Government at risk of not meeting two of its nine public service targets

The coalition government is at risk of not meeting two of its nine public service targets.

In its first quarterly report marking progress on the goals it set itself in April, the government has identified education and reducing violent crime as the biggest problem areas.

A target of 20,000 fewer people ending up victim of a violent crime has instead recorded 30,000 more victims, as of June.

As of term four last year, schools recorded just 22 percent of year 8 students at the expected maths level, and 47 percent at the expected reading level.

Neither of those results have moved, because there is not sufficient data to assess them against.

Progress has been made, however, in emergency housing, school attendance, and shorter stays at emergency departments.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon acknowledged the targets were "deliberately ambitious", saying these results show they will be "challenging to achieve" - but said the government is up for it.

There are "promising results in some areas" but the progress report showed the "scale of the challenge in others," he said.

"Our government reinstated targets to focus our public sector on driving better results for New Zealanders in health, education, law and order, work, housing, and the environment by 2030."

Luxon highlighted what he called "particularly good progress" on emergency housing, with the results showing the government was "outperforming previous forecasts".

"Our plan to get children and families out of motels and into a home is working - as of June, there has been a 34 percent reduction in the number of households in emergency housing and since then there has been further improvement."

Luxon noted the target of reducing violent crime was of "particular concern" though, with the results showing almost 30,000 more people have experienced violent crime.

That was based on the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey, which shows people's experience from up to two years ago.

"It adds fresh weight to previous data from police, which showed a concerning rise in reports of violent crime in recent years," Luxon said.

"It is also further proof that the previous soft-on-crime approach has emboldened offenders and created a crime wave that will take a much tougher approach to stop."

Luxon pointed to the coalition's plans to make sentencing tougher, increase the number of cops on the beat, and give police more power to crack down on gangs as part of their plans to meet that target.

The next update on how the targets are tracking is expected before the end of the year.