Martin Tracey: Financial Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Financial Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 04 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16280. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Mr Chair. There are so many issues inside education funding that it is very difficult to contain oneself to a single topic or to be contained to only 5 minutes. I could for example point to what is an obvious ploy of the National Government of announcing headline-grabbing budget lines in one Budget taking a month’s worth of media coverage on that budget line then quietly removing that same budget unspent in the following year and then using the same bookwork transaction to give itself another headline. I could for example point to the National Government’s lauding of its investment into education. It is going into this election crowing about its increasing spending into education. The fact that much of this spending has nothing to do with a commitment to education but is a requirement due to a large natural disaster—a requirement to rebuild the educational facilities of Christchurch—appears to be lost on its backbenchers as is the fact that much of this spending is required to rebuild schools throughout New Zealand. It was a National Government that changed the building code and the building standards and that approved faulty materials—millions upon millions to fix past National mistakes.I could warn the New Zealand public about the current trumpeting by this Government of its supposed increased investment in education from the Budget under discussion to the more recent Budgets. I could warn the New Zealand public that when the Government says that it is investing more than ever before in education it does not mean this tofutureproof the public education system; rather it is fattening the goose for sale. National is implementing a marketable business model over our public schools so that should it successfully gain a third term in Government it will extend the partial privatisation via charter schools to all New Zealand schools as was previously advanced by this party in the 1990s.But I will have to content myself with a single piece of propaganda from this Government directly from this Budget. This single example shows how the National Government’s policy of “plug and play” when it comes to Ministers which leads to a reliance on officials’ high-level thinking which in turn leads to unintended consequences impacts negatively on the children of New Zealand. I refer to the Budget announcement on increases to the early childhood education equity funding—the Budget announcement that said: “$47.9 million is being invested over 4 years in Equity Funding to support learners in our target communities.” What were the targets for this supposedly additional funding? They were to be: “A. Low socio-economic community” “B. Special needs and non-English speaking background” “C. Language and culture other than English” and “D. Isolation.” The Ministry of Education and the Minister of Education made the following statement: “We expect that services that receive Equity Funding will use the increased funding to increase the enrolment and participation of children from the priority groups by taking actions such as: keeping ECE fees low so children from priority families can support and maintain regular participation encouraging and supporting family/whānau to actively engage and support what their children are learning … provide additional resourcing for learning in te reoMāori and Pasifika languages.”So how has that worked out for New Zealand? Well let us talk about the New Zealand Playcentre Federation an organisation internationally recognised an organisation that goes directly to low early childhood education costs with the direct involvement ofwhānau and family and even more than that an organisation that provides opportunities for those family members those parents to gain education at no cost. Well as we debate this Budget Playcentre is nationally in crisis. Unless the current funding context changes then at least 483 playcentres across New Zealand will continue to crumble and they will close.Playcentre’s only hope is to hold on long enough for a change of Government later this year.How about mobile kindergartens? How about the killing off ofHunterville’s mobile kindergarten through Government funding cuts and increased compliance? Mobile kindergartens involve teachers travelling to a number of rural or isolated areas with a range of equipment and resources and running kindergarten sessions for young children and their families. They provide early childhood education services in areas in which few other early childhood education services are available. Who will fill this gap? They will close. They are about to close running at a $100000 loss because the funding model no longer fits. Who will fill that gap for our rural children? Private business? Do not be ridiculous. There are not enough numbers to provide the commercial viability of a business to go into these areas but that does not minimise the Government’s responsibility to rural communities for their children to be able to access these services inside marae inside community halls.