Mallard's Damage Control for Budget Day Blunder

Wed, 09 Jun 2004

Mallard attempts Damage Control for Budget Day Blunder

The Minister of Education is desperately trying to counter the bad press received for his early childhood Budget Day blunder which discriminate against families who choose privately-owned centres for their children.

"His recent release on the EC Regulatory Review Consultation had more spin than my washing machine," said Sue Thorne, CEO of the Early Childhood Council.

"Despite the subject of the release being the Regulatory Review, the Minister took the opportunity to throw in some irrelevant and misleading figures to try to confuse the public about how he is spending the new money allocated in the Budget for early childhood education."

Unfortunately for the Minister no amount of fudging the figures alters the fact that parents who choose privately owned services will miss out on the Minister's much-touted 20 hours per week free early childhood education.

Up and down the country there has been an outcry over his new policy to fund wealthy children in community centres more than poor children in private enterprise centres.

Clearly the Minister has been feeling the backlash from both within his Party and from the public.

Nice try Minister, but nothing short of ensuring that all NZ children have access to the same level of funding will repair the damage you've caused by allowing your anti-business bias to steer policy, rather than what is good for New Zealand families.

ENDS

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