Education Minister Nikki Kaye said on TVNZ Q+A yesterday the party did not support performance pay.
"The only thing I’d say is I’ve had a lot of feedback from teachers across the country. They quite like Act’s policy in terms of paying teachers more. But we don’t support performance pay."
Act leader David Seymour said the current government surplus was $3.75billion and Act would give principals $975million to pay good teachers more, without cutting government services or raising taxes.
However, the only schools eligible for the funding would be those which were prepared to abandon nationally negotiated union contracts.
"This will make it easier for principals to replace bad teachers with great ones."
Act’s Good Teacher Grants would boost teachers’ pay by $20,000 on average, and elevate teaching as a profession, to attract the best graduates to teach children and keep the most capable teachers in the classroom, Mr Seymour said.
Teacher unions accused Mr Seymour of trying to break the unions by offering the performance-based pay.
Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins, who was also on Q+A said there was unlikely to be a politician in the country who was going to say they did not think teachers should be paid more.
"Of course we all think teachers should be paid more. I think Act’s policy is completely nuts. The National Party opposed charter schools until Act made them do it and they could well have performance pay on the table, if they’re beholden to Act after the coming elections."
Asked if Labour would pay teachers more, Mr Hipkins said "of course". When interviewer Corin Dann indicated Labour could be paying potentially bad teachers more as well, Mr Hipkins asked what was a bad teacher because bad teachers should not be in the system.
"So we should be paying all teachers better, because any bad teachers shouldn’t be teaching."
Ms Kay said when she talked to principals they said, in part through having National Standards, they were able to see where some teachers did need additional support in terms of professional development.
That was why National had increased professional development by about $65million, and it was putting in another $24million as part of a digital technologies package.
"We’ve got to improve our initial teacher education. That’s why the Education Council is consulting on a range of proposals," Ms Kay said.
Teacher unions were likely to expect a Labour government to significantly boost the pay of teachers.
Mr Hipkins said teachers had done "pretty poorly" under the National-led Government, having minimal pay increases.
"They did well under the last Labour government. I would imagine we will do what we can, but we have to work within the financial constraints."
There was no claim on the table and Mr Hipkins could not give a figure on what a pay rise for teachers would cost.
