Focus expected to be on education as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon leads post-Cabinet press conference

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced that the government will trial a new “intensive” maths program in terms one and two next year.

Luxon was joined by Education Minister Erica Stanford at 4pm for his post-Cabinet press conference. The live broadcast can be found at the beginning of the article.

Around the year 2000, students in grades 7 and 8 will take part in the trial. It will include small group classes and supervised online learning for 30 minutes – up to four times a week.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the lawsuit would include students who are falling behind academically. She described the course as an “intensive support program” that will help bring these students to the required level of the math curriculum.

The trial will be conducted in both schools and Kure, will last about 12 weeks and cost about $2 million, Stanford said.

“After we discovered that just 22% of Year 8 math students were meeting the expected standard, we launched the Make It Matter action plan to give our teachers the tools they need to prepare students for success.

“We continue to refine our plan to ensure students who need the most help can achieve their desired levels.”

Evaluation of the trial will then determine how to scale it up nationwide, starting in the third semester next year, Stanford said.

It comes after the government announced it had commissioned New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to look at two potential options for an additional Waitemata Harbor crossing in Auckland, with technical work expected to begin in the coming months.

It was the government’s first substantive announcement in months about the second transition. On taking office, Transport Secretary Simeon Brown criticized the $56 billion option favored by the previous Labor government, which included two tunnels for cars and one for light rail, as “unattainable”.

There was limited information about what two options the current government was considering, but they did include a tunnel and a bridge.

Brown told Herald it instructed NZTA to “continue to consider two options for an additional Waitemata Harbor Crossing in Auckland” and the government “expects an investment decision on this critical project to be received in mid-2026 for consideration.”

Brown said NZTA would carry out geotechnical, environmental and utility studies over the next 12 to 18 months to understand the conditions of the ground and seabed. This was expected to begin either later this year or early 2025, while the investment decision will not be considered by the government until mid-2026.

Union transport spokesman Tangi Utikere said his party would be open to all options proposed because it was “crucial that Auckland actually gets an additional port crossing”.

“Whether they land in a tunnel or on a bridge, we will be open to supporting those options because when it comes to infrastructure, it’s too important to just start and stop,” he said Herald.

But Utikere believes the government must act with “urgency” to decide which alternative crossing it will give the green light. “It is disappointing that the decision has gone this far,” he said.

Adam Pearce is a political reporter on the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based in Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei, before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.