Week That Was: Two years of progress

Here’s what we’ve been busy with this week:

1. We announced a world-first plan with farmers to reduce emissions

We have a plan to put New Zealand on a path to a zero carbon future.

This week, we took the next step, joining forces with farming leaders to announce a plan to measure and price emissions at the farm level by 2025.

We’re tackling the long-term challenge of climate change by making sure 100% of New Zealand’s emissions will be on the path downwards. For too long, politicians have passed the buck and caused uncertainty for everyone, while the need for climate action was clear. This plan provides the primary sector with certainty and puts us shoulder-to-shoulder on a path to reduce emissions.

Want to know more? Here’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Climate Change Minister James Shaw discussing the plan.

2. We’re getting more young people into trades and training

We’re committed to reversing the long-term decline in trades training. This week, we announced we’re expanding two secondary school initiatives to help more young New Zealanders take up a trade, helping close the skills gap.

We’ll be funding 2,000 more Trades Academy places from next year and up to 2,000 more places for the Gateway programme. We want schools better linked to the world of work, and for students in school to have clearer and more direct pathways into vocational education in the workplace and the tertiary system.

We also announced we’re supporting a further 140 Ministry of Education careers events that connect schools, employers and communities, and are establishing a contestable fund to support schools to run their own trade events.

3. We invested in research and innovation

We know that investing in research and innovation is the main route to a more productive, sustainable and inclusive economy.

We’re putting New Zealand at the forefront of emerging data science technologies, by investing in four new projects that make good use of unique New Zealand data sets. The four projects range from teaching Siri to speak te Reo Māori to crunching large data sets collected via satellites. Read more here

4. We’ve marked two years of progress

This week marks two years since we came into Government – and although the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won’t be solved overnight, we’re proud of all we’ve achieved so far.

From building more than 2,300 state houses to funding more cancer treatment equipment and drugs, we’re making progress on the issues that matter to New Zealand. Check out everything we’ve done here