Yang JianJIAN YANG (Chairperson of the Education and Science Committee): Education is a huge responsibility for any Government. In New Zealand we have almost 3000 schools with close to 1 million students from early childhood education to primary and secondary education. We also have over 400000 tertiary students. These people are the future of New Zealand; for that reason we pay special attention to education. The National-led Government has invested heavily in education since it came to Government in 2008. For example in 2011 we spent 22 percent of all public expenditure on education—the highest percentage in the OECD in that year. In 2016-17 the appropriation for Vote Education has increased by 2.4 percent to over $11 billion. This is yet another record and Budget 2016 uses the social investment approach to direct an extra $43.2 million for operating funding over 4 years to schools educating about 150000 students most at risk of educational failure. Most schools will receive a funding increase as a result of this new social investment funding approach. I would also like to highlight the Investing in Educational Success initiative. At its heart are communities of learning which are groups of schools and other providers that come together to raise achievement for children and young people. At the moment about 120 communities of learning have now been formed involving about 1000 schools teaching more than 320000 students. These communities will receive additional funding to enable teachers and principals to share teaching and leadership expertise. Now we come to special-needs students. Budget 2016 delivers yet another $42.1 million over the next 4 years for students with high and special educational needs. Additional funding for these students has increased 29 percent since 2009. Then we come to digital education and just as Minister Parata has said digital fluency is the universal language of the 21st century. To be successful and get the jobs they want Kiwi kids will need to be confident using a broad range of digital technologies in a variety of settings. That is exactly the future. Just yesterday I visited St Joseph's School in Queenstown along with my colleague local MP Todd Barclay. Firstly we went to a year 8 classroom and we saw that every kid was using a laptop tablet or iPad doing all sorts of designs like jerseys and stadiums and they were very creative. Then we went to a year 2 classroom and to our surprise we also saw these little kids using laptops iPads and tablets and doing all sorts of digital stuff including doing mathematics. So these kids are well-equipped for our future. In terms of property Budget 2016 provides $882.5 million for school properties. This is a huge investment across New Zealand to ensure communities have better facilities for students and teachers and also the classrooms and schools needed to meet the growing population. By mid-2017 we will have invested almost $5 billion in school property since we came into Government. All this shows that we are committed to providing the best education we can in innovative stimulating and safe school environments. Tertiary education—that was my background of course. We are continuing to invest in tertiary education particularly in science and engineering areas. The availability of highly skilled people is crucially important to meeting the aims of the Business Growth Agenda and encouraging competitive businesses to invest and grow. Thank you.