Two years of the Ardern coalition, policy by policy

The coalition Government came to office promising to strive towards adding 1800 new police, a commitment to focus on combating organised crime and drugs, to increase Community Law Centre funding, set up a Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCR) and investigate a volunteer rural constabulary programme.

So has it met its law and order targets?

So far it has been a mixed bag and, when it comes to police numbers, it depends on whose interpretation you believe.

Until recently, it looked like it would not meet this key objective for 1800 police but now it seems the goalposts have been shifted, with the Government now saying the figure was in relation to newly trained recruits and not a net gain, which Police Minister Stuart Nash has been promising police. The recruit ‘‘goal’’ now looks set to be ticked off after a police graduation in November.

A focus on combating organised crime and drugs appeared to be trudging along but then gangs and meth emerged as big issues and catapulted the Government into taking more action. The police minister is now bringing proposals to Cabinet for a new law to give police powers to tackle organised crime and deal with gang kingpins, who have heightened the meth problem in New Zealand.

The Government also committed 700 of the 1800 new police to work in serious and organised crime. According to police figures, 143 FTEs have gone into these roles.

However, it can take a couple of years for new recruits to go through the training process, so these figures are likely to continue to increase.

It has achieved its promise to increase Community Law Centre

Labour has had more success fulfilling its education promises than in areas such as housing and health, although its wins have not been uniform across the board.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins clearly likes to centralise things. He is moving ahead with his huge programme to roll all the polytechs and institutes of technology into one gigantic institution, against considerable lobbying.

Hipkins also commissioned a massive review of the Tomorrow’s Schools framework which has set out how schools have been governed since the late 1980s. He is yet to respond to the findings of that review – which recommends sweeping changes to make schools far less competitive and less reliant on their boards of trustees.

He’s also ended the charter school experiment pushed by ACT – a big win for the teacher unions – and negotiated his way through the teachers’ ‘‘megastrike’’, eventually finding $1.4b extra money for them, and funding, which saw a 20 per cent boost last year. This year the Government locked that increase in permanently and, in Budget 2019, locked in further funding of $8.72 million over the next Budget period, bringing the total annual funding to Community Law Centres to $13.26m.

The volunteer rural constabulary programme has been scrapped after being seen as risky and ‘‘policing on the cheap’’. Labour was obliged to investigate the idea as part of their coalition deal with NZ First. restoring pay parity between primary and secondary school teachers.

In tertiary education the Government moved quickly to establish its ‘‘fees-free’’ policy for first academic students, so students in the 2018 academic year could take advantage of it. Students at university can access it for their first year while those in apprenticeships can access it

An overhaul of the welfare system was a key promise of the Labour-Green agreement. Two years on and true transformation awaits. But a suite of payments and tax credits have boosted the incomes of 385,000 low-income families by, on average, $75 a week.

The Government commissioned a report by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group and received 42 recommendations in April, including increasing main benefits by up to 47 per cent, reforming Working for Family tax credits, and investigating rent-to-buy housing schemes.

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has accepted three recommendations so far. A sanction on solo mothers has been removed, and the amount beneficiaries can earn before their benefit is cut has been increased.

Critics of the welfare system say the Government has made only a first step, and are demanding the $7.5b Budget surplus be spent.

The numbers receiving welfare have expanded. In the past year, more are receiving a benefit, hundreds of thousands more are receiving hardship grants, and twice as many are receiving housing grants.

Work and Income staff have been instructed to make sure people are receiving all available entitlements, and more than 250 case managers will be hired in four for their first two. The scheme has not significantly lifted enrolment numbers, which has ended up making it cheaper than the Government expected, and led to some criticism. Hipkins has argued that the Government is a victim of its own success here, as the tight labour market means it is much easier for young people to get jobs and opt not to study. Either way, there are thousands of kids with less student debt than would otherwise be the case. The minister also moved fast to boost student loan living costs and student allowance (that doesn’t have to be paid back) by $50 per week, as promised. But a commitment to restore the postgraduate student allowance is missing, presumed dead.

It is not the only promise in trouble. The pledge to end school donations by offering schools $150 per student if they promised not to ask for donations has been shrunk to cover only decile 1-8 schools, and has been taken up by only about a third of the schools eligible.