Today felt like the start of the election campaign.

This week, Labour announced its education policy for the 2017 election.

Labour believes education gives our young people the freedom and opportunities to be the best they can be and contribute to making New Zealand an even better place to live.

National has chosen to undermine quality as a cost-saving measure. After nine years of being under resourced and overstretched, our education sector is under immense pressure and the quality of education is suffering. The result is a narrowing of the curriculum, more burnt out teachers, and falling tertiary education participation.

More costs are being pushed on to parents and students. ECE fees have risen by an average of 25 per cent under National, while so called voluntary school donations have risen by 50 per cent. Tertiary fees are up over 40 per cent and student debt has topped $16 billion.

Labour will: 

• Invest an extra $4b over four years to deliver a modern education system
• This funding includes $1.8b to deliver more teachers, better professional development, more learning resources, and help the sector meet the rising costs they face each year.

In addition to this, Labour will invest in initiatives to improve the quality of education and make it more accessible and affordable. These include:

Early Childhood Education

• Reinstate extra funding for ECE centres that employ 100 per cent qualified and registered teachers
• Require all ECE centres to employ at least 80 per cent qualified teachers by the end of our first term
• Actively support establishing new public early childhood centres in areas of low-provision through targeted establishment grants.

Schooling

• Ensure that schooling is genuinely free by offering an extra $150 per student to state and state integrated schools that don’t ask parents for donations
• Establish a comprehensive plan to ensure that all school students have access to mobile digital devices
• Rebuild out-dated and worn out school buildings so that every school has modern classrooms by 2030.

Tertiary Education

• Progressively introduce 3 years of free post-school education, allowing access to university, polytechnic or on-job training for young New Zealanders and those who have not studied before
• Encourage employers to take on unemployed young people as apprentices by giving them a wage subsidy equivalent to the unemployment benefit
• Reinstate funding for programmes – like night classes – that support adult learners to adapt to the
• changing world.

See the manifesto chapter for a full list of initiatives.

This investment will mean more teachers in front of our kids, better classrooms, and less cost for parents. More of our young people will go on to tertiary education and get the skills they need for work, with less debt.

By investing in education, the next generation of Kiwis will be better qualified and ready to take on the rapidly changing world. They will be equipped to help build a better New Zealand.

Today, I caught up with local Labour member Sally Black. Sally is an amazing artist, and more recently built an incredible fence at her Blenheim property – even though she’s in her 70s!

Labour is the only party that cares about the people

– Sally

A fantastic Labour supporter, who was only too happy to have one of election hoardings stuck up at her place.

Find out why Sally is voting Labour in this video.

Getting out in the electorate today putting up hoarding signs, I ran into Angela Johnston. Angela is the daughter of a former MP for Marlborough, Ian Brookes.

Angela tells us in this video why she’s voting Labour.

Seasonal workers in Marlborough are struggling to make ends meet as they drop into a homeless centre for support.

The claims are coming from Labour’s Kaikoura candidate Janette Walker, who lives in Blenheim and runs the centre.

She said already this season, she’s seen seasonal workers who haven’t had pay cheques for a month, aren’t getting annual leave and are doing three tasks but being paid for one.

“The rates of pay have been cut even more, the piece rates have been cut even more so even if you’re working extremely hard you can’t earn the minimum wage and then if they have to be topped up they get told they’re too slow, and they’re sacked.”

Ms Walker said seasonal workers have been too scared to join a union, even though they’re entitled to.

“These guys don’t have representation … they’re told not to talk to anybody except their bosses and their supervisors and everything just gets hidden under the carpet.”

Ms Walker said Labour’s policy to double the number of Labour inspectors across the country would help, as right now an inspector has to travel from Nelson, which is an hour and half away.

“If there was an inspector here they’d be more hands-on and there’d actually be an office that people could go to.”

She said Wine Marlborough has set itself up as the place to go for anyone with a work issue, but that’s like having a fox in the henhouse.

However Wine Marlborough is confident the majority of seasonal workers are well taken care of in the region.

Wine Marlborough’s Marcus Pickens said he’s seen only minor and occasional problems and serious ones are handled well.

“In my experience the labour inspectorate team would come over and done a number of days in the region so they can visit a lot of employers, and they do quite a lot of prep work as well before they come over.”

He says a recent survey shows Marlborough’s seasonal workers earn an average of 18 dollars an hour, which is more than other regions.

“There’ll be some high fliers earning well over $20 an hour, more like $25 to $28 an hour, a then there’ll be some people meeting the minimum wage.

“That’s what employers have to do, they have to meet the minimum – I don’t think there should be any negative association with meeting the minimum wage”

Originally posted by Newstalk ZB at: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/labour-seasonal-workers-facing-tough-conditions/ 

The National Government has failed New Zealander’s on housing. This week, two homeless Aucklanders died as temperatures across the country plummeted. Labour has a comprehensive plan to start fixing the housing crisis.

Watch my latest video here. 

We had a fantastic visit from Andrew Little this week, where he took the opportunity to have a public meeting, speak to Marlborough business leaders and catch up with the folk at Redwood Retirement Village and the surrounding area. Read on for more…

Andrew Little Live at Springlands Tavern

We packed out the Springlands Tavern (it was standing room only!) on Thursday night as people from the Blenheim community joined us for a public meeting, and hear about Labour’s plans for housing, health and education. Those in attendance were encouraged to ask questions, and many were asked on hot topics like early childhood education, housing and jobs.

Marlborough should expect to see additional social houses and affordable homes being built in the region if Labour is elected to power come September – Andrew Little, Labour Leader

Read The Marlborough Express report here.

Marlborough Chamber of Commerce welcomes Andrew Little

The Marlborough Chamber of Commerce welcomed Andrew Little with a crowded roomful of Marlborough business leaders as part of their breakfast series meetings. Andrew spoke to the Chamber meeting on some of Labour’s employment relations and immigration policies, alongside the importance of housing and a solid education platform.

Labour’s fresh approach was well received, with particular praise given for Labour’s policy on research and development tax credits as one of our proposals to encourage innovation and investment in the business sector.

Andrew Little addresses Redwoodtown residents

Andrew took the opportunity to visit the residents at the Redwood Retirement Village over morning tea. Local residents nearby were also invited to attend, and meet Andrew to hear about Labour’s fresh and comprehensive suite of policies aimed at creating a better New Zealand.

The residents were keen to engage with Andrew on Labour’s policies, and hear how Labour would address the housing crisis with our comprehensive housing plan.