3. Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) to the Minister of Education: Mr Speaker—[Interruption]

Mr SPEAKER: I have called the members’ colleague. I say to the front-bench members on my left that I have called the Hon Clayton Cosgrove [Interruption] And I will have order on the right-hand side of the House too. [Interruption] Either way, I am not happy with the member continuing to interject when I have called another member to ask his question. I accept that there had been a breach on both sides of the House and I will ignore the latter one.

Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE: Has she considered the impact of the Government’s decision to discontinue physical therapy funding for students with severe disabilities?

Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) : Yes.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: What would the Minister say to Kaiapoi mother Julie Baker, whose 12-year-old daughter Brittany has cerebral palsy and faces the very real prospect of having to remove her from school as a result of those cuts, which the mother says will have “devastating consequences for children like Brittany”?

Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I am advised that a student with high or very high needs would still continue to receive about $20,000 from both the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme and from the operations grant, and a quarter of that Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme funding should be used for therapy. I am also advised that there are a number of children throughout the country with similar or even higher needs who are not receiving any of that extra support because this additional funding for therapy was schools-based, not needs-based.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Why did the Minister tell the 23 schools throughout New Zealand affected by these cuts that to make up the shortfall in funding, “those schools might contribute from their operational grants or their staffing entitlement”, and does she agree with the principal of Addington School, which runs, as she should be aware, a conductive education programme, that such a suggestion is “insulting”?

Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I say to that member that up and down this country there are a large number of schools that under the previous Government were supporting special-needs students from their operational grant and from their staffing entitlement. This Government has put an extra $51 million into Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme funding and that will create another 1,100 places for children whom the previous Government left unfunded and unsupported.

Jo Goodhew: What reports has the Minister received on funding for special education?

Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I have received an email from the mother of a 5-year-old girl with autism. She wrote of her long campaign to secure special-needs funding for her daughter. She thanked the National Government for boosting special-education funding by $51 million, which will provide help for another 1,100 children so that other mums and dads would be spared what she had suffered. [Interruption]

Mr SPEAKER: I just ask members to be a little reasonable. I have called the Hon Clayton Cosgrove to ask a supplementary question, and he has not had a chance because his colleagues are interjecting so much.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Does the Minister consider it fair that although private schools are set to receive an additional $35 million in funding, the future development of an education for some of the country’s most vulnerable children is now under threat as a result of her directive to discontinue funding, and how on earth does she reconcile that little anomaly?

Hon ANNE TOLLEY: What is not fair is under the previous Government some schools got extra funding and some schools did not. Some children got that extra funding, and some children did not. That is what was not fair under the previous Government.

Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. With respect, that was a straight question that asked the Minister about the fairness of funding private schools to the detriment of the most vulnerable children. She started the answer off by saying she would tell me what was fair and then she prattled on about something else. She did not even address that question. It was a straight one.

Hon Gerry Brownlee: Mr Speaker—

Mr SPEAKER: I do not need any further help on the matter. All I invite the honourable member to do is to read his Hansard. If that was asked, it might have been possible to get an answer, but he went on to ask the Minister how she reconciled something to do with fairness. The Minister gave an answer reconciling how she sees that, and that is the dilemma the member will get when he adds that type of thing to his question. The Minister is entitled to respond to that part of the question.