Christopher Luxon says the outcomes being delivered by New Zealand’s education system are dire but his Government has a plan to turn it around.
The Prime Minister and Botany MP addressed supporters at the National Party’s annual conference in Auckland today.
He began by saying his coalition Government is delivering the change Kiwis voted for at last year’s general election by rebuilding the economy, restoring law and order, delivering better health and education, and “getting New Zealand back on track.
“And what did that mean in practice? Take law and order.
“We are cracking down. If you’re a criminal – we are coming after you.
“Yes, it’s still early days, and too many Kiwis are still victimised by violent offending and retail crime.
“But I am proud that our government is ending the era of lawlessness ushered in by Labour and the Greens.
“I will speak plainly – New Zealanders have a right to feel safe.
“And that right trumps any interest in giving violent and repeat offenders an early release just so they can continue to prey on our communities.
“I’m sick of being told that the real victims are the people who smash into a shop, or peddle meth, or brutally assault mums and dads working in the dead of night.
“It couldn’t be further from the truth.”
He said while some New Zealanders have had a tough start in life that doesn’t mean a person brandishing a knife or smashing into a jewellery store “is the real victim”.
“And don’t tell me the answer is putting them back onto the streets to continue their campaign of violence, fear, and misery.
“No one gets a license to abuse, intimidate, and assault your fellow New Zealanders.
“So, we are cracking down. More cops on the beat, with teams dedicated to shutting down retail crime in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
“We’ve ended funding for cultural reports, and now we’re bringing in tougher sentences for violent and repeat offenders with guard rails on judges to prevent soft sentencing discounts.
“And we’re going to put gangs through the ringer. The last Government funded gangs and we’re going after them.
“Yes, banning their patches – but also giving police the tools they need to disrupt every single layer of gang operations.
“Shutting down their lines of communication, breaking up their public occupations with dispersal notices, and forcing judges to take gang membership into account at sentencing.
“There’s a reason the Mongrel Mob campaigned against National last year. It’s because we are going after them, and I make no apologies for that.”
Luxon also detailed his Government’s policy changes in sectors including health, which has generated numerous negative headlines in recent months, tertiary education, mental health, cancer treatments, and the economy.
“The recession that began more than a year ago continues to grind on, with rising unemployment the latest sign of an economy struggling to grow,” he said.
“But there are encouraging, early signs that we are starting to turn the corner. Inflation is falling fast – down to 3.3 per cent from 7.3 per cent.
“Food prices are falling in annual terms for the first time in six years. Mortgage rates are beginning to soften – down 30 basis points in the last six months. None of that is an accident.
“Now when your mortgage rate begins to come down, or you see inflation return to normal, remember the tough choices we campaigned on together to make that happen.
“Stopping wasteful spending, eliminating red tape, and reducing costs on business – getting Government back to basics so Kiwis can succeed under their own steam.
“It starts with spending your money as carefully as you would. Reducing wasteful spending, shifting money from the back office to the frontline, and getting the books back under control.
“And this week we are delivering personal income tax relief to 3.5 million New Zealanders.”
The second half of Luxon’s speech focused on education.
He said National campaigned last year on the basic principle that to turn the country around, school pupils needed to be taught the basics brilliantly.
“We have a bureaucracy in Wellington distracted from their core responsibilities and teachers let down by a vague curriculum.
“The result: our kids weren’t being taught the basics, leading to falling educational achievement, and a shocking decline relative to previous generations and kids in other countries.
“Something had to change and National – all of us – campaigned on the solutions. Now I’m proud to say we are taking action. Fast.
“We’re removing distractions, lifting student engagement, and driving down classroom bullying – by banning cell phones in school.
“We’re giving every child in every classroom a grounding in the basics, by making sure they get an hour of reading, an hour of writing, and an hour maths every single day.
“We’re re-writing the curriculum, shifting to a clear expectation of what a child must know in each subject, each year at school.
“We’re rolling structured literacy out across the whole country, so young people will learn to read the same way so many of us did when we went to school – with phonics.
“The evidence shows that’s the most effective way to teach.”
Luxon said new data shows just 22 per cent of New Zealand students are at the expected standard for maths at year 8, which means four out of five are falling behind.
“The results are deeply concerning, but I suspect not a surprise for many parents who I know are frustrated and despondent about the progress of their own children in school.
“And it gets worse: three out of five are more than a year behind.
“Translated into a raw number, that means that last year around 50,000 children getting ready for high school were not at the curriculum benchmark for their age.
“Just eight per cent of kids in our lowest decile schools are at curriculum in maths at year 8 and 79 per cent are more than a year behind.
“For Māori, just 12 per cent are at curriculum in year 8 and 76 per cent are more than a year behind.”
He said the Government is taking three immediate interventions to address the problem.
They involve accelerating the shift to a new maths curriculum by bringing forward its introduction by a year, delivering targeted professional development focused on structured maths for primary and intermediate teachers, and taking assessment and support for kids who need it seriously.
“That means – alongside our new curriculum – there will be twice-yearly assessments for maths in primary schools starting from 2025.
“We can’t know – and parents can’t know – if students are sinking or swimming, if we aren’t checking their progress.
“We have to make sure every child has a record of their achievement as they move through school, so we know what’s going right and what might be going wrong.”
