Kate’s blog:

Hardest Blog I have ever had to write – Part 2!!

What a day!!   I appeared before the select committee at the Novotel in Auckland today for what was possibly one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my existence.  I got there early enough to see other submissions including a Doctor who was absolutely fascinating and who brought up points of objection that I had not even contemplated and I found myself furiously scribbling down most of what she was saying just to remember it for future use.  However my hand was shaking so much with nerves I am not sure how readable any of it will actually be!

It’s a fairly intimidating experience with the committee sat around three sides of a square with you sitting on your lonesome (in my case) in front of the panel.  They welcomed me and off I went.  I found it incredibly hard even with my public speaking and acting experience under my belt not to become overwhelmed by the emotion behind what I feel.  It took everything I had to keep it together.  I tried my best to remember what I had written and not read it off the page as I wanted to see what impact I was having on the members and make eye contact with as many as I could.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I knew I had got to my last paragraph.  My oral submission was really well received by the committee who congratulated me (well most of them!) for a passionate and well reasoned piece.  Then the questions started….I think nearly every person there asked me something. I can’t remember all of them but a few of them below.

Read the questions and Kate’s answers here and well as Kate’s oral submission: http://www.katherinearmon.com/2012/11/hardest-blog-i-have-ever-had-to-write.html

Some questions others were asked:

1.  Are you totally against compulsory ECE for preschoolers or would amending the bill to include home based care and other options be acceptable?

2.  Why do you say that fifteen hours is a long time? I could understand if the Bill was proposing, say, thirty hours but fifteen doesn’t seem that much time to me.

3.  You mentioned that there are some families that need help because their children are vulnerable and are being neglected etc … what different solutions would you propose to help them? (This question was quite specific to something I had talked about).

Be sure to read the questions that Kate was asked in the link above as well.

Please if they ask you about getting exemptions for homeschoolers to keep their children from an ECE. Please say that we do NOT want to go with that option. We want the Social Obligations to be taken out of the Bill.

If in questions they bring up the subject of making exemptions available for home educating preschoolers, your answer is that it wouldn’t work. A, it’d be unfair since the general population don’t have to get exemptions to preschool at home. B, more importantly, the MSD’s policy for home education is to REFUSE exemptions unless it would be unreasonable for the child to attend school (see Paula Bennet’s letter to Samuel Blight). The bill already provides for preschoolers to be exempted from ECE attendance where it would be unreasonable for them to do so, so adding exemptions would be an empty gesture.

As I hear of more questions people were asked I will add them here.

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Press releases from 28 November in Wellinton.

From the Green Party: Welfare reforms given big thumbs down

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Key links for presenting an oral submission

• Submissions published for the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Presenting an oral submission to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Making an Oral Submission to the Select Committee
• Social Services Select Committee members

Please feel free to use any of these links to help you with your oral submission

Please feel free to repost, forward or pass on  this email

Please do so with the whole post. Thankyou

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Related Links:

