National Party leader Simon Bridges has pledged to have smaller primary school class sizes and more teachers in a two-day conference in Auckland conference today - Mr Bridges' first as party leader.
During the speech addressing his delegates, the National leader spoke about the importance of "personal responsibility" and how there "should be consequences" if people "choose not to fulfil their end of that social contract".
"If you commit a crime, you do the time. It's for our safety, and victims deserve justice. If you're on a benefit and can work, you should be actively looking for a job," he said.
"But this Government sees things very differently: they want to drastically cut the number of people in prison, regardless of the amount of crime committed. They want to remove all benefit sanctions, so there’s no consequence if you fail a drug test or skip a job interview.
"That's just wrong. It will not happen in a government I lead."
Mr Bridges claims the "out of control" government has set up 130 working groups at the cost of $1 million each "because they don't have ideas of their own" and that the Labour-NZ First coalition is "incapable of making decisions and nothing is getting done".
"Taxpayers are paying for Labour's laziness."
The National Party leader said he doesn't want to be elected Prime Minister in 2020 "just because the government is incompetent" but
"to win a contest of ideas, to demonstrate that National has the vision and the team to deliver a better future for everyone".
"This year is about listening. We want to hear from you - parents and pupils, families and farmers, businesses and communities.
"We want your views; we want to talk and challenge ourselves, and contest ideas. Unlike our opponents, we welcome different views.
And unlike them, before 2020, we will have made decisions and we will be ready to lead.
"We want to undo the damage this Government is doing now.
"I'm backing New Zealanders and I'm starting with our children."
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