NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

For a full explanation of each target and how it has changed, see RNZ’s target-by-target breakdown below.

Four of the government’s nine key targets risk not being met, the latest update shows.

People receiving Jobseeker benefits have increased to 217,800 and education targets remain elusive. A target to reduce the number of households in emergency accommodation has been met, as has a goal to reduce the number of victims of assault or robbery and to reduce serious youth offending.

RNZ is tracking progress towards each of the government’s nine targets, using official data from the relevant agencies. The graphics are updated each quarter, with the most recent progress report covering up to September 2025.

Employment and education goals – in reading, writing and mathematics – are classified as “at risk” of not being met, and two health targets are considered “feasible”: still possible, but behind schedule and facing “major risks and/or issues”.

Targets considered “on track” include reducing the number of households in emergency housing, cutting crime and youth offending, and meeting near-term greenhouse gas emission targets. Officials also say lifting school attendance is “probable”.

The nine targets were selected to focus the public sector on priorities.

Progress is reported quarterly, and each responsible agency assigns a status, ranging from “on track” to “unachievable”. Progress toward reaching a target can still be classed as “feasible”, even if there are major risks or issues in meeting it, as long as the agency in charge believes these can be resolved.

The nine targets are set to be delivered by 2030, beyond the current political term.

Health

Achieving the goal for 95 percent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred from an emergency department within six hours is still some way off.

The latest period of reporting shows only 73.9 percent of patients were seen within that timeframe. This is a slight decrease from the last quarter when 74.2 percent of patients were seen within six hours.

When setting this target, officials warned there was a risk it would not be achievable in the short term.

“Most ED [emergency departments] nationwide are over capacity most of the time,” a briefing to ministers read.

It said wait times were affected by resourcing, community services, bed availability and seasonal changes, such as increased demand during flu season.

Attempting to reduce wait times would require significant system-wide change in hospitals, primary care and aged care, the briefing said.

“There would be a risk the target is achieved by focusing resources intensively in ED at the expense of other areas of the health system. This may result in improved ED wait times in the short term, but – through reduction in the quality of care elsewhere – would likely result in worse health outcomes and ultimately higher ED presentations in the medium to long term.”

This update noted there was a $20 million boost to emergency departments to increase frontline staffing over the combining nine months, as well as $164m over four years for new and improved urgent and after-hours care.

Six treatment spaces are to be added to Nelson Hospitals emergency department.

Reaching the 95 percent goal by 2030 is considered to be feasible, meaning there are major risks to achievement.

The target for 95 percent of people to receive elective treatment within four months is a long way away from being achieved, although tracking in the right direction.

At the moment 63.9 percent of people needing elective treatments, such as hip or cataract surgeries, are seen within four months. This is higher than the 57.3 percent reported in the last quarter.

The private sector was being used to tackle the waitlist, with 18 percent of treatments in the 2025/2026 year planned to be delivered by private providers.

The latest update says that at the end of June 2025 there were no patients waiting longer than two years that don’t have a plan in place.

Delivery of this target is considered feasible, indicating there are still major risks.

Crime

The number of serious and persistent youth offenders has decreased to 892, achieving the target of 900 or fewer well ahead of 2030.

For a youth offender to be classed as a serious or persistent offender they must have committed three or more offences in the past 12 months, with at least one of them having a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment or more.

Bootcamps, improving response teams and locally-led initiatives and increased school attendance are listed as areas the government is focused on to reach the target.

The goal to reduce crime is classed has been reached ahead of the 2030 deadline.

This target was kept as one of the nine government targets, despite officials suggesting it would be difficult to achieve and should be replaced with something easier to reach.

The goal to reduce the number of victims of assault, robbery, and sexual assault by 20,000 by 2030 is based on data from the New Zealand Crime and Victims’ Survey. Officials warned the survey data had a high margin of error and was more suitable for showing long-term trends.

The survey includes crimes that victims might have experienced in the past 12 months, including unreported crime.

Initiatives to reach the target include limiting sentencing discounts and improving security at targeted locations.

Employment

The number of people receiving Jobseeker support has risen by 1,800 to 217,800 since the June report. This target remains classified as “at risk” of being met.

This is 77,800 away from the overall goal of 140,000 or fewer people receiving support by 2030.

The government’s update suggested that the flow of people receiving the Jobseeker benefit will decrease as economic conditions improve.

Measures to reduce the number of people on Jobseeker benefit include stricter sanctions via a traffic light system.

A new test for Jobseeker eligibility for 18 and 19-year-olds was announced in October, which will mean applicants whose parents have a combined income above $65,529 will be ineligible for the benefit. It’s estimated 4300 young people will be affected by this.

Education

At 58.4 percent, Term 2’s attendance rate is well below the target of 80 percent of students present for more than 90 percent of the term. This means students should take no more than five days off a term.

