Simmonds Penny; Tinetti JanPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): The Te Pūkenga—the mega-merged 16 polytechnics and nine industry training organisations—the Tertiary Education Commission and the Auditor-General have consistently expressed their concerns about the financial performance of Te Pūkenga and the lack of an operating model for long-term viability of Te Pūkenga. The long-term operating model will determine what Te Pūkenga delivers where it delivers it what assets infrastructure and capabilities it needs to deliver it. Where has the Minister got to in terms of her discussions with Te Pūkenga about the operating model their ability to forecast their surplus or deficit?Te Pūkenga premised their budget with a 10 percent growth in domestic students; it has been a 10 percent reduction in 2022 and a further 10 percent reduction in 2023. What monitoring is the Minister doing of Te Pūkenga and where is its financial forecasting at the moment in terms of its deficit?Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): Te Pūkenga continues to be monitored through the Tertiary Education Commission. There are clear expectations that I have given—and even last week when I had a meeting with the chief executive (CE) and the chair of the board—that the operating model and the organisation is to be prioritised; I have said that. I am happy with the progress that has been made since the new CE and the board has had some new members on it what has been made since that time. We have an executive leadership that are in place. There have been key appointments that have been made. But I have made it clear that we need to see that progress and see it through to the nth degree the end—and I am satisfied that we are getting there and that the progress is being made and we can see it and everybody can see it because we can see the achievements that they have had to date as I've said with the key appointments that have been made and some of the direction that has been given out.Can I go back to the early childhood education consultation: it's high level how to shape the funding to better align the funding to salaries so we cannot build the calculator until we have the wages and funding data in place. So it's at a high-level stage at this point in time and that's why the calculator can't be there.The budget—there is $120 million for the full programme and that's the NCEA and the Curriculum Refresh and we have spent $30 million to date. But remember this is a programme that's based over a number of years. There are 40 staff on the curriculum change programme that are currently employed doing that work at this point in time.Mātauranga Māori is being built into every aspect of what we're doing in the NCEA achievement particularly in the NCEA Change Programme. It's really important in the curriculum refresh that we are building a truly bicultural curriculum that is addressing those young people that have not been achieving well over time.So there is also professional learning and development that's really focusing in on cultural capacity that we're delivering to staff members and teachers throughout the country.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Can I remind members just before I take the next call that we are considering in this debate the financial statements of the Government for the year ended 30 June 2022. Any questions that fall outside the period of the Appropriation (2021/22 Confirmation and Validation) Bill time period does not need to be addressed by the Minister in the chair.Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): I just wanted to also address the question about Te Pūkenga's deficit for 2022. That's something that hasn't been finalised at this point in time or at least it's not public at this point in time so I am unable to give that information.