Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): I want to take a moment to acknowledge the thousands and thousands of teachers and parents and students that turned out today on the forecourts of Parliament and in places like Auckland to protest what they see as a gridlock—a gridlock in collective bargaining. I want to acknowledge them and I want to acknowledge them for the job that they do but for the serious issues that they currently have in terms of pay and workload.It is important to talk about history. Every Government is handed a different set of circumstances. We have said very publicly that we were handed the global financial recession and the Canterbury earthquakes but despite that we increased the education budget every year that we were in office. This Government however was handed a very different set of circumstances. When I talk to teachers and principals up and down the country they tell me a very different story than what the Government is telling other people. They tell me this was a story of a Government that had huge promises and huge expectations. This is a story of a Government that promised to modernise every school building. This is a story of a Government that promised to provide reduced teacher ratios in early childhood. They promised to provide 100 percent in early childhood. They promised that they would scrap school donations. But what they've done is they've not met those promises. They created huge expectations. Why haven't they resolved the teacher strikes within an 18-month period?The second thing that they've done is they've misled the public and I have questioned the Minister about this. I have had many teachers who have contacted me and they've said Please Nikki will you point out to the Minister that it is not the vast majority of teachers that are getting 10 grand over two years." The reality is because there's been gridlock primary school teachers have not had an increase in 2017 or 2018. In the Minister's own question yesterday he admitted that there were 25000-odd teachers that had not had $10000—and I've seen Minister Martin's video with the whiteboard; I've had the emails from teachers. So the second thing that they've done is they have misled the public around the teacher offer.The third thing that they've done is they have dug their heels in. This is a Government with billions and billions of dollars. This is a Government that has Shane Jones out there promising things in regional New Zealand. This is a Government that is promising trees they are promising planes but when it comes to wellbeing I'll tell you what we will hold this Government to account for. We will be saying to them "If you can't keep teachers in classrooms and you can't do the basics then you are not providing a wellbeing Budget." It's not just us that are saying it; we have teachers out there on the forecourt of Parliament and across New Zealand saying "We understood in the global financial recession. We understood with the earthquakes." Now obviously they wanted to be paid more but it was a different set of circumstances. Now there are billions and billions of dollars that are being provided with this Budget and what we know is we have gridlock in teacher collective bargaining because they have not shown leadership.I'll tell you what leadership is about. Leadership is about Prime Minister Ardern being there for the tough times. Leadership is about being there for the tough times. She was not on the forecourt of Parliament today. She was not talking to the teachers. She was not explaining why the priority—and we will see tomorrow in the Wellbeing Budget—has not been on resolving these really crucial workload and pay issues.So what would National do? National has been very clear: we believe—and we have been very clear with teachers—that the bargaining parameters need to shift. The envelope needs to shift. Simon Bridges' first speech as the Leader of the Opposition at conference was in education to say that National would spend hundreds of millions of dollars reducing teacher ratios. National prioritises front-line education services and the question for this Government on the eve of the Wellbeing Budget is: have they prioritised trees and planes and other less important things over actually keeping our teachers in classrooms?Hon Ron Mark: You're in trouble.SPEAKER: Order!Hon NIKKI KAYE: It's not about what we are saying; it's actually about what the thousands of teachers and parents and students said today as they marched. They said to the Government "You need to listen to us. We are the people at the front line of wellbeing." We need to support our teachers more.SPEAKER: Order! Before I call a member I'm just going to say to the Minister of Defence that when he's making interjections across the floor suggesting people are in trouble he should not use the second person."