Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
ORAL QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS
Question No. 1—Prime Minister
1. CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government’s statements and actions?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Acting Prime Minister): Yes—in particular, our work around climate change. This morning, Minister Woods announced funding, as part of the Low Emission Transport Fund, that will see 11 new transport projects, including clever solutions for electric vehicle charging, ways to cut fuel costs in heavy freight, and the first marine project, which will pilot electric outboard motors. As a Government, we understand the need to tackle climate change, and this is one policy area where we’re working hard to support long-term sustainability and economic growth. Our climate change policy is clear: we know that it’s not good enough to sign up to goals but then not back it up with policy or action. New Zealand has had too much of that in the recent past, but I do welcome the Leader of the Opposition’s commitment today to supporting the clean car discount.
Christopher Luxon: Can he confirm that his Government is burning almost three times more coal than in any year of a National Government?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What I can confirm is that last week we had 97 percent of our electricity generated from renewable sources. That is not something the member can claim.
Christopher Luxon: Why has the Ministry of Education added an extra 280 managers, 60 lawyers and accountants, and 50 policy analysts since 2017?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On this side of the House, we know that investing in education is vitally important. One of the things we’ve done is add thousands of teachers, hundreds of teacher-aides, hundreds of learning support workers, and we pay them properly. We need an education system that is well funded, well resourced, and well supported. We need education facilities that are warm and dry and safe. This Government has prioritised investing in that, unlike the previous Government.
Christopher Luxon: Why has he tripled the number of staff at the Ministry of Education earning over $120,000, and how many more bureaucrats will it take before we see any improvement in school attendance and achievement?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What we’re doing is investing in the attendance strategy, which, I note, was launched at an intermediate school that the Leader of the Opposition is so fond of. When that was launched, it was in term 2 of this year, and that school was actually having some problems with attendance in term 2 because of COVID. So the member is right to highlight the excellent work done in that school on attendance. We were proud to launch our attendance strategy to address those issues at that school.
Christopher Luxon: Does he agree that kids who are not being taught the basics, like maths, reading, and writing, are less likely to attend school regularly, and, if so, why has the Government not taken any action to raise standards in our schools?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Firstly, in answer to the second part of the question, that’s simply wrong. In answer to the first part of the question, what we do is invest in and support good quality teachers and good quality leaders in our schools. What we don’t do is go on television and run down the hard-working principals in decile 1 schools.
Christopher Luxon: What role does he think the Government’s failure to lift attendance has had on the rise in youth crime, when police figures show the majority of young offenders are not regularly attending school?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: We all know that there is a variety of causes for what we’re seeing among the group of young people who have been involved in ram raids. That’s why you have to take an approach that is about getting to the root causes of that. What we also know is that every time the member stands up and ignores the fact that we’ve had COVID, which has caused a huge number of those people to fall into the category, he undermines his own argument. We’re supporting schools. We’re supporting principals. We’re not running them down like the member did on television this morning.
Hon Chris Hipkins: Has the Acting Prime Minister been informed that the previous Government lowered the standard for achieving literacy and numeracy under NCEA and that this Government is in the process of raising it?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Absolutely, and this is the issue that New Zealanders had for some time in our education system—that, when people like the National Party get hold of the levers of power, they put in place their ideological experiment like national standards, which has been a massive failure. And the member might like to think about some of the people he’s worried about in terms of literacy and numeracy standards—exactly when they entered the education system. The member shouldn’t be making that sign about going around in a circle on policy on a day like today.
Christopher Luxon: Is he concerned that the finance Minister is so distracted from his day job that in a recent keynote speech he only mentioned the cost of living crisis once and, while I appreciate he’s a fan, mentioned me nine times?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The very real and present danger that the Leader of the Opposition represents to New Zealanders definitely needed highlighting. I think the member might want to have a think about today, in his career as the Leader of the Opposition, because what he managed to do was a U-turn on a U-turn on a U-turn—the first politician in history to complete a policy doughnut.
Christopher Luxon: What is he more concerned about: the cost of living crisis or me?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What I am concerned about is that member making the cost of living crisis worse.
