Macindoe Tim: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19101. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West):It is great to follow on from my very energetic colleague Maggie Barry the member for North Shore and to pick up on her very positive tone. When listening to some of the members opposite you would think that everything is wrong in education but in fact that is not my experience at all. Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Melville Primary School in my electorate. I think that it is just such a bustling happy and positive environment. There is a great principal there dedicated staff and young people who are all focused on what they need to do and taking advantage of the opportunities they are given.Just before I talk about some of the specific aspects of the education estimates I want to draw attention to a very good presentation that was given in the Grand Hall during the dinner adjournment which I suppose crosses over both the justice and the education sectors. But there is no question that education now is a highly IT-dominated activity. Young children now are incredibly computer-literate and of course there is that great maxim now that whenever people of our age get stuck you need to look for a 21st century kid in order to help you sort things out. But the reason I want to draw attention to that particular exercise that we had this evening is that it was all about cyber-safety and knowing how to use the internet and all the online options safely. A document that has been put out called Staying Safe Online is one that I would strongly commend to all parents and to children who are old enough to be able to make sense of it. It contains a whole lot of tips good practical stuff on how to use the internet safely. Of course that is something that is very important in our schools now.I am sure we are all aware of the fact that some young people have got themselves into incredible difficulty and at times very distressing circumstances when they have misused the internet. This is a document that has been produced by NetSafe in collaboration with Facebook YouTube Google Microsoft Yahoo! New Zealand and TradeMe. If there are parents who are watching who would like to know how to get it I am sure that if you go to the NetSafe website which is www.netsafe.org.nz you will get it from there. It does contain as I say a lot of information that is highly valuable. I want to thank all the presenters tonight for being here in Parliament to educate MPs and others who were present on this rapidly evolving aspect of our lives.When listening to some of the members opposite you would think that education was chronically underfunded and that everything was going wrong. Let me just point out to those who are listening that in the next financial year $10.1 billion is allocated to Vote Education. We have as a Government progressively increased the investment right across the board and tied to that significant increases in our expectations of educational outcomes. I want to acknowledge all of those who are working in the education sector for the significant achievements that they are getting.I was particularly disappointed to hear Mr Hipkins trying to argue that somehow this Government has cut funding for early childhood education. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact in the last election campaign I remember going to meetings with a chart showing the huge increase in our investment in early childhood education over the years of this National Government. I am very proud of that and I am particularly proud that tied to the increase in funding was a particular challenge to raise engagement by Māori and Pasifika families because they were traditionally the families who were the most likely to be not engaged in early childhood education.We all know that those who have a good experience in those pre - primary school days and who are ready to learn hit school running and take off whereas the children who arrive at school having not had that basic education are at a disadvantage from the outset. All the statistics tell us that they are likely to fall further and further behind. I want to commend all those who are working in the early childhood sector for the incredible successes that they are having at the moment where we are seeing Māori and Pasifika levels of achievement and engagement in early childhood education at record levels and pretty much up there now with European Asian and other population groups. That has to be good for every one of us.At the other end of the scale another initiative that I am really excited about is the Youth Guarantee scheme. Youth Guarantee is seeing a large number of young people—teenagers who are 16 17 and now even 18 and 19-year-olds—who have previously fallen out of the education system gone through the cracks and have often been truants or engaged in activities outside school that are unsatisfactory. Now they are getting ahead with Youth Guarantee. It is a system that is working tremendously and it is seeing again a huge increase in opportunities for young people.Vote agreed to.