Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. It is my honour to rise and speak in support of the Education and Training (Grants—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. Unlike my friend across the room I have quite an optimistic and positive view of our education reforms in this country. I also have a positive view understanding the importance of pay parity—and sadly the examples that she gave do not make sense. Both of us come from the tertiary sector and both of us worked in organisations that did run early childhood centres. We also as leaders within those organisations acknowledge the balance sheet and the benefits commercially I guess that running early childhood education (ECE) centres in a wider tertiary organisation gave but we also were able within those institutions to pay people properly because we value education and we value our kaiako and our teachers within those organisations and we also see that within our kindergartens as well. But sadly there are small institutions early childhood centres that aren't receiving pay parity. The former member spoke before about not being able to see pay parity within this piece of legislation; well you wouldn't see the terminology of pay parity" within legislation. It is not a technical term; it is a colloquialism that you would use as a phrase or something like that. So let's just be clear about the intent of this particular bill that is going through the House for its third reading. It is a small but important clarification to the Education and Training Act 2020. I just want to respond to the history of our Minister because the history of this Minister is in fact educational reform. We saw that today in the presentation from Te Pūkenga. Sadly it hasn't worked out for the Southern Institute of Technology to my friend across the room but it has worked out in ensuring that learners in this country have appropriate pathways that they are able to have a consistent learning programme in front of them and that those options and resources are going to the right places in our sector. That is what is important. While other organisations key organisations might have best practice the importance of Government taking a role in leading education reform is very very important. And that's why this particular bill the Education and Training (Grants—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill is taking one step to doing that.We need to achieve pay parity and that is what this sets us up to do that as we invest an additional $170 million into ECE centres it is about ensuring that people are paid the way that we want them to be paid that no matter where you teach—whether it be in a kindergarten whether it be in kōhanga reo or whether it be in an early childhood centre—that everyone is on a good respectable wage that acknowledges the contribution that they make to our tamariki and our learners. That is what this bill starts to achieve.Pay parity: when we look at the previous Government for nine years there was no increase in early childhood education—nine long years—and with that we've got to pick up this mess. Again I acknowledge the history of this Minister to be able to reform this sector to take brave steps and to put moves in place to ensure that our learners and the people that teach them in our classrooms no matter what those classrooms are are respected through pay parity.So that is what we're doing and we are very very interested in consultation. We come from a whānau as the Labour Party where we like to hear from unions—yes. We want to hear from people on the ground from grassroots communities. As a good local MP in Northcote that I'm really proud of I've been out to speak to my early childhood education centres. As we build more and more houses in Northcote—2000-odd—we are seeing ECE centres pop up as well. I opened one last week in Beach Haven. It is fantastic to see people contributing to the growth of our community as we build houses as our North Shore community grows that we bring education community and whānau together.So I am very pleased with this bill very proud that we are making steps to achieving pay parity. It doesn't work in isolation; it is part of a history of an extremely effective Minister of Education that is prioritising learners and prioritising our teachers. I commend this bill to the House."