KeyNotes No. 13

new-zealand-national-party

Fri Jun 29 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

KeyNotes No. 13

Friday, 29 June 2007, 5:06 pm
Column: New Zealand National Party

KeyNotes No. 13
29 June 2007

Putting Trades and Industry back into our schools

Technology training in schools is in crisis. Schools are being forced to cancel or reduce their trades training programmes. There is a shortage of teachers, and a lack of resources and direction from the Government. School kids keen on developing their practical skills are missing out.

At the same time, our skills shortage gets worse. This stops many firms expanding their businesses. It creates bottlenecks in the economy. While industry cries out for workers to fill highly-skilled, highly-paid positions, employers report that many school leavers don't have the basic skills they need.

And so last week I announced some initiatives that we will pursue to improve trades and industry training in our schools. These include:

- Piloting a school-based apprenticeships scheme, similar to the one run successfully in Australia.
- Working with teachers and industry to increase the pool of people able to teach trades and technology classes.
- Encouraging business and industry to help provide schools with resources for trades training.
- Funding a select group of schools to run "Trades Academies" - centres of excellence that specialise in providing students with learning opportunities relevant to a career in trades or industry.
- Giving schools more flexibility to offer their students trades and industry training outside the school gates.

These are just some of the things we are looking at, and you can expect more details in coming months. Read the full text of my speech and comment here.

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Labour's bracket creep

Click here to listen to my interview with Wallace Chapman on Kiwi FM about wage growth, bracket creep and why real wages are growing more slowly here than in Australia. I'd appreciate your feedback on these issues.

Balancing the environment and the economy

Last weekend I spoke to Forest & Bird about how I want to grow our economy while protecting the environment. We can do both, but we need to get our priorities right and make sensible decisions about what is important to us.

National's 50 by 50 policy sets a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, compared to 1990 levels, by 2050. The electricity sector offers significant potential to cut emissions, but we need to make it easier for generators to invest in renewable energy.

At present, sensible hydro, windfarm and geothermal developments are mired in red tape, while state-owned power stations burn more coal and gas than ever before. This makes a mockery of Labour's climate change credibility.

That's why I support restarting the Dobson Dam hydro project on the West Coast. The flooding of a small piece of land seems a small price to pay for the long-term reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that will result.

Trade-offs are a part of sensible environmental and economic decision-making. They are tough and they carry a cost, but if we want to lift our economic game and protect our environment, we can't shying away from making them.

Read my full speech to Forest & Bird and comment here.

20 hours free - for a fee

At the last election Labour promised to provide 20 hours free early childhood education (ECE) to all 3-and-4-year olds by July 1 2007. Parents assumed free meant just that - free, at no cost, without a charge.

But while some 3-and-4-year-olds will receive 20 hours of ECE funded by the government, many parents will be obliged to pay "optional" fees to cover the true cost of this "free" education.

This is not the 20 hours free ECE that Labour promised. It is 20 hours for a fee.

Add to that the tens of thousands of Kiwi parents whose kids can't get into an ECE centre because there's no space, and it's clear that '20 hours free' is a fraud - and yet another of Labour's broken election promises.

National will do a better job of pre-school Education. We will clean up Labour's mess. We will deliver the $140 million the Government has allocated to the sector in a way that is fair and honest. And, if we promise that something is free, we'll make sure it doesn't come with a fee.

Are you a parent of a 3-or-four-year-old? What do you think of '20 hours free'? Click here and let me know your thoughts.

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John Key MP**
Leader of the National Party
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ENDS**

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