Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Speaker. I did an interview with One News on Sunday and the very first question they put to me was Does the Labour Party have any new ideas?" because they like the public have realised after this Budget that this is a tired old Government that after six years has absolutely nothing new to offer. The Labour Party talk about their vision but what we end up with is rehashed reheated and recycled tired old ideas that will not take this country forward. Instead of serving up vision they are serving up old reheated ideas. The fact that Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson had to spend so long in their speeches at the party conference on the weekend talking about the National Party was to make up time in their speeches because they were so devoid of any actual new ideas or vision to take this country forward. Nothing they had to say was of any value—no new ideas no vision no aspiration. Nothing to transform this economy. Nothing to fix our broken health system. Nothing to reduce crime. Nothing to fix our dismal results in education.With crime out of control with gang numbers up 200 in the last two months alone with shopkeepers literally putting themselves inside cages to keep themselves safe with a ram raid every 15 hours and with violent crime up 33 percent we get Ginny Andersen telling us that she feels safer—Ginny Andersen telling us that she feels safer. No new ideas a few more fog cannons and just more out-of-touch Ministers telling us that we should feel safer because they do. Well good on you Ginny Andersen. With a health system that is so in crisis that we have 35000 people on surgical wait-lists 54000 people on a wait-list for their first specialist appointment and people waiting on gurneys in corridors in hospitals because they cannot get in to wards what do we get? We get a letter. We get a letter sent to those 30000 people on the wait-list asking them if they still need that surgery. This is the new idea that we get from this Government. What we don't get is how do we improve the number of surgeries that our old district health boards but new Te Whatu Ora are doing. We don't get any new ideas on how to drive efficiencies in the health system how to do more surgeries or how to incentivise and give targets to Te Whatu Ora. We just get tired old ideas of megamergers and centralisation that inevitably as we all know lead to worse outcomes for the Kiwis out there who deserve better. With an economy that is in the bottom quartile of productive economies in the OECD you would think that after six years of this Government that we would have some vision some aspiration some solid economic plan to drive sustainable growth so that we can favourably measure ourselves against those other small advanced economies. The Government has the ability to do something about this and Grant Robertson has done absolutely nothing. In this Budget we got no new ideas no vision and no ability to grow our economy so that we can deliver better outcomes for Kiwi families. With an education system that in Minister Hipkins' own words over the weekend should have "the power to transform lives" we have 11.7 percent of our decile 1 kids able to pass a basic literacy and numeracy assessment at age 15. Only 30 percent of those same decile 1 kids are going to school regularly—the highest rate of unenrolled kids we've ever had in this country under Chris Hipkins' ministership as education Minister. For a Labour Government that spews forth platitudes and empty words like from Hipkins over the weekend—"I remain as committed today as I was 20 … years ago as a student protester to breaking down the barriers to participation in education at all levels." For those young people who rely on an education system the most to transform their lives to lift them out of poverty and to change their circumstance this Labour Government has failed them in the most insidious way because education is the great empowerer. It is the lever that our young people use to change their lives. The quality of their education should not be dictated on what their parents do or where they live yet the record of this Government is something to be utterly ashamed of. Chris Hipkins' words are empty. His Government is tired and there is nothing new in this Budget or in his announcement over the weekend that will see kids achieving at the very highest levels. National is the party of educational achievement. We are the party of educational aspiration. We will get this right. We have already announced our first education policy of many to be announced Teaching the Basics Brilliantly to set kids up for a life of success by focusing on literacy and numeracy guaranteeing that no matter where you live you have access to the same curriculum—the same core content knowledge—no matter where you go to school to guarantee that every single child gets an hour of reading and writing and maths every single day to guarantee that teachers get the professional development that they need in literacy and numeracy and to guarantee that every single child will have their progression monitored and reported back to parents. We will set a goal of having 80 percent of our kids at curriculum by the time they hit high school so that they have every opportunity to succeed at high school and we will get our kids back in the top 10 of international rankings. But what we've had from Labour in education is a moral and a social failure. Chris Hipkins' words at conference were empty. They sounded good but when you look at his record as education Minister for over half a decade you find a trail of failure. From the megamerger of our polytechnics—which is a variation on the same tune as the health outcomes which are totally dismal—in which we've seen this Government sink $200 million to solve a $40 million deficit what have we ended up with? Well we're going to find out later this month but what it sounds like is between a $60 and $100 million deficit and fewer people training at our polytechs. That's what Chris Hipkins has delivered as Minister of Education. It's been an absolute unmitigated failure. In six years he has not been able to get our kids going to school for more than 50 percent of the time and you know they use these patronising and useless campaigns—"Every day counts". What do we see? We see our kids going to school regularly less than 50 percent of the time and we see—what—one attendance officer in the 84 that they've promised in the first three months of that policy being delivered. I need to talk about the flagship policy of this Budget which is now lying in tatters around the feet of Jo Luxton a Minister who should know better because she has owned an early childhood education (ECE) centre herself and she then said publicly "I don't know why 75 percent of the sector say it won't work". Well maybe you'd know if you'd talked to them before you launched the policy. Nobody knew about it. The whole sector is saying "Well actually if you'd come to talk to us Minister we would have told you that it doesn't work." Well guess what? Now 90 percent of the sector have signed that same letter and are coming to a meeting in a couple of days' time in Jo Luxton's office to tell her why this policy won't work—because it was funded on a one to 10 ratio. No one in the whole country for the two- to three-year-old age group works on a one to 10 ratio. No—Hon Jo Luxton: Yes they do.ERICA STANFORD: Oh maybe Jo Luxton does. In the two-year-olds' room? I have yet to walk into any centre that operates on one to 10. That's what they're doing to the sector which will mean that fees will have to go up to compensate for those free hours. So if you have a baby at ECE if you have a child who is doing more than 20 hours expect your—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Not the Speaker. ERICA STANFORD: —sorry—expect their fees—thank you Madam Speaker—to go up or the ratios to head up to one to 10. If that's what the Minister wants to happen well then good luck to our under-threes in a one to 10 ratio which cannot be described by anyone as safe. Or what will happen is that centres will just opt out altogether of 20 free hours because they cannot make it work and guess what'll happen? Fees will go up. Ninety percent of the sector have now signed this accord telling the Minister that her policy was rushed it was ill advised it was not consulted on and it will not work. For all of those families out there who believed this Minister and believed this Government on Budget day that they were somehow going to get $133 a week well there will be a backtrack and I am sorry to those people who believed this Government that they were going to get some help with the cost of living in their childcare policies.We have put forth a childcare subsidy that was welcomed by the sector that is workable and that puts money back every fortnight in parents' pockets for every age group no matter where your child is at ECE. This policy is in tatters around Jo Luxton's feet and she is going to have to fix it; so watch out for a backtrack. National are the party of new ideas. We are the party to make sure that we're going to get our health our education our economy and our law and order back on track and bring on October. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): This a split call."