The Government promises to temporarily increase mileage rates for relief teachers and replace diesel boilers at up to 70 schools as part of its response to the fuel crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the measures with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Monday afternoon.
Stanford said she “directed the Ministry of Education to contact every single school to understand the impact of fuel cost pressures on their individual circumstances so that targeted, temporary and timely responses can be designed”.
She said that exercise resulted in “interim support” ideas for schools most likely to experience fuel pressures. She said the Government was planning for “a range of potential future scenarios”.
The Government will invest $37 million to accelerate work to replace diesel boilers at up to 70 schools nationwide, Stanford announced.
The upgrade is expected to save around 600,000 litres of diesel per year, delivering cost relief while improving long‑term resilience.
Stanford also announced a temporary increase to Relief Teacher Transport Allowance mileage rates. Car reimbursement rates will rise from 37c to 83c per kilometre, and motorbike rates from 15c to 31c.
The increase is effective from today and will apply for 12 months or until fuel prices ease to below $3 per litre for four consecutive weeks.
Stanford said she was confident unions would support the move.
Schools receive operational grant funding to cover mileage costs, however small schools that are predominantly rural are less likely to be able to afford the increase to the mileage reimbursement rate from their operational grant funding.
“In response, we are paying one-time cash grants of $2,500 to all schools with under 100 students, in addition to funding schools already receive,” Stanford said.
The Government will also increase the “conveyance allowance” by nearly 30% to help eligible families with the cost of getting children to school or to the nearest bus route. That policy is expected to benefit 5,000 students.
Luxon will also likely take questions on dissent in the National Party after days of reports on unhappiness in his caucus, and a 1 News-Verian poll showing National’s support dropping to its lowest level since Luxon took over as leader.
National was on 30% in the poll, or 29.7% before rounding. The poll also showed the coalition would be out of office if the election was held today.
Luxon’s personal support crashed to 16% as preferred prime minister, the first time a sitting prime minister has scored below 20% in TVNZ’s poll since November 1997, when Jim Bolger notched up a similar score.
He was soon rolled by Jenny Shipley.
On his Monday morning media round, Luxon claimed five “moaning and frustrated” MPs had been leaking to media about unhappiness in the party.
“We need to reiterate the case for why we need discipline because we’ve seen the cases as we’ve had experiences as a National Party where we broke the party essentially in civil war, that’s just counterproductive, we’re a long way from that,” he told Mike Hosking Breakfast.
Any sign of that should be stamped out “early and hard”, the National leader said.
On Friday, the Herald reported National whip Stuart Smith had attempted to contact Luxon before Easter about flagging support within the caucus.
Luxon could not be contacted by Smith at the time, though the pair later met in north Canterbury.
Ministers arriving in Wellington for Cabinet pledged support to Luxon.
Cabinet Minister Simon Watts said the poll demonstrated New Zealanders had a “degree of frustration with the economy”.
Watts said he “absolutely” had confidence in Luxon, saying he was doing a “fantastic job” fixing the economy.
Watts said concerns over MPs leaking to the media was “a conversation for caucus and that’s where it will stay”.
Cabinet ministers Paul Goldsmith and Chris Penk put their support behind Luxon as they arrived at Wellington Airport on Monday morning.
Goldsmith said he was “rock solid” behind Luxon and that National was “going to do well” at the election.
He said he has “no idea” who had been leaking against Luxon.
“We’re very determined to get focussed on doing well and fighting hard,” Goldsmith said.
“If you look at the polls, it’s always tight in an MMP environment,” he said.
Penk said no one had approached him as part of a coup attempt.
He was not aware Smith had tried to contact Luxon to warn him about flagging support in caucus.