Moroney Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Moroney Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:674;Page:20254] 
10. 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What is her proposed timeframe for delivering the Government response to the ECE Taskforce recommendations? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Consultation on the report’s recommendations closes next week on Monday 8 August. The Government will then carefully consider the feedback from consultation before making any decisions. 
Sue Moroney 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was on notice and asked for a time frame for the delivery of the Government’s response. I did not hear an answer to that. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The dilemma I have is that I do not know—the Minister may have been indicating that actually a time frame has not been fixed yet. I invite the Minister to clarify her answer with respect because it is a question on notice. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: We are in the middle of consultation. Once the consultation finishes then I am saying the Government will have a look at that consultation will carefully consider it and then will make its decisions. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It appears there is no time frame at present. 
Sue Moroney 
: I had figured that thank you Mr Speaker. Will she then immediately rule out accepting the funding cuts proposed by her task force to Playcentre of up to 70 percent in order to give certainty to the families of the 15000 children who attend playcentres throughout New Zealand? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: The task force was independent from the Government and as I said the Government has not even considered any decisions from its recommendations. However this Government has made it very clear that it values parent-led services like Playcentre. This Government expanded the 20 hours’ early childhood education services to Playcentre. This Government has made sure that the regulations that guide early childhood services have been amended to lessen the costs and burden on Playcentre. So this Government certainly supports parent-led playcentres. 
Sue Moroney 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked a specific question about whether the Minister would rule out accepting the funding cuts proposed by the task force. She gave all sorts of interesting information but did not answer that question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: In fairness I supported the member to get a further answer from the Minister on the primary question but the Minister if I heard correctly in answer to that supplementary question said the Government is in the process of considering the task force report. Ministers are perfectly at liberty not to rule out any aspects until they finish considering a report. I think that is what the Minister was indicating to the House. That is not unreasonable. 
Sue Moroney 
: Will she rule out the funding cuts of up to 80 percent proposed by her task force to home-based early childhood education in order to give certainty to the families of the 17000 children who attend home-based early childhood education throughout New Zealand and also the funding cuts of up to 78 percent for the 9000 children and their families who attend kohanga reo? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I repeat: the Government has made no decisions about the task force recommendations. It is currently out for consultation with the sector and we will listen to what the sector has to say about the very thorough report from the Taskforce on Early Childhood Education. 
Sue Moroney 
: Will she commit then to keeping the same subsidies and fee controls in place for 20 hours’ early childhood education in order to give certainty to the families of 140000 children who attend centre-based early childhood education services given that her Taskforce on Early Childhood Education recommends dropping the universal 20 hours’ early childhood education subsidy from the current $11.25 per child per hour down to just $8.80 per child per hour? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: This Government has made no decisions on any recommendations from the Taskforce on Early Childhood Education. But this Government has put $1.4 billion into early childhood education which is the most any Government has ever spent and is an increase of 38 percent since we came into Government. 
Sue Moroney 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked for a commitment about 20 hours’ early childhood education in terms of the subsidies and the fee controls. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member has to be reasonable in the answers she expects to questions. If the Government is considering as the Minister has explained to the House this task force report—and we have to accept that the Minister has said that—how can the Minister then rule out this and rule out that? The member has to be reasonable in that when the Government is still considering a task force report I cannot insist the Minister pre-empt its decisions by giving answers to the House ahead of the Government making decisions on those issues. I just cannot do that. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: Kia ora tatou. What progress has the Minister achieved in responding to the concerns raised by kohanga reo about any changes to their funding or governance and does the Minister believe that because of the key role kohanga reo play in the survival of te reo Maori there are special reasons why the kohanga reo movement must be supported? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: Yes we absolutely do believe that kohanga reo have a very special place and that is why we extended the 20 hours policy to include them. That is why the Education Review Office has developed a special review methodology to recognise their very special tikanga.