PM admits national standards flaws

John Key and Julia Gillard. Photo / Greg Bowker

Prime Minister John Key used a visit to a school close to his heart with a "special friend" Australian leader Julia Gillard, to acknowledge the national standards hadn't gone as smoothly as planned.

He was at Glen Taylor school in Glendowie, which first launched the flagship national standards policy, when he said that the first year had effectively been a "trial".

There had been "teething problems" around the moderation between schools, he said.

Put simply, that means that different schools are interpreting the standards differently.

It is a subject close to the heart of Julia Gillard. As former Education Minister, she fought the teacher unions - and won - over the establishment of the MySchool website. It gives Australian parents hard data on the relative performance of schools using national testing.

Even National's national standards on numeracy and literacy for primary schools does not go that far.

Mr Key mentioned the national standards during the powhiri for Julia Gillard and acknowledged it was taking time to adjust.

Later he told reporters there had been difficulty around moderation and that had been acknowledged to teacher unions. "It's one of the reason why the first year for all intents and purposes was a trial - because that data wasn't released publicly."

Like any system he said the policy would take time to bed down "but we think the long-term gains will be that all New Zealanders have a greater opportunity to enjoy a better education".

It was a very Kiwi welcome with the ukulele group accompanying the kids in the choir on Hoki Mai for the waiata. Mr Key said he had chosen the school to bring "my special friend Julia" and "New Zealand's special friend" because they had done incredibly well in lifting their performance.

Julia Gillard was asked to speak after the powhiri and after beginning with some philosophy "a fair nation doesn't deny the benefits of opportunity", she asked the choir and ukulele club what they wanted to do when they left school. The first boy with his hand up thought she meant after school yesterday, and said "go home and sleep".

The answer she was looking for was slightly more aspirational and half a dozen wanted to be Prime Minister of New Zealand. "Don't encourage them too early," said Mr Key. "I'm just settling into the job."

After visiting Room One with Mr Key, signing the leg cast of a girl, and playing with the pet tortoise, Julia Gillard presented the school with books including Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, which summed up the bilateral atmosphere rather nicely.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she came over to thank New Zealand for what it did during Australia's "summer of hardship" - as well as to further the economic partnership.

She personally thanked three of the civil defence personnel in Auckland yesterday who had helped with the Queensland floods.

"You brought mateship, you brought comfort. And your work won't be forgotten," she said.

She also acknowledged the 29 miners killed at Pike River and mentioned the Canterbury earthquake.

Julia Gillard is almost certain to touch on the disasters again today when she delivers a speech in Parliament outside sitting hours at 11am - the first by a foreign leader on the floor of Parliament.

She indicated yesterday that New Zealand's emissions trading scheme would feature in her talks with the New Zealand Government.

AUSTRALIAN PM HERE TO FOCUS ON 'MATESHIP'

She is at a critical stage in negotiations with other parties at home to put a price on carbon, with announcements possible on Friday.

"We seek to follow New Zealand in putting a price on carbon," she said.

"[It is] an outcome that will not only allow us to meet our environmental obligations but also drive decades of innovation and investment that will fundamentally redraw the shape of the Australian economy."

But the major aim of her visit is to extend the economic partnership begun 28 years ago under the Closer Economic Relations agreement.

She and Prime Minister John Key will today put their seal on changes to the investment protocol which will lift the thresholds at which business investments require official permission - from A$231 million ($306 million) to just over A$1 billion in Australia and, in New Zealand, from $100 million to $477 million.

That gives New Zealand the same preferential treatment that United States investments are given.

The changes don't affect New Zealand rules on sensitive farmland or strategic assets.