Bill English
Wellington, January 29, 2018
National has today pledged to ensure the Government is held accountable for the spending of billions of dollars of tax-payer money by the public service – and the impact that has on vulnerable New Zealanders.
The Government’s decision to abolish the Better Public Services (BPS) targets for no other reason than an ideological dislike for them is disgraceful.
Getting rid of them undoes years of work to focus the public services on changing lives by digging into our hardest social problems, rather than just throwing money at them.
Tracking progress
The targets have driven immense changes particularly for the most vulnerable in our communities.
There are now 60,000 fewer children living in a benefit dependent household, the number of 18-year-olds who do not achieve NCEA level 2 has halved, rheumatic fever has dramatically reduced, and youth crime has dropped by a third.
These improvements must continue, so it is our intention to regularly seek Official Information from each relevant department or agency, and to ask Parliamentary questions, to track the progress of the targets – or their equivalent measures.
We will publish the results of these OIA requests.
Refreshed targets
In May last year, we announced 10 refreshed targets to build on the success of those introduced in 2012.
The refreshed targets announced last year include:
25% reduction of the number of people on a benefit
Having 90% of pregnant women register with a Lead Maternity Carer in their first trimester
25% reduction in the number of children hospitalised for preventable conditions
20% reduction in the number of children experiencing a substantiated incidence of physical or sexual abuse
By 2021, 80% of Year 8 students at or above the National Standard in reading, writing and Mathematics
Reducing the number of serious crime victimisation by 10,000
20% reduction in the median time to find people a social house
Clear focus
Not only did the targets let us see exactly the kind of difference the money we invested was making for real people, they also gave public servants a clear focus on what they needed to do to improve lives.
It is our intention to release the information we receive from the Government to the public in March.
Bill English is Leader of National Party of New Zealand and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
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