Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): I'll tell you what's a disgrace to the teachers: the fact that for nine years under National they wouldn't even front up and talk to them. I'll tell you what I am disappointed that teachers were protesting today but I fronted up and I spoke to them which is more than the National Party did for nine long years. The thing that has become abundantly clear over the last 48 hours is that the National Party's levels of desperation have reached absolutely new lows. There is nothing that they will not do to distract from their own internal problems. What were the most significant announcements National made yesterday? It was nothing to do with the Budget—oh no. It was the fact they have decided in their depth of despair that maybe it's not such a good idea to split themselves into multiple pieces after all. Now I can say we had some dark days in Opposition but never in our darkest days did we try and split our party up which was what Simon Bridges' strategy for reclaiming the Treasury benches was. That was the best that he could come up with. Even in our darkest days we didn't get that desperate but that's how desperate the National Party are. But anyway yesterday they decided We'll chuck that out there while no one is looking and see if we can get that through."Then there's this other inquiry that got released yesterday which didn't actually address the question that the inquiry was set up to address and they don't want to talk about that at all; so they sort of tossed that out there while no one was really paying attention. But actually the real issue from yesterday was the fact that the National Party no longer have any moral or ethical standing. Regardless of how they got information about the Budget—and there are serious questions to be answered there—the fact that the National Party thought that it was OK to go and release that information publicly suggests that they no longer have a moral or ethical compass. I think that says everything about the levels of desperation in the National Party. Now I've been on the receiving end of leaks in Opposition. Leaks happened under their Government as happens from time to time and actually one of the things that you have to look at when you get those leaks in Opposition is: what is it for—political advantage? And you can look at that too but you've actually sometimes got to think actually is this ethically right what we're doing here? There is a reason why Budget secrecy applies—there is actually a reason why Budget secrecy applies. It's so that people don't get pecuniary advantage from inside information and a whole lot of other reasons which the National Party chucked out of the window yesterday and said that their own political advantage was more important than all of those conventions that have been built for many years around the Budget.What I do want to do though is address some of the issues that were raised by those who were protesting on the forecourt of Parliament today because I do want to acknowledge that the issues and concerns that teachers have been raising not just in the last 18 months but in fact for the last 10 years are actually legitimate issues that do need to be addressed. The Government has been listening to what the teaching profession has raised and we didn't just start listening when we became the Government; in fact we spent a lot of time in Opposition listening to what they said and some of our first actions in Government dealt exactly to the concerns they'd been raising for a long time under National. I'm very proud that one of my first acts as Minister of Education was to abolish national standards. I am very proud to be the Minister of Education that abolished the charter school model that gave teachers back the right to elect representatives to the Teaching Council that gave the biggest increase in funding to learning support in over a decade—more funding for our most vulnerable kids. I am very proud to work alongside my colleague Tracey Martin on the learning support action plan that is making sure we are finally taking kids with additional learning needs seriously and actually giving them the support they deserve. I am very proud to be the first Minister of Education in a decade to provide across-the-board funding for early childhood education something the National Government did not do once—they did not do once in their time in Government. Yes we are dealing with the critical teacher shortages that we inherited from a Government that did not care. The $1.2 billion in pay offers for teachers worth more than all of the pay offers that they received under National put together—I am proud to be the Minister of Education putting my name to that. The NCEA review is under way; it's going to result in meaningful change. We are developing a workforce strategy. In the next few weeks we'll be announcing a growth plan that will actually get serious and put concrete measures in place to ensure that we're properly planning for population growth—something the last Government never did. Of course we've got the Tomorrow's Schools review to come. There is a lot to do. We are making progress and I don't underestimate that there is more to come."