Appearing between economist Max Rashbrooke’s informed presentation on inequality in New Zealand and the conference cocktail hour, the politicians had a hard job ahead of them to keep their audience engaged. It seems the anticipation of such a job was so harrowing that Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori didn’t even turn up. Their absence was so noted, that Wellington’s newspaper, The Post wrote a small article questioning why these parties did not want a chance to present their parties’ position to over 500 delegates. Instead conference attendees got a good insight into what a National / ACT coalition would look like should the government change on 14 October. Between them, National’s Spokesperson on Early Childhood Education, Penny Simmonds and ACT’s leader David Seymour demonstrated detailed understanding of the sector, the challenges on early childhood educators and were realistic on what could be achieved. Panellists had been given a heads up on a couple of questions, with the rest coming from the audience. Acknowledging the approximately 300 regulations early childhood centres must adhere to before they can even open the doors, the ECC Conference 2023: Early Learning Policy Debate By Brigitte Morten politicians were asked what regulation they would commit to removing in their first 100 days. Simmonds and Seymour were in agreement that this question was too hard. They couldn’t commit to just one. Both said they would cancel network management, which was introduced earlier this year to manage the supply of early childhood centres. Simmonds said she believed the scheme was protecting poor performers and not allowing good quality entrants to the industry. Seymour related the scheme to the Muldoon government era where you needed a licence to manufacture bubble wrap – a ridiculous overreach by government. In their commitment to removing Fair Pay agreements, Simmonds promised all Fair Pay agreements would be gone in the first 100 days, even those currently underway like the early childhood sector agreement. Seymour went a step further and promised within 99 days. Joining the hit list of regulations were food audits, published financial reports, the 6 hour rule and nappy cream restrictions. One of the puzzling aspects of Labour’s failure to turn up for the panel was that just two months ago early childhood dominated the Budget 23 headlines with the extension of the free 20 hours. But what might have dampened their post-Budget glow was the strong feedback from the sector that the different conditions on this funding make it impossible to implement. So the politicians were asked what they would do to ensure the sector is listened to and a situation like the 20 hours announcement doesn’t happen again. Seymour drew on his experience as the former Parliamentary under Secretary for Education and emphasised the importance of talking directly to the sector, rather than waiting on a sanitised report from the Ministry of Education. Simmonds committed to engaging more with the Early Childhood Advisory Committee, a group of sector experts who currently meet with the Ministry. Both politicians were careful in managing expectations about more funding for early childhood. Seymour argued that if we were a wealthy country, that would be nice to have, but at the moment we were not. He went on to congratulate Simmonds for her honesty when she articulated that ECE funding was in a state of transition and not one that could be properly examined until they were in Government. ACT's leader David Seymour and National's Spokesperson on Early Childhood Education, Penny Simmonds demonstrated detailed understanding of the sector. The session was moderated by Brigitte Morten. August 2023 { 14 }
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