Carter Chris: Budget Debate 
Carter Chris: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16470] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I stand in this House today with a great deal of pride. First of all I am very proud to be a member of the Labour caucus which has delivered a Budget in negotiation with our coalition agreement partners—a Budget that for the ninth time has delivered an enormous amount for the people of New Zealand. It has delivered in health in the environment in transport in justice and particularly in education. 
My second great source of pride is to be the Minister of Education in this Government because in any Labour-led Government no job could be as honourable as exciting or as full of opportunity as that of being the Minister of Education. I am sure that every member of this House would agree with me that education provides the pathway for individuals to lift their skills in order for them to fulfil their potential and to lift themselves out of whatever family or economic circumstances they are in that might be a barrier to their advancement either socially or economically. Education is the ladder the individual can climb to fulfil his or her potential. 
In addition besides being that ladder for the individual education also gives the opportunity through which we can lift the skills of the whole society. Being smart and well-educated as kids is not just important for those kids but it is really important for New Zealand. They are our investment in the future. It is the talents and skills of those young people that will build a stronger New Zealand and this Budget this really important document that a Government produces each year contains if you like resources that it uses to build the sort of society it wants and that is really important for education. 
Every year that Labour has been in Government we have delivered for education. In fact we have delivered a whopping $5 billion extra in education—$5 billion over 9 years. This Budget delivers again for education. First of all it delivers $171 million for schools’ operational funding. Operational funding is the cash schools use for their everyday running. It is not for teachers’ salaries or for buildings and classrooms; it is about paying for the delivery of quality teaching and learning in the school. The $171 million in this Budget constitutes a 5 percent increase in operational funding. Actually there has not been a single year when Labour has been in power that we have not upped operational funding. We have upped it by over 50 percent. 
What is the operations budget today compared with what it was in 1999 in real terms—that is above the rate of inflation? It is 18.5 percent—it has lifted almost one-fifth in 9 years. That is just the cash that schools use for their everyday running. When I announced this last week at a school in my electorate in west Auckland Matipo Primary School the National Party’s spokesperson on education Anne Tolley put out a press statement that was headlined “More Labour Pork for Schools”. I did not agree with the term “pork”—I did not agree with much in the statement—but I did agree with her that it was extra cash for schools. I am proud to deliver that because it is for our kids. It is about allowing them to fulfil their potential and about building a stronger society. 
It is actually really interesting when one thinks about National’s education policy. So far we have not heard much about it. We have heard Mrs Tolley say I should not have given schools a 5 percent increase in operational funding. We have also heard Mr Key say that he would increase funding for private schools. Of course every dollar that goes into private schools is a dollar taken away from our State school system. Only 6 percent of New Zealand children go to private schools but those 6 percent are clearly more important to Mr Key than the 94 percent of New Zealand children who are in State or State-integrated schools. 
We have also heard so much nonsense in this House about education bureaucrats. Let me share with the House and anyone listening to this debate today just how many so-called bureaucrats the Ministry of Education has. On 31 December last year 2547 staff were working directly for the Ministry of Education—that is 2547. Mr Key likes talking about percentages. What we never hear about of course is what he factors into his percentages which is something that I revealed in the House yesterday. It is that 1300 staff were transferred from special education services directly into the Ministry of Education. I tell members to remember we are talking about a total now of 2547 staff. At least 1300 of them were transferred from special education services. Another 83 were transferred from early childhood education services. So at least 1400 of those 2547 bureaucrats are people who were already there and who are doing incredibly important work for children with special needs in New Zealand and for early childhood education. So much for the bureaucratic abundance in the Ministry of Education! 
What we have created are 6046 extra teachers above what is required by roll growth. That is where the real numbers have been—6046 extra teachers above what is required by roll growth. I make no apology about that to this House or to anybody else. Those teachers are important. Those teachers are in classrooms and schools all around New Zealand trying to lift up the learning opportunities of the young people of this country. So the extra staffing that has gone into education is actually in the classroom not at the Ministry of Education. There are some staff at the ministry and they are doing really important jobs dealing with everything from special education to school bus routes in rural areas information and communications technology development in schools and professional development for teachers—who would argue with that? Mr Key would say that that is where he will get the money for his tax cuts by axing that small group of people. I hope anyone listening to this debate—I suspect the National Party will not be listening as usual—will be asking where these extra bureaucrats are. The extra staff in education by and large are in the classrooms and we want them to stay there. We do not want to see them being axed. 
Let us talk about exactly what was in the Budget. There was as I said an extra $171 million for schools’ operational funding. There was also an amazingly large sum—$1.8 billion—for teachers’ salaries. Teachers’ salaries have gone up in the largest chunk in living memory. This Government believes that teachers should be well paid they should be well resourced and they should be recognised for the incredibly important job they do in teaching the next generation. No matter how much equipment technology or teaching aids we put in a classroom nothing is more important for a child’s education than a teacher. We recognise that. In the time that this Government has been in power teachers’ salaries have gone up on average 35 percent for classroom teachers and 43 percent for school principals. As the leaders of learning in their school principals have an incredible responsibility to lift the performance of every school and to make sure that effective teaching and learning is going on. So $1.8 billion will go into teachers’ salaries over 5 years. That is a really significant and important investment. 
I also recognise in the Budget that information and communications technology in schools is very important in building knowledge for the 21st century among young New Zealanders. Of the $171 million that has gone into schools as extra funding $63 million is targeted for information and communications technology support. That is an area that I have received a lot of feedback on in the 104 schools that I have visited since I became the Minister of Education at the beginning of November last year. You know sometimes we hear some nonsense from the other side of the House that this is a tired Government. As Minister of Education I would challenge any of the members opposite to go to 104 schools in the first 5 months of being in the job if any of those members ever becomes the Minister of Education. I have done that because I believe in getting out and promoting education in New Zealand.