Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): I have a strange sense of déjà vu standing for the last time in the 52nd Parliament. Although I have a suspicion though I am the last speaker in this general debate I won't get the last word of the 52nd Parliament if history is any judge to go by. But I do think that this last debate of this session of Parliament does clearly highlight the contrast between the parties on this side of the House and the members opposite: the parties on this side of the House who are focused on uniting New Zealanders in a common cause which is fighting against COVID-19 and a party on the other side that want to divide New Zealanders. A Government on this side of the House that believes in having an active role for Government in rebuilding New Zealand rebuilding the economy after one of the greatest economic shocks that we have seen in any of our lifetimes versus a party on the other side of the House that wants to cut billions of dollars in Government spending. But most importantly of all what we see on this side of the House is a Government and a leadership that is dealing with an unprecedented series of events with honesty and with candour and being upfront with New Zealanders and what they see on the other side of the House which is a set of vile nasty personal attacks that are being promoted by members of the National Party. If the best thing the National Party supporters can do is come up with photos of the Prime Minister superimposed into PornHub images and think that that's an acceptable thing to be spread on social media then that explains everything about the predicament that they find themselves in. And when the Leader of the Opposition is asked about that rather than laughing that off she should condemn it in the strongest possible terms because if that's the lack of leadership that she's willing to show New Zealanders when it comes to the most vile nasty stuff I have seen in my time in this House then she has no place in claiming to be someone who should be aspiring to be the leader of this country. Vile nasty attacks are all they've got because when it comes to their recent track record on COVID-19 every time they've made a judgment they've got it wrong. Remember their most recent declaration around lockdowns is that we should aspire to be like Melbourne—we should have neighbourhood lockdowns like they did in Melbourne rather than regional lockdowns. That's their current policy as of today. That would put us in exactly the same boat as Melbourne—six weeks of level 4 lockdown—because the neighbourhood lockdown that the National Party are now promoting was a failed approach. They still as of today have a policy of bringing international students back into New Zealand and letting the universities host them in their accommodation. That's their policy as of today—not changed—and we know that that would be a huge risk. Let's remember we needed a trans-Tasman bubble with urgency. We needed to reopen the border with China with urgency. We needed to be more like Sweden more like Singapore or more like South Korea. Every judgment the National Party have made when it comes to the COVID-19 response they have been wrong. Then we've seen in the House today the faux outrage about money being given to a private school bearing in mind the National Party are champions of private schools. Now if they were talking about the rotting filthy state of some private school buildings and were standing up and apologising for that I would give them a little bit of credit. We inherited a legacy where for 10 years they invested very little in upgrading our schools and actually they'd have more credibility in saying they wanted to do something about that if they weren't saying that the answer was more public-private partnerships (PPPs) which is their approach. So they are railing against funding for a private school and then saying they want to privatise the management of all school property in the form of PPPs—but don't use the PPP language anymore. Call it an alliance and pretend that it's something else when we know what it is. If it looks like a duck if it quacks like a duck—SPEAKER: Order! Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: —it's probably a duck and the National Party know that. Then of course existing National Party policy as of today is to bring back charter schools. That is the National Party policy a policy that saw kids learning in shipping containers—learning in shipping containers—and that's the policy that the National Party wants to bring back. The contrast in this election could not be clearer: a party with a positive vision for New Zealand one that wants to bring people together versus a party that has no new ideas and that can simply peddle in fear and misinformation and personal attacks. It's a very clear contrast. Bring on the election. The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.