The Government's announcement that an extra $100,000 will be going into HIPPY programmes this year raises questions about where the other $200,000 cut from PAFT is going, National's Early Childhood spokesperson Anne Tolley said today.

"The extra money for the Home Instruction Programme for Pre-school Youngsters (HIPPY) is great news. HIPPY is a good programme - that's why National supported the programme's implementation.

"But I would like to know where the funding cut from the Parents as First Teachers programme (PAFT) is going. $300,000 is being cut from PAFT in 2000/01 but only $100,000 of this is going to HIPPY.

"In addition, the Government plans an ongoing cut of $712,000 per year to PAFT. The Government must tell New Zealanders where that money will be going.

"I can't see how the funding cut to PAFT is in line with the Government's so-called support for 'at risk' families, when the money appears to be disappearing into the Government's coffers," Mrs Tolley said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>