Rich Katherine: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Rich Katherine: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:7910] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 I am going to spend my 5 minutes talking about the issue of the day which is the Government’s pre-election promise and policy to offer all 3 and 4-year-old children in New Zealand 20 free hours of early childhood education. What might have sounded like a slick election slogan around the Labour Party campaign table has proved to be exceptionally complex for the present Government and what a shambles it has become. We have seen the Government slip and slide from a position where all 3 and 4-year-old children in teacher-led facilities were going to receive 20 hours’ free education to a position whereby the Minister says that around 92000 children might get it to his saying that up to 90000 children could get it—which could mean that 12 New Zealand children get it and he has met his own benchmark—to his saying that hopefully up to 92000 children will receive it. The Minister has stared down the barrel of camera after camera and made comments to parents along the lines of: “Well it is simple. You just go down to your local early childhood centre and say”: ‘I have a 3 or 4-year-old; I’m here for my 20 free hours.’ ” What he has failed to say is that many parents will go down to their local centre and say that they have a 3 or 4-year-old and they are there for their 20 free hours. Those parents will be told: “Sorry sunshine it’s not on offer because the Government has set a rate that means we have to compromise on the quality of our early childhood education provision and we’re not going to offer it.” 
The Government’s plan was initially targeted at community centres but in the last week or so we have seen that even the Auckland Kindergarten Association which oversees 107 kindergartens has said: “If we accept this deal our centres will be worse off.” There has been a collapse of a few brain synapses on the other side of the Chamber because Government members do not understand that if they offer a deal that makes centres worse off they will not be keen to accept it. Why would they accept an arrangement whereby they will get less money than they do now? It is basic common sense and it is basic governance. The Government has totally underestimated that centres take very seriously the quality of their early childhood education provision and they see that to take on and implement this policy is to seriously compromise quality. 
Government members will say that parents will pay for a few extras and they will give a few examples like museum trips and other bits and pieces and sundry costs but centres are saying something quite different. They are saying that if we accept this it will have an impact on the quality of the basic provision of early childhood education in this country. We have seen the number of weasel words surrounding this policy but pre-election most parents were left with the distinct impression from the Minister and the Prime Minister that every 3 or 4-year-old child in a teacher-led facility would have access to this policy but they will not. That is where a basic fraud is being played out on New Zealand parents. Pre-election the impression was that they would get that access. Parents will follow the advice of the Minister and turn up to their local centre and say they are there for their 20 free hours but they will not get access to it. 
Access to this policy and actually getting it are concepts that are worlds apart. It is not what was promised by this Government at all. That is why Kiwi mums and dads are rightly aggrieved. They were led to believe they would get 20 free hours but they will not get anything near that. 
We heard Trevor Mallard talk about it as being a discount. He said in the House: “Who wants to turn down a $92 discount?”. I think that was a lapse on the part of that Minister and it gave a clear indication that that is exactly what the Government was thinking it might be. It is nothing more than a subsidy. In fact the Minister himself has accepted that it is a subsidy so why do they not call it what it is? But calling it 20 free hours when the Government is not providing enough to cover the basic costs of early childhood education provision is just a fraud being played out on New Zealand parents. The Minister needs to take a call and explain exactly how many kids will get it.