Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (National): A Government's first Budget should really be quite a simple affair because there's really only two things you have to do. The first is you meet your campaign commitments and the second is you prioritise your funding. Well you know this Government has failed on both counts. It's very easy to run around the country campaigning on wiping every tear from every eye. It's very easy to promise the earth but it is much harder to deliver.I want to take my call today to talk about early childhood education (ECE) because that is a case in point. That is a sector who expected great things from the Labour-led Government because they went around the country and they said Don't worry guys we've got it." Here's Chris Hipkins. What did he say? He said "Labour will restore the higher funding rate for early childhood education services with 100 percent qualified teachers." That's what he said. That's what he promised. Then we had Labour members opposite up and down the country signing a pledge—signing a pledge to the teacher union—saying "We will reduce teacher to child ratios. We will restore the goal of 100 percent trained teachers." And then we even had it in their fiscal plan. This is an archaic document that members opposite may like to familiarise themselves with. You promised New Zealanders you'd deliver on this and every time we said "We don't think your fiscal plan stacks up." you said "Oh no it does. The Hon Grant Robertson knows exactly what he's doing. It's all costed. It's all fine. We're going to deliver all of it." So I had a look in the fiscal plan and here we are: increased funds for 100 percent qualified ECE centres. Oh! And I see $279 million and it was all going to start in this financial year. It's all there. It's all in the fiscal plan. So it's pretty clear. That was the commitment in early childhood education.So then I say "OK. Well that's fine—that was the commitment. Let's have a look and see if we can find it in the Budget." Here it is: Vote Education. Let's see if we can find that promise if it made it out of the fiscal plan and into the Budget. I looked through and I looked through and I couldn't find it. I found a few other things. I did find $2.8 billion for tertiary education so I guess that was a priority—that was more important than young children and their learning. I did find some other things. I found some tax cuts for pretty-horse owners so that's great too but I'm not sure it's going to help children. Then I found some funding for a new embassy in Sweden. So the Government did manage to prioritise some things to give them credit but they didn't prioritise the right things and that is what a Budget is all about. It is about meeting your commitments the commitments—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Not mine.NICOLA WILLIS: —you made to the New Zealand—sorry Madam Deputy Speaker not yours. It is about meeting the Government's commitments that they made to the New Zealand public—that they went up and down the country promising they would deliver. Well their word on that is something we could question if we chose to.So then we say "If the ECE pledge from the fiscal plan isn't there what's there instead?" So we've had Chris Hipkins saying "Oh look you know there's a lot of money in there for ECE." What he fails to tell members of this House is that National more than doubled funding for early childhood education during its time in office. Every single year we increased funding for early childhood education. In fact in our first couple of years in office we increased funding for early childhood education by—oh I've got the figures here from the Parliamentary Library—15 percent in the first year 15 percent in the second year. How much did Chris Hipkins increase the early childhood budget by this year? Oh that's right: 6 percent. So not quite as strong as National's record there.So then we say "OK but look let's give him credit. Maybe he really meant to do better because he has put in an additional subsidy increase." That is a good thing and that will be welcomed. It's modest but it will be welcomed. So how much is that? Well it works out at $1.30 per child per week. So it's very hard for me to understand how you define that as generous and it's very easy for me to understand why the Early Childhood Council has said it's significantly underwhelming and why the NZEI has said that ECE needed a lot more attention.So the only excuse left on the other side of the House for these broken commitments is that National didn't campaign on those things. So that's the new standard. If National didn't campaign on it Labour doesn't have to deliver it. Well I say members of the New Zealand public deserve a lot better than that. When people make a commitment it should be met. It was not met in this Budget. Early childhood education was short-changed at the expense of a fund for Winston Peters an embassy in Sweden and tax cuts for pretty horses. I say that's a Government that doesn't have its priorities right."