Barclay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1566. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland):I want to start by welcoming everybody back after the New Year break and say what a pleasure it is to be part of a united excited strong National caucus that supports our leader and our deputy leader. It is a shame that the same cannot be said for the other side of the House and it is a shame that those members cannot unite themselves in the same way that we have.Today I want to focus a little bit on education and the importance of a good education in giving kids the best start in life. I particularly want to remind New Zealanders of the mess that the previous Labour Government left the portfolio in when we inherited it 6 years ago. Since we have entered Government we have increased spending on education by 45 percent. We now spend more on education than on the Ministry of Social Development and the Police combined. Unlike the previous Labour Government we are looking at having all components of the education system in the pipeline.Since we have entered into Government we have more than doubled spending on early childhood education. That equals what we spend on the Police budget. When we took over 93.6 percent of school starters had participated in early childhood education. We have increased that to 96.1 percent and we have got a target of 98 percent. That is six and a half thousand more kids entering early childhood education before they start school. In the primary sector we have set targets through the introduction of national standards. We want 85 percent of kids achieving a level of reading writing and maths before they exit out into the secondary sector. Currently we are at 77.9 percent for reading 70.6 percent for writing and 74.6 percent for maths.Moving on to the secondary sector we have made great gains in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). Sure Labour may have introduced NCEA but after Labour introduced it it did nothing with it. There was a 68 percent achievement rate in NCEA level 2 when we took over. We have increased that to 79 percent. We have got a target of 85 percent so we are well on track. Moving on to level 4—post-school qualifications—when we came into Government there were 53.3 percent of 25 to 35-year-olds who held New Zealand Qualifications Framework level 4 or equivalent. We have increased that to 54.7 percent and we have almost met our target of 55 percent 1 year early.Since we came into Government we have been focused on implementing a seamless transition throughout each sector of the education pipeline. That leads on to the investment approach that we are taking in the social sector more generally. I want to use two examples that Bill English cited during the campaign last year. The first is in relation to teen sole parents on benefits. We have 2600 of these people in our country. They are all classified as being under the age of 20. If you are in this category the average expected time that you will spend on a benefit is 20 years with a present net cost to the taxpayer of $250000 per person. Instead we are choosing to spend $7000 a year on each of these people through implementing a supervising adult into their lives and making sure that these people are getting re-engaged into education learning a tolerance level around budgeting and being provided with other services that well equip them for living in modern society. If we achieve that and if they achieve a post-school qualification the average expected time they will spend on a benefit reduces from 20 years down to 7 years. That saves the taxpayer millions of dollars.The second group is the group of 2000 kids who are currently in the toughest client group if you like of the Government going forward. There was an analysis done of 30 years of their previous family records based on their parents’ interaction with the Government and their current interaction with the Government. We have valued the projected expenditure on them over their lifetime through prison costs alone at $750 million. What we are deciding to do instead is re-engage them back in education and ensure they complete their education and then enter the workforce with the ability to get a job and not have to go on to a benefit. This is so that they do not fall into the justice trap and offend and enter the justice system. These sole parents on benefits and the toughest clients who are male children who are currently in the school sector—if we can re-engage them get them back on track through education we will be doing them and New Zealand a great service. Thank you.