Today's announcement on the Family Boost scheme is little more than tinkering around the edges while real issues in the ECE system are ignored, says the Green Party.
"$15 more a week for a small number of families who can jump through the hoops to apply is a pittance in this cost-of-living nightmare. We need a whole system reset," says the Green Party spokesperson for Māori Education and Early Childhood Education Benjamin Doyle.
"Every child in Aotearoa deserves an education that sets them up for success. That demands an ECE system that places tamariki at the heart.
"The Family Boost scheme entirely fails to address the fundamental issue of the profit-driven ECE sector passing on huge costs to parents and the government, with very little transparency about how the funding is used.
"Family Boost is complex for families, administratively expensive and doesn't address the gouging by private ECE owners. Tens of millions of dollars are taken in profits by ECE owners, with no benefit for tamariki. We don't need for-profit companies running schools - why do we need them in ECE?
"Our Green Budget clearly showed how we can cover the full cost of delivering free, quality ECE for whānau, end subsidies to corporations, and instead support community-based and public centres that prioritise the needs of our kids, not the interests of shareholders.
"Tiakina te rito o te harakeke. We need to put our tamariki and mokopuna at the heart of decisions about education, where they should have been all along," said Benjamin Doyle.
