Smith Lockwood: Education (Disestablishment of Early Childhood Development Board) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Smith Lockwood: Education (Disestablishment of Early Childhood Development Board) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12136] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 In speaking to Part 1 of the Education (Disestablishment of Early Childhood Development Board) Amendment Bill I want to argue that the purpose as spelt out in clause 3 hides the real purpose of the bill. What is stated in this bill is not the real purpose at all. The real purpose of the bill is the building of the Ministry of Education bureaucratic empire. There is absolutely no question as to what has been going on in the Ministry of Education and in education since the Labour Government took office. I did a little bit of research. I was Minister of Education for 6 years and put a lot of effort into— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: 6 years or 5 years? 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: It was almost 6 years. I put a lot of effort into taking money out of the central bureaucracy of education to enable it to be put into the actual providers—the early childhood centres the schools the tertiary institutions. I want to share with the Committee what has happened since. In 1996 after I had been Minister of Education for almost 6 years there were 482 employees in the Ministry of Education. My colleagues my successors the Hon Wyatt Creech and the Hon Nick Smith might have been kinder than me because when National left office in 1999 the numbers had climbed from 482 to 581. So there were 100 more employees in the Ministry of Education by the end of the 1990s. As of last year there were 1849 employees. When I was last Minister of Education there were 482 employees in the ministry and the number has risen to 1849 employees. That is damn near a fourfold increase in the number of employees in the Ministry of Education. If that is not empire building I do not know what is. If the Hon Trevor Mallard can sit there and say the Ministry of Education is not building a huge bureaucratic empire how come the number of employees has risen from 482 in 1996 to 1849 last year? 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Because Specialist Education Services has come into it. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Admittedly Specialist Education Services has come into it but it is all part of the expansion of the empire. If we look at what has happened in education over the years which sectors do we find have been successful? The early childhood sector has been hugely successful. We have expanded the number of children in early childhood centres. We have seen an explosion in opportunity in that area. And tens of thousands more New Zealanders now benefit from a tertiary education. Those two sectors were not under the control of the Ministry of Education bureaucracy. There was a freedom in those sectors. The least successful sector the schooling sector was more tightly under the control of the Ministry of Education. It has been the least successful in adapting to the modern world. In the last 10 years we have seen far more innovation in the early childhood sector and the tertiary sector. It is the schooling sector that has lagged behind. 
Part 1 which states that the purpose of the bill is to disestablish the Early Childhood Development Board just adds to the empire of the Ministry of Education. Those figures are staggering. In 1996 there were 482 employees in the Ministry of Education and in 2003 there were 1849 employees. No wonder there is less unemployment in New Zealand right at the moment! I suspect that the Government bureaucracy has had by far the biggest percentage increase in employment in the last 4 years in New Zealand—a far bigger percentage than the private sector. I think the purpose of the bill should be spelt out more honestly. The purpose quite clearly is to build the Ministry of Education bureaucratic empire so that this Labour Government can have more control over the entire education sector and particularly the early childhood education sector because it does not like private providers. This Labour Government does not like private tertiary providers. It does not like private early childhood education providers. It has already given more funding to kindergartens. There is absolutely no justification for it. It is pure prejudice. This Government has already advantaged the Government sector through extra funding of kindergartens. We will see more of that as the ministry will control the whole lot.