Union claim that taxpayers should not be forced to fund political parties shows it has little understanding of how much public funding already flows into the pockets of political parties in Parliament.
By opposing the review it is arguing for maintenance of the flawed system we already have that confers a massive advantage on the incumbents.
Millions of dollars of taxpayer funding for political parties happens now and the way that funding is allocated substantially skews our democracy in favour of the incumbents.
Call for doctors to be barred from practicing is insanity
11 Sept 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
At a time when our health system is facing unprecedented challenges, when there is a desperate shortage of doctors, nurses, and other health staff, the call by the NZMA and other doctors for hundreds of medical staff to stand down beggars belief.
Dr Humphries’ statement that “the consequences for a doctor getting Covid is not only that they spread it into the community, but they also may transmit it to their vulnerable patients" if they’re not vaccinated is in direct contradiction to that of Council of Medical Colleges Chair Dr John Bonning.
They can’t both be right.
Refinery key to break monopoly on fuel retailing
01 Sept 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The potential closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery provides a unique opportunity to break the stranglehold the oil companies have on fuel retailing. Government should purchase it and keep it operating as a State Owned Enterprise.
The SOE could become a wholesaler of fuel, selling at a common price, allowing smaller retail operators like Gas and Waitomo to enter the market and provide real price competition at the pump.
A petition has got over 12,000 signatures already and is here.
Petition - Put NZ's fuel security first - not oil company profits
09 Aug 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
We've started a petition calling on the government to declare the Marsden Point Oil Refinery a nationally strategic asset, to compulsorily purchase all the shares from the private owners and turn it back into a state owned enterprise which continues to refine crude oil into the fuels needed to keep New Zealand's essential transport services operating in a crisis.
The petition has got over 12,000 signatures already and is here.
Reserve Bank should curb money creation by the commercial banks
14 July 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit has called the action of the Reserve Bank to curb its purchase of government bonds off the private banks a sensible and responsible move.
Hand in hand with that it now needs to curb the avalanche of money creation that has been going on by the commercial banks.
Not doing so will allow the inflationary pressures in the economy to continue to increase.
27 June 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The government should scrap plans to build a $750 million walking and cycling bridge across the Waitemata Harbour and instead commission a continuous electric ferry service to transport pedestrians and cyclists across it instead.
Apart from the cost, which will reach $850 million by the time it is constructed, the bridge option has far too many negatives.
Money for war but not for nurses
08 June 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
If America declared war on China and called on New Zealand to assist, the government would immediately find the money necessary to provide the guns, bullets and other equipment our armed forces required.
If we were at war, there would be no limit to the money made available to kill people.
So how is it they can't find the funds to ensure doctors and nurses can save lives!
Highway decision a kick in the guts for Northland
05 June 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Lame excuses for cutting the Whangarei to Marsden Point Highway off the government's infrastructure agenda is a clear example of the Labour government's disinterest in one of New Zealand's most depressed regions.
It's another kick in the guts for Northland which has been promised bridges, highways, and a rail link to Marsden Point for decades by MPs from both National and Labour and in reality has got little.
Refinery closure a grave mistake
27 May 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Allowing New Zealand's capability to refine oil to be shut down and Refining New Zealand to become an importer of pre-refined fuel would be a grave strategic mistake.
Such a move would put New Zealand at the mercy of international oil powers and remove completely our ability to source oil from multiple sources across the world should it become necessary to seek alternative sources.
Robertson could halve debt overnight
16 May 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The Reserve Bank, an arm of government, is currently holding around $60 billion in government debt – the bonds it has purchased off banks and other investors on the secondary market.
The government could write off that pretend debt overnight because it owes it to itself, and nobody would be any the worse off.
Rearranging deckchairs won't fix the healthcare crisis
21 April 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Responsibility for the greatest health crisis the country has faced since tuberculosis was a major killer of Pākeha New Zealanders, accounting for 10% of all deaths in the late 19th century, can be laid firmly at the revolving door of continual changes to the administration of the health system.
Back then Māori were even more vulnerable with their tuberculosis death rates around ten times those of non-Māori by the 1930s.
Social Credit leader backs mayor on fluoridation
13 April 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
Social Credit Party Leader, Chris Leitch, is backing Whangarei’s Mayor, Sheryl Mai, in her stand over fluoridation of water supplies.
The fluoridation issue is another example of decision making being taken out of the hands of local communities and centralised in the hands of unelected bureaucrats.
25 March 2021
by Chris Leitch, Leader
The potential sale of Westpac’s New Zealand banking operations provides a unique opportunity to return a significant slice of the country’s banking business to Kiwi ownership.
The government should commence negotiations with Westpac’s Australian owners to purchase the Bank’s New Zealand arm with a view to integrating it into Kiwibank.