(Getty Images)
Radio New Zealand
Wellington, April 8, 2024
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced nine targets for the government to deliver in the next six years.
They include Emergency Departments: 95% of ED patients admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours; Elective Treatment: 95% of people waiting less than four months; Child and Youth Offending: 15% reduction in total children with serious and persistent offending (by 2029); Violent Crime: 20,000 fewer victims of assault, robbery or sexual assault (by 2029); Jobseeker Benefit: 50,000 fewer people on jobseeker benefit; Student Attendance: 80% of students present for 90% of the term; Student Achievement: 80% of Year Eight students at or above expected reading, Writing and Mathematics Curriculum Level (by December 2030); Emergency Housing: 75% reduction in households in Emergency Housing; Greenhouse Gas: No more than 290 mega tonnes emitted in 2022 to 2025 (four years), and 305 from 2026 to 2030 (five years).
The government’s media release stated that the targets were to be achieved by 2030, although some had more specific timeframes, including a December 2030 deadline for the student achievement target.
An accompanying documentation also set out the surveys and other research that would be used to measure progress. The two health targets were among five Luxon announced alongside Health Minister Shane Reti last month.
Quarterly Progress Reports
Each target is assigned to a government minister and agency to oversee, working as appropriate with other ministers and ministries, with progress reports to be publicly released every quarter.
In a statement, Mr Luxon said that the government was “under no illusion about the scale of the challenges we face as a country.”
“Despite the hard work of frontline staff like the Police, Nurses and Teachers, New Zealand has gone backwards in recent years. That is why our government is bringing back public service targets to focus our public sector on driving better results for New Zealanders in health, education, law and order, work, housing, and the environment,” he said.
Mr Luxon said that the targets were ‘deliberately ambitious.’
“They will be challenging and require the public sector to think differently, dig deeply into root causes, learn from other places, and be innovative and disciplined in directing resources to where they will have the greatest impact on outcomes,” he said.
Mr Luxon said that the targets were developed following conversations with the various ministers over the last few months.
“Enough is enough, the excuses have to stop, and we have to march the show forward with a bit of ambition,” he said.
Reducing jobseeker benefits
He defended the Jobseeker benefit reduction of 50,000 people in the next six years, on a benefit which increased by 70,000 in the last six years, saying that it was a ‘pretty good go.’
He clarified that it would include ‘total jobseeker beneficiaries,’ including people on the jobseeker benefit because of a health condition or disability that affected their ability to work, including those working reduced hours.
He said that the government wanted young people on benefit to work.
“They may want to do part-time work … [or] more programmes in preparation for work. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to get them off welfare and into work, where we think that there is a much better future for them and their families,” he said.
Mr Luxon said that it was better to use money that had been pegged for supporting people on welfare and surge it and do social investment properly to set people up for success.
Tackling young offenders
He also defended the youth offending target, saying that he was not comfortable with having 900 young recidivist offenders, a drop from the current 1100.
“I want to start somewhere, knowing how difficult it has been and knowing what has happened over recent years,” he said.
He did not commit to resigning if the government did not achieve the targets which are two Parliamentary terms away but said that he took the ultimate responsibility and that the New Zealand public would have their say every three years.
The targets were signalled in the coalition’s 36-point second quarterly plan last week.
John Key’s National government introduced 10 targets in 2012, aiming for cross-agency collaboration involving multiple ministers and ministries.
Those targets aimed for percentage reductions in rheumatic fever, crime rates, assaults on children, and the number of people on a benefit; percentage increases in infant immunisation rates, early childhood education participation, and NCEA and tertiary qualifications; and more online interaction with government services.
They were redesigned by Sir Bill English in 2017 – including shifting some to a flat number rather than percentages – but were scrapped by the Labour government a year later.
Public policy academic Jonathan Boston last week told RNZ they had been effective at achieving better outcomes, but it could sometimes come at the expense of non-targeted areas.
The Public Service Association Union National Secretary Kerry Davies warned that if the targets were too narrowly focused, they could lead to unintended or perverse outcomes.
The targets also come alongside the government’s promised cuts to the public sector, with the Environment Ministry being the latest to call for voluntary redundancies.
Crown entity Callaghan Innovation has announced about 30 full-time equivalent roles could be cut with final decisions expected in May or June.
The above Report and pictures have been published under a special agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
