Public Meeting on Early Childhood Education Cuts
Thousands of local children and their families will be directly affected by the National government’s budget cuts to early childhood education. Those families now face the prospect of fee increases or reduced quality of education for their children. John Key has broken his promise to keep existing early childhood education subsidies in place.
That's why I've called a free public meeting on Thursday 29 July to address the impact of these cuts on Hutt Valley families. Labour’s Education Spokesperson Trevor Mallard will detail the funding cuts and explain Labour’s position. I encourage everybody concerned about the future of early childhood education to come to the Family Works Centre, 4 Exchange Street, Upper Hutt, on Thursday 29 July at 7pm.
This is not the brighter future this Government promised Rimutaka families. They are dumbing down our children’s future with these cuts, while increasing costs to families. Labour worked hard to improve the quality and affordability of education for children. Now that is under attack.
Chris Hipkins
MP for Rimutaka
Labour MPs tour Hutt Valley
Trevor Mallard, Annette King, Grant Robertson, Chris Hipkins and Winnie Laban visit Weltec.
Recently Labour’s Wellington-based MPs joined together to spend a day visiting local businesses and community groups here in the Hutt Valley. We visited our good friends at the Woburn railway workshops where we talked about the importance of local jobs. Labour has been supporting the rail workers campaign to build new trains locally rather than import them from overseas.
We visited the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences where we discussed funding for research and development and the government’s plans for mining. A quick visit to Weltec gave us a great insight into the issues facing the region’s latest polytechnic.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Pomare Health Clinic. Like many health providers, the centre is being forced to cut back frontline services due to the National government’s funding cuts. The afternoon was completed with a visit to the students at Pomare School, where we received a very warm pöwhiri (welcome) and afternoon tea at the Upper Hutt City Council.
New Kindergarten in Taita
I had the great pleasure of speaking at the recent opening of Haleema Kindergarten in Taita. As a passionate advocate for early childhood education, I was delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the opening of this new service dedicated to serving the needs of local Muslim families.
We know that children who attend quality early childhood education do better at school and later in life. The more children we can get attending, the better! I wish to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved for such a successful opening. I look forward to visiting again soon.
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