Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Tēnā koutou e Te Wharenui. The Estimates debate is an important opportunity to talk about a portfolio that many of us in the room tonight think is critical—the most critical—so it is disturbing to see that the Budget this year put a freeze on the operations grant and opted for a funding model that is unproven and very very hard to understand. Schools have been saying to me: How do we know whether the targeting approach"—which sounds great because we know that there are great needs in our schools—"will actually work when the criteria are supposed to protect the family and the child from identification but are extremely specific criteria that we are not necessarily sure are the criteria required to identify need?". It is quite interesting from a social analysis approach—rather than an investment approach—whether those criteria are good. I could talk at length about that but actually there is a more important funding issue that I wish to talk about in terms of the Estimates. It was very very important today because for the first time in quite a long time the two largest teachers' organisations came out and soundly rejected it. They rejected this funding which is called the global funding budget when really it is bulk funding—cash up a teacher. If in doubt if you are running out of money cash up a teacher. It is not often that the two teachers' organisations actually get together and reject the Government with the same voice. Sometimes they reject the Government with different voices. Sometimes they agree with the Government or one of them does and one of them does not. But this time when the parents realise this is about bulk funding and the risk again of increasing class sizes they are going to be with the teachers' community and many of us who are concerned about this model. The reason there is so much disquiet too is that there was a funding advisory committee set up and I was told today by people from that committee that they never saw this proposal—they never saw it. They said it did not go to their committee and so they do not feel that this part of the funding review was run past them. There is no better way to annoy people than to have a negotiation or a consultation and then come up with a big surprise that actually leads to this kind of disquiet right across the education sector. It is not about jobs—it is not necessarily about anything like that—it is about whether children will benefit from bulk funding. That was tried before and it failed. Will children benefit from increased class sizes through this so-called global funding budget? No they will not and no one is convinced. So what has happened now is that the Government for reasons best known to itself has picked a fight with parents and teachers—just before the election—in a way that is foolhardy and unnecessary. We need to get a long-term plan for education that works for all our children. We do not need the privatisation model that says flexibility and choice is what is going to make everything work. The only guaranteed money the schools are going to get—absolutely guaranteed—is the money that will protect their property their assets. They cannot trade that off—good. But is that as important as protecting the need to keep staffing at certain levels? I can just hear the speech now: "It will all be about choice. The schools can decide. It'll be awesome." But actually that is not what the schools want. They want guaranteed protection for their child-teacher ratios. They want to know they have got the funding to do this properly and not have to have a trade-off between a school nurse that they might need or an extra couple of school support staff or new gymnasium equipment—anything. They do not want to trade that against class size. They do not want to trade that against "cash up a teacher". That is not what the schools want and that is not what parents want. I am sure we all remember what parents had to say to the National Government a few years ago when the National Government said that class size is irrelevant. Strangely enough the people who send their kids to private schools know very well that class size is relevant because small groups of people learn better than huge groups of people. Schools are not universities. You do not go there to hear a lecture; you go there—sorry not you Mr Chair—to engage and they engage better when the class size is smaller. So this is a great way for the Budget in this Estimates debate to alienate the very people you would think the Government wanted to be on side with on the funding review. The funding review was initiated for a good reason but it is not a good idea.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."