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Thank you for inviting me to speak here this evening. And thank you for being here as part of your professional development.

Your conference has a theme “The Politics of Early Childhood Education”.

Good morning

Thank you for the opportunity to open the GOVIS conference.

It is a great honour for me to be here with so many of my Australian colleagues and with so much talent and intellectual firepower.

It is a pleasure to be back at a Navcon conference, surrounded by so much talent, so much intellectual firepower. A year ago at Te Papa, I closed the first Learning@schools conference open to all teachers.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

Your conference is a landmark event and one that I am very pleased to have the opportunity to open.

I am pleased to be here to represent the Government this evening at the launch of this significant national education partnership programme with Maori.

Thank you for the invitation to present the inaugural certificates for the Change Training public sector course – ‘Knowledge 1: The very civil servant’.

Welcome to Parliament.

A couple of years ago when I spoke to your conference, I was challenged about the lack of professional development options for principals.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

Thank you also for being here. Your presence signals much more than giving up a weekend to attend a conference. Behind it sits the hours that you devote each week to support your schools.

Thanks for inviting me to speak at this important – and timely - gathering.

Welcome everybody. I have to say I am very thrilled to be here today. Our 1999 sports policy stated that we would complete a review of long-term structural arrangements.

It is a pleasure to have been asked to speak today on two topics dear to my heart, Wainuiomata and Education.

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today.

Your conference is addressing collaborative approaches in the early years.

Thanks for inviting me to speak to you today.

I note that the focus of your conference this year is on the importance of inspiring differences - and being inspired by differences.

This Government, too, recognises the importance of diversity in the early childhood sector.

I’d like to start by illustrating to you why I think this conference is not only important, but is essential.

Last year I visited Rata Street School, a decile one school in my electorate, and met Acacia, who had just turned nine and, who until the beginning of last year had never touched a computer.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you conference.

Today I’m wearing three hats to open your conference and give you some food for thought to discuss over the next two days.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

It is the third time I’ve addressed your conference as Minister of Education.

It’s wonderful to be back here today, presenting the second round of Prime Minister’s Coach Scholarships.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you conference.

Today I’m wearing three hats to open your conference and give you some food for thought to discuss over the next two days.

Your meeting is exploring the important and relevant topic of curriculum leadership in kindergartens.

I want to talk to you about the results of the Early Childhood Primary Link research released late last year.

The events that took place on September 11 shocked the world. In New Zealand we watched from afar as American emergency services swung into action to deal with the horrific crisis and its aftermath.

I’ve been really excited by some of the programmes that I’ve seen around the country this year that are making a real difference to Maori.

In an electoral sense, this is like my mid-year report to you. The Government is just over half way through its first term and this is an opportunity for me to go over the commitments we made to the education sector, and how we have progressed those commitments.