Tisch Lindsay; Yang JianEducation SectorThe CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Members we now move to the votes in the education sector. The question is that Vote Education Vote Education Review Office and Vote Tertiary Education stand part of the schedules.Dr JIAN YANG (Chairperson of the Education and Science Committee): I rise to support the Appropriation (2017/18 Estimates) Bill. The National-led Government has been relentlessly focusing on delivering better public services and enhancing students' participation and achievement has been one of the key priorities. We are making every effort to make sure that our education system is able to cater to the individual needs of our children. We have continually increased the funding of education and also we have seen a continual increase in our students achieving higher qualifications.Budget 2017 has delivered the largest injection of new money into our education sector since the Government took office in 2008 with an additional $1.1 billion of new operational funding over the next 4 years. So this brings our total funding for education to $11.6 billion which is a new record.More specifically early childhood providers will receive an additional $386 million over the next 4 years and this investment will enable us to create 31000 new places for early learning. This means that more children will be able to get better early learning and also for the very first time targeted funding to support children at risk of not achieving is being extended to early learning with $35.5 million of new money for early childhood education.Early childhood education is particularly important for us because the early childhood years are vital to children's future development and for their capability to learn in the future. This Government intends to provide the strongest start for our children in their early life to as many children as possible. This is very important because we believe it is important to give our children the strongest start in life so that they will be able to succeed in the future. All children are now starting school better prepared to learn and leaving school better educated and qualified and better prepared for work or for higher education.Education is always closely related to the economy. This is because education or a better educated workforce is crucial to a growing economy. Also in New Zealand's case education is a very important export industry. As a matter of fact international education is the fourth-largest export industry in New Zealand. It contributes $4.5 billion each year with 30000 jobs. This Budget will invest $1.7 million each year into international education—an additional $1.7 million—particularly for Education New Zealand to make sure that Education New Zealand can support and strengthen the sustainability of international education.We can also look at international education from a different perspective. It is not just in dollar terms. It is also because all international students once they return to their home countries can be ambassadors for New Zealand. That is not calculated just in terms of dollars but also in terms of reputation and New Zealand's image internationally. So it is very important for us to continue to focus on and invest in international education.But I emphasise this Government also wants to modernise our education system and also the content of our education. For that reason recently this Government made an announcement that it is to make the biggest change to our school curriculum in 10 years. That change is to make sure all young New Zealanders are digitally fluent. That is important because in today's world if you are not digitally fluent you will not be able to compete. So it is a very competitive global and digital world.