Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

With Parliament on holiday until February 8, I've enjoyed the opportunity to get out and do a bit of friendly door knocking in various parts of our city. Getting out in this way provides me with a very strong sense of what's happening, and allows people to outline their hopes and concerns for today and for the future.

I have also attended some terrific events that serve to illustrate what a vibrant city Tauranga is becoming. One of these was the opening of the Good Food Trading Company on MacDonald Street at the Mount, which now provides fresh produce and top quality food from local producers, as well as imported specialities. I'm also looking forward to great music at the Global Breakthrough Festival in mid February at Baypark and other locations. Tauranga is an increasingly happening place to be.

Focus on economic growth

Economic growth matters. It creates jobs and lifts incomes. It boosts living standards and pays for the world-class health and education services that Kiwi families need.

National was elected to focus on lifting this country's prosperity and help families get ahead under their own steam.

We committed to investing more in critical infrastructure and focusing Government spending on frontline services. We said we'd tackle the challenges of the global financial crisis.

Two years on, we've delivered on those promises and have exceeded them in many areas.

Our recovery remains on track, despite figures before Christmas showing the economy contracted 0.2 per cent in the September quarter. Before this result, we had seen five consecutive quarters of growth since coming out of a deep recession. We've said all along the recovery would be bumpy at times, and that's proved to be the case.

It's worth remembering the one-off effects of the Canterbury earthquake and Southland snow storms which showed through in the September quarter.

It's encouraging to see a recent report that business optimism is growing. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research is forecasting economic growth in the December quarter and a brighter employment outlook.

It's important to focus on our long-term challenge – building a sustainable recovery around exports and savings, rather than borrowing and consumption.

National remains committed to our broad-based economic programme aimed at building faster and ongoing growth.

New Zealand's economic imbalances have built up over several decades, so it will take us more than a year or two to fix them.

We will take further steps this year to encourage savings and reduce New Zealand's unsustainable reliance on foreign debt. At the same time, we will ensure the Government plays its part in lifting national savings by returning to budget surplus as soon as possible, and by requiring better and smarter services from the public sector.

National is confident the economy will build momentum through 2011 and beyond, and that over time, we will achieve our goal of delivering the stronger economy, more jobs and higher incomes New Zealanders deserve.