Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): I thank the generosity of the Opposition for that. If I can perhaps work back through those questions I'll start with pay parity in early learning. Obviously when the Budget process has been put together I have been asking for as much funding as I can possibly get to get to pay parity as fast as we possibly can. In every Budget round I have not been able to get enough money to do that but we've continued to make progress. So what we actually offer to the sector after each Budget is very much dependent on the quantum of funding that we get. Next Budget I expect that there'll be another instalment of additional funding for pay parity and I hope we can make more progress there. It is quite a complex scenario that we're dealing with because every early learning service has a slightly different operating model and know that the data that central government holds on the different operating models of early learning services is patchy in places.Some of the bigger providers have been very good at supplying data. Some of the bigger providers have actually said that the funding rates that we are offering will be sufficient for them because they can manage more of the unders and overs as there will always be in a situation like this across their network whereas smaller providers including some of the community-based providers particularly if they employ a high proportion of experienced teachers will find that more difficult. That is one of the reasons that we are continuing to seek more data so that we can make sure that the forecasting and the modelling is as accurate as possible. It is a difficult area. We have not yet got it 100 percent right in any of the attempts that we've had to head towards parity. That is at least in part because we're not the employer and we don't have the information so we'll continue to work with the sector to try and get it as right as possible. But we always must recognise that ultimately these are private businesses and they'll make decisions about their operating models and the service that they provide to their families based on a whole variety of different factors—Government funding being one of those factors.There is another complicating factor in that the kindergarten and primary and secondary school teachers are shortly to be in bargaining and the settlement from that is likely to further complicate the parity picture again. We as a Government will be working to make sure that the parity gap doesn't increase as a result of that. So there will be further decisions to be taken around that at the appropriate time. Of course we can't take those decisions until we know what the effect of collective bargaining will be and of course that bargaining is nowhere near the point where we get that information.In terms of the NCEA I'd caution the member about using the phrase ghost credits" and other such phrases that could undermine the credibility of the qualification that young people are leaving our secondary schools with. The learning recognition credits that the Government has used as a result of the COVID-19 disruption is a very similar formula to that used by the National Government following the Christchurch earthquake to recognise the disruption to learning that young people experienced in that year. As the Opposition spokesperson for the then Labour Opposition at the time I was very careful in making sure that we were critiquing the decisions that the Government was taking but not in a way that was going to undermine the credibility of the qualifications of those students. But I think we need to take great care there. I have been very very mindful in making decisions about the awarding of learning recognition credits—and they are still learning recognition credits; they're not bonus credits or anything else. They recognise learning that has taken place. We've been very careful to make sure that we're preserving the credibility of the qualification.I am confident based on the advice that I have received that there is a difference between learning that has not taken place and learning that has taken place but has not been able to be assessed. I think that that is an important distinction to be made.In terms of the support that young people are getting out the other end of their NCEA there are a variety of supports available there. There are some young people who have not had the opportunity because of COVID-19 disruption to demonstrate what they can do and therefore attain their NCEA. We have a summer school programme that's supported by Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu the Correspondence School to make sure they have an opportunity to catch up over summer. We've made a change so that if they go back to school for a short period of time next year in order to complete their qualifications because they didn't get the opportunity to fully complete them this year they'll be able to be awarded their qualifications during the year so they won't have to wait for another full year before their qualifications are being awarded. So they'll be able to do that and of course they'll be supported to do that and resourced to do that if they want to go back to school say for one term or for however long it is they require to get that support.But in terms of the support provided by the universities as the member has indicated I'm confident that the universities are able to support young people where they need it to transition into university. In terms of Te Pūkenga—in fact any vocational education providers—that has been one of the key factors in the development of the unified funding system. It's been about making sure that we're recognising the needs of learners as well as the needs of providers. So there are three components to the unified funding system one of which is the learner component which is very much designed to ensure that institutions are resourced to provide learners the support that they need recognising that some learners will need more support than others."