National's and Labour are going tit-for-tat over education issues.
This morning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins released a statement saying that the previous National Government "turned a blind eye" to New Zealand's population boost, "and has left this government to pick up the tab to pay for schools and classrooms for 17,000 more students than planned for".
He said National had approved $1.137 billion for Christchurch's school rebuild programme "but had not set aside the full funding amount".
He said with it was "short-sighted".
"When combined with the need to fund urgent repair work and there being no money in the kitty to finish the Christchurch school rebuild programme, we're faced with a whopping $1.1 billion bill over the next four years."
"The people of Christchurch, however, can be assured this government will make good on the shortfall and the building programme will continue unaffected."
Mr Hipkins said National's education spokesperson Nikki Kaye "needs to explain why she allowed this sorry situation to happen on her watch".
However Ms Kaye hit back at Mr Hipkin's statement, saying instead the Labour Party are now "struggling to deliver on their wild campaign promises because they ignored the basic capital pressures of business-as-usual government".
"The chickens have come home to roost. Despite billions of additional funding from new revenue and borrowed money, Labour is admitting they failed to budget for business-as-usual spending and are now crying poverty.
"Chris Hipkins says he has identified a 'surprise' $1.1 billion of school property projects that need funding. This is embarrassing for the Minister, because the projects are just part of business-as-usual that the Government needs to fund each and every Budget," Ms Kaye said in a statement today.
She said the government was now "trying to cover up its negligence".
"We were on track to deliver the 17,000 extra student places needed in Auckland by 2019, and were finalising the Auckland Education Growth Plan to strategically manage the increasing pressure on Auckland’s schooling network," Ms Kaye said.
"The reality is that investing in school property to get ahead of growth was a priority for National, and is part of the business-as-usual spend of any government."
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