Rich Katherine: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Rich Katherine: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10194] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 It is quite clear that the Government has already decided it will soon be in Opposition because most of the speeches I have heard have concentrated on National and on what will occur after 2008. It is clear that the members on the other side have already started to pack up their offices. They are concerning themselves not with what they will do and what was in the Budget and the estimates but with what National will do. With the sort of lemming-like confidence that the Labour Government is showing I will tell some of those members what we will not do in 2008. 
One of things National will not do is to pretend that the 20 free hours policy is free because it is not. It is a fraud. The Government members with some kind of Orwellian idea might think that the word “free” can mean a payment but on this side of the House we think the word “free” means free. Steve Maharey is standing up in the House day after day saying it will be OK to have a quality surcharge a payment for books in early childhood education centres a payment for music appreciation or a payment for any kind of service the centre will be offering in order to cover its day-to-day costs but we do not think it is OK. We think that is fraudulent. We think that the 20 free hours policy is not free no matter how many times the Minister might say it is. 
National also will not pretend that the standards of police are higher in the light of evidence that some of the recruits going through the police schools are needing help with their alphabet—needing help with one of the basics of the English language. The Prime Minister stood up in the House today and said that the standards are higher. She can continue to say that as much as she likes but the New Zealand public does not believe her in the light of reports from people who are actually involved in training police cadets. Those people say there are some serious problems when it comes to quality and some serious problems with some of the people we are letting into our police colleges. 
We will not pretend that the health system is getting better. We will not pretend that longer waiting times in accident and emergency departments and people dying while they are waiting for basic services is acceptable. Although we have spent more and more as a country we are getting less elective surgery than we did years ago. 
One of things members on this side of the House looked at when we looked at the estimates was what will change in education. In the light of some really problematic issues in education we were looking for something new something that would make a difference to Kiwi kids in our schools. Truancy is an issue that has concerned members on this side of the House for some time. Since 2002 the rate of truancy has risen by 41 percent under this Government and for young Maori women it has risen by over 60 percent. What was in the estimates to deal with the problem of truancy? There was nothing new. There was nothing in terms of any kind of thrust or initiative to make a difference to this growing tidal wave of a problem facing New Zealand schools where some 30000 New Zealand kids play hookey each week. 
We looked to see what changes might be made in the early childhood sector. The Government is still pushing the 20 free hours policy and pretending that “free” can mean a payment which is interesting in itself. We looked to see whether the Government would keep its promise. Members will remember that back in 2005 the Government said that all 3 and 4-year-old children would be eligible for this policy. But what we will see come 1 July is something totally different. The Minister will stand up and say that so many thousand kids are receiving it but he will also include the over 40000 kids who are already in kindergarten and already receive a free service of sorts. He will count those kids even though in many cases they are not receiving 20 hours at all. We will see a number of parents who are deeply angry about the failure of this Government to keep that promise. Many Kiwi parents saw that as a promise and many people voted as a result of that policy. It is certainly an example of how to spend $178 million and please absolutely no one. 
We also saw the slithery shape-shifting when it came to the discussion of ratios in New Zealand schools. The promise back in 2005 was very clear: by 2008 all junior classes would have no more than 15 students. When we looked at the Budget and looked at the expenditure that was analysed by the Education and Science Committee we saw that the Government had moved that ratio to 1:18 and pretended—or hoped I suppose—that nobody would notice. Certainly the education sector has noticed and when questioned specifically on this point Steve Maharey continues to say until he is blue in the face that there has been no change in policy. Well that is news to schools and it was certainly news to schools that this policy had not been costed as late as December 2006. It is just another example of this Government promising one thing and doing either the absolute opposite or not fulfilling those clearly communicated policies. 
One of the things we heard the previous speaker discuss was the supposed changes that have been made in the welfare sector. Well that Minister and his predecessors have been talking about the universal benefit ever since Labour came into Government. They have been announcing it re-announcing it launching it and holding functions but have we seen any progress? No. Year after year it is absolutely the same. 
We have seen some changes to scholarship. I find these changes quite entertaining because this is one area where the Government has made one of its new announcements but it is quite bizarre in my view. Parekura Horomia made the announcement that one of the momentous changes to scholarship was that students who have grown up with a certain language as their first language—for example they are native Mandarin speakers French speakers or German speakers; they are not studying a second language—will now be able to enter the scholarship exams and win monetary awards. The Minister argues that this is to create a level playing field for all students. 
I wonder how it can be that in an attempt to create a level playing field we are now letting students who have that language as their first language going head-to-head with Kiwi students to win those monetary awards. Those Kiwi students will have been learning Mandarin French German Spanish or whatever it might be as a second language and now they will get monstered by other students who have had that language as their first language. That was one of the strangest announcements I have heard for some time. 
The issue is that Government members have run out of ideas and that is evidenced by the fact that all their speeches have been about the National Party. Their speeches have not been about what they are doing or what their vision is for this country. If we look at the estimates we can see that there is nothing new particularly in the education area. There is nothing that will deal with the rising problem of truancy in our schools. There is nothing to deal with concerns about exams or the behaviour of certain students. 
Certainly there is more spending in the early childhood area but I do not think there is a single parent in the country who thinks that the 20 free hours policy is free. There is not a single parent who feels happy about handing over what are now compulsory payments for something they were receiving in the first place. Certainly there is not a parent who is happy about the dramatic change in the kindergarten movement. This Government has created a huge change to the kindergarten movement meaning that for the first time a movement that prided itself on being free is now charging fees. A service that prided itself on providing sessional education is now moving to sessional and long-term care and education. 
There is nothing here that provides a vision for this country. Those members have given up. That is why they are spending all their time talking about what National will do in 2008.