• Presenting Oral Submission to Social Services Select Committee
• About Early Child Care in Sweden
• ECE linked to obesity in kids: study
• BERLIN DECLARATION
• Media Release 12 – Early Childhood Education Brings Social Drawbacks, Uncertain Benefits
• New Zealand Law Society Submission
• Australians have common sense where it seems our NZ Government does not
• ECE (Preschool) is no good for 4, 5 and possibly 6 year olds expert says
• Presenting an oral submission to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Social Services Select Committee members
• Barbara Smith’s submission
• Media Release 11 – Parents Are Responsible for Education, Says HEF National Director
• Media Release 10 – Preschool Associated With Social and Academic Disadvantage
• A Bit of Political Advice to Home Educators by Craig Smith
• Samuel Blight’s submission
• Home Education Foundation’s submission
• Media Release 9 – Social Security Bill Should Treat Home Education as a Legitimate Choice
• Media Release 8 – Social Security Bill Will Cause Real Hardship to Real People
• Family Integrity’s submission
• Media Release 7 – Paula Bennett’s One-Size-Fits-All Approach Leaves Parents With No Options
• 2nd letter from Paula Bennett to Barbara Smith
• Why should I put a submission into the Select Committee about the beneficiaries?
• Media Release 6 – Social Security Bill Will Punish Responsible Parents Who ‘Can’t Be Bought’
• Beneficiaries: Policy and Law
• 66 Submissions
• Submission: Trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, slavery and deception
• Media Release 5 – Beneficiary Parents “Not Able to Home School” Under Social Security Bill
• Media Release 4 – Social Security Bill Targets Responsible Parents for Toughest Penalties
• Letter from Paula Bennett to Samuel Blight
• Opinion Piece in Truth
• Possible timeline for Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Media Release 3 – Social Security Bill’s ECE Obligations Breach Human Rights
• Media Release 2 – Vulnerable Children Not Benefited By Social Security Bill
• Media Release 1 – Social Security Bill Coerces Parents, Removes Freedom
• Make a submission: Reject compulsory Early Education for 3 year olds
• Some of the main links
• Comment on Q+A: Social Development Minister Paula Bennett
• Human Rights in New Zealand Today: The right to education
• Raymond S. Moore on Early Childhood Centres
• Should preschool be compulsory?
• TVNZ One this morning Q&A with Paula Bennett
• Maxim Institute: What is best for children?
• HUGE Concerns over the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Letter from Paula Bennett concerning beneficaries and home education to Barbara Smith
• Toby Manhire on Benefit-slaying Nats starting to look plain nasty
• Linking welfare to preschool attendance a world first
• New Update on: How will the new Social obligations which will be required of all beneficiary parents effect home schoolers?
• How will the new Social obligations which will be required of all beneficiary parents effect home schoolers?

I was in Wellington yesterday but I did not see the red carpet. The family that gave me a ride from Foxton did though. I would much rather have gone with them and watched, along with the other 100,000 people, the goings on in downtown Wellington than sit in the Select Committee room. It was a fabulous day – one to be outside rather than inside.

I know you will want a report from me. I feel so inadequate to do so. Had Craig been there he would now be giving you a blow by blow report of the afternoon. I wish now that I had taped my oral submission. Then I could write to you about it more intelligently.

All 11 members of the Social Services Select Committee members were represented there with some changes of personal at stages. There were a number of policy people there as well.

The members of the committee were great. They asked some great questions. No one made it a difficult or stressful time.

The family that gave me the ride to Wellington were first up at 3:30pm. They gave a great submission and answered the questions really well. This family was the only other family speaking from our concerns on the Bill yesterday.

Some of the question the Select Committee asked:

1. How can we monitor or tell that young children in the home are getting the equivalent to an ECE education?

2. Why should the Government pay beneficiaries to stay at home to school their own children when others have to put their children in ECE or school and go to work?

These were easy questions to answer.

I am sorry that I have forgotton the other questions that were asked. I should have been writing them down as they asked the other family and written the ones I was asked as soon as I had finished.  I stayed and listened to the other presenters and they all spoke about other parts of the Bill – all not happy with various parts of it.

I want to assure you that the Social Services Select Committee members make you feel very much as ease. They didn’t give anyone a hard time.

