The policy announcement was received well by the ECE sector but raises questions about the feasibility of cutting spending on consultants and contractors and the risk of driving up fees for parents, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
“You could be mistaken for thinking it was the other Chris”
After a series of delays, National party leader Christopher Luxon got to deliver his state of the nation speech yesterday. As Toby Manhire writes this morning, there was a lot riding on it with National needing to “crack on with rolling out policy in election year.” The crux of yesterday’s announcement was a new child care tax rebate which will be paid for by cutting spending on consultants working for the government. It was, as many have noted, a reach into Labour party territory. “When the policy was detailed — well, you could be mistaken for thinking it was the other Chris, Hipkins of Labour, that was speaking,” writes Manhire.
Cuts to public sector spending on consultants and contractors will fund policy
National says its policy will cost $249m each year and it will be funded by cutting public sector spending on consultants and contractors. The Herald’s Thomas Coughan looks at the feasibility of that plan (paywalled), noting that while the word “consultant” conjures an image of big consulting firms running expensive working groups, there’s actually a chunk of very ordinary jobs in the public sector done by consultants and contractors. “Both Labour and National have a terrible record on restraining this kind of spending and both need to work out a way to fix it,” writes Coughlan.
Government’s own review of childcare is close to completion
Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern made a childcare policy announcement at the party’s conference last year which increased the income threshold for the current child care subsidy. That kicks in on April 1 and National won’t repeal it. Luxon’s announcement was well-received by the early childcare sector. Early Childhood Council CEO Simon Laube said National’s proposed policy would be “much more significant” than last year’s childcare subsidy threshold changes. Deputy prime minister Carmel Sepuloni has criticised it as “not well thought through”. The Green party says it avoids dealing with systemic issues like child poverty while Act says the policy is “too easy for Labour to steal”. The government’s own review of childcare is close to completion.
Top five private early childcare providers receive almost a fifth of government funding
As Newsroom’s Jo Moir writes, the more obvious criticism of National’s proposed policy is that it wouldn’t save parents anything and would lead to child care providers upping their prices. Luxon cited market forces as the insurance policy against that, describing childcare as a “competitive market”. Michelle Duff dug into that competitive market yesterday with an excellent feature on the for-profit childcare sector. The top five private early childcare providers receive almost a fifth of the government funding available to the sector.