Delivering better public services
Mr Speaker,
The Government's third priority for this term is delivering better public services within tight fiscal constraints.
Spending restraint is not a handbrake on providing better public services. In fact, big increases in spending have often been a measure of failure, rather than a measure of success.
Our approach has been to spend well, not to spend up.
The Government's spending increases have been modest and focused on programmes that will achieve results and improve the lives of New Zealanders and their families.
Last year, the Prime Minister set 10 challenging results for the public sector to achieve over the next few years, in areas such as reducing long-term welfare dependency, supporting vulnerable children, boosting skills and employment and reducing crime.
These results span the public sector and the Budget contributes to meeting all of them.
Mr Speaker,
I want to start with the Government's support for vulnerable children and families. This is already very substantial, with billions of dollars spent on income support, as well as targeted support for families with complex needs.
The Ministerial Committee on Poverty was established under the confidence and supply agreement between the National and Māori parties, and I want to acknowledge my fellow Minister and Māori Party co-leader, Tariana Turia, for her support.
The Budget confirms several important initiatives in this area.
Funding of $100 million over three years has been provided for the Healthy Homes insulation programme, targeting low-income households with children or high health needs. The extended programme is expected to insulate around 46,000 additional houses.
More than $21 million has been provided over the next four years for rheumatic fever prevention.
Another $1.5 million has been provided next year for budgeting services for low-income families, on top of the $8.9 million that is already provided.
The Government is also exploring a warrant of fitness programme for social housing, and will investigate and pilot a low and no interest loan scheme for low-income borrowers.
Some of these initiatives were included in the Children's Commissioner's child poverty report, which the Government will be responding to in the next few weeks.
Mr Speaker,
It is widely acknowledged that paid employment is the best way to lift vulnerable families out of poverty.
That's why the Government is focused on helping those families by creating conditions where businesses are prepared to invest and to take on new staff. And it's why the Government's welfare policies have an unrelenting focus on supporting people into work.
The Budget provides $189 million over four years for the next stage of welfare reform.
This includes funding for more intensive case management for people who are able to work, and means that Work and Income staff will be actively working with over 40 per cent of beneficiaries.
Mr Speaker,
Despite the Government's $15 billion investment in housing, some people cannot get social housing assistance when they need it. The provision of social housing is also dominated by Housing New Zealand, with relatively few other providers.
The Government is therefore announcing three major changes.
First, we will begin developing pathways for New Zealanders in social housing to regain independence and self-sufficiency in housing as their individual circumstances permit and as alternatives allow.
Reviewable tenancies, which already apply to some Housing New Zealand tenants, will then be progressively extended to all social housing tenants.
This will mean people can be in social housing when they have high needs, and for as long as those needs persist. But they will be given support to move into alternative housing when their situation improves and they are in a position to take that step to independence.
This will free up houses for other people and families with high needs, who would otherwise be shut out of social housing.
The Budget contains funding of $47 million to support this policy, starting in 2015/16.
Second, the Government is increasing its spending on income-related rent subsidies by $27 million over four years and will make this available as a capped pool to community housing providers.
Opening income-related rents up to community housing providers puts them on an equal footing with Housing New Zealand and opens the door for much greater participation in the social housing sector.
Finally, housing needs assessments will be shifted from Housing New Zealand to the Ministry of Social Development. This means needs assessments will be independent of any housing provider, and people seeking different types of government assistance can get it from one organisation.
Mr Speaker,
The Government has made frontline health services a priority, and this is benefitting many more New Zealanders and their families.
Elective surgery procedures, for example, have increased significantly, emergency room waiting times have dropped, more MRI and CT scans have been performed and more children have been immunised.
The Budget continues the Government's focus on better healthcare and prevention.
It includes $1.6 billion over the next four years for new initiatives and to meet cost pressures and population growth.
$1 billion of that funding, over four years, will go to district health boards to cover demographic growth and cost pressures. $70 million has been set aside for aged care and dementia services, $48 million for more elective operations, $36 million for heart disease and diabetes care, and $25 million for preventative screening services.
The Government is also providing $92 million over four years to pay family members who care for their disabled adult children.
The additional funding in the Budget takes the total health budget next year to $14.7 billion.
Mr Speaker,
The Government is helping more New Zealanders get the skills they need to build successful careers and fulfil their potential.
We are lifting student achievement at all levels of the education system, making more information available to parents and lifting the quality of teaching and professional leadership in schools.
We have set ambitious targets for student achievement. In particular, we want to have 98 per cent of school entrants having participated in early childhood education, and 85 per cent of 18-year-olds achieving NCEA Level 2 or equivalent qualification.
The Government's total investment in education will next year increase to over $9.7 billion.
Over the next four years, the Budget provides new operating funding of $173 million for early childhood education and $215 million for schools, including nearly $80 million for operations grants. It also provides $134 million in capital for new school property.
Our particular focus is on supporting children who have too often missed out on educational opportunities. The Budget therefore provides $41 million to support vulnerable children to participate in early childhood education and $6 million for a new mentoring programme to help vulnerable students achieve NCEA Level 2.
Mr Speaker,
The Budget also includes over $130 million of new investment, and reprioritised funding, in tertiary education over the next four years.
Extra funding is provided for Māori and Pasifika trades training, to boost science and engineering courses, and to increase the proportion of young people with higher-level qualifications.
The Budget also confirms funding to support the new and expanded apprenticeship system the Prime Minister announced earlier this year.
The reprioritisation of tertiary funding includes initiatives to increase repayments of student loans from overseas-based borrowers and reduce defaulting.
The Government is also reining in big rises in student allowance costs by focusing on younger learners and on people studying for their first degrees. People aged 40 and over will be restricted to 120 weeks of student allowances, while people aged 65 and over will no longer be eligible for an allowance.
Students of all ages will continue to have access to the interest-free student loan scheme.
The Budget also invests in expanding the Māori cadetship programme, which will increase the number of cadets from 250 to 350 each year. I want to acknowledge Māori Affairs Minister, and Māori Party co-leader, Pita Sharples for his leadership and support in this area.
Mr Speaker,
Over the last four-and-a-half years, the Government has had a comprehensive programme of reform to protect communities, prevent crime and put victims first.
This is delivering results.
Reported crime has fallen by almost 17 per cent over the past three years.
And our justice agencies are focused on areas that will get the best results in the future.
The Department of Corrections, for example, is investing $10 million over two years to reduce offending by prisoners after they are released.
And, as previously announced, the Police are investing more than $160 million over a number of years to give frontline officers access to new technology such as smartphones and tablets, which means they can deal with issues on the street without having to return to the station to do paperwork.
