Nine new goals to be achieved by 2030 - National’s new development goals
Source: Gareth Hadden.
At the beginning of the month, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced his party's nine new goals for the next six years, laying down new targets across healthcare, welfare, crime, education, and climate change.
The nine announced goals include, in no particular order:
95% of patients to be admitted, discharged, or transferred from emergency departments within six hours.
95% of people to wait less than four months for elective treatments.
A 15% reduction in young people with serious and persistent offending behaviors.
20,000 fewer victims of assault, robbery, or sexual assault.
50,000 fewer people on the Jobseeker Support Benefit.
80% of year 8 students at, or above, expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.
A 75% reduction in the number of households in emergency housing.
80% of school students present for more than 90% of the school term.
Being on track to meet New Zealand's 2050 net zero climate change targets, with total net emissions of no more than 290 megatonnes from 2022 to 2025 and 305 megatonnes from 2026 to 2030.
Ilam electorate MP Hamish Campbell told Canta the goals were part of a larger programme, with various working parts.
"There's nine targets, and of course the goal is to reach them by 2030 and we're going to be reporting against them regularly. Each of the goals are not going to be fixed by one piece of legislation, it's going to be a whole programme that we're working towards to get these pieces together.”
"Each will have different levers that we're going to pull," Campbell said.
When asked by Canta about some of the practical ways the government planned on achieving its nine identified goals, Campbell identified plans to easing regulations on building materials to help reduce the number of households in emergency housing.
“Recently it costs 50% more to build a stand-alone house in New Zealand than it does in Australia. We want to make sure that we’re going to ease the regulations on building materials, so if they’ve been approved – say in somewhere like Australia, who have stringent building criteria themselves – then if it meets their criteria, then it can have a fast track in New Zealand,” he said.
Furthermore, Campbell said: “We want to restore the housing market to make sure we have more affordable homes, and that of course will reduce the number of people that need emergency housing.”
Campbell also said planned tax relief would “deal with” creeping tax brackets resulting from inflation.
“We haven’t been protecting low- and middle-income earners from inflation, so if you’re on the minimum wage and you work 40 hours, and even then, if you pick up a couple of shifts, it can put you into one of the top tax brackets,” he said.
“What we want to do is make sure that we actually readjust the tax brackets to deal with that creep that has happened over time. A lot of students will fit into that category.”