Top 5 Issues

1. Flexible Superannuation
   
   New Zealanders should be able to take superannuation at reduced rates down to 60 or increasingly enhanced rates if they hold off until between 66 and 70, alongside making KiwiSaver compulsory.
   
   This is about more choice for You - the public and makes good economic sense.
2. Income Sharing
   
   UnitedFuture believes the tax system should work in the interests of those raising families and it should empower family and community self-sufficiency rather than creating dependency.
   
   Income sharing recognises that the spouse or partner who has chosen to work part-time or has opted out of the paid work force in order to raise their children is making a vital contribution to
   our society.
   
   Children are our future, as a counsellor I want to be part of party that values the parenting of the next generation. Income Splitting is about being fair to Kiwi families.
3. Caring for Elderly
   
   UnitedFuture has two key policies to keep older New Zealanders warmer and healthier. Both are about making New Zealand the kind of country it should be and make economic sense.
   
   • Subsidise the power bills of over-65s by $50 per month for the three coldest months of the year – June, July and August – so our seniors can afford to keep warm
   
   • A free ‘Warrant of Fitness’ annual health check for those over-65 to identify health problems and illness early
   
   Caring for families includes looking after our parents and grandparents. To be warm in your own home is the least we can do to honour their sacrifices for us.
4. Asset Sales
   
   Kiwibank, Radio New Zealand and the water supply should be ruled out of any future asset sales programmes
   
   Kiwibank is in every sense now a national institution, whether you bank with it or not. And in a market full of Australian-owned banks, and an increasingly fraught and troubled globe, it is both
   a symbolic and practical statement of our economic sovereignty. Collectively, it is ours pure and simple. It must stay that way.
   
   Radio New Zealand exists in an increasingly commercial media marketplace, and it is more important than ever to have a voice that does not bend to the dollar, to ratings, to external forces.
   Every nation needs its own voice and we need to afford that voice our collective protection.
   
   Water. UnitedFuture does not intend to wait until it is on the asset sales agenda. New Zealanders would never – or should never – accept a sell-off of the supply of the water, or any of the aspects around it.
   
   In addition, with regard to Asset Sales, UnitedFuture will insist that:
   
   - The New Zealand Government retains majority control (51%)
   
   - Shareholding by private investors be capped at 15%
   
   These sensible suggestions steer a middle road that enable the raising of needed capital, provide a vehicle for New Zealanders to invest in New Zealand, and retains our autonomy in our own country.
5. Outdoor Recreation
   
   UnitedFuture believes that all New Zealanders have a birthright to enjoy our unique, diverse landscape. Our strong outdoor heritage is central to what it means to be a Kiwi.
   
   Our key policies to achieve this are:
   •Enshrining public access to all public resources, including game, waterways and coastline, in law.
   •Establishing a robust National Environmental Standard for all freshwater waterways.
   •Curtailing the application of 1080 poison and replacing it with new and more environmentally friendly forms of pest-control.
   •Imposing a moratorium on new hydro and irrigation schemes for rivers without existing dams and still regarded to be ‘wild’.
   •Prohibit heli-hunting, herding or hazing from helicopters except for legitimate animal management operations when numbers warrant it.
   •Make sure the Game Animal Council Bill, currently before Parliament is passed, and the Game Animal Council is established as a statutory body.
   •Work with the recreational fishing sector to establish a public consultation process regarding the future of inshore fisheries management. This will include whether a statutory management organisation 'run by fishers for fishers' should be established.
   
   Anyone who has seen the agony of Deer dying after being poisoned with 1080 will be activated to end this outdated practice of poisoning our own environment.

Personal Profile

Steven Dromgool is the United Future Candidate for Northcote.  This is the 3rd time he has stood for United Future.  Steven is a relationship counsellor in private practice.  He supports United Future because he has a dream of a country that focuses on the welfare of all its citizens rather than catering to extremist groups on the left or right.  He supports United Future's openness to new ideas and their commitment to partnering with the government of the day to keep it focussed and delivering stable sensible government so the country can get on with enjoying living working and raising our children.  He also likes the fact that United Future continues to deliver on what it promises i.e. lowering the business tax rate, supporting Kiwi families, removing the limits on donations rebates and looks forward the introduction of income splitting for parents raising children and ending the use of 1080 poison in our great ideas.  He is keen to see United Future returned with 3 or 4 MP's to ensure that Asset Sales are done in away that retains New Zealand ownership and Government majority control and that our water supply is kept solely in New Zealand.  He believes that the big party of the day (at this stage most likely to be National) will need a strong stable centre party to keep them on focus, and to remember that the heart of New Zealand is in its families.