John Key
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Tomorrow more changes come into effect that will help families get ahead and put more money in New Zealanders’ pockets.
Some of the changes taking effect from 1 July include:
Further reductions in the average ACC motor vehicle levy, which means New Zealand motorists are now saving around $200 a year on average on what they were paying two years ago. In total, we’ve cut ACC levies by $2 billion a year since 2008.
Paid parental leave payments are increasing by more than $10 a week to $527.72. Earlier this year we also increased paid parental leave to 18 weeks and made it available to more people.
New fully-funded treatments for advanced melanoma and Hepatitis C become available, as part of our extra $124 million investment into Pharmac in Budget 2016.
Our new target to tackle childhood obesity gets underway. We want to ensure children identified as obese in their free B4 School Check are referred to an appropriate health professional to get advice and help with family-based nutrition, activity and lifestyle interventions.
Smoke alarms become compulsory in all rental properties and landlords will have three years to insulate their rental properties.
Our new non-recoverable emergency housing grants become available, which will support individuals and families with the cost of emergency housing for up to seven days.
Legal aid becomes available to around 2,700 more people a year.
We’re able to deliver these initiatives to New Zealand families because we have a strong and growing economy – supported by the National-led Government’s programme that’s working.
John Key is Prime Minister of New Zealand
