Tinetti Jan; Pugh MaureenHon JAN TINETTI (Labour): Very much like what's happening in the health system the education system is also suffering from this Budget. It's only just on an hour ago when I was talking to a parents' support group of young people with neurodiverse needs that they were practically crying on that Zoom call to me about the lack of support that they have seen in this Budget for them and their young people. In fact many of them on that call said to me that this Budget has nothing that will encourage inclusion in their young people's learning pathways. It was a real real shame and I felt such sadness for those people of the experiences that their young people are facing at the moment and them as parents as they're moving towards inclusion.One of the aspects that I think is absolutely criminal is the letting go of the people that have been supporting them and their young people towards an inclusive education pathway over the last few years. They talked about the work that had been done by the Ministry of Education and Whaikaha to build together towards that very much inclusive system—a system where we want to see young people in their mainstream classrooms where their teachers understand the needs of those young people where the support staff understand and are able to include those young people in every aspect of the schooling life and particularly where those young people feel valued and where they have success in their schooling.That work had been ongoing work that had come out of the Highest Needs Review and yet we know from speaking to the people that were at the Ministry of Education who were leading that work that those people have been let go. I got very—well non-answers last week from the Minister and the Ministry of Education about where that work is heading. In fact in this Budget when you look at target students as a whole there is $5 million less in this Budget than what there was in the last Budget for our target students. That does not sound to me like a Government that is committed to inclusion and in making certain that every young person in the schooling system in the education system will experience success.Also Madam Speaker I heard exactly the same in your home patch yesterday when I was in Hokitika and Greymouth. Principals said to me that they could see nothing in there that was for the young people that they are seeing constantly on a daily basis coming through the doors of their schools and they felt aggrieved that there was no support that was coming through that would help those young people be included within the schooling space but also to support the teachers with the professional development for those young people.Yet we hear constantly this stream that We're a Government that's committed to including all young people and to learning support." I'm calling on that—that is not right. When you're seeing that a Budget has $5 million less than what it had in the last Budget that is not a Government that is committed to learning support in this country.Then we see that there is no money for that but we have $153 million set aside for charter schools—privatisation by a slow drip. We hear this political distraction: "That will help those young people that don't fit into school." Well we're talking about a very small student population but we also know that there's already people that are lining up and companies lining up to put their interests forward in becoming part of those charter schools—companies that are already making money out of early childhood which isn't a slow drip of privatisation; it's a very fast drip of privatisation in this country. It scares me and so many other people that are very heavily involved in education that we would see this coming through into the compulsory sector as well.This is going to be the biggest undermining of a quality public education that we would ever see and it is something that I am very much committed to fighting for that quality public education system. How can anybody justify spending that amount of money on a very small number of young people who possibly would succeed in school anyway over those young people who are really struggling to be included in the schooling pathways?Then the speaker prior to me my colleague talked about the school lunches. I spoke to people in Dobson yesterday about the school lunches and how much of a difference it makes to their young people. Next year the year 7 and 8 in those schools are going to go without those lunches where the year 0 to 6s will continue on. That is not right. Those year 7 and 8s will be excluded from a programme that is making a huge difference to them at this point in time. It's gone from a lunch to a snack. This Budget is taking education backwards.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Members this debate is interrupted. We will suspend for the dinner break and resume at 7.30. Thank you.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."