The Government is continuing to stand by its offer of $1.2 billion to teachers despite it being rejected three times, with the Finance Minister saying there's a balancing act to play when allocating money to competing areas.
Teachers say the offer on the table won't fix the issues they're striking over, but Grant Robertson told TVNZ1's Breakfast today there is simply no more money to go into the sector.
"We believe that constitutes a good offer. We're talking about $10,000 over two years for the majority of primary school teachers, you know, that $1.2 billion offer is more than all the offers that they got in the nine years of the previous Government.
"I understand the frustration that teachers have but we have to balance the many different calls on the Government's finances and we want to keep working with teachers to improve the education system, but this is the offer that's on the table."
Mr Robertson said he felt the Government had made good investment in the sector, but said it had to balance the nation's economy.
"We have to keep money back, we have unforeseen expenditure that arises, we do need to be prepared for the fact the global economy is slowing and that there will be some impacts on New Zealand.
"We have made room in the Budget for what we consider a good offer [to education] ... this is the best offer that we have to be able to lift teacher salaries and improve their conditions along with all the other bits of the education system that they want fixed and we do too."
He believed the Budget, to be released a fortnight Thursday, would tackle the issues New Zealanders are facing, including in welfare and education - but again reiterated it would be a balancing act.
"It's not just a Budget about GDP levels and how they're going, it's also about measuring our success in terms of how we look after our people, how we protect our environment, how we strengthen our communities.
"We want the economy to grow, we want to be prosperous, but we also care about who shares in that prosperity and how sustainable it is ... it's actually about people's long term wellbeing rather than just a just a short two or three year cycle."
SHARE ME