More than 1500 local children and their families will be directly affected by the budget cuts to early childhood education says Rimutaka Labour MP, Chris Hipkins. Read the rest of this entry »

On Budget day I’m sure many of our local residents will have been keenly calculating the value of the tax cuts dished out by the National-led government. No doubt their initial excitement would have worn off by the time they worked out that any benefit they were getting from a few extra dollars in the pocket each week wouldn’t even come close to compensating them for the increase in the cost of living they are going to face.

This year’s Budget is one of broken promises and missed opportunities. The biggest broken promise is John Key’s about-face on increasing GST. Before the last election he said that National wouldn’t increase GST because if they did a “halfway decent job’ of managing the economy it wouldn’t be necessary. It seems a year and a half is a long time in politics – they just hiked GST up to 15 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening and speak on behalf of the Labour Party. I’m the Labour Party Candidate for the Rimutaka electorate and bring with me apologies from the Minister of Education Chris Carter, who is unable to be here. I’m proud to stand here as a representative of the Labour-led government. I think over the past nine year’s we’ve made huge progress towards our joint goals in early childhood education and that’s something I think we can all take pride in. Read the rest of this entry »

Ninety one per cent of all three and four year-olds in the Rimutaka electorate’s early childhood centres are now getting 20 Hours Free early childhood education, Labour’s candidate for the Rimutaka electorate Chris Hipkins says. “It’s a year this month since 20 Hours Free was launched by the Labour-led government and I’m really pleased to report that 812 three and four year-olds in Upper Hutt and 2,381 in Lower Hutt are benefiting from 20 Hours Free,” Chris Hipkins said. Read the rest of this entry »

Wellington’s Kindergarten teachers were reminded what’s at state at this year’s general election during a political debate at their annual conference on Monday night. Labour’s Chris Hipkins joined a panel including National and Green candidates. Questions to the panel ranged from training and support for early childhood teachers through to support for children and families living in poverty. Read the rest of this entry »