Absence is classed as either “justified” or “unjustified”. Justified absences include illnesses, and other reasons which fall under school policy, such as suspensions. Unjustified absences include truancy, or taking holidays in term time. The government target of 80 percent makes no distinction between the two.

The update says legislation has been passed to make attendance management plans mandatory from term 1 of 2026: “Accountability for parents and guardians is also critical with several cases formally notified through the Ministry of Education led prosecutions process,” the update noted.

The Ministry of Education said its estimated attendance levels until 2029 is not a “technical forecast” but is based on historical patterns of greater attendance drops during winter months due to illness. At present attendance is tracking closely to the ministry’s estimation.

Since 2011, the highest percentage of students attending 90 percent of a school term was 72.8 percent, in Term 1 of 2019. The average over that time was 59.4 percent.

Reaching this target is deemed “probable”.

Currently 47 percent of students are at the expected level in reading, 24 percent in writing and 23 percent in mathematics.

A structured literacy programme has been rolled out, along with a refreshed curriculum.

Mathematics and writing action plans have been launched to raise achievement.

This target is considered to be “at risk” of not being met.

Housing

Driving down the number of households in emergency housing is one target where progress leapt ahead of estimations.

From a baseline of 3141 households, the goal was to reduce the number by 75 percent, to 800 or fewer.

The current number is 441, well below the 800 which was the 2030 goal.

Part of the plan to reach the target includes improving access to other forms of housing for emergency housing residents. As of September, 1,086 households (with 2,328 children) have been housed in a social housing tenancy.

Criteria to be placed in emergency housing tightened despite warnings from officials that this could lead to an increase in rough sleepers.

An action plan, which includes “move on orders” has been created for Auckland. If implemented this would enable police or council officers to order rough sleepers to leave an area for a period of time.

Climate

There are two targets New Zealand has committed to meeting as part of its net zero climate change goal.

The first target is for total greenhouse gas emissions between 2022 and 2025 to be below 290 megatonnes. The update says target is on track to being achieved with a projection of 282.2mt.

Reaching the second target – for total emissions between 2026 and 2030 to be less than 309 mt – appears to be more of a challenge, though is classed as being on track, with the current projection of 300.5mt.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand and other liberal democracies need to band together against the rise of modern kleptocracy, a top American journalist and historian says.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum told Guyon Espiner on 30 with Guyon Espiner how today’s dictators aren’t just seizing power, they’re stealing unimaginable wealth and hiding it in Western banks.

Kelptocracy – meaning to “rule by thieves” – is a form of political corruption where leaders make themselves rich and powerful by stealing from the people they rule.

Applebaum discusses a rise in modern kleptocracy, where there is a striking degree of theft and wealth.

“You know, Hitler and Stalin were not billionaires. Most modern dictators are billionaires, and we don’t even know how or why they are billionaires,” Applebaum said.

“… All of them [Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin] have secret funds, secret palaces [and] secret sources of income that we don’t know about.”

Applebaum believes Russia paved the way for this modern dictatorship where there is a “marriage between great wealth and great power”.

She said there is a class of Russian oligarchs who learned how to use Western financial systems such as offshore tax havens, anonymous shell companies and anonymous investments to keep their money secret.

“Essentially, they learned how to steal money from Russia, to export it out of the country, to hide it in various places in Europe and America, or maybe New Zealand [and] Australia, and then to take it back into Russia and to use it as a way of both building comfort for themselves and their family, but also as a way of gaining power,” Applebaum said.

“They bought up companies, they bought people, they bought influence and that’s how they rule.”

She said US President Donald Trump has been imitating what Russians and other autocrats in converting political power to financial power. For example, his company World Liberty Financial has been accused of giving favours to people who have invested into it.

“There are some odd coincidences. People who’ve paid money to his company being pardoned or having their investigations dropped if they’re if they’re being investigated by the US Justice System, or countries who’ve paid in being granted various, you know, being granted various kinds of advantages,” Applebaum said.

She said while Trump appears to want to be an autocrat, the system doesn’t easily allow him to do so.

For example, when Disney suspended production of the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! after pressure from Trump’ administration, people boycotted Disney. It resulted in the show returning after a week.

“There are a lot of different ways that people are now working to push back. I’m hoping actually that Congress, that particularly the Senate, but also even the House of Representatives, will begin to crack particularly as people see how unpopular this is.”

Applebaum said countries like New Zealand and Australia should work together against autocracies.

“I mean, you know, the most important point is that the autocracies think globally. They think about, you know, Iran helps Venezuela. You know, China’s watching what goes on in Belarus. And I think democracies need to think like that too,” she said.

“You know, we need, we need lines of connection between liberal democracies all over the world, on on specific issues, not merely through existing institutions. You know, the European Union is not going to do it by itself, but working, working around this, just working together to solve the same problems.”

She said we owe it to our fellow citizens and children to continue to fight to fix what is wrong with out system and fight back against those who want to destroy it.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand