Labour would spend NZ$503 mln over 4 years employing 2,000 extra teachers and building new classrooms to reduce class sizes; also would subsidise tablets for kids; Your view?

By Bernard Hickey

With 75 days left until the September 20 election, here's my daily round-up of the political and governmental news from in and around Wellington on Monday, July 7, including the latest on the Government's plan for the Christchurch rebuild and reaction to Labour's weekend Education policy announcements.

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee confirmed at an event in Christchurch that 1100 Government staff from 13 agencies would relocate to three new privately owned buildings in the Christchurch CBD by 2016. This is in addition to 200 Inland Revenue staff already working in the Mid-City Building above Ballantynes and another 400 staff moving into another new building in the city.

“Leases for the 1100 staff across the three buildings we’re announcing today represent a NZ$170 million investment in Christchurch over the next 20 years; so this is a significant commitment to the city’s prosperity. These buildings are in or on the edge of the Retail Precinct, meaning an influx of 1100 people into shops and food outlets in the city each day,” Brownlee said.

The project would see Government offices reduced in the city from 17 to four. See the details here.

'No Chronut'

Brownlee said the notion of a 'donut' of developments around Christchurch was being rapidly dispelled.

Labour's State Services spokeswoman Maryan Street said the relocation in the CBD was a good idea, but she was concerned there was no new money to fund the relocations.

“Some 1700 public servants from a range of departments and ministries are going to be accommodated in the central city area but the State Services Minister cannot say how much the project is costing and how much each agency is going to have to pay to relocate. In answers to recent written questions from Labour, Jonathan Coleman confirmed there was no new money available and the agencies would have to take the costs out of their baseline by reprioritising," Street said.

“We all know that reprioritising means cutting. So what will be cut?," she said.

Labour's Education policy

It was a busy weekend for policy announcements from Labour, which held its election-year Congress for activists at Wellington High School and the Michael Fowler centre.

Labour Leader David Cunliffe delivered a rousing speech on Sunday that included a promise to employ 2,000 more teachers to reduce class sizes. He said it would be paid for by cancelling National's Investing in Education Success (IES) plan to pay higher salaries to executive teachers and principals.

Labour's policy is to reduce class sizes in years 4-8 from 29 to 26 by 2018, and from 26 to 23 in secondary schools.

It said the policy would cost NZ$503 million over four years, which it said was the same cost as IES, although National's announcement in January said the cost was NZ$359 million over four years. However, Labour's policy also includes NZ$104 million for new classrooms and equipment.

"It is a far better use of our education resource to increase the number of educators we have and make sure they receive the best training possible, than more money for performance pay and part-time principals," Cunliffe said.

"That’s backed up by a wealth of academic evidence and it’s something parents know instinctively. One of the best things we can give our kids is more one to one time with their teachers," he said.

Labour announced on Saturday all students in years 5-13 would have a portable digital device.

A Labour Government would provide a NZ$100 subsidy per device and set up a NZ$5 million hardship fund for those parents unable to pay off the rest of the cost of the devices through a NZ$3.50/week payment plan. The policy would cost NZ$25 million over 2016 and 2017.

'Back to the future'

National Education Minister Hekia Parata described the policy of reducing class sizes was a "back to the future" idea that would achieve little.

"We know that because that was their policy last time they were in government and student achievement flat-lined at best," Parata said.

"If you really want to improve success at school the answer is to help all teachers be better teachers, and invest strongly in principals," she said.

Labour Education spokesman Chris Hipkins said Parata had learnt nothing about a public outcry over class sizes over two years ago.

“Increasing teacher quality and smaller class sizes are not mutually exclusive. Having more time to spend with their pupils means teachers have more time to reflect on their practise, undertake professional development and spend on kids who are falling behind," Hipkins said.

“A Labour Government will raise the quality of all teachers. National's executive principals policy would hand-pick a few people and pay them more," he said.

Hashtag politics

Labour also released it's twitter slogan. It will be #forabetterNZ, which competes with National's #teamKey.

Elsewhere, Cunliffe told Paddy Gower on TV3's The Nation that he would not rule out a post-election accommodation with Internet-Mana.

Cunliffe told Corin Dann on TVNZ's Q+A that Labour would look at buying back sold assets on a case by case basis.

Labour also confirmed to TV3 that it planned to increase the minimum wage to over NZ$16 an hour within its first year in office from NZ$14.25 currently.

I'll keep updating this through the day.

See all my previous election diaries here.

See the index for Interest.co.nz's special election policy comparison pages here.

(Updated with details on Christchurch announcement)