Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm really pleased to take a call in the Appropriation (2018/19 Estimates) Bill debate this afternoon. I just have to say—in stark contrast to the previous speaker's comments around the Hon Chris Hipkins being a failure—this very afternoon I had a conversation with a principal of a primary school in Ashburton and he said to me If you see Chris Hipkins please tell him that he is a legend here in Ashburton." They are so thrilled with the extra money that they are going to be receiving and they are absolutely rapt.And as far as the Minister failing to get a decent chunk of the pie—I am sorry but when the system in so far as education and health and all those areas is so broken and in such disarray there is no way that you can fix these sorts of things in one Budget. So I'll end that particular part there but I also wanted to just acknowledge the work of the Education and Workforce Committee because as you can see we all have quite strong opinions and strong personalities but it was a good process going through the Estimates and hearing from the appropriate Ministers. I want to focus my speech today—or part of the debate today—on Vote Education. I am so so pleased to be part of a Government that is actually recognising the importance of investing in education and in particular early childhood education. As an early childhood teacher I have seen the feeling of disheartenment from early childhood teachers and centres since 2008 when every year our funding was cut by stealth. I am excited to see there is a 5.5 percent increase in funding for early childhood centres and that includes 1.6 percent in relation to inflation. That's going to benefit 4100 providers in the sector and 200000 children from 2019. As an early childhood educator we are working with our youngest most vulnerable most impressionable children and it is so important that we invest in them at such an early age.The previous speaker Nikki Kaye mentioned the fact that there was nothing in this particular Budget around having funding for 100 percent qualified teachers. Well as I said to that member previously when there's such disarray you can't fix everything in one Budget but the Government is committed to applying funding towards that before the end of this term. And when referring to other things mentioned by the previous speaker they were things from the Labour Party manifesto so when you form a coalition Government there are some negotiations that happen. So you can't bring that into the argument because that's not applicable—it's not applicable.I also want to talk about home-based education. Nine percent of our enrolments for early childhood education are in the space of home-based education. We know that the delivery of education and different quality around that is quite diverse amongst home-based education so it's really pleasing to see that we are going to have a review around that. It is becoming quite a popular option for families with young children to put their children into home-based education and to have that home-type environment in which to learn.Teacher supply is another really big issue in this education space. I visited various schools and they all say the same thing: it is so hard to get teachers when there are vacancies within their schools. So I'm really pleased to see that this Government is going to be addressing that by first of all fully funding the courses that primary teachers are required to undergo—the teacher refresher course when they've been out of the system for over 6 years. That's been a huge barrier to some people coming back—whether they've gone and had children or gone to do a career or something else such as travelling overseas. It's been a huge barrier for them to have to come up with the cost of covering that expense. So I'm really proud of what this Government's doing in this space—in education—and what the Minister has brought to us in so far as the Budget this year. Thank you."