Moroney Sue: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Moroney Sue: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2449] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 Financial reviews are fascinating processes because they require the select committee to take a helicopter view of what is going on in that particular portfolio. I need to inform the Minister in the chair Anne Tolley that when one is invited to take a helicopter view of the sector or advised that that would be a good idea it is not an invitation to hop in a helicopter and fly over buildings in order to look at them from the top; it is actually an invitation to look at the big picture and take a broad-brush view of what is happening in the sector. It is not an invitation for the Minister to take a helicopter ride. 
When one takes a proper helicopter view of the education sector it is difficult to take that helicopter view without realising the absolute importance of the early childhood education sector in the whole education process. I want to focus on that point because under Labour huge momentum was gained in the early childhood education sector. It came from being a very low-status sector to being one that was very highly valued by a Labour Government because Labour understood the importance of getting it right from an early age. We understood that if we invested in quality educational services very early on in people’s lives we would get better outcomes with in fact fewer resources as those people aged. 
The importance of the early childhood education sector gained hugely in status under the previous Labour Government. The 20 free hours policy that Labour put forward increased participation in early childhood education. In fact we heard in the financial review that the increase in participation was so high that it was larger than what the Ministry of Education had budgeted for. It had budgeted for a smaller number of 3 and 4-year-old children taking up the 20 free hours’ early childhood education. I know that was really disappointing for the incoming Government because National had campaigned long and hard to try to make sure that first of all providers did not buy into the 20 free hours concept and then it tried to convince families that they did not need it. So I know that National was very disappointed about the high uptake and the subsequent increase in participation in quality early childhood education for 3 and 4-year-olds. However despite National’s best efforts not only was it a success but also it was a raging success so much so that it outstripped the budget that the ministry had put aside in the financial year we are reviewing. 
But there was not only the 20 free hours policy there was also Labour’s policy to ensure that all staff in the early childhood sector would be qualified and registered teachers by the year 2012. That policy seems to have gone out the window. Pay parity also made a big difference in this sector because it acknowledged for the very first time in our history that the pay for teaching should not depend on the age of the child being taught. In fact some would argue that because it is so important that we get it right very early on we should be valuing more highly our early childhood education teachers. 
Under Labour this sector became very used to being highly engaged with Government planning. But no longer. Under the new Government the sector is completely unsure of the direction of the new Government in this regard because the sector has had no signs there has been no discussion and it has had no involvement in the future direction. I even found this in the Minister’s own electorate. It would not be that hard to go down the road and engage with the early childhood education providers in Gisborne but the Minister does not appear to have done even that. 
What has happened under the new Government? The first thing is that the funding for the nine new early childhood education centres in South Auckland that had been put aside by Labour has been put on hold by this Government. The Minister said she wants to increase participation in early childhood education and the first thing she did was to put on hold nine new centres for South Auckland the very area that is most in need in regard to increasing participation in early childhood education. 
What is another action that the Minister has taken? She has completely scrapped the improved staff ratios that were due to come into being on 1 July for children aged over 2. On 1 July this year improved staff ratios were on their way but the incoming Government has scrapped them. We questioned the ministry about the importance of having improved staff ratios in quality early childhood education. It said that there is no doubt that there is a very strong link between the quality of the education and the number of staff per child.