Parata Hekia: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 21 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18174. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Ātēnā koe Mr Speaker.Otirāhurinoaitōtātou Wharetēnā koutou katoa. Mewhakanuitātouitēneitahua-pūtea.Kua kite katoatātoui te pai me tehuamōngāwhānau katoa o Aotearoa.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Greetings indeed to all of us throughout our House. We must acknowledge this Budget. We have all seen the value and benefit in it for all New Zealand families.]I am pleased and proud to be standing to speak in this Budget debate 2014-15. It is the kind of Budget that is absolutely apposite to its circumstances. We have had six Budgets that have had to be delivered over the course of this Government and each one has been putting in place the building blocks for a stronger economy a richer wealth of society more support for the families and children who need it the most and investing in the sustainability of our country and of our people long term. This Budget delivers all that it should. We have come out from the mess we inherited from the Opposition and from the global financial crisis deftly managed by the Minister of Finance. Each year we have had the right amount of stimulus and the right amount of borrowing balanced against the right amount of investment because we understand unlike those Opposition benches that money does not magically pour through a hole in the sky. It comes from investing in businesses and backing those companies to make greater investment choices themselves to employ more people to offer more jobs to articulate what skills they need and to make sure that our education system delivers on that.This Budget reflects our main priorities: strengthening our economy getting more growth out of it and getting better public services of the kind that my colleague StevenJoyce was just mentioning. We do not simply fund departments to keep existing; we fund them to deliver better services and we are getting better services from our very experienced and capable Public Service. We are also working in a more focused and integrated way amongst Ministers across all portfolios. Again we understand unlike the Opposition that people do not live their lives in sectors; they live their lives. As a result of that you can see that at the heart of this Budget is a big heart for families and children.We are extending paid parental leave and the parental tax credit while at the same time investing more into early childhood education—$155 million which caters for the growth we are already having in early childhood education which itself is a sign of growth in the economy as parents are going back to work and as more people are finding jobs and seeking better and higher-quality early childhood provision for their children. But alongside this at the heart of this Budget is a significant health investment: extending free doctors visits for those up to 13 years old and providing for those prescriptions. We have been able to do this over time because we have built the base to make that possible. Together that $500 million package at the heart of our Budget shows how much this Government cares for is concerned about and is prepared to make an investment in the families and children of this country that we as a country can afford to make.I want to talk a bit more specifically about education. We have had some questions in the House today about why youth unemployment particularly in Pasifika and Māori communities is at the level that it is at. The answer is simple. Those young people if they do not have the skills they need cannot get the jobs that are available. Eighty-four thousand jobs have been created in the economy in the past year. That means more people are getting back to work and of that nearly 11000 are young Pasifika people. We want to see more young people getting the opportunities to get into work and to make a life for themselves and for their families. But that has to be off the back of a sustainable investment which is education. That is why in our portfolio we have for the first time gone over $10 billion. This Government puts its money where its mouth is. It knows that good-quality early childhood education puts our young people on the best learning trajectory possible.We have a Better Public Services target of 98 percent of all new entrants in 2016 having participated in early childhood education. We are at about 96 percent. Both the Pasifika and Māori communities have increased their participation and that is great because it means they can move on into primary school with a stronger set of skills—socialised eager and keen to participate in their own learning. We see improvements across primary schools as well as into secondary schools and on into secondary-tertiary transitions or at least on into training into apprenticeships into more academic courses and into employment.That happens because we do thisunsexy but necessary job of ensuring that five out of five children get the best possible education they can get. That means working away at the system. It means as I have already indicated that we have nearly doubled the investment into early childhood education. We have taken it from $800 million to $1.5 billion over the last six Budgets. At primary and secondary schools we have increased the investment by about 45 percent. The flagship investment of $359 million which the Prime Minister announced in January was the single biggest item in this year’s Budget. That is directed at how we raise the quality of teaching and leading in our schools so that we get more kids across the line and more kids able to make choices for themselves about the kinds of lives they will live.In addition we have recognised that our schools need day-to-day support in their operational funding—$85 million in this Budget. That $85 million keeps pace with theprojected cost of inflation which is only one factor but an important factor. In the last 6 years this Government has put over $600 million into providing that day-to-day support for schools. We know how important it is that schools are able—and this is all their discretionary spending. That is in addition to all of the other investments that we make into schools for professional learning and development for curriculum support and for the very strong investments we are making in properties. New schools are being built in this country.In Christchurch of course about 28 new schools will be built over the next 10 years and 115 schools in all will support a refresh of the education network there—one of the four priorities of this Government. We can expect to see that becoming a leading education network in New Zealand but I think in Australasia as well because of the support we have given to that community and because those education leaders in Christchurch have risen to the many many challenges that they have had to face over the last 3 or 4 years. That has been supported in a wider sense by the investments that my colleague the Hon Gerry Brownlee has made across Christchurch. Our Government has not once resiled from its commitment to ensuring that those communities will be rebuilt that they will continue to be a priority to us and that we will put money in there as it is required and it will be invested wisely to sustain the growth of that community. Education is one part of that story.We are also putting investments in education into the School High Health Needs Fund into Reading Together and into Computers in Homes. These three programmes together will support some of our most needy families. There is $3 million over the next 2 years for Computers in Homes. We expect to be able to help 1500 more families. The Computers in Homes programme does two main things. It helps families to become acquainted with and confident about skills to engage in the digital world. They learn how to use a computer they learn how to access the internet and they learn how to design their own CVs to Google jobs online and to get the information they need. At the end of the programme they receive a computer and 12 months’ access to the internet. But the second equally important and powerful contribution that Computers in Homes makes is that it connects with their children who are more and more being exposed to the opportunities of digital learning in our schools. This Government has invested $700 million into making sure that our kids can participate in 21st century learning. Of that we have invested in ultra-fast broadband to the school gate and we have ensured that the schools are wired to benefit from that connection.My colleague the Hon Amy Adams has been relentless in ensuring that not only are our contractors on time to ensure that this is happening in schools but actually they sometimes get ahead of our timetable. Led by my colleague the Hon Nikki Kaye we have invested in the Network for Learning. This is a managed network that brings data into schools—good quality high speed free 24/7—to support the best possible 21st century learning unlimited and uncapped. This is a $700 million investment and we are continuing to invest in that space making sure that our properties are modern learning environments; that they are fresh light flexible spaces; that they are earthquake-proof; and that we are dealing with leaky buildings. Minister Kaye has overseen a renewal of that very important part of the education portfolio.Our Government has prioritised five out of five learners and this Budget invests to make sure that that becomes a reality every day in classrooms and early childhood centres up and down our country. We are back in black.