Tinetti JanJAN TINETTI (Labour): We've heard so much over recent weeks and certainly here in the House over the past couple of days about the challenge that we have all faced over the past few weeks. The first part of 2020 has been very difficult for many sectors and many New Zealanders.Part of one of the sectors that it has been very difficult for has of course been the education sector something that as you know Madam Speaker I am incredibly passionate about. But I have to say over the past few weeks I have never been as proud of the education sector as I have become over that time. The responsiveness the nimbleness of the sector the passion of the educators to make a difference for their children has never been more evident than what we have seen since the beginning of the lockdown period. Educators across the country are putting their hand up to say We want to be an integral part of the recovery. We know our job. We are willing to do it. We are going to stand up and be strong." And that's why I'm so pleased in the unprecedented investments that this Budget has made into the education sector.I want to briefly talk about the investment into the early childhood sector something that I was absolutely just so so pleased with. This is a sector that has been placed under significant strain. In fact I'm not going to just say "strain"; this is a sector that has been haemorrhaging—haemorrhaging greatly—because of over a decade of underfunding from the previous Government. It has been a tough tough tough time for this sector and so to see the priority given in this Budget to the early childhood sector was just fabulous particularly into the actual workforce within that sector. The workforce as I say have struggled and many with the same qualifications that I hold who haven't been paid much more than minimum wage for quite some time because of the lack of funding that has sat traditionally within there.So we had the announcements of the pay jolt for the lowest paid of those teachers—a great first step towards pay parity an announcement of 9.6 percent to the lowest-paid qualified teachers in the early childhood sector. But the one that I got the most feedback the really exciting exciting announcement was that Budget 2020 provided $278.2 million to restore the 100 percent funding band for teacher-led early childhood education (ECE) services. We did used to have that but unfortunately the previous Government saw that as something that they could get rid of in 2010. At the time early childhood teachers felt that they were being undervalued by that Government. This announcement in this Budget is paving the way for a fully qualified early learning workforce. And why shouldn't our children be having fully qualified teachers in front of them? Our children and our future in this country are the winners out of this announcement.I really just want to take this time to read out one piece of feedback that—I got many pieces of feedback I should say but there was just this one piece from a teacher who I felt quite worried about over the years because of how she didn't want to stay within the profession because she felt like she wasn't being valued. This is what she said: "Just wanted to say a huge thankyou to you and the Government to really see the value of ECE. I actually broke down in tears in this announcement. I've had some horrible stories from myself and other teachers who have been treated poorly for quite some time but with this announcement it just made me drop to my knees and say 'Thank you.' Finally my skills my knowledge and my qualifications are being valued. I can't thank you enough." I was delighted to hear those comments from her and really really proud that we are doing something about a sector that is so critical for all our children.I will say that in a meeting that I had last week with Post Primary Teachers' Association the union that represents our secondary teaching workforce they also said that this was an absolutely fabulous fabulous announcement because not only are the teachers in their sector important; the teachers in the primary sector are important but the foundational skills that those young people get in the early childhood sector actually set those children up for life. So it was a fabulous fabulous announcement to be made.We also had a fantastic announcement in the early childhood sector about Māori education around kōhanga reo—again unprecedented investment into that particular sector. We've also had wonderful announcements around school lunches and really expanding that pilot from 21000 children to 200000. That is a magnificent investment and that programme one that I personally know the benefit of will make a big big difference to our young people and to our communities. And then of course the restoration of night classes. This Government is absolutely committed to the place and role of education in supporting our recovery and our rebuild."