David Seymour: Associate Education Minister blames 'red tape' for Country Kindy closure

David Seymour says early childhood centres are being held back by 'extraordinary' regulatory compliance standards.

The Associate Education Minister issued a 'please explain' to the Ministry of Education, after Manawatu's Country Kindy faced closure.

It has since been granted a 12-week continuation of operations from the Ministry.

Seymour says children weren't at danger.

"There's no question here that any student is in any danger, there's no health or safety issue. It all relates effectively to paperwork and compliance around the curriculum."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Dupless out.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Now, as we've been discussing Country Kindy and Rural mana
we two has received a stay of execution. The Ministry
of Education had announced it was going to close on Monday,
but then David Seymour got involved, and then the Kindy
launched legal action and now the Ministry of Education has
decided to allow the Kendy to stay open for twelve
more weeks. The Associate Education Minister, David Seymour was with
us now, Hey David, Hey, Heather, So did you get

(00:23):
involved in tell the ministry to change its mind?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
No, I can't do that. There's two things I've got
to be clear about. One is that under the law
at the moment, it is up to the Secretary of
Education and in reality some of her staff to make
these licensing decisions. And two is that it's now before
the court, so it's probably going to be up to
them to decide. What I've done is called the MAUL

(00:50):
and including the people from one OA two who have
been involved and said are you guys absolutely sure you're
making the right decision and is there any question of
student safety? And what they've confirmed is that there's no
question here that any student is in any danger. There's
no health or safety issue. It all relates effectively to

(01:13):
paperwork and compliance around the curriculum, and of stressed to
them that they want to be absolutely sure that they're
doing the right thing because they're now going to have
to answer to a judge by the sound of it.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Okay, So are you aware that they closed the candy
down for things like not writing a philosophy statement.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, one of the reasons that the government has what
we're calling a Regulatory Sector Review of Early childhood is
that early childhood centers are subjected to extraordinary amounts of
regulatory compliance. For example, I had someone email me yesterday
and just point out that they have to have nineteen

(01:57):
documents like that ready up to date and prepared for
inspection any time, and they can lose their license, doesn't
matter how much.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
The parents point of the philosophy statement.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
I mean, how.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Important is that?

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Well, I just tell you I was in a government
when that was put in place, and that's exactly why
the Ministry for Regulation is going through the season requirements
for running an EEE and their basic writing instructions are
if it's not helping keep children safe and keep them growing,
so they're ready for primary school, then maybe we don't

(02:32):
need it.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
David. We've been told that one of the violations that
the Ministry had originally listed was that the kids needed
to ask permission before they could go to the toilet,
and the Ministry of Education said that didn't give the
kids enough agency. Is that true?

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, I've been advised that that is suddenly one of
the issues that has been raised by the Ministry. I
think I've got to leave it up to them in
any court action that may come to decide the merits
of that. But certainly I remember going to school, and
actually I got a letter from one of my old

(03:08):
kindy teachers this week at work, actually, and I certainly
remember having to ask to go to the toilet. And
I know that people have mixed views, but I think
I turned out just fine.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
You've almost got too much agency. Some would say, listen,
do you need I mean, if this is the kind
of nonsense that the Ministry of Education is getting up to,
do you think actually that decisions like this should be
taken out of the Ministry's purview and put with the minister.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, it is real interesting. I mean, I just look
at all the elections going on and people getting pretty
disillusioned with the candidates they have to vote for. And
it's not just in France and America and Britain, it's
in the local councils here. One of the trends I
notice is that often the people you can vote for
don't actually have a huge amount of power to make

(03:54):
the decisions. And I think sometimes it's actually better if
someone in my position doesn't have to come on the
radio and say, Look, to be honest, it's the secretary's
decision for the courts, I can't really say much. It
should actually have the power to make these decisions and
be accountable. You know, if you don't like me, vote
me up. That's how it works cool, rather than having

(04:15):
someone who's not subject to that making all the call.
So yep, that's certainly something we're looking in to.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh, thank god, David, Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
David Cmore, Associated Education Minister. For more from Hither Duplessy
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