Carter Chris: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15023] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) 
: 
 The previous speaker Mr Peachey—who is a great advocate of bulk funding which I will talk about in a minute—opened his speech with a quote from H G Wells. I was reminded that H G Wells’ most famous book was  
The War of the Worlds. 
 There are two different worlds that we are talking about here. There is the world of the Labour Government which sees education as critical to the fulfilment of individual potential and to the establishment of a society a culture and a population that is well-educated. Then there is a world like Mr Peachey’s which sees winners and losers which has bulk-funded schools that are in competition with each other. That is an education system that is not collaborative not cooperative and does not interest itself in the realisation of the potential of all individuals. 
He challenged the Government as to what it has done with education. I tell the Chamber and anybody who is listening that this Labour Government has invested an extra $5 billion into education—not $1 billion not $2 billion but an extra $5 billion. Mr Peachey also made reference to staffing. He talked about bureaucrats. I would like to talk about the 5000 extra teachers above what was required by roll growth that the Government has employed in the last 8 years. 
In the last 2 years we have brought in 20 free hours of early childhood education. That is the greatest revolution in early childhood education that has ever occurred in our country. It allows every 3 and 4-year-old access to quality early childhood education so that they are set on the path to become a learner for life. It is about creating opportunity and quality for the individual and the whole of society. 
We have also opened 36 new schools and 1500 new classrooms have been built under this Government. 
Bob Clarkson 
: Some of them are leaky! 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I think it was the member for Tauranga who called out that some of them are leaky. I say to that member that yes four of them are. Why are they leaky? Because a National Government deregulated the building code and those four schools got leaky buildings—as did thousands of New Zealanders. I tell Mr Clarkson to hang his head in shame as it was his Government that created leaky buildings and it is my Government that has been fixing them up. 
Let us get back to education. We have not only employed 5000 extra teachers but also invested an extra $90 million in new building opportunities for early childhood education centres. Just last week I was with the Prime Minister opening a new expanded Tongan early childhood education centre in Mangere. We have invested $90 million since the year 2000 just in buildings for early childhood education. Remember that an extra $5 billion has been invested in education by this Labour Government. We have also had an amazing range of things from laptops for teachers to expanding information and communications technology in schools. As I have said we have the 20 free hours’ early childhood education. 
Just 2 weeks ago I tabled in the House 46 different initiatives in education that the Labour Government has carried out since we came in. We have resourced education like it has never been resourced before and why have we done that? Because we believe that education is the ladder that will allow every young person in New Zealand to lift his or her potential. We also know that investing in education is about investing in the future of our country. In a few minutes’ time my colleague Marian Hobbs will talk about Schools Plus the revolutionary new programme that we are introducing into secondary education. The programme will create new pathways for young learners who currently are not succeeding as well as they could in the education system and will make sure that no young person under the age of 18 leaves our education system without the skills to contribute to our society and to realise his or her own potential. 
Education is about investment. It is about investment in the individual and in our society. I repeat that no Government in the history of New Zealand has contributed more to education than our Government has with its extra $5 billion. We heard a comment from Mr Peachey about employing bureaucrats. I tell members that we have just signed off the salary settlement for teachers. Mr Peachey used to be a teacher. He believes in bulk funding of course. There is $1.4 billion set aside for teachers’ salaries over the next 4 years. We know that the best resource we can give to New Zealand’s children is quality teachers and to do that we have to pay them well. This Labour Government is committed to making sure that we have a well-resourced well-educated well-motivated teaching service.