Concerns around children’s vaping and addiction issues were among several raised with Taupō MP Louise Upston at last week’s Cambridge Friendly Forum.
Taupo MP Louise Upston speaking at last week’s Friendly Forum in Cambridge. Photo: Viv Posselt
Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley told the forum the incidence of vaping among intermediate-aged youngsters in Cambridge was of concern. While accepting much has been done to combat the issue, she asked Upston what additional support could be given.
Upston said vaping likely increased the potential for other addictive behaviours and said while it has become easy to say it is a school or government problem, families also have much to consider, particularly around availability of vapes. She agreed that more work needs to be done and pledged to look into it.
Several much-debated chestnuts were revived at the forum, among them the cancellation of the new Cambridge West Primary School at Bridleways Estate, rates rises and concerns around traffic volumes through town as the push grows for New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) to approve on-off ramps at the southern end of the Waikato Expressway.
The site at the end of Tīrau Road where proposed on-off ramps would be built. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
There was no real update on the latter, other than to reiterate that the decision had been an NZTA one and to reassure attendees that the information provided to NZTA had been the most up-to-date possible. That came on the back of a question from Glenn Morgan about how current the data provided by Upston to other ministers and the NZTA was.
“I can assure you that the information I presented was the most up-to-date possible… sourced from the Chamber of Commerce, council, Cambridge Connections and local industries,” she said.
Upston was also tackled on several non-Cambridge issues, including the effect of immigration on housing and employment, the difficulties newly qualified nurses experience in finding jobs, and her views on the recent push by the ACT Party to pull New Zealand out of the Paris climate accord.
On the latter, Upston said while New Zealand’s emissions were low by comparison to other countries, our economic recovery is based on our reputation around sustainability.
“New Zealand’s economic recovery is due largely now to our primary industries, and dairy farming in particular. Customers will stop buying if we are not seen to play our part. We need to do our bit, but we don’t have to try and lead the world.”
The meeting started with Upston covering economic issues, uncertainty around the effects of US tariffs and global conflicts such as Ukraine and Gaza/Israel, and the extended struggle New Zealand faces in pulling itself out of a fiscal hole.
She conceded that the previous government needed to spend large around the Covid-19 pandemic, but said the overspending continued “well beyond 2022, and had nothing to do with Covid”.
“That is the hangover we are dealing with now,” she said. “When you have high levels of spending, particularly when much of it is unnecessary, it causes inflation, interest rates rises, cost-of-living increases and unemployment.”
Soils sits on part of the school site in Bridleways Estate
Part of that filtered through to why progress on the new Cambridge West Primary School had been halted.
Upston said the previous government had worked to a list of new schools, additional classrooms and the like, but it no funding had been allocated for the projects.
“When [Education] minister Erica Stanford looked into how the money available aligned with the list, there was no match and the development of the Cambridge school was stopped,”
She expressed disdain for what she described as ‘complete recklessness’ on the part of those making up the list and said a school establishment board was already in place and people had brought properties on the back of the school being built.
“I’ll keep pushing for it, but I can’t give a timeline.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford takes a tour of Cambridge Middle School with Evie Ball (left), principal Daryl Gibbs, Madison Keenan (right) and Rachel Rutter (out of shot).
There was a testy exchange on immigration. One man suggested New Zealand was considered a ‘soft touch’ in terms of immigration, and that difficulties linked to population increases, such as housing and employment issues, were fuelled by rampant immigration.
Upston disagreed, saying that the current level of skilled immigration was needed to fill crucial gaps in the workforce, which in turn would drive the economy.
“We need them here now, and we need to build a pipeline of New Zealand-grown talent to fill those gaps. Our moves in education are intended to help grow that pipeline. But it would be naïve to think we would get to the point where we would have no immigration.”
Taupo MP Louise Upston speaking at last week’s Friendly Forum in Cambridge. Photo: Viv Posselt
