Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): It is an exciting time to be part of this Government. It is an exciting time for New Zealand right now as this Government moves into delivering its ninth Budget and of course building on the fact that we have had some very exciting pre-Budget announcements. Why can we do that? We can do that because this is a Government that has brought about a growing economy—growing at over 3 percent. We have continued to diversify our economy create jobs and build on our free-trade agreements building on our partnerships with the rest of the world so that we can trade sell our goods and services and create jobs and wealth for our New Zealand families.With our accounts in surplus it means we are as a country more resilient and that gives us choices. As I said this means it is a very exciting time for New Zealand and very exciting for us to continue to develop our social investment programme and invest in all New Zealanders including our youth and our young people. As a mother in the Government and having two children I find this extremely important. When we have children we must invest in them because they are going to be our future leaders they are going to be the ones who continue to lead our country forward to greatness and make sure that this is an environment where all New Zealanders can thrive and achieve their dreams.I am particularly pleased with one of the pre-Budget announcements which is $40.7 million over 4 years to be invested into our education system targeted at a cohort of young people who are at risk. So $34.7 million of this $40 million package will be invested in children with behavioural issues. We know that if these children are in school and they have issues they cannot concentrate properly if these issues are left unaddressed. Not only do they put their own learning at risk but the disruption in the classroom means that other children's learning is at risk. So this package is going to go towards better supporting them putting supports and teaching around them that is specialised to get on top of these issues and help them achieve especially in the core subjects so that they can go on and decide what they want to do in the future and build towards that again to achieve their hopes and dreams.There is $6 million of that package going towards communication to help children who have issues at an early age communicate better. That money is going to go into developing early childhood education teachers to better identify children who have communication issues so that again we can get on top of those issues help them communicate which in turn helps their learning so that they can go on to primary school secondary school earn their NCEA levels and again achieve their hopes and dreams.That is what this Government is all about: investing in education—over $11 billion in education one of the biggest education budgets ever seen in New Zealand to make sure that our youth are well supported and can learn and gain the skills to equip them for life in the future.To end with what I would like to do is celebrate some of the fantastic educators whom I liaise with in the Invercargill electorate. I would like to celebrate and acknowledge again for the second year running Invercargill Middle School. The teachers there have been named again in the Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards for their teaching style. Katie Pennicott and Stan Tiatia there have absolutely thrown deficit learning out the door and they believe in tailoring programmes to meet children's needs. They spend extra time with them they look at their needs and they wrap what is needed around them to make sure that every single individual student achieves. For that they are recognised and for that they are celebrated and I cannot wait for them to do well moving forward as their students continue to achieve.I would like to acknowledge also Oban school which came to visit me today a long way from Stewart Island. But again through the remoter communities package it is doing well and I celebrate its achievement.