29 February. John talks with host Neil Collins about the drought, the recent crisis in health care (and DHBs),the effect of interest rates on mortgages, energy prices, Winston Peters, the arrest of Nai Yin Xue, America's presidential elections - and New Zealand's.  John also touches on his plans to visit Australia in March and his new pages on Facebook.

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FACEBOOK UPDATE
On Wednesday I posted a new video on my Facebook page thanking the 1,400 supporters who had already signed up. Already, hundreds have posted messages and many of the comments have been helpful. I hope you keep them coming. Together with the comments on my website they help give me a sense of your frustrations and your hopes, and what National can do to build a better New Zealand.

So please keep contributing. And if you haven't already visited my Facebook page, please check it out and sign up. I look forward to seeing you online.

YOUTH PLAN
I had a fascinating day in Wanganui this week looking at youth education and justice initiatives in the city. This was a follow-up to my State of the Nation speech, where I unveiled National's Youth Plan.

We visited the Gonville Community Police Station and learnt about the "Life to the Max" programme, which is helping young offenders step away from a life of crime. We went to the Wai Ora Christian Community Trust, the Youth Services Trust, and the YMCA to see how they help out young people in need. And we visited Land Based Training, which provides a range of practical courses in areas from agriculture to traffic management.

It was a great insight to the challenges we face helping young people succeed, and what community groups can achieve when you combine ingenuity, optimism, and a truckload of hard work.

I'd like to thank everyone who took time to show me around and tell me a little bit about their work. It's great to see so many people with so many good ideas getting stuck in, and I'm confident that the policies we have announced in our Youth Plan will help make a real difference in our communities.

THE EXCHANGE RATE

The New Zealand dollar is at a post-float high again, at well over US 80 cents, and with rising interest rates and growing fuel prices, our exporters are really feeling the pinch. This has some serious implications for our economy. Watch my comment on the dollar and the economic outlook here.

LOOKING AHEAD

I try not to comment too much on the polls, but as I've been travelling around the electorate it's clear that people are enthusiastic about our progress, and that the mood for change is growing.

Our team has had a great start to the year but there is a long way to go. We can't afford, for even a moment, to get distracted from rolling out our programme to build a better New Zealand. That will remain our focus until the election and beyond. Your help and your support will be essential every step of the way.

Kind regards,


John Key MP
Leader of the National Party


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www.johnkey.co.nz
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Late last week, John Key opened pages on Facebook and was greeted with a huge and positive response from the community.

In a special letter to Facebook friends and supporters, issued today, John says:

I've just released a new video thanking you for the overwhelming welcome to Facebook.

With 1,400 supporters coming on board in only the first few days, I have real hopes for what we can accomplish through Facebook during this election year and on into Government.

Your comments and discussions on the new pages have been helpful, encouraging and informative.

I'm more convinced than ever that you're just the kind of people the National Party needs to have involved if we're going to move into Government and do a great job once we're there (and for those of you not yet on Facebook who are viewing this through another channel, please consider joining and registering with us once you do, as friends and supporters). 

I encourage you to take advantage of the unique features of Facebook to make new friends inside the supporter network and get your personal networks involved, as well.

I also hope that, if you're not living in New Zealand right now you'll join the Internats and our special Facebook group for expatriates.  And if you have overseas friends in your networks, please let them know about these pages, as well.

Hundreds of thousands of us live abroad but only about 45,000 are on the electoral roll. At the 2005 election only 27,000 votes in total were cast overseas - we want that number to be much higher in the coming election. 

Links to both groups are easy to find on my supporters page.

Again, thank you - and I look forward to seeing more of you on Facebook.

John Key

If you want to sign up as a John Key supporter on Facebook, click here.

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27 February 2008. Video Journal 31. With the exchange rate hitting rare highs, John talks about likely outcomes and what all this will mean for the economy.

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27 February. John talks briefly about his itinerary with host Wallace Chapman before moving on to a discussion about the coming election and solutions for the affordable housing crisis.

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