Parata Hekia: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 02 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11648. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā ā huri noa i tō tātou Whare i tēnei ahiahi tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and acknowledgments to us all throughout our House this afternoon.]Our John Key - led Government is investing in a growing economy. It is a growing economy that is able to generate more jobs higher wages and a future that is based on a modern approach that is about science enterprise and entrepreneurial behaviour. It is also based on a hallmark of National Governments which is to have a compassionate heart for those most in need and to do something about it rather than talk wring our hands and cry crocodile tears; it is to do practical things. And we get to do those practical things when we have an economy that supports that. So it is pretty important that we grow the economy—that we invest into it and that we do so in a futureproofed way.The Budget is an important mechanism for telling the country in a comprehensive way what the business of Government is. It is important that we do tell the country what the business of Government is because it makes up still too big a part of our economy. It is not the economy—which is something we understand although the Opposition clearly fails to understand that almost pathologically. The Opposition thinks it is the Government that creates jobs. The Opposition thinks it is the Government that earns the income. It is not. The Government’s responsibility is to ensure that it creates an environment in which New Zealanders can be successful and through which we back New Zealanders to make good choices and to be powerful actors in their own lives so that they are not dependent on Government. That is our long-term vision and that is what this Budget—the eighth Budget of the Minister of Finance—continues to invest in.I want to acknowledge the Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English for the magnificent job he has done over 8 very challenging years. Yes we have heard already about the very parlous legacy from the Opposition and I am not going to rehearse that because as the Opposition has rightly pointed out we are not here to talk about it because there is not much to talk about. So I am going to talk about us—I am going to talk about this Government. I want to acknowledge the Minister of Finance for the fine work that he has done because not only are the appellations “prudent” “conservative” sometimes “pessimistic” totally apposite but also they have occurred within the context of a strategic framework. We have a very clear vision of how we ensure that we grow a productive economy of how we ensure that there is prosperity available to all New Zealanders and of how we invest in an economy that is based on science and on knowledge and that is future-focused and not backward-looking. We can see within our Budget that we now will have choices that would otherwise not have been available to us.The Government’s business makes up about 30 percent of the economy and it is really important that it is both efficient and effective given that size. We need to make sure that we get every bang for the taxpayer’s buck that we possibly can and that we can measure the impacts—that we are actually getting results. We are not simply saying as the Opposition keeps wanting to argue that the more money you put in the more it shows you care. Actually the more practical the results are and the greater the impact is shows how much we care.On that basis this Government has a very good record. It is by no means enough but that is the direction of travel and it is comprehensively set out in this Budget. We have a plan and our first aim is to have an innovative New Zealand. We are a small country—4.5 million and growing. We are small smart and sassy. We punch above our weight and we continue to wish to do that.I have recently returned from Crete where I went along with the Governor-General to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Crete. The point of that was that New Zealanders—7700—went all the way around to the other side of the world to fight for the principles we believe in: of democracy of fairness and of looking after those who cannot look after themselves while also growing the possibility of prosperity for all.We are seen by the rest of the world as very credible international players and the more that we invest into our own science our own skills and the growing of our economy—through leveraging off our primary industries and through growing our information and communication technology areas—the more we continue to have weight in that regard. We have continued to invest in infrastructure. It does not sound very sexy but getting from A to B to C on really good roads as we see around the country is pretty critical to the businesses of New Zealand and the flow of that work.In the education area we have benefited from that enormously because we are the single biggest investment in this Budget at $882.5 million for new schools for roll growth classrooms and for redevelopments. Places of learning really do give substance to this idea of growing the economy and in education we have a plan that supports what I have talked about generally in terms of our approach to Government. And the plan is that every kid is educationally successful.We have not just talked about it. We are overhauling the 27-year-old Education Act; we are reviewing funding. This is the single biggest amount that has gone into education ever: $11.04 billion. Education is bigger than police bigger than foreign affairs and trade bigger than roads bigger than conservation—and that shows how serious this Government is about how we build our kids to have the skills they need the qualifications and the technological capabilities to participate. We want to make sure that we have successful and effective teachers. We want to make sure that they have a very independent profession which again is something the Opposition seems incapable of understanding. When I say the Education Council is independent it is independent. It gets to make its own decisions about how it raises the quality of teaching and leadership.We are configuring communities of learning because we understand that the whole pathway of the student is critically important. We have provided more pathways—applied learning as well as academic learning—so that every New Zealander has the opportunity to go into the trades which of course we need more of because we have an economy that is growing. In this Budget we have invested in infrastructure in science and innovation in health and education. I do not need to talk about health a lot because we will hear later in this debate about the comprehensive investments we are making in health.In addition of course we have the social investment approach which is very specific: how do we change the trajectory of young people who otherwise might lead a very poor life? How do we invest early with impact to make the difference? Not only do we cut down the liability of Government and free up money to resource more in the productive side of the economy but also we help support better lives for individuals. That is what this Government is about. We want better lives for all our kids for all our young people for all our middle-aged people—for those of us who are in that young middle-aged category—as well as for those who are older. So this Government is about quality opportunities for all and education is a core part of that.We provided in this Budget nearly $400 million for early childhood education. Those of you who have been able to see in a distilled fashion Professor Richie Poulton’s Dunedin study will understand that if we can invest early identify those kids most at risk and make a change for them they will lead better lives. So we have seen in this Budget that rather than provide a universal operational grant to schools we have taken what that would otherwise have been and targeted it to those kids who have spent 75 percent of their lives in long-term benefit-dependent homes because we have heard and understood that we need to prioritise those who are most at risk of educational underachievement.We are not in the process sacrificing the rest of New Zealand students; not at all because the first $10 billion goes towards that. We want kids who are doing well to do even better but we also because this is the nature of this Government want to pick up those who are falling behind. We want to give them the same chance of better life outcomes—real kids real results real time. That in a nutshell describes education but it also describes this Government: real New Zealanders real results in real time. Bill English’s eighth Budget delivers the economic and the business approach that will ensure that next year we will be able to report—because we have a transparent means of reporting because we are prepared to be accountable—that we are making progress. But there is still a way to go. Thank you.