Tinetti JanJAN TINETTI (Labour): I'm delighted to stand here in support of our 2018 Budget. Budget 2018 marks the territory for a fairer society and that's a really exciting place to be in. We are moving to get our public services back on track. One of those services of course that I am so passionate about is our education which has been severely underfunded and under-supported for quite some time including a funding freeze in early childhood education (ECE) because of the focus in the previous regime on quantity not quality; a low morale and burn-out causing a teacher supply crisis; underfunded growth leading to overcrowded classrooms—the list goes on. But I don't want to concentrate on the negative because what I see is a way forward. I see hope and I see light because this Budget sees the biggest increase in education in over a decade. A former colleague of mine the principal of Greerton Village School said to me recently I'm really encouraged by this Budget—certainly steps in the right direction but it's going to take a long time to undo the wreckage of the last nine years."Let's start with ECE—we've heard that mentioned in the House tonight. We here recognise that quality is important. It's not just about quantity; it is quality and that is why Budget 2018 delivers the first universal cost adjustment for early learning since 2008. It is a terrible indictment on the former Government that they did not make an increase to those centres in 10 years—10 years those centres had to struggle through. We have done that. We have made that universal increase adjustment. That impacts on over 4000 providers. How exciting to see that start and just take that into account—it is a start.Learning support: this was the area actually that I found as a former educator the most exciting part of the education budget. I cannot remember when we have had such a big investment into learning support. Every single one of my colleagues will tell you that they have had to rearrange the operational grant over many many years just to support our children with learning support needs. That has been a really difficult time in the education sector.There's $21.5 million going into the early intervention services—again I cannot remember when they last had such an increase into those services. That means so much for those children. This is what it means: I had children that would come to my school at five who were identified as 3-year-olds as needing learning support who didn't get it until six weeks before they started school. This enables those children to get the supports that they need in the time that they need it.Ongoing resourcing scheme (ORS) funding increasing—so many times I hear my former colleagues and the teachers and the teacher-aides saying "If only that child could get access to the ORS funding" and it was not able to happen because it had been completely capped and the money wasn't going into that area. There's a thousand more children that we are going to see have access to that meaning that they will get experts a speech-language therapist physiotherapist psychologist teacher-aides—the support that they need when they need it. That is really exciting and that is true inclusive education.One that hasn't been talked about a lot—and this is one that I am incredibly excited about—is an increase to the very much-capped Intensive Wraparound Service. This is to support the children or the learners in our school with the severest behaviour needs. How often have we heard over the years of children with severe behaviour needs causing the biggest issues because the support hasn't been there for them? So it is great to see that in this Budget we are going to be supporting those particular children by putting an increase into the Intensive Wraparound Service.Finally I want to talk about the great investments we are making into supporting Māori students and strengthening Te Reo. I am really excited to see that we are looking to restore support to allow our Māori learners to learn as Māori in English-medium settings. That is great because we are supporting identity and it's brilliant.The increased overall investments to our vulnerable are great but we acknowledge there's more to do and we commend this Budget to the House."