We know that when our regions do well, all of New Zealand benefits. Our regional communities have supported us through COVID – and we’re committed to supporting them as we secure our recovery, so that we can prosper together.
Here are just some of the many ways we’re backing our regions:
Investing in schools, healthcare, transport and people
We’re investing in infrastructure projects to make communities more resilient, while creating thousands of jobs and supporting our economic recovery. This includes upgrading almost every state school, rebuilding hospitals and other health facilities in our regions, and investing in community projects like swimming pools, sports facilities and wastewater networks. Last term through the Provincial Growth Fund we allocated $3 billion to boost growth in our regions – with projects delivering marae upgrades, cycleways, shipping ports and town halls among the many to receive funding.
Connecting communities
In today’s world, being online is essential. We’re installing mobile broadband towers around the country to improve connectivity in our regions, with 250 new towers already up and running. Labour also remains committed to establishing a fund for improving connectivity and backhaul services in the worst connected parts of New Zealand.
Supporting jobs and thriving ecosystems
Our Jobs for Nature programme is supporting regional jobs focused on nurturing, restoring and preserving our unique ecosystems. The programme had supported more than 5,600 people into work cleaning up our rivers, protecting taonga species and fighting kauri dieback – just some of the more than 350 projects approved across the motu.
Growing our primary sector workforce
To make sure our primary industries have the skilled workers they need, we’ve made trades training in critical industries free. This is enabling young people across New Zealand to upskill for a career in agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, fisheries or forestry, while ensuring our primary industries can get the workers they need to get the job done. We’ve also created border exceptions to fill urgent skill gaps and support essential work.
Working together to future-proof farming
Climate change is an existential challenge and we need to work in partnership to tackle it. We’ve worked with farmers on a world-leading agreement to reduce primary sector emissions and we’re supporting the transition to a cleaner, greener sector with integrated farm planning. We’re also investing in projects that will boost our economy sustainably, through our Fit for a Better World roadmap.
Providing support through tough times
Our regions are often the worst affected when floods, droughts or severe storms hit. We’ve supported communities across the country affected by severe weather events, by investing in practical support like animal feed coordination services, as well as mental health support. We know farming is a tough business even at the best of times, so we’ve also introduced a farm debt mediation scheme to help farmers in financial distress deal with their lenders.