Prime Minister John Key today announced the reappointment of Dr Warren Tucker as Director of Security at the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.

Dr Tucker has been appointed for a further 18-month term from 1 November 2012.

Mr Key says the reappointment will provide leadership continuity for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.

“Dr Tucker is a career intelligence officer. His professionalism is respected and highly regarded by the intelligence and security communities in New Zealand and internationally.

“Dr Tucker has continued to improve the way the Service conducts its business and the Service’s protective security function,” says Mr Key.

“I am pleased Dr Tucker has agreed to remain in office for a further term.”

Dr Tucker’s current term of office will end on 31 October 2012, by which time he will have completed six years in the position.

Prime Minister John Key is sending his best wishes to the Breakers for their ANBL grand final tonight.

“At one game each it will be a battle of epic proportions, particularly with the history between the two teams,” say Mr Key.

After the Breakers won the first game of the three game series, the Perth Wildcats levelled the series last week with an 87-86 win

“That one point loss last week in Perth is powerful motivation.”

The New Zealand Breakers tip off against the Perth Wildcats at 7.30 tonight in Auckland.

“While I can’t be at Vector Arena I will make sure I am kept up to date with the score during the evening.

“Good luck and play hard. Thousands of cheering Kiwis will be doing their best to encourage you to keep the trophy on this side of the Tasman.”

Prime Minister John Key today announced a suite of new agreements between Indonesia and New Zealand, which will complement and strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Trade Minister Tim Groser and his Indonesian Ministerial counterparts today signed four agreements covering cooperation in agriculture, environment, labour and geothermal energy.

“These agreements will give Indonesians the opportunity to benefit from New Zealand's expertise in key areas, while also reinforcing people-to-people relationships between the two countries,” says Mr Key.

“A programme of cooperation in geothermal energy will provide increased commercial opportunities for New Zealand businesses to assist Indonesia with its energy development programme.

“New Zealand has a strong track record of geothermal work with Indonesia, including educating more than 100 of the country's geothermal engineers. This agreement will build from that solid foundation, enhancing government-level collaboration and private-sector activity.

“I'm also pleased to announce the Government will be appointing an additional Trade Commissioner to the region, adding extra impetus to building business links between Indonesia and New Zealand.

“Business leaders have reinforced the case for increasing New Zealand’s representation in Indonesia. Currently the responsibility for Indonesia is managed by New Zealand's Malaysia-based Trade Commissioner,” says Mr Key.

New Zealand's world-leading expertise in agriculture will be put to use in training dairy technicians, farmers and breeding centre staff, as well as training Indonesia's agriculture ministry officials in areas like quarantine and agricultural trade negotiations.

Government-to-government cooperation in labour and environment will create opportunities to promote New Zealand technology and services relating to environmental protection and conservation. These two agreements also recognise that labour and environment regulations and practices should not be weakened to encourage trade or investment, nor used for trade protectionist purposes.

The agriculture, environment and labour agreements are designed to sit alongside the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, which came into force for Indonesia in January 2012.

Mr Key is in Indonesia on a three-date state visit, accompanied by Trade Minister Tim Groser and a 26-strong business delegation from New Zealand.

Prime Minister John Key today unveiled a package of initiatives to ensure young people with mental health problems receive better, faster, and more modern help.

In a speech in Wellington, Mr Key said the $62 million package was the result of intensive work led by his own department, following an important report from Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman.

“I’m proud the National-led Government has taken several steps to improve the opportunities available to young people in this country over the past three years,” Mr Key said.

“More than anyone else, young people will determine the future shape and prosperity of New Zealand.

“But one in five of our young people will experience some form of mental health problem during the crucial time that they are transitioning to becoming an adult.

“Even mild mental illness can have a wide impact on a young person’s life and on those around them. When the worst happens and a teenager takes their own life, those left behind have a heavy burden to bear.

“I know we can do better for young people with mental illness and that’s why I have personally driven the package of initiatives I am announcing today.”

The Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health package works in four different places:

• In schools
• Online
• In families and communities, and
• In the health system.

Mr Key said nurses and specially-trained youth workers will be added to lower-decile schools to help identify students who have a mental illness and get them appropriate care. The Positive Behaviour School Wide programme will also be rolled out across all secondary schools to improve the environment young people are learning in.

In return, Mr Key said schools will be asked to take more responsibility for the wellbeing of their students.

“The Education Review Office will begin measuring how well schools are doing when it comes to student wellbeing, and over time we expect them to show improvements in areas like bullying,” Mr Key said.

The Youth Mental Health package also includes several initiatives to modernise the way government reaches mentally ill young people.

“We need to lift our game to keep up with these kids, who are quickly adopting new technology like Smartphones or using Twitter and Facebook,” Mr Key said.

Along with an overhaul of existing mental health resources, new ideas will be sought through a Social Media Innovations Fund to keep providers of youth services technologically up to date.

The package also contains several other initiatives including a lift in funding for primary mental health care, new wait-time targets for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and a new Whānau Ora approach.

“Parents can often find it hard to tell the difference between normal teenage behaviour and mild to moderate mental illness,” Mr Key said.

“To help parents, families and friends we are also going to fund NGOs to get more information out to them about what to look for and where to get help.”

“The Youth Mental Health package fills gaps in our current system and builds on the good work our mental health professionals are already doing in this area.

“We’ll be reviewing all of the initiatives in two years’ time to ensure we are hitting the mark and helping our young people.”

Related documents (all in PDF):

FAQs

Health sector initiatives

School based initiatives

Online initiatives

Family and community initiatives

Prime Minister John Key has appointed Wayne Boyd to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) for a three-year term.

Mr Boyd is a former professional director with extensive merchant banking and legal experience. He currently chairs a number of company boards and is the former chairman of Telecom New Zealand Limited.

“Mr Boyd's extensive business, banking and legal experience stands him in good stead to be an active and effective contributor to ABAC's work,” says Mr Key.

Mr Boyd joins existing New Zealand ABAC representatives Tony Nowell and Maxine Simmons.

The APEC Business Advisory Council is a network of business representatives from each of the 21 APEC economies, which meets to develop business perspectives on issues being discussed among APEC economies. ABAC provides a separate process for raising policy issues and offering private sector advice on trade and economic liberalisation efforts within the Asia Pacific region.

At the APEC Leaders’ Summit in Honolulu in November, issues raised by ABAC included regional economic integration, particularly the pathway to a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific. This year’s APEC summit meeting will take place in Russia in September.