'Why isn't it happening?' - Education Minister questioned over promise of scrapping school donations

Labour Party promises such as scrapping school donations will eventually happen, says Education Minister Chris Hipkins, but just not yet.

TVNZ1's Q+A host Corin Dann said one of the biggest Labour Party promises that teachers and schools were disappointed about was around the scrapping of school donations. 

"You've been quoted as saying you'd been getting work underway, that you were really keen to see this happen, why isn't it happening?"

It would mean the government would effectively pay donations for parents. 

"It's a promise we're absolutely committed to delivering on, we haven't been able to deliver on it in the first Budget... There are a lot of financial pressures that we had to deal with in the first Budget, including the biggest increase in student numbers in decades," Mr Hipkins said. 

"The result is that we had to make sure we were funding that properly, we were putting extra teachers into schools... That was a higher priority."

National Party's education spokesperson Nikki Kaye questioned Mr Hipkins this week over the election promise. 

In July last year, Labour pledged to end voluntary school donations under a $4 billion revitalisation of the education sector. It was not included in Budget 2018. 

"I've been clear that the commitments in the Speech from the Throne, the coalition agreement, and the confidence and supply agreement would all be considered as part of the first and subsequent Budget processes," Mr Hipkins said. 

Ms Kaye asked Mr Hipkins: "Is he telling this House that on the morning that he was sworn in as a Minister, where he committed to end school donations, it's not valid because he hadn't signed his ministerial warrant; if so, are all promises that he made prior to signing this warrant invalid?"

"Budget 2018 had to accommodate the largest cost pressures due to population growth in several decades," Mr Hipkins replied.

Other promises around such as adult education and getting 100 per cent qualified teachers in ECE, will be delivered in the first term, Mr Hipkins said on Q+A.