Hon Chris Carter
Minister of Education

03 September 2007 Media Statement
ECE regulations ‘bulldozed’ since 2004

New early childhood regulations have had four phases of consultation totalling nine months since 2004 and could hardly be described as being “bulldozed through before Christmas”, says Education Minister Chris Carter.

“The position taken by National’s early childhood spokesperson, Paula Bennett, that these changes to ECE regulations are “political expediency”, is misinformed.

“There has been a total of nine months consultation since the development of the new regulatory framework began in 2004 and centres now have up to six years to meet these new regulations.

“Four years since consultation began and another six years to meet regulations is about the length of time that National has been sitting on the opposition benches.

“Claims that these regulations have been ‘bulldozed through’ will not be well received by the majority of those in the ECE sector,” said Chris Carter.

“More than 605 existing services provided feedback on the regulations.

“With regard to sleeping rooms, Mrs Bennett continues to misrepresent the sector. When consulted, 73 per cent of submitters were of the view that separate sleep rooms were needed.

“In addition, currently 90 per cent of providers already have adequate separate sleep rooms.

“It appears that Paula Bennett does not consider the safety of children as her paramount concern and is just trying to score cheap, misinformed political points.

“Today’s promise to dilute child safety if National wins will be as poorly received by the sector as her earlier announcement that National will remove ‘free’ from the government’s 20 Hours Free ECE,” said Chris Carter.

ENDS

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