4. Early Childhood Education—FundingCHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of EducationEarly Childhood Education—Funding4. CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Why has her Government cut more than $523 million from early childhood education by among other things removing the top funding band for services that employ 100 percent qualified teachers?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Our Government has not cut funding to early childhood education (ECE). Since we came into Government we have almost doubled funding to over $1.8 billion.Chris Hipkins: How does she reconcile that claim with Budget documentation from 8 March 2016 that states: What we have done: significant savings have been made in the last few years. Over $528 million of savings in ECE have been made since 2009 including by removing the 100 percent qualified teacher funding band."?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I easily reconcile that by saying that a Government in every year makes a choice about whether it is getting the best for an investment. So overall funding has not been cut but particular investments within the funding have changed. For instance—Hon Ruth Dyson: It says savings.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Yes you see that is what a Government does. It has a look at what is working decides what is more effective and invests in that. And this Government has decided that one of its key priorities is to increase participation. Another has been to extend 20 hours to Playcentre and to kōhanga reo because this Government also believes that parents should choose which option they want to send their children to and that could be teacher-led centre-based early childhood education or it could be parent-led and home-based. We support those choices.Chris Hipkins: Why did the National Government cut funding for services that employ 100 percent qualified teachers and what analysis if any has it done to measure the impact that decision has had on the quality of education and care that children receive?Hon HEKIA PARATA: This is another area where there is a yawning chasm between our Government and the Opposition. This Government is not so much about goals as the Opposition has espoused. We are committed to increasing qualified teachers and under our Government they have increased. They have increased from about 61 percent under the previous administration to 75 percent under this Government; something like 97 percent of teacher-led centres are funded for 80 percent - plus qualified teachers. So in fact qualified teachers in early childhood education have increased under this Government from way beyond where they were under that administration. Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question asked why the Government cut funding for services that employ 100 percent qualified teachers and what analysis had been done on the impact of that decision. The Minister has not addressed that. She has given a lot of background information but she has not addressed the question.Mr SPEAKER: I will certainly have a look at it later but on this occasion I am going to make an instant judgment. I think it was addressed. In fact there were two questions within the supplementary question and that makes it more difficult because there should be only one leg to a supplementary question but the member took an opportunity to put two questions there. I think certainly one—in fact probably both of them were addressed.Chris Hipkins: Why did the National Government cut funding for services that employ 100 percent qualified teachers?Hon HEKIA PARATA: We made a decision that we would see an increase in qualified teachers by the mix of policy investments we were making and our decision has been borne out by the fact that we now see an increase to 75 percent over the 61 percent that was in place under the previous administration.Chris Hipkins: Does she believe that children who are attending services that previously had 100 percent qualified teachers and have had their funding reduced under the National Government are receiving a better standard of early childhood education as a result?Hon HEKIA PARATA: New Zealand—apart from Sweden and Australia—leads the world in terms of adult-to-child ratios. We know that we have highly safe and good quality services because the Education Review Office (ERO) which independently assesses early childhood centres has found that there has been a significant decrease in those reported to ERO for poor service from 28.8 percent under the previous administration to just 2.6 percent under our administration.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked specifically about the quality of services that—Mr SPEAKER: Order! On this occasion I am going to invite the member to re-ask his question. Chris Hipkins: Thank you. Does she believe that the children attending services that have 100 percent qualified teachers that have had their funding cut under the National Government are receiving a better or worse standard of care and education as a result of that decision? Hon HEKIA PARATA: Perhaps if I explain why I chose to answer this question the way I did previously—it is that part of the proxies that are used to determine quality of delivery are adult-to-children ratios are reports of low-quality performance are the choices that parents make so that early childhood education—Hon Trevor Mallard: And the qualifications of the staff. Hon HEKIA PARATA: See early childhood education is a third more affordable now than it was in 2007 and in the end it is not actually what I believe—or past-it former members of Parliament—what matters is what parents believe and parents get to choose what option of early childhood education they wish to be involved with. The fact is more parents are choosing under this Government because we now have nearly 97 percent of all kids participating in early childhood education. [Interruption] I know it is a lot of information for the member to absorb. [Interruption] Mr SPEAKER: Order! Mr Mallard. Chris Hipkins: Why has the National Government not implemented its 2008 campaign pledge to lower the teacher-child ratio for under-2-year-olds from 1:5 to 1:4 or does she think it is OK for five under-2-year-olds to be cared for and educated by a single teacher? Hon HEKIA PARATA: I will refer the member back to my answer to the primary question. Our Government is continually monitoring what we are doing in education. Hon Trevor Mallard: Why? Hon HEKIA PARATA: We have a responsibility to taxpayers—that is why—to make sure that the dollars they pay are being invested wisely and we can see impact for that occurring. So that is what we have done. We have made different choices. But the overriding fact here is that within those choices we have increased funding year on year."