As Prime Minster, I made a commitment to New Zealand families that the National-led Government would deliver better public services. This is one of my four main priorities for this term in office.

We promised this because our families deserve to know they will have access to improved frontline services, and to know they are getting value for the hard-earned taxes they pay.

Part of our commitment to deliver better public services was a promise that we would measure our results, and report on these regularly, so New Zealanders could see how we're tracking in the result areas that matter.

On Monday, we delivered the first of our progress reports. I'm pleased that in all 10 of our result areas, we're making progress. We want to get traction on difficult issues like reducing crime, reducing long-term welfare dependency, and reducing educational underachievement. We've deliberately set the bar high because this is one of the best ways the Government can help the most vulnerable in our society to fulfil their potential.

We have increased participation in quality early childhood education towards our target of seeing 98 per cent of children starting school having participated in ECE in 2016.

We are immunising more children, and we have already surpassed the level we predicted we'd reach one year into our five year target's programme. Latest results show 89 per cent of eight-month-olds have been fully immunised with their scheduled vaccinations.

The latest figures from justice show continued progress in decreasing crime too. The crime rate, youth crime, and reoffending are all going down, meaning more New Zealanders are safer under National.

You can click here to visit the National website for more information on our Better Public Services programme.

Welfare Reform
Next week, stage two of our Welfare Reform programme comes into effect. Welfare will always be there to support those in genuine need, but we are no longer going to hand over benefits and leave people to their own devices. Instead we are taking an active, work-focused approach because we have greater aspirations for New Zealanders and their children, achieved through work, not welfare.

We've already helped more New Zealanders break the cycle of long-term welfare dependence. Our Better Public Services target to reduce the number of people continuously receiving job seeker benefits for longer than one year is on track. This week, we were able to report a 3.6 per cent decrease in the number of people who have been on a job seeker benefit long-term.

Regards,
John Key
Prime Minister

www.johnkey.co.nz

ENDS

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