Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action.
When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week:
Site under maintenance
Beehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Hmm. For how long must we be patient?
We emailed the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to find out.
The response (automatically generated, obviously) was instant:
Thank you for contacting media@dpmc.govt.nz. We monitor this inbox Monday to Friday 8am-6pm.
If your query is for a Minister, you’ll find their email here: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/ministers
Our query was not for a minister, which is just as well, because you will not find any ministers’ emails there.
Instead (what a surprise!) you will be advised….
Site under maintenance
Beehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Fair to say the new ministers are not patiently waiting for the website to be up and running again before they release their statements News is flowing from the Luxon government via other media.
A press statement from the new Minister of Education – emailed to us this afternoon and posted on Scoop’s “Latest Parliament Headlines” – says:
1 December 2023
Backing our kids to learn the basics
Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan.
Education Minister Erica Stanford proceeds to assure us the government’s work in her patch will start with banning cell phone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day.
She states the obvious:
“Education has the power to change lives and enable children to achieve their potential, irrespective of the circumstances they were born into.”
She reminds us of what needs fixing:
“However, declining achievement in the core subjects of maths, reading and writing means that too many students are leaving school without the knowledge and skills that everyone needs to succeed.”
And she tells us what we can expect from her:
“In our first 100 days, we will implement a requirement that one hour every day is dedicated to maths, reading, and writing for students in primary schools.
“While we know a number of schools already do this, we want to make sure every New Zealand child has the opportunity to grasp the basics.
“Not only do students need sufficient class time to master the basics, we need to reduce distractions so that students can make the most of their precious class time.
“Schools here and overseas have seen lifts in achievement and improvements in wellbeing from banning cell phone use at school.
“I have directed officials to look at the most effective mechanisms to implement these policies. I will have more to say about how that will be achieved in the coming weeks.
“Our Government is aiming high for all children, and we refuse to leave essential learning to chance.”
We will report on how well Stanford performed with this initial test at the end of the first 100 days.
Point of Order 
SO what does this mean “An hour of reading writing and Maths?”
i.e. One hour total or does she mean one hour EACH of reading writing and Maths.3 hours of the three subjects ?
I thought the latter but the statement doesn’t say that
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