Dean Jacqui: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8460. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that one of the Government’s key priorities “is to deliver better public services”; if so what steps is the Government taking to help achieve this?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes. To help achieve better public services in 2012 the Prime Minister set 10 challenging Better Public Services targets. Since then there are more than 40000 fewer children living in a benefit-dependent household the proportion of 18-year-olds who achieve National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 has increased from 74 percent to 81 percent and total crime has dropped by 17 percent with youth crime down by almost 40 percent. Although these are good results there is much more to do.Jacqui Dean: How does the Government’s priority of delivering better public services interact with its other priority to responsibly manage its finances?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government takes the view that we will be able to better manage our finances when we get better delivery of public services. The best way to control the Government’s finances is to have the Government do its job properly particularly in delivering services to those who are most in need and have the most challenging lives and delivering those services in a way that changes those lives. Often it is the cost of Government service failure that leads to future pressure on our books.Grant Robertson: How is the goal of better public services going to be reached when he has allowed the department that he is responsible for to deliver reports that are “dopey” “utter tripe” and to become a political body commenting more and more on Government policy; or is the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery wrong to make those claims about Treasury?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Treasury is always open to constructive criticism and I think that it would probably acknowledge that Minister Brownlee has been one of its more constructive critics over the years.Jacqui Dean: What progress has the Government made on the Prime Minister’s 10 Better Public Services targets for 2017?Hon BILL ENGLISH: There are still a couple of years to go but significant progress. Participation in early childhood education has increased from 94.7 percent to 96.1 percent; the proportion of immunised 8-month-old children has increased from 84 percent to 92.9 percent; there has been a 14 percent decrease in people being hospitalised for the first time with rheumatic fever which is a very significant step forward when the known costs of rheumatic fever are around about $2 million per child. The trend in the number of children and young people experiencing substantiated physical abuse has flattened after being on an upward trajectory but it has not yet begun to decrease and the rate of reoffending has dropped by 9.6 percent.Jacqui Dean: How is the work of the Government’s Rules Reduction Taskforce supporting the delivery of better public services?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Can I compliment the member on her excellent work as part of the Rules Reduction Taskforce highlighting that there are some pretty silly rules around the place. Some steps are being taken. For example the recently announced Resource Management Act reforms will streamline the local council planning process considerably and provide less opportunity for them to make silly rules that cause high costs for no benefit.