Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: National needs to keep fighting on education

If you're a regular listener, you'll know we've spent a lot of time predicting that voters would hate Chris Hipkins' claim in the TVNZ leaders' debate that he would scrap the hour of reading, writing and maths for kids.

And now I have the numbers to prove that prediction was bang on.

I've been given a copy of a poll conducted by Curia in the days after that debate and it shows that 74 percent of Kiwis want the hour a day of reading, writing and maths to stay. Among Labour's own voters, 63 percent want the hour a day to stay. Only 23 percent of Labour voters want Chippy to scrap it.

That's almost three Labour voters wanting it for every one who wants it gone.

None of this is a surprise to me because you'd have been an idiot, or an education union member, to kid yourself that Erica Stanford's education reforms aren't working.

But how I got this poll is actually illuminating.

I got a call from a guy involved in public affairs but this isn't his wheelhouse. He doesn't work in education and he doesn't work for a political party. Education policy in an election has absolutely nothing to do with his job. But he said he was giving the poll to me because he's a parent and he's deeply passionate about making sure Labour doesn't undo the good work Erica is doing in primary schools, where his child is.

And this is what I'm consistently hearing.

I've had another person in politics say a very similar thing to me and I've told you about this already. They took off their politics hat for a minute and said that, as a parent, the most important thing to them is Erica Stanford's education reforms.

Now, I cannot tell you what a bum note this is for Hipkins.

He needs to walk this back as fast as he possibly can. The risk for him is that National realises what they've got here and starts weaponizing it against him.

He needs to tell his mates in the unions to back off because he's not doing it.

And for National, I'll say it again: what are you doing?

Fight on the education front.

Erica Stanford should be all over the media during this campaign. She should be standing next to Christopher Luxon at every available opportunity.

She is their MVP, their most valuable player, and her education reforms are probably the most important thing National has done and the thing voters do not want to lose.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.