7. Question No. 7—EducationHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 7—Education7. Hon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of Education: Is he confident that the Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa will settle the primary teachers' and principals' collective agreements in the coming weeks to prevent further strikes and industrial action?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): No. The most recent offer amounted to almost $700 million over four years with an average increase of around $10000 after 24 months for the vast majority of teachers. The Employment Relations Authority described the offer as handsome and competitive" and the NZEI claims as "unrealistic". The Government remains available to negotiate and to discuss other ways of doing things within the current financial envelope. We are committed to addressing the issues that the teaching profession has been raising for some time but there is a limit to what we can do all at once.Hon Nikki Kaye: Is he completely ruling out increasing the Government's funding envelope for primary teachers; and if not how does he expect to break the stalemate?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes $700 million is worth more than all of the settlements reached under the previous Government put together.Hon Nikki Kaye: Why won't he reduce teacher ratios and provide the further additional learning support that he promised in Opposition; or is he just a lion in Opposition and a mouse in Government?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: This Government—SPEAKER: Order! Order! No—the member will resume his seat. That question's ruled out.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I should be allowed to answer the first part of the question otherwise it becomes a very one-sided exchange.SPEAKER: OK.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: This Government has already spent half a billion dollars extra on learning support; so I utterly reject the premise of the member's question. This Government is delivering where the National Government chose many many other things to prioritise well ahead of teachers and kids.Hon Nikki Kaye: Is he saying to parents and students who are facing a third round of strikes that the ministry won't settle because he refuses to shift on further additional funding for learning needs workload and recruitment issues?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No.Jo Luxton: What are the pay increases currently on offer as part of the negotiations?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: For around 30000 primary school teachers they would receive three lots of 3 percent pay increases plus an additional higher salary step for those on the top of the salary scale which is the vast majority of primary school teachers which amounts to an additional 3 percent—so around 12 percent overall. The teachers have also been given the choice between bringing forward the timing of some of those pay increases and having additional classroom release time—an extra 10 hours of classroom release time.Hon Nikki Kaye: When the Prime Minister said there is no more money for primary teachers does he agree this is because the Government has spent $2.8 billion on fees free $45 million on education reviews $3 billion on Shane Jones' provincial fund $1.5 million on a justice—SPEAKER: OK—OK. That's enough.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No I don't. The Government spent about $1.3 billion on fees free and the current offer to primary and secondary school teachers to put that into context is worth about $1.2 billion."