KEY POINTS:
Education
Primary school principals are accusing Labour of breaking its pre-election promise to have no more than 15 students in a year one class by next year.
The Budget yesterday said the teacher/student ratio in year one classes would be one-to-18 from the second term next year, with $133.4 million spent over four years on 702 more teachers.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Steve Maharey said there was not enough teachers to bring the ratio down to one-to-15.
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Ken Pemberton said they were disappointed and that the move to "claw back" to one-to-18 was a cost-saving measure. Reducing class size brought additional costs, such as the need for more classrooms.
NZ Principals Federation president Judy Hanna took issue with the initiative being introduced half-way through the year because principals planned for a full year. "I understand it has to be implemented in stages, so 1:18 is welcomed, but in term two? That's crazy," she said. "It's a logistical nightmare."
Post Primary Teachers' Association president Robin Duff said class size in secondary schools also needed attention. "Teachers struggling with NCEA classes of more than 30 students will see this Budget as a slap in the face."
- Martha McKenzie-Minifie
Opinion is divided over whether a rate rise of a few cents an hour will convince early childhood centres to sign up for the Government's 20 free hours scheme.
The rise of between 14 and 55 cents an hour - or between 2.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent - was announced in the Budget. It was part of a regular adjustment to cover inflation and increased administration costs. The policy will offer 20 free hours of childcare for up to 92,000 children aged 3 and 4 from July 1.
Critics want to be able to charge a top-up fee and believe underfunding is a danger. Early Childhood Council chief executive Sue Thorne said the rate adjustment was minor and did not address the fundamental flaws of the scheme. "The basic problems with the policy haven't been addressed."
The council, the country's biggest early childhood group, encouraged members to boycott the scheme.
National Party education spokeswoman Katherine Rich said other providers echoed the view. "Those in the sector I spoke with [yesterday] have just said it's rats and mice," she said. "I don't think anybody was holding their breath for changes in the Budget. The Government has been pretty clear that what they are offering now isn't going to change."
But Childcare Association chief executive Nancy Bell said it should encourage more centres to opt in. "Every little bit counts."
- Martha McKenzie-Minifie
Health
Cancer specialists have welcomed an extra $14 million committed to hospital cancer drugs, money expected to help New Zealand reverse its trend of falling behind in cancer treatment.
"That's fantastic," said Auckland City Hospital oncologist Associate Professor Vernon Harvey.
It is part of the $750 million of new spending in Health Minister Pete Hodgson's portfolio, taking the health budget to $11.9 billion. District health boards currently spend $35 million to $40 million a year on cancer drugs. A spending leap in 2001 allowed a catch-up to many of the then-new medicines, but New Zealand has since fallen behind the Western world, especially on some of the extremely expensive tightly targeted therapies.
The $14 million is on top of $6 million already committed to expand access to the costly breast cancer drug Herceptin with a controversial nine-week course. The new money includes $5 million for a proposed trial comparing women on the experimental nine-week regimen with those receiving the established 12-month course. This more than doubles the financial commitment to the international trial, to $8.2 million.
The Budget also provides a 0.9 per cent increase to the $600 million community medicines budget. This is in addition to an as-yet-unspecified increase to cover population growth and inflation.
- Martin Johnston
Tax
The amount of money tax shaves off redundancy payouts could be slashed under proposals the Government is to consider this year.
It will consider whether taxation should be based on annual salary rather than the lump-sum payment.
At present, workers getting redundancy of more than $60,000 lose up to 39c of every dollar in tax - despite maybe earning only $40,000 a year taxed at 33 per cent.
Andrew Little, national secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, said it was a "ridiculous" situation, particularly when people had no guarantee of employment.
"If they are made redundant while earning $40,000 a year they should be taxed at that rate," he said.
The Government was prompted to consider the change after the loss of 430 jobs in July last year at South Pacific Tyres' Upper Hutt factory.
Last month, 350 Fisher & Paykel workers were told their jobs would be axed and washing machine production moved to Thailand. On Wednesday this week 200 job losses were announced at Christchurch-based high-tech manufacturer Dynamic Controls.
Mr Little said that before tax changes in 1992, just 5 per cent of a redundancy payout was taxed.
Yesterday's Budget saw between $10 million and $19 million set aside to consider changes.
- Stuart Dye
Arts
New Zealand will have its first poet laureate, with a small pocket of Budget money being given to the purest and poorest art form. A $50,000 award will be given every two years to the official poet laureate.
Associate Professor Peter Simpson, head of English at the University of Auckland, said the award was valuable recognition because "no one ever got rich writing poetry".
He said candidates for the first laureate would have to include Ian Wedde and Peter Bland.
Assistant Professor Peter Whiteford, head of the School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies at Victoria University, said Vincent O'Sullivan should also be considered.
New Zealand's laureate will be selected biennially. The laureate's working papers and published work will be preserved in the National Library's digital heritage archive and in the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library.
The Government-funded position will replace the existing Te Mata Poet Laureate, which has been funded by the winery since 1999. Previous winners of that - including Bill Manhire, Hone Tuwhare and Elizabeth Smither - will also be eligible for the new position.
Judith Tizard, Library Minister, said the award acknowledged the value of poetry and literature as part of the national identity.
- Stuart Dye
