Policies: What’s on the table

Cutting numbers on welfare benefits by 2017 and bedding in education reforms are two of the top policy priorities of the thirdterm National Government, Prime Minister John Key told the Herald yesterday.

He also identified health and housing policies.

And he hinted that a potential tax package, foreshadowed in the election campaign for 2017, could be beefed up if there was an appetite for it.

He said the targets announced during the election campaign to reduce numbers on welfare were “an aggressive target”.

“If we could really get to 220,000 people by 2017 that would be the lowest level since 1988. We really need to keep pushing hard on that.”

The current number is 295,000 and reaching the target would mean a 25 per cent drop.

National also set a target of reducing young people on benefits by 40 per cent, from 53,000 to 21,000.

Mr Key also wants to get cracking with the $359 million reform package for teacher professional development, announced in January, because such reforms took time to bed in.

The policy, which financially recognises gifted teachers and principals, has the support of the secondary principals’ association and the secondary teachers’ union, the PPTA, but it has been rejected by the primary teachers’ union, the NZEI.

He identified progress on a trade deal with South Korea, which is close to a conclusion, and the Trans Pacific Partnership as priorities.

Cancer treatment targets would be a priority for the new Health Minister. The new target is for 90 per cent of patients to receive their first cancer treatment within a maximum of 62 days of their original GP’s referral, compared with the current rate of 60 to 65 per cent of patients.

Mr Key wants the Homestart scheme for modest incomeearners kicked off quickly. It will allow the first-home buyers of a newly built house to get up to $20,000 in a grant.

He said the appetite for possible tax cuts from April 2017 could grow by then and it could be a bigger package if the economy did better.