Wagner NickyHon NICKY WAGNER (National): On one hand this Government talks about being kind about being caring—take note debaters—and also about being responsive to our young people. On the other it gives the most vulnerable a kick in the guts when it shuts the schools that have just got them excited about learning—when it shuts partnership schools. The schools of New Zealand have already failed those young people and now the Labour Government is failing them again.SPEAKER: Order! I just want to say to Dr Webb I may have closed quite a few schools but I don't think I'm responsible for the group that's being discussed and he should not indicate that I was.Hon NICKY WAGNER: Thank you Mr Speaker. The school system has already failed these young people and now Labour is failing them again. These kids are devastated and I know how they feel because I worked with so many of them when I was a teacher in Christchurch at Hagley High School and Hornby High School. I really enjoyed teaching these kids. I found the job challenging I found it motivating and at times I found it frustrating. The vast majority of young people can learn and they learn well. You can inspire them you can motivate them and you can cajole them into learning. The key here is being children- pupil- and student-focused—focused so that you can engage them and their families. Successful schools will always be student-focused. The day that they get more concerned about how they run the school how they have the systems what their conditions are and too rigid about what they think young people need is the day that they fail.Now New Zealand of course has many many successful schools and we have really high-achieving young people at that top level. But we have had for many years a long tale of underachievement particularly of Māori and Pasifika kids. Now that is not good enough. We have to do something about that we have to lift their achievement we have to motivate them we have to engage them and we have to get them learning. This is what partnership schools are doing right now. They are making that happen for these particularly vulnerable children. They have been particularly successful for Māori—particularly successful. We can ask Peeni Henare. We can ask Willie Jackson. We can ask Kelvin Davis. These schools are giving kids a learning experience that they've never had before and to quote Mr Henare a blistering slap and shutting the schools is not what we want to do."From my teaching experience I know that every kid can and actually wants to learn. No kid is a lost cause. It's just low expectations inflexible systems and not giving them the right support at the right time that lets them fall through the cracks. Now Labour says they're getting rid of partnership schools because they don't have registered teachers they cost too much and they don't follow the curriculum. That is not right. The real reason they're getting rid of partnership schools is that they are bulk funded and they can contract teachers at different rates. And that is the kiss of death—bulk funding and contracting teaching rates are absolutely non-negotiable for the unions and Labour and teachers' unions.I support partnership schools. I support them because they're life changing for some of these most at-risk children—absolutely life changing and remarkably effective in getting them into learning. Every New Zealander deserves a good education and that education needs to be specific for those needs and partnership schools are another way of delivering that. It's about being kind it's about being caring and it's about being responsive to young people. Labour needs to walk the talk. Talk is not enough; you have to do the action. These young people deserve our care they deserve our support they deserve our investment and they deserve the opportunity of learning even if it's in a partnership school. Thank you Mr Speaker."