Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (Chairperson of the Education and Workforce Committee): Thank you Madam Chair for this opportunity. It's a real privilege to chair the Education and Workforce Committee. I would like to start by saying that during the Estimates process it's expected that when the Minister comes for the Estimates hearing the Minister provides an overview of his portfolio overview of the budget and also the expectations that the Minister has from that budget.It was really interesting when for Vote Education the Hon Chris Hipkins came for the Estimates hearing. His overview was just literally two minutes and given that that overview was just two minutes that says it all given the education portfolio is a huge portfolio. In the last term we know that the education portfolio was split because we had a different Minister for tertiary education but this time we have one Minister looking after early childhood education school education and also tertiary education. It could be because the tertiary education fees-free policy has taken up all the budget and space. So I would like to start from early childhood education. For early childhood education we saw there is an increase of allocation of 5.5 percent from the previous year. All this money is not to meet increasing demand in the early childhood education sector. We have seen that the early childhood education sector—Kieran McAnulty: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Thank you very much. I understand the question that you're going to ask and I am going to ask the member—as chair of this committee it is your role to summarise the report back from the committee; it is not to make political statements. Your role in this particular debate is very clear. It's over to other members of your caucus to make other statements but your role is very specific about the report back from the committee on this particular Estimate. Thank you.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Thank you Madam Chair. I'll try my best to do that. So what we noted was there is an increase of allocation of 5.5 percent in early childhood education from the previous year and all this money is not to meet increasing demand for early childhood education centres. The Minister also mentioned that home-based early childhood education centres are increasing. The percentage of students attending early childhood education is at 9 percent. The Minister expressed his view to review home-based early childhood education sectors to see that they are providing quality care to all attendees and that is a good thing and we want to see that actually all early childhood education centres are providing quality care. But on the other hand we note that the Education Review Office funding has gone down by $90000 from the previous year. This is for the Education Review Office to review early childhood education centres. So that funding has gone down and also in Budget 2018 we noted that there is no funding allocated for all fully qualified early childhood education teachers. So yes on one side the Minister wants to review early childhood education centres especially the home-based early childhood education centres but on the other hand there is no funding allocated to see that they are all fully qualified.Kieran McAnulty: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I do believe that the member is now trifling with you. That is a direct opposite approach to the direction that you just gave her. Questioning the Minister—saying on the one hand he wants to do this and wants to do the other—is not following the clear direction that you just gave that member not two minutes ago.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): I thank the member. I do want to reiterate this is about a report back of the committee. Does the member understand what her role is in this?Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Yes so talking about early childhood education—Dr Duncan Webb: Can you try not reading your speech? Say it from the heart.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Let me do what I'm supposed to do here. I don't need help from members on the other side. I know they're very keen on defending their Minister and what is happening in the education portfolio.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Order! I ask the member again. Your role is very specific as the chair of the committee to report back from the committee. Do you understand what your role is in this debate? Thank you. I ask the member to continue with her contribution.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: In early childhood education that was the summary of what we heard.The next issue that was discussed was the increasing school roll that is affecting school property. We saw that in Budget 2018 there was an increase of 2 percent compared to the last year's Budget and this appropriation includes supporting and advising schools on property issues and managing new and existing property. The Minister did acknowledge that the previous Government's funding for school property in 2016 was helpful in alleviating the pressure that is there because of the increase in population. We noted that the funding for property maintenance is business as usual and is expected from all Governments to look after the property maintenance. We have around 2500 schools all around the country.The Canterbury school rebuild was also discussed. Budget 2018 provides around an additional $10.5 million for the Christchurch schools rebuild programme. The Minister was asked to explain this funding noting his public comments about a hole left in the rebuild budget. Overcrowding in schools was another issue that was discussed in the Estimates hearing process. Government party members remain concerned about—[Time expired]