Parata Hekia: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 09 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8771. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education):Ā tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā huri noa i tō tātou Whare tēnā tātou i te tīmatanga o tēnei tau hou. Ngā mihi nui ki a tātou katoa.[And so acknowledgments to you Mr Assistant Speaker and to those throughout our House at the beginning of this New Year.]Our country is in pretty good shape. It is a country that we can be proud of it is a society that is inclusive and it is an economy that is strong and growing. It is being led by a Prime Minister with a Government that respects understands and supports New Zealanders in all facets of life. It is a Government that has an agenda that is comprehensive both in terms of its social agenda as well as its economic agenda. It sees that the role of the Government is to provide opportunities for all New Zealanders of whatever age stripe or regional location to take advantage of a better life and pathways forward for themselves.It is a Government that taking that agenda understands what practically has to occur. That includes for instance as my colleague Steven Joyce said so persuasively earlier in the Chamber signing up to trade agreements recognising that we are a small country a long way away from our markets and that we trade to do well and to provide the quality of life that we want for ourselves. So joining this trade partnership is something that I stand squarely behind.Like him I have been thinking over the weekend: “What is it that is being protested against and most particularly by Māori who came out on the streets to demonstrate their opposition?”. I absolutely support their right—everyone’s right—in an open democracy to be opposed or to take a point of view and to express that point of view. But here is the thing: if we want to enjoy a quality of life whatever that is—as Māori Pākehā Asian New Zealanders whether we came to this country last week last century or whenever and however we came here we want the best possible opportunities for them.That means having the skills and qualifications to be able to participate having the kinds of homes and families that support that participation seeing the opportunity of jobs and building businesses so that they are free to make choices for themselves. This Government on this side of the House does not proclaim to itself the right to make those decisions for New Zealanders but rather to create an environment in which New Zealanders can exercise those rights and choices.For me as Minister of Education I see my job as a very simple one—not an easy one but a very simple one—which is to ensure that we get the participation at early childhood which sets up our youngest learners to participate and be successful in their compulsory education which allows them to then go on to tertiary choices whether that is to university whether that is to polytech whether that is to participate in some kind of workplace internship or whether that is to go into employment.So I have been surprised to sit here and listen to the nonsense that the member who spoke before me Chris Hipkins spouted about what it is we are doing in the education system in New Zealand. For a start we have the highest participation in early childhood education we have ever had and what is more we have been a Government prepared to put itself publicly on the line and say that 98 percent of all new entrants should have participated in early childhood education before they go to school. And where are we now? We are at 96.1 percent. That means that we have got to get at least another 2500 under-5s into early childhood education. Where are Māori at? They are at 94 percent the highest ever early childhood education participation.And has the Government shirked on that responsibility or cut costs there? Listening to the Opposition you would think so but in fact early childhood education now accounts for $1.6 billion of Vote Education which is a 75 percent increase in the 7 years we have been in Government. That is significant. It is not a cut but if you listen to the Opposition you would think that which shows how important it is to have national standards so that everyone can learn to count add and subtract and to know the difference between an increase and a decrease.In schooling we now have more kids being successful. Look we do not want them to arrive at Year 12 after they have had 12 years of education and discover that these young people do not have the skills to participate in a 21st century economy. We have invested significantly to ensure that all young New Zealanders get our minimum qualification of National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2. And what is the record there? Well at the end of 2014—the 2015 results are not yet available—we are at just over 81 percent heading towards our target of 85 percent. That means that 6500 more young New Zealanders have our minimum qualification than when we came into Government and a good number of those are Māori and Pasifika.When we came into Government Māori—the previous Government that according to the previous member was so caring about education it was prepared to preside over a system that saw Māori languish at 43 percent and Pasifika at 51 percent. What does that mean in real terms? In real terms it means that 13000 Māori 16 to 18-year-olds had the opportunity to sit and pass NCEA. When we came into Government 6000 were achieving NCEA—fewer than half.At the end of 2014 we are now up at just over 9000. That is 3000 more that is a 50 percent lift and it is because this system with its teachers and principals has focused on everyone succeeding. The only thing that has changed is expectation an expectation that this Government has been emphatic and relentless about. The schools have not changed. The teachers and principals by and large have not changed. The curriculum has not changed. The Education Review Office’s review has not changed substantially. What has changed is this Government’s relentless expectation that every young person will get the best education possible and will leave with skills and qualifications that allow them to participate.There is not one pathway; there are several. It is this Government that introduced the possibility of alternative pathways of vocational pathways of building skills. This Government introduced trades and services academies that recognised that not all young people go to university. Those who want to go to university we do support them and I speak absolutely in favour of student loans.I come from a family of 10. I come from a family where with student loans had they been around we would have seen more participate in tertiary education. What our student loan programme offers is the possibility for everyone and what the compulsory schooling system offers is the possibility that almost every young person will have the qualification to make the choice of which pathway they go on.Our Government has not done this in isolation. We have also invested in a social programme of extending paid parental leave of extending visits to GPs to 13-year-olds of helping those families living in the most hardship by increasing the benefit from 1 April. We have decreased ACC levies we have done a whole range of things including providing breakfasts at no cost—not free but at no cost to schools—to any school that wishes to take them up. So this Government has made very practical investments in all of the policy intentions that we have placed before New Zealanders and we are seeing them work.We are seeing more young Kiwi families get into their first homes through the HomeStart programme. We are seeing more young New Zealanders being immunised through a comprehensive approach to health. These are not in isolation from our investment in economic development. I had the pleasure of being in Northland last week at the launch of the action plan for Northland a place that is a cornucopia of opportunity with the right levels of investment. My colleagues Minister Joyce Minister Guy and Minister Flavell have invested considerable time in identifying what specifically needs to be invested in in order to realise that potential in order to grow that regional economy in order to provide more jobs for young people.Only one example that I can give of many was attending the Northland College launch of a mānuka plantation and the opportunity for the kids at that college as well as long-term unemployed to have the opportunity not only to plant mānuka but also to see the science of mānuka and why it is that that flower produces natural antibacterial properties that in turn infuse our mānuka honey which in turn gets harvested and sold overseas at a far higher level than would be the case here in order that it can come back and help invest in the roads and the bridges and the plant that is necessary to grow the economy.The kids at Northland College recognise and more and more understand how getting a great education translates into a possibility of jobs and why it is we want the markets that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement along with China and Korea will open up for them. They see themselves as participants now under this Government not as victims or as casualties but—