Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

The last fortnight has been busy for me in Tauranga as Parliament has been in recess.

Among the events I have enjoyed, some of the highlights have been; the Bay of Plenty House of the Year Awards, where Tauranga builders did exceptionally well; watching the Steamers beat Canterbury at Baypark; having Minister Steven Joyce in town to start the roll-out of $75 million of ultra-fast broadband fibre; and to check on progress on the $455 million Tauranga Eastern Link road of national significance.

Supporting ECE: Top Kids Waihi Road manager Kelly Patchett, Margaret Rawiri from SPCA, Simon and Vinnie and Kirt from More FM show off their SPCA cupcakes which they made with the kids.

I also attended the opening of the TECT Arena at Baypark. Since its opening, I've been back twice already to open the National Wrestling Championships and to attend the terrific start to the AIMS Games. I have no doubt the Arena is a venue all of Tauranga will benefit from for decades to come.

Another special thing I did last Friday was check out playcentres at the Mount and Tauriko. I have taken a personal interest in early childhood education since I have been an MP – given the littlies that attend are literally our future. I've now got a much better understanding of the sector, having been to a number of kindergartens, Kohangas, private centres and now playcentres – where mums and dads stay and play with their children in a very stimulating environment. One of a number of conclusions I have come to is the importance of having choice in this sector so that parents can mix and match to best suit their needs.

Giving our kids the best start in life

Going to a kindergarten, kohanga reo or playcentre is crucial to helping children learn, adapt and develop. National knows ECE helps give our children the best possible start in life.

We're serious about getting children into ECE because we believe in the benefits it provides. Our first priority is – and always has been – to increase participation. In some places, up to 40 per cent of five-year-olds start school without any ECE.

We're targeting Maori, Pasifika and children from low-income backgrounds. At the moment, children from these backgrounds don't attend ECE as much as other children. We're investing $91.8 million in five community-led projects around the country to help 3500 extra children access ECE.

Qualified teachers

Our second priority is lifting the number of qualified ECE teachers to 80 per cent. At the moment, only 67 per cent of early childhood teachers are qualified. We believe that having four out of five staff as qualified teachers will ensure good results for children.

We are funding centres to provide up to our target of 80 per cent qualified teachers. Parents are free to choose centres with a higher proportion of qualified teachers if they wish.

We established the independent ECE Taskforce to review and make recommendations on the effectiveness of ECE spending. We are considering their recommendations, but we will not make changes that would increase costs for parents. We have also guaranteed fee controls will continue.
We've increased spending on ECE to $1.4 billion this year – almost 40 per cent more than Labour did in 2008. In fact, we now spend almost as much on early childhood education as we do on the police force.

We know the value of ECE, both to children and to parents – and we are committed to it.

National kept our pre-election promise to extend the 20 hours ECE policy include playcentres, kohanga reo and five-year-olds and have ruled out any changes to the policy during the next three years. This year, the Kohanga Reo Trust will receive $76 million in taxpayer funding, while more than $14 million will go to playcentres.