'If you care about people, you run the economy well,” says National leader Christopher Luxon who is in Tauranga with a firm message of fixing the economy, restoring law and order, and a commitment to health and education.

Accompanied by Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell and National's newly selected Bay of Plenty candidate Tom Rutherford, Luxon came straight to the point with basic economics while speaking to Tauranga Chamber of Commerce members at The University of Waikato.

'If you spend more, you expect to get more for it. We have a government addicted to spending, [they are] spending more money, yet delivering worse outcomes.”

Extrapolating the Government's ‘more spending' to more tax and borrowing and ultimately more pain and suffering for the everyday Kiwi, Luxon quipped that any consultants in the room could be doing quite well under the current regime.

'How do you spend $1.8billion on consultants? It's undisciplined spending.”

He mentioned people he'd met who are stressed and struggling with trying to budget for their increased mortgage rates and others who were looking for job opportunities in Queensland.

'A family has gone from 2.5 per cent mortgage rate up to a 6 per cent mortgage rate. You could see the stress on their faces. I felt very humbled and honoured to meet them. I've sat with families that are trying to digest a $50 increase in rents per week.

'New Zealanders are worrying about their finances. We want to see money back in and we want to see disciplined spending.”

His vision is to see a good growth plan that will set the NZ economy up for the next 50 years, with a focus on investment into infrastructure, research and development, science and technology. Luxon says New Zealand has more people on the employment benefit today than when Labour came to power.

'[A well-run] economy enables us to run a world class education system. We have to reduce the cost of living, and stop passing costs on to businesses. We want to free up the blockages in the system that stop businesses growing productively.

'How do we grow the economy? By adding more value-added products and services, getting rid of bureaucracy and investing in business.”

He also says that investing strongly in infrastructure has economic, social and environmental benefits.

'There is a big opportunity [in New Zealand] to commercialise research and development and science and technology.”

He says New Zealand needs to get much more externally oriented – citing how Australia, Britain, the EU and Canada have been making the most of opportunities to connect internationally.

'So we fix the economy. And we restore law and order,” says Luxon moving on from talking about economics to the Tauranga business leaders, to addressing them on violence and crime.

'We've all seen those images of violence. Violent crime has increased, the number of gang members has increased, there's a ram raid every 15 hours. Do we accept that's the new normal or do we do something about it?”

He plans to back police, banning gang patches in public places, while focusing on real consequences for young offenders 'to power them up to change their trajectory”.

Education and health are the other two elements that Luxon wants to focus on delivering successful outcomes for, and bemoaned how New Zealand used to be in the top countries in the world for education but now 'half of our 15 year olds are failing their basic numeracy and writing”.

'There's a lot of ideology floating around looking for a problem. The solution is we have to teach the basics brilliantly, particularly at primary age, and have a really well-defined curriculum. We want to be able to assess how they're [a student] is internalizing that knowledge.”

Highlighting the results that the Graeme Dingle Foundation tracks and measures with its programmes into local western Bay of Plenty schools, Luxon showed support for outcome-based funding for non-government educational and community organisations that can get the job done.

He says it's the same situation for healthcare where billions of dollars have been poured in without much to show for it, and a health system where workers are experiencing burnout.

'The government spent $2billion and it went nowhere and didn't improve access for health services yet $2mllion to Gumboot Friday has tremendous outcomes. Get the money from central government and out to the organisations that get outcomes.”

He highlighted the stress on health workers.

'We have constant churn in the [health] system, with two people leaving for every new one starting.”

He outlined how National in government will have a commitment to nurses to help pay off their student loans, whilst also opening NZ up to qualified nurses from overseas with an incentive to relocate here will help solve that workforce challenge.

And he highlighted how health goals need to be set to overcome the challenges the public faces when trying to get medical help.

'Targets matter and save lives.”

He says during National's last term as Government, their goal was to have 95 per cent of New Zealanders presenting at Emergency Departments to be seen within six hours.

'Now it's down to 30 per cent. And people are waiting up to four months to get their first specialist appointment.”

Questioned on the National Party's commitment to Tauranga to address the transport infrastructure, and in particular the Northern Link, Luxon says 'it's been a Punch and Judy show between central and local government”.

'One government turns it on, and the next government turns it off.

'If John Kennedy can announce they can get to the moon, and then do it in nine years, then we can complete roads within nine years.

'Labour has got their priorities all wrong.

"We are focused on fixing the economy by stopping wasteful spending and providing tax relief to support hardworking Kiwis.”

He's adamant that only National has a plan for a strong economy to fix the cost of living crisis.

'There's a different way. Labour, Māori and the Greens will be a coalition of chaos but National will grow a strong economy.”

On Sunday Luxon announced a 50-meeting nationwide tour of New Zealand which kicks off this week. He plans to speak on National's plan to fix the economy, restore law and order and improve New Zealand schools and healthcare.

'I'll be traveling across the country for public meetings to hear from you and talk about our plan to fix the economy - because that's the key to lowering the cost-of-living and delivering a better future for everyone,” says Luxon.

The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce meeting today was also attended by Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell and National's newly selected Bay of Plenty candidate Tom Rutherford. The politicians also visited Tauranga Foodbank with Good Neighbour in the morning and Seeka Packhouse at Mount Maunganui in the afternoon.

Tauranga's roading and infrastructure

'One of the big challenges in this region is infrastructure. You've got a city that's grown incredibly quickly to be New Zealand's fifth biggest city and you haven't got the supporting and enabling infrastructure,” says Luxon.

'We do have some significant challenges here in Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty around infrastructure. State Highway 29 is something we're really keen to look at and the opportunity there to open up about 25,000 homes and get that faster access into the Port of Tauranga. It's our biggest port, it's almost at capacity and we just need to get on and do what we need to do there,” says Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell.

'State Highway 2, through Te Puna and Omokoroa especially, is a dangerous stretch of road,” says Tom Rutherford at his first press conference.

'The community has told us crystal clear throughout the last six years that they want that road upgraded. They want it to be safer and they want it to be more efficient. At the moment people living out in Omokoroa are spending about 90 minutes getting into the Tauranga CBD.

'The National party has confirmed that we are going to be two-laning it each way for private use and vehicles and getting rid of the bus lanes that are currently proposed each way.

'Because we need to have efficient roads out there to service our economy both in Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty. At the moment people are spending far too long in their cars and they need to be spending more time in the workplace and building our efficiency.

'I'm getting to work straight away to campaign for a National Government that will get New Zealand back on track,” says Rutherford.

'I'll be working hard over the coming months to meet as many people as I can to hear about their concerns and share how National will improve the lives for all people in the Bay of Plenty.”

National's Spokesperson for Transport and Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown, Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell and National's Bay of Plenty candidate Tom Rutherford will be attending a public meeting about State Highway 29 at Kaimai School at 6.30pm on Tuesday May 23. They will also be holding a public meeting on transport at the Bethlehem Hall at 12pm, Friday May 26.