Pettis Jill: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Pettis Jill: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:624;Page:19419] 
JILL PETTIS (Labour—Whanganui) 
: 
 I feel I have to rise to speak after listening to that outrageous contribution from Bill English. I thank Brian Donnelly for his contribution which was as always well researched and well considered. But Bill English’s speech was just an absolute rave. He is losing the plot. The ranting speech he has just given was not in his usual style so I do not know what pressure he is under at the moment. 
I want to remind the member of some recent history. When Labour came into power in 1999 one of the first things it had to do was to put $40 million into Special Education just to help that sector keep its head above water. That money has been well invested. We know that more is required. We know that Special Education is an area that requires serious funding. In no way at all do we think that that is all we have to do. We know that more needs to be done. 
One of our first expenditure items was to put $40 million into Special Education. We are now spending $40 million a year on numeracy and literacy initiatives. That is money well spent. It is investing in the future of young people in this country. We also spent $40 million on rescuing the polytechnic sector in Wanganui Palmerston North Otaki and Wairarapa. In fact more than that was spent but I know that $40 million went into ensuring that Wanganui had provision for tertiary education. It was amazing because there was not one peep from our closest geographical member of Parliament from the National Party. The reason was that Maurice Williamson wisely took him aside and said: “Don’t open your mouth. You can’t win on this one. Let them get on and do it.” and we did. Mr Power can confirm that he did not once open his mouth when we were rescuing the polytechnic sector in and around the Wanganui district and surrounding districts. 
I want to say that although our polytechnic will face some difficulties with student numbers—I tell Mr English that that is what happens in regional polytechnics—there is nothing new about that at all. This Government recognises the value of the provision of tertiary education and training in provincial New Zealand. We will continue to recognise that and we will continue to support it with funding. 
This Government has increased education funding substantially since it has been in office and the member knows that only too well. Since we have been the Government we have increased school operational funding by over 15 percent in real terms and we have delivered 2700 extra teachers over and above roll growth. We acknowledge that we have had to rationalise some schools in the smaller rural areas but National closed 360 schools when it was in Government—even though my unfortunate National opponent said on the wireless the other day that the schools closed themselves. I recommend that National keeps that man hidden. We have funded schools at a level at which they have never been funded before. 
One area where I am particularly pleased with the additional funding—and it is huge—is in the tertiary sector. We are continuing to work to make education more and more affordable for young people in New Zealand. I have had the experience of being a parent of two children both of whom went to university—one under a Labour Government and the other under a National Government. There was a vast difference in their debt levels at the end of their tertiary education. The reason was that tertiary education was more affordable for our oldest child who did the greater part of his tertiary education under a Labour Government as opposed to our daughter who did hers under a Tory Government. This Government is increasing the spending in tertiary education because it knows how important it is to make tertiary education more affordable.