The stressfulness of it all was really inside of me and some of it was unnecessary. First when we arrived there was a lady being refused entry into the Parliament Buildings. I had already been in contact with her through Facebook. She was a beneficiary who was having trouble with the system. She had a tresspass notice against her and they just would not let her in for her 10 minute submission. They even told her that she was not on the list when infact she was the first person to be called up. (Since she was not there then the family who gave me the ride were first up.) I tried to go to help get this lady into the building but there was nothing we could do at that stage – only the Speaker of the House can let those with tresspass notices into the Parliament buildings and there was not enough time to organise that. The other stressful thing for me was a group of women with bundles of papers (I, too, had bundles of papers).  They all sat in a group taking notes at times, I thought that they might be from ECE or some others supporting the Bill. So that made me a bit nervous to be speaking infront of them especially with what I was saying about ECEs. It turned out that they were policy people. The other stress was just getting the information across to the Committee members that I wanted to. I had 40 minutes which was broken up into personal 10min, Family Integrity 15min and Home Education Foundation 15min.  At stages I would be asked questions that I had planned to address in the Home Education Foundation time which messed me up a bit. Because I would have just a minute to answer when I had planned to give a 3 or 4 minute presentation later. So I had to do some quick thinking in juggling around my talks. Apart from that it all seemed to go very well.

Please let me know of your experiences before the Select Committee especially if it can be helpful for others, or help others not to feel stressed. Please send in your reports just to encourage others.

Key links for presenting an oral submission

• Submissions published for the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Presenting an oral submission to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Making an Oral Submission to the Select Committee
• Social Services Select Committee members

Please feel free to use any of these links to help you with your oral submission

Please feel free to repost, forward or pass on  this email

Please do so with the whole post. Thankyou

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related Links:

• About Early Child Care in Sweden
• ECE linked to obesity in kids: study
• BERLIN DECLARATION
• Media Release 12 – Early Childhood Education Brings Social Drawbacks, Uncertain Benefits
• New Zealand Law Society Submission
• Australians have common sense where it seems our NZ Government does not
• ECE (Preschool) is no good for 4, 5 and possibly 6 year olds expert says
• Presenting an oral submission to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Social Services Select Committee members
• Barbara Smith’s submission
• Media Release 11 – Parents Are Responsible for Education, Says HEF National Director
• Media Release 10 – Preschool Associated With Social and Academic Disadvantage
• A Bit of Political Advice to Home Educators by Craig Smith
• Samuel Blight’s submission
• Home Education Foundation’s submission
• Media Release 9 – Social Security Bill Should Treat Home Education as a Legitimate Choice
• Media Release 8 – Social Security Bill Will Cause Real Hardship to Real People
• Family Integrity’s submission
• Media Release 7 – Paula Bennett’s One-Size-Fits-All Approach Leaves Parents With No Options
• 2nd letter from Paula Bennett to Barbara Smith
• Why should I put a submission into the Select Committee about the beneficiaries?
• Media Release 6 – Social Security Bill Will Punish Responsible Parents Who ‘Can’t Be Bought’
• Beneficiaries: Policy and Law
• 66 Submissions
• Submission: Trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, slavery and deception
• Media Release 5 – Beneficiary Parents “Not Able to Home School” Under Social Security Bill
• Media Release 4 – Social Security Bill Targets Responsible Parents for Toughest Penalties
• Letter from Paula Bennett to Samuel Blight
• Opinion Piece in Truth
• Possible timeline for Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Media Release 3 – Social Security Bill’s ECE Obligations Breach Human Rights
• Media Release 2 – Vulnerable Children Not Benefited By Social Security Bill
• Media Release 1 – Social Security Bill Coerces Parents, Removes Freedom
• Make a submission: Reject compulsory Early Education for 3 year olds
• Some of the main links
• Comment on Q+A: Social Development Minister Paula Bennett
• Human Rights in New Zealand Today: The right to education
• Raymond S. Moore on Early Childhood Centres
• Should preschool be compulsory?
• TVNZ One this morning Q&A with Paula Bennett
• Maxim Institute: What is best for children?
• HUGE Concerns over the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Letter from Paula Bennett concerning beneficaries and home education to Barbara Smith
• Toby Manhire on Benefit-slaying Nats starting to look plain nasty
• Linking welfare to preschool attendance a world first
• New Update on: How will the new Social obligations which will be required of all beneficiary parents effect home schoolers?
• How will the new Social obligations which will be required of all beneficiary parents effect home schoolers?

Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill

Oral Submissions begin 28 November in Wellington. (This weeks meetings only)

Visitor access to select committee hearings in committee rooms 3 is through Parliament’s main entrance across the forecourt between Parliament House and the Beehive.

Only enter the committee room if an ‘open to the public’ sign is displayed. Wait outside if you cannot see the sign — the select committee may be discussing something in private, or their schedule may have changed at short notice.

Select committee meetings that are open to the public are shown on the schedule marked with an asterisk *.

Wednesday 28 November 2012 — Room 3 Parliament Buildings Wellington

29 November 2012

Friday 30 November 2012  —  Novotel Auckland Airport – Paataka Conference Room 1

Key links for presenting an oral submission

• Submissions published for the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Presenting an oral submission to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Making an Oral Submission to the Select Committee
• Social Services Select Committee members

My appointment for my personal Oral Submission is 4:05pm on the 28th in Wellington

Family Integrity’s oral Submission is 4:15pm on the 28th in Wellington

The Home Education Foundation’s oral submission is 4:30pm on the 28th in Wellington

Please feel free to use any of these links to help you with your oral submission

Please feel free to repost, forward or pass on  this email

Please do so with the whole post. Thankyou

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related Links:

• About Early Child Care in Sweden
• ECE linked to obesity in kids: study
• BERLIN DECLARATION
• Media Release 12 – Early Childhood Education Brings Social Drawbacks, Uncertain Benefits
• New Zealand Law Society Submission
• Australians have common sense where it seems our NZ Government does not
• ECE (Preschool) is no good for 4, 5 and possibly 6 year olds expert says
• Presenting an oral submission to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Social Services Select Committee members
• Barbara Smith’s submission
• Media Release 11 – Parents Are Responsible for Education, Says HEF National Director
• Media Release 10 – Preschool Associated With Social and Academic Disadvantage
• A Bit of Political Advice to Home Educators by Craig Smith
• Samuel Blight’s submission
• Home Education Foundation’s submission
• Media Release 9 – Social Security Bill Should Treat Home Education as a Legitimate Choice
• Media Release 8 – Social Security Bill Will Cause Real Hardship to Real People
• Family Integrity’s submission
• Media Release 7 – Paula Bennett’s One-Size-Fits-All Approach Leaves Parents With No Options
• 2nd letter from Paula Bennett to Barbara Smith
• Why should I put a submission into the Select Committee about the beneficiaries?
• Media Release 6 – Social Security Bill Will Punish Responsible Parents Who ‘Can’t Be Bought’
• Beneficiaries: Policy and Law
• 66 Submissions
• Submission: Trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, slavery and deception
• Media Release 5 – Beneficiary Parents “Not Able to Home School” Under Social Security Bill
• Media Release 4 – Social Security Bill Targets Responsible Parents for Toughest Penalties
• Letter from Paula Bennett to Samuel Blight
• Opinion Piece in Truth
• Possible timeline for Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Media Release 3 – Social Security Bill’s ECE Obligations Breach Human Rights
• Media Release 2 – Vulnerable Children Not Benefited By Social Security Bill
• Media Release 1 – Social Security Bill Coerces Parents, Removes Freedom
• Make a submission: Reject compulsory Early Education for 3 year olds
• Some of the main links
• Comment on Q+A: Social Development Minister Paula Bennett
• Human Rights in New Zealand Today: The right to education
• Raymond S. Moore on Early Childhood Centres
• Should preschool be compulsory?
• TVNZ One this morning Q&A with Paula Bennett
• Maxim Institute: What is best for children?
• HUGE Concerns over the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill
• Letter from Paula Bennett concerning beneficaries and home education to Barbara Smith
• Toby Manhire on Benefit-slaying Nats starting to look plain nasty
• Linking welfare to preschool attendance a world first
• New Update on: How will the new Social obligations which will be required of all beneficiary parents effect home schoolers?
• How will the new Social obligations which will be required of all beneficiary parents effect home schoolers?