Carter Chris: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17512] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) 
: 
 The previous speaker Mr Peachey challenged me to stand up and make a comment about resourcing particularly for special education. I accept that he is motivated by a desire to help students in our schools particularly the most vulnerable students with physical and emotional disabilities. I accept that he was a school principal and that he is motivated by good desire. But I have to ask him to reflect back to what the funding in our schools was like 9 years ago particularly in special education. The Government has more than doubled the resourcing going into special education. Indeed in this Budget which we are talking about in the estimates debate tonight there is a considerable resource for children with vision problems. I had a group of adults from Parents of Visually Impaired New Zealand come to my office just a few weeks ago who were incredibly grateful for the extra funding going in. 
It is a measure of how well a society is doing when it looks after its most vulnerable. I think that everybody in this Chamber particularly on the Labour side is motivated to be in politics to represent the most vulnerable of our citizens. In education of course we could deliver more with more resources—as my colleague Mr Burton said earlier. We have virtually doubled education funding including more than doubling the resources going into special education. Of course we could do more for these students if we had more but there are no blank cheques in any area of Government. Everyone in this Chamber knows that. Mr Peachey was a school principal and had to wrestle with a budget just like I did as a teacher. Those are realities. But I stand proudly before this Committee and before this country and say that the Labour-led Government is a Government that is absolutely committed to wringing out as many resources as it can for education. We have put in an extra $5 billion we have built 42 new schools we have put 7000 teachers above roll growth into education we have built 1500 new classrooms we have put 20 free hours in for early childhood education we have taken interest off student loans—so the list goes on. We are doing that not to make ourselves feel good nor so we can stand up and boast about what we have done; we are doing it because we want to invest in the young people of our country. We want to build a stronger country and a fairer society. 
Mr Peachey is right: we need to look after the most vulnerable people in this country. He and I both spoke to a group of middle-school principals this morning. I am sorry that Mr Peachey’s time ran out for his comment. I am sure it was going to be a very positive one. I know about his passion for education. We have different views on bulk funding of course. He is for it; I am against it. He has an opinion and so have I. The population can make its judgment about that. I know he has said in the House that he would like to bring bulk funding back. I guess that that is a battle he has to have in his caucus. Luckily it is not one I have to have in mine. I want to say to this Committee as we wrap up this debate that I am proud to be Minister of Education in a Government that is committed to education. It is committed to resourcing it. It is proud of what the education system is doing and it is proud of what teachers are doing. 
Finally I have had a really busy day today as lots of members in this Chamber have. I started off this morning along with Mr Peachey in Auckland with principals of intermediate schools. I then went to meet the integrated schools principals who are here and finally I was with about 400 school principals who are doing a programme called Extending High Standards Across Schools sharing best practice between schools about lifting numeracy and literacy. That has been possible only because the Government has committed funding to that programme. I am really proud of that. What it is doing is saying: “Your school is doing a great job. Show other schools what you’re doing. Learn from each other.” It is about the collaborative approach in New Zealand education which is the great strength of our country. It is where we believe that a child no matter what school he or she goes to in New Zealand will get a quality education and be able to succeed. 
The National Party spokesperson on education commented about the badge campaign before. The badges were just a tiny part of the package called Ka Hikitia which is about lifting Maori achievement. That is really important for our students of Maori heritage. They comprise some 20 percent of young New Zealanders and we want them to succeed. 
Vote agreed to. 
Progress reported. 
Report adopted.