National Party leader Christopher Luxon is speaking to media this afternoon, responding to the OCR increase and the government's gangs announcement.
Luxon told media this afternoon's official cash rate increase was an indication that Kiwis were paying the price for Labour's spending addiction.
"That is incredibly concerning for many Kiwis sitting around the dining table tonight, thinking about how they're going to pay for the increasing costs that they're incurring."
The cash rate increase was aimed at dampening inflation, but Luxon said that was running counter to the government's spending.
"We've got a Treasury that's saying to the government 'please rein in your spending because that's putting fuel to the inflation fire and they're actually putting their foot on the accelerator - Grant Robertson - and on the other hand the Reserve Bank's putting the brake on by trying to take interest rates up and you really need both those actors working together to actually curb inflation. That's the big story today."
Gangs
The government this morning also announced plans to expand police search powers, and introduce a new intimidation offence, as part of efforts to curb rising gang violence.
Luxon said National would support the government's proposed legislative changes but that they did not go far enough.
"We've a very simple four-point plan, we think that is a much more frustrating way - a way to frustrate the gangs in a much more comprehensive way. So yes we'll support them but they frankly don't go far enough, and I think it won't be keeping gang members awake tonight but it will be keeping New Zealanders awake tonight."
"Nothing in this proposal will be scaring gangs at all and that's why I think our simple four-point plan around gang patches, dispersal notices, non-consorting and ultimately firearm prohibition orders are really important."
Police wanted the tools to crack down on gangs and needed dispersal notices to be able to break them up, and the consorting powers to stop gang members to associating with each other, Luxon said.
"But the biggest thing that we could do is actually make sure that we can cut back on illegal guns that gangs have access to and that requires what we call the firearms prohibitions orders with warrantless search powers to be able to execute that ... so police actually have the tool to go after gang members who are using illegal guns."
The government has not yet started drafting the legislation, and Luxon said the party needed to see that because it "could make a big difference in this case".
He said National's proposed ban on gang patches would simply extend the ban which was already in effect in courts, schools and government buildings, to also include public spaces.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon Photo: Marika Khabazi/RNZ
Youth crime
Luxon said the challenge around youth crime was about causes and consequences.
"The ram raids as we're seeing you've got young people involved who are able to get away with those crimes. You've seen it with the pursuit policy ... the police now are only arresting 17 percent of people fleeing from a situation, it used to be 45 percent."
He saidPolice Commissioner Andrew Coster was revisiting the pursuit policy, which National called for a month or so ago, but the real problem was a "lost generation" of young people in New Zealand.
"When you have 40 percent of New Zealand children not going to school regularly, that's a big problem - it's no wonder they're getting caught up in ram raids."
He said it was important for young people under the age 25 who were on welfare to be on pathways to work and engaging with society and the economy.
"It's not just a social failure, it's also going to be a future economic crisis if we don't have well educated New Zealanders to be able to drive this place forward into the next 10, 15 years."
He said there were "major, major challenges" in literacy and numeracy in school and the government needed to show some urgency in solving that.
"We fundamentally need between schools and parents that there are responsibilities that are on both sides of that equation about getting young people into school. When we get them in there we've got to be able to teach them the basics incredibly well of just numeracy and literacy so they can actually take on a job and actually participate in the economy."
He said student progress needed to be measured, but teachers also needed to be supported more to have confidence and teach the curriculum well.
Recent criticism
Luxon has been facing criticism over comments he has made since returning from trips overseas, that the rest of the world has moved on from Covid-19, and New Zealand businesses have become soft.
He has since sought to characterise his remarks as criticism of the government's handing of the pandemic, and putting too much red tape and restrictions on businesses.
