6. SUE MORONEY (Labour) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does he have confidence in his Minister of Education?
Rt Hon JOHN KEYHmm, surprising. Is he aware that 750 school principals passed a vote of no confidence in “the education policy and direction of the current Government” in relation to national standards, as led by the Minister, at the New Zealand Principals Federation’s annual conference; if so, does he still retain confidence in that Minister?
Does he retain confidence in the advice the Minister gave to him that caused him to tell TV3 news on 31 January that a lot of the sector would be totally unaffected by fee increases to early childhood education, given that the largest provider of early childhood education services, ABC, which provides services to 7,000 New Zealand children, increased its fees by $10 to $20 a week on 1 April 2011?
Mr SPEAKERDoes he still have confidence that his funding cuts to early childhood education will not be passed on to parents, given that Statistics New Zealand reports that the cost of early childhood education to families has increased by almost 12 percent in the last 12 months?
Yes, and it does not matter how many times the member says it, we did not cut early childhood education funding—we increased it.
I seek leave to table the Statistics New Zealand consumer price index for the March 2011 quarter, which shows—
We do not table stuff that is available to all members. The Statistics New Zealand CPI data is available to all members.
Does his confidence in this Minister stem from the fact that she started the trend to use helicopters for ministerial travel, which he has continued, or does he prefer her most recent suggestion that schoolchildren should ride horses to school? Which transport method does he prefer?