Rounding off a sun-kissed day in Nelson, a chipper Chris Hipkins charmed a full Headingly Centre public meeting on Thursday evening.
Labour’s leader and the man who could return to our highest office next month made several pledges if elected, which included no infrastructure flip-flopping for Nelson.
“When work is underway, we’re not cancelling, deferring or rescoping projects, we’re going to keep it going, because this current government after the last election put a whole lot of people out of work by doing exactly that,” he addressed.
“First stage of the Hope Bypass, we will keep that one going.
“We do want Nelson to get its full hospital rebuild, but we will continue with stage one which is underway… we will then talk about stage two and how we can get that funded.”
Healthcare agendas were the defining topic, including more sustainable funding for hospices, reinstating the process of pay equity claims for hospice workers, and sustaining the increase in the medicine budget.
Earlier in the day, Chris and his red-jacketed contingent, which included Labour colleague and Nelson MP Rachel Boyack, began with a policy announcement at the airport to reduce the soaring cost of air travel.
The policy includes requiring airlines to provide automatic refunds when flights are cancelled or significantly changed, and requiring them to display real-time airfares so customers can compare the true cost of flights.
