King Colin: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
King Colin: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5627] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 I start by getting us back on to Vote Education. This Government is putting $11.5 billion into education in this Budget—a 2.7 percent increase. With regard to Vote Education Review Office the Government is putting in $30 million—a 4.9 percent increase. That is a significant increase. 
The highest priority in the 21st century with regard to human rights is access to a first-class education. That is a very very important point. In fact a person needs to have achieved level 2 of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement in order to complete a trade because that is the level one needs just to be able to complete the literacy side of it. Education truly is portable; it goes where we go and it goes where we take it. That is very positive. It is a ladder out of disadvantage and it is the single identifying feature between those who have and those who do not have. 
This Government to its credit has put more dollars into education than any other Government before it and in the most challenging economic times in 70 years. This Government has utilised every available dollar to do that and it is using those dollars to get the most significant benefits in educational outcomes. This Government is focused on educational outcomes and such a focus is to be commended. 
I want to spend a few moments addressing a couple of the differences that have been expressed by Opposition members about the Government’s view of how those dollars are to be spent. One of those issues is around adult and community education. This Government values adult and community education. We are investing $124 million into adult and community education over the next 4 years. That is significant. The question that I pose to members opposite is: what part of the $50 million would they take out of special education to fund adult and community education? What part of the $36 million for increased focus on literacy and numeracy would they do away with in order to focus on adult and community education? What part of the tens of millions of dollars would they take away from skills training and support for youth and the unemployed in order to fund adult and community education? Those members opposite would want the money spent on adult and community education. This Government is saying it thinks otherwise. 
Another point I would like to deal with and one that I think is appropriate is the $35 million allocated to private schools. On a year-to-year basis that is $10 million per year and when put into the context of the 30000 children in private schools that figure equates to the State being saved $152 million a year. That is significant. Those members opposite would say that we should let those schools fail. This Government says otherwise. The Government has proven itself to be a good manager of the New Zealand educational system. The Opposition has proven itself not to be. 
I want to deal with a couple of issues that the previous Government shrank away from. The first is truancy. This Government is investing $16 million into an initiative to address truancy over the next 4 years. That equates to $12000 per school but when Labour was in power up to 30000 children at any one time were not attending school. This initiative is significant. The second initiative is for voluntary bonding with regard to staff in education. This initiative is very very important visionary and hugely significant. We intend to invest $19 million into retaining staff in areas that are difficult to staff. This Government is managing the education system very well.