Secondary schools teachers have “overwhelmingly” backed a new collective agreement settlement announced last week at parliament.

The pay deal will see a pay rise for teachers of 14.5% by December next year.

The acting president of the PPTA, Chris Abercrombie, said he was delighted by the show of support from teachers.

“Members’ collective, determined and sustained action this year ensured that we received a much improved offer via arbitration than what we were offered in negotiations,” the union leader said in a statement.

“There are still significant issues around secondary teacher recruitment in particular that need to be addressed, but today is for celebrating. I feel very proud and privileged to lead such a strong and committed union. Members are passionate about secondary education and the need for it to be valued appropriately. This settlement is a significant step in the right direction.”

Education minister Jan Tinetti told reporters last week she’d be surprised if the offer – which she said would be the government’s last – was not accepted. “This is one of the most significant pay increases New Zealand secondary teachers have ever received. Shortly, 30,000 secondary teachers will receive the first of three pay boosts between now and the end of 2024,” she said in a statement this afternoon.

“The settlement also means an end to the disrupted learning that our young people have experienced. I know that will come as great news to parents and caregivers and thank them for their patience throughout.”

The prime minister won’t be backing a National Party pledge to ban cellphones in schools – saying it’s possible already.

Christopher Luxon announced this morning that his party would introduce a blanket ban on the use of phones at schools, with limited exceptions, if he becomes the next prime minister.

Speaking from downtown Auckland this morning, Chris Hipkins said there was nothing stopping schools from implementing their own bans right now. “If schools want to ban cell phones now, they can do it,” he told reporters. “They don’t need my permission, they don’t need Christopher Luxon’s permission, they can do that now.”

During his morning media round today, Luxon said he didn’t mind being the “bad guy” on this issue and believed that an outright ban across the country would make it far easier for schools to manage.

Large swathes of the Hauraki Gulf will be protected from bottom trawling, with the government announcing 19 new marine protection areas.

In Auckland today alongside conservation minister Willow-Jean Prime and fisheries minister Rachel Brooking, the prime minister said the gulf was at risk and action was needed now.

“Today’s announcement follows years of careful work and extensive consultation, and strikes a good balance,” Chris Hipkins said. “It will go a long way to protecting the Hauraki Gulf for future generations and backs Auckland as a world-class city and a great place to live.”

A new bill will be introduced to parliament before the end of the sitting term in just a few weeks time and, when passed, will boost the area under protection from just over 6% to about 18%. It includes extensions to the existing Cape Rodney-Okakari Point and Te Whanganui-a-Hei marine reserves around Auckland and the Coromandel, along with a dozen new high protection areas.

Meanwhile, five new seafloor protection areas will “preserve sensitive seafloor habitats by prohibiting bottom-contact fishing methods and other activities which harm the seafloor”.

Prime said that the high protection area will recognise kaitiakitanga and cultural practices of tangata whenua while also meeting strong conservation outcomes. “The best way to protect this special marine ecosystem is to find conservation solutions which work for everyone – and that’s exactly what this action to revitalise the Gulf does,” she said.

A new report out this morning says the country needed to train more GPs urgently and incentivise the existing workforce to do more hours. As RNZ reports, professor Des Gorman, co-author of the Lifeline for Health: Meeting New Zealand’s Need for General Practitioners report says “Forty years ago we had almost 45% of the medical workforce working as GPs, it’s now down to 20%”.

Gorman also believes the current model of funding is flawed. Currently, primary health organisations and their general practices are paid according to the number of people enrolled – not the number of times they see them. “Human behaviour predictably will be to enrol as many people as possible who will never come in and see you, and to make yourself unavailable. And in terms of fee-for-service, human behaviour dictates that you will want to decrease the contact times to increase the through-put. And again, that’s totally undesirable as well,” says Gorman.

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A new poll once again has the National Party in a position to form a government – even with a handful of seats going to Winston Peters’ New Zealand First.

Yes, this morning’s new Guardian Essential poll has New Zealand First back in parliament, sitting on 5.3%. That would give it seven seats, though not enough to hold the balance of power.

It’s the second poll in as many weeks to have New Zealand First above the 5% threshold after a recent Roy Morgan survey offered a similar result. Newshub’s recent Reid Research poll had the party sitting just below it on 4.1%.

Despite the resurgence for the party, National’s Christopher Luxon has so far refused to rule out working with Peters in government, repeatedly telling reporters that it’s a hypothetical. Of course, it still is, but it’s becoming increasingly less far fetched.

The Guardian’s poll had National on 34.5% and Act on 11.6%, giving the right bloc a slim majority of 61 seats – just one more than the 60 needed to govern. Meanwhile, Labour has slipped into the 20s – just – on 29%, which coupled with the Green Party’s 8.5% and Te Pāti Māori on 2.5% would give the left bloc a combined 52 seats, remembering that New Zealand First would hold seven.

Christopher Luxon says he’s happy to be the “bad guy” when it comes to his new plan for banning phones in schools.

As detailed in today’s Bulletin, the opposition has unveiled a policy that would see cellphones outlawed in all schools – primary through to secondary. Schools will be able to decide how they enforce it and there will be exceptions for students with health conditions or special circumstances.

Secondary Principals Association president Vaughan Couillaut dismissed the idea during an interview with RNZ this morning, labelling it an unworkable policy and saying that schools were already capable of setting their own rules.

But Luxon told Newstalk ZB it would be much easier to introduce a blanket ban. “Certainly it makes it easier for the schools, many schools have already implemented it and are very successful with it, others aren’t,” he told Mike Hosking. “If that means we’re the bad guys, forcing it through, that’s fine with me. I’m not prepared to write off a generation of Kiwis.”

The ban would be enforced by individual schools, but would start from a new regulation passed by the government. “The reality is schools can work out how they do it,” Luxon said. “It’s important because [phones are] a major distraction and we have abysmal student achievement records here.”

Luxon told RNZ he’d been hearing from both parents and teachers that a “commonsense, practical” policy like this would be helpful for students. “[Schools] need our help to make sure they are doing it…” he said. “It’s not rocket science.”

The government seems unlikely to offer any support to National’s pledge. Education minister Jan Tinetti told Newshub a ban was unnecessary and would undermine schools who are best placed to make this decision.