Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): Well Mr Assistant Speaker I'm pleased to speak in this debate on the Appropriation (2019/20 Estimates) Bill. From my perspective Budgets are about priorities following through on promises but also it's an opportunity to see the window and the soul of a Government to see the nature of their character. What I would argue is that this Government has blown the chance of a generation to make a huge difference to New Zealand because of failed priorities and a lot of broken promises. I want to address at the outset the issues that have been raised around the release of Budget information because it is relevant. It is relevant when we're dealing with issues of integrity of a Government of Ministers of senior public servants and it cuts to the heart of whether you can trust a Government and their behaviour. I want to talk more about that because it is my strong view that they have been handed not only billions of dollars in terms of their Budget but also they have failed to deliver on the core priorities around education. Why is that? It's in part because some of those coalition partners have come in and a weak Prime Minister has not stood up to them and has let them have their priorities over education. I'm going to set that out in terms of a number of the broken promises that have occurred.It is important because as National has highlighted on our website  this was a Government that promised big in education—more than a hundred promises that they made—and they have not delivered on at least 50 of those promises. So what we expected in this Budget in education was a huge amount of funding in terms of wellbeing. They promised around social workers and they promised around guidance counsellors. Of all of the areas that one would have thought they would have turned up and provided additional funding for it would be those. But they failed. They failed to deliver on their promises.The next thing that we saw and it's very characteristic of this Government—and again in my view it demonstrates a Government that is more about PR and spin than actually tackling some of the long-term issues in New Zealand—was that they said We're going to spend $1.2 billion over 10 years on school infrastructure." Well let me tell you a few facts about school infrastructure. The first is that it was a National Government that went and did condition assessments of every school in New Zealand and we were handed legacy issues around those portfolios. We increased the school property budget by 40 percent in the middle of the global financial crisis with the Canterbury earthquakes. Then this Minister has the nerve to lecture us last year on a lack of investment in school property. He comes along with less than what we had spent. And then this year in this Budget we find out that there's about $170 million of underspend. What it shows is complete incompetence. So what I say to New Zealand is: this is a Government that has bad priorities. They can't deliver the fundamentals in education and that is demonstrated in an area like school infrastructure where we've got overcrowding and we've got delayed projects because the Minister is incompetent.The next point that I want to make is that $1.2 billion over 10 years is not going to even keep up with growth. The Minister delayed the Auckland growth plan for example for which we indicated we may need to spend $2 billion on school infrastructure in Auckland.So as we go through the next year and a half National will be raising these issues and saying that it is not OK to have deep PR and spin around an area like school infrastructure. We're going to have overcrowded schools we're not going to have the funding that we deserve and actually they are investing arguably not even for business-as-usual. The next area that I want to raise which is core to their broken promises is that there are some big promises that they made that people relied on and the area is the school donations policy. Chris Hipkins—and I questioned him in question time today—went out there in the campaign and the headline was that Labour were going to end school donations. Well here's a fact: there are 700 schools for which the Minister of Education and this Government have broken that promise. They have been excluded and what we are hearing from people like Lorraine from Lynmore Primary School and from other schools in Tauranga is that you've got not only schools that relied somewhat on those promises but also we're embedding deeply inequitable policies and National will be talking more about that. The next area that I want to talk about in terms of broken promises is early learning and my colleague Nicola Willis is going to talk more about this. We've got a situation where this huge number of promises that were put up during the election campaign including 100 percent qualified teachers in early learning reduced teacher ratios in early learning new childhood centres in areas where there is disadvantage—none of these promises have been delivered. The next point that I want to make is that not only have we got a Government that can't deliver on the fundamental issues and promises that they made but we have had the largest ever industrial action in education in our nation's history. Of all the areas that you would have thought this Government would not cut funding to it would be teacher pay so what I want is members opposite to stand up and explain to me why it's acceptable that there is around $100 million being cut around communities of learning which is additional payments for teachers. So here is an example of the priorities of this Government: not only have they got the largest ever industrial action in education but they've also managed to cut the potential salary payments for a number of teachers in this Budget at a time when they're in the middle of collective bargaining. I want to talk about that collective bargaining. We are at 12 months of gridlock in primary. We are at more than eight months of gridlock in secondary. The fundamental issues have been pay and workload. In my view it is incompetent for the Minister to have gone out there and say "We're not going to shift the bargaining parameters." They've just stuck their heads in the sand and they say that there's no more money when we've got money being spent on planes and racing and in a whole lot of other areas. So what we say to the teachers of New Zealand is that it is correct: this is a question of priorities and actually this Government has choices. It's made bad choices. It needed to get to the table a lot earlier and prioritise both pay and workload. We expect that the Minister will come out tomorrow with a range of large promises and our message to New Zealand is how about delivering on the existing promises that they've made—and New Zealanders can see that at our report card website. The final point that I want to really address is that look as I've gone around New Zealand—I have done more than 70 meetings and public meetings—I've talked to people about their priorities for education and the point that a number of people say to me is that it really does matter what you spend your money on. This is two Budgets in and we see a huge amount of wasted money and people do understand this other point. They understand that if you have a Government that is weak on the economy it's less money for education and it's less money for health. What we know is that the economy is slowing and we've got a smaller amount of the pie. We've got a situation where Chris Hipkins has been weak and hasn't been able to even address his existing promises and so what National believes are the priorities are a few things. The first is Minister of Education it is time. Let's settle this Minister. Let's settle this Prime Minister Ardern. It is time—it is 12 months for primary and eight months for secondary. This Government needs to prioritise workload and pay. The second thing is that this Government need to fulfil their promises in a range of areas. They haven't done that in this Budget and they need to and we will be holding them to account for those promises. The next thing I want to say is that National will be out there and we will be advocating positive policies particularly in areas like those children who have additional learning needs and I want to make a comment on that. We saw huge promises by the Government members when they were in Opposition around children with additional learning needs. We literally saw them promise that every child with additional learning needs would get the support that they needed. Well it turned up in this Budget—yes with some roles around additional support—but schools have no idea who is going to get those roles. They don't know what the priority is. It's not clear that we're going to be able to actually deliver that workforce. So in the core areas of supporting those disadvantaged children or supporting children with complex learning needs this Government talks big but doesn't deliver. I would argue that this is a Government that is failing to deliver the basics in education. When the Minister can't even keep teachers in classrooms or even provide the classrooms in the areas where we need them it is a failed Government. This Government does not prioritise education and National will."