Awatere Huata Donna: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Awatere Huata Donna: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 16 June 2004. Volume:618;Page:13689. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DONNA AWATERE HUATA (Independent) 
: 
 I initially thought that this Budget lacked vision but I was wrong. It has a vision and I would say it is a grim vision. I would call this Budget a “grim reaper’s Budget” because it is based on the most miserable view of human nature—that is that ordinary people cannot make up their own minds and need bureaucrats and politicians to spend their money for them. It is a disappointing Budget because at the end of the day all it does is sprinkle lollies around. But someone has to pay for it—someone has paid for it. I think what the Budget essentially does is spread its miserable view of human nature. It takes money from hard-working New Zealanders and just sprinkles it around. As the previous speaker said it turns hard-working New Zealanders into welfare recipients. That is its tragedy. 
I have to disagree with several of the Maori members on the other side of the House who called this a great Budget for Maori. When I look at what is happening in education I certainly cannot agree with that statement but I will have to contradict myself in a minute because I want to pick out one of the best and one of the worst spends in this Budget which are in education. 
The $17 million increase given to the Education Review Office has to be one of the best spends—small though it might be—in this Budget. I think the Education Review Office shows what can be achieved when an organisation has excellent management. It was set up by a visionary leader in a way that has achieved excellent outcomes and that excellence has continued with the current leadership. I think that what the office has achieved in its ability to turn out high quality reviews setting guidance for schools and in its ability to work under pressure and achieve at the rate it has in early childhood education—there were 1300 reviews in the last year—is extraordinary given the budget it has. The Education Review Office has almost reached the target of having every early childhood centre and every primary and secondary school reviewed within a 3-year cycle. The time frame in which it has been able to achieve that is I think nothing short of a miracle. I have to take my hat off to it for the fact that it is now venturing into this whole new idea of doing national reports on a cycle and that it will achieve that in the next 3 years. So I believe that that extra $17 million the Education Review Office is getting is one of the best things in the Budget. 
I also want to support the Government—having said that the Budget is a grim reaper’s Budget—in the idea that it will give more money to the early childhood education sector. If there is one sector in education that has never really been given the support it needs it is early childhood education. Not just under Labour but also under National when it was in office early childhood education was always the poor relation and all the money seemed to go into tertiary primary and secondary education. That is still happening but at least this Budget is a nod in the direction of early childhood education and I support that. 
However where the Government has gone completely awry is in supporting community education and in not giving the kind of support needed to private education. At the end of the day it is private education providers that are in those areas where there are no kindergartens. 
Jill Pettis 
: But we have. 
DONNA AWATERE HUATA 
: I say to the member opposite that in Flaxmere one of the poorest areas in this country there is one kindergarten. There are a few community educators but most of them are private educators. 
The area that has fared worst in the Budget is I have to say the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). An extra $17.8 million has been given to the NCEA. I cannot agree with that. NCEA is a complete shambles and if anything the events that have occurred at Cambridge High School are simply a metaphor for what is happening in other parts of the sector. I cannot believe that moderation can be as bad as it is. Even with school relationship managers appointed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority going around crawling through schools the shambolic situation was not picked up whereby a unit standard could be passed in 10 minutes and 35 unit standards could be gained in 3 hours. That is completely shambolic. Shame on this Government!