Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3637. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am delighted to speak in this general debate. Can I start by just acknowledging the speech from Annette King. She gave a great speech except that it was a speech about the Labour Party which is fractured has no leadership and has no policy. I just want to demonstrate that we are a team. I also want to quote Dr Seuss. Here is my quote from Dr Seuss: “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” That sums up how ineffective the Opposition is. We sit here in question time we see David Shearer making absolutely no hits on our team and we see that there are several people vying for the leadership of the Labour Party. My colleague Paul Hutchison has talked about the fact that Labour Party members are not focused on a vision for New Zealand and alternative policies; they are focused on themselves. That is right: the biggest thing in the Labour Party at the moment is how its members elect their leader. I have got news for them: they actually have a leader but he is pretty invisible. The reality is that he is getting no air time because his members do not have confidence in him. If you compare that with our Prime Minister John Key the last time I looked he was actually doing pretty well in the polls. I also want to say that the big difference between us and that side of the House is that we have policy and a good record. In the area of education—I am chair of the Education and Science Committee—let us look back at Labour’s record. 
Hon Annette King 
: So why do you talk about the Labour Party all the time? 
NIKKI KAYE 
: The reason I want to address Annette King’s comments and the reason we want to talk about Labour is that the record and the comparison are appalling. Labour’s record was appalling. Here are some interesting facts for you: under 9 years of Labour it ignored the fact that one in five children was leaving school without basic skills under Labour 16 and 17-year-olds were dropping out with fewer options and there was lower literacy and under Labour the number of degree-level graduates did not improve between 2000 and 2008. If you compare that with an education agenda under this Government which has seen under four successive Budgets increases in education— 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: You’ve got nothing to talk about—no success no plan to talk about at all. Not a thing. 
NIKKI KAYE 
: I will address Iain Lees-Galloway. Actually under four successive Budgets there were increases in education. The increase in the last Budget was $511 million. We have seen significant investment in some of our most disadvantaged children. For instance we have seen significant investments through the Budget in terms of Maori and Pacific Island participation in early childhood education. We are also focused on ensuring that we have good data for parents and teachers around how their kids are doing. That is about national standards. That is also about ensuring that we have targeted programmes for those kids who under the last administration did not come out of our school system with basic National Certificate of Educational Achievement qualifications. That is why we are investing in Youth Guarantee. We are putting in 12930 more Youth Guarantee places and I have personally visited and met many of the kids who are going through that programme.  
We are also incredibly focused on ensuring that we have reform of our tertiary education system. That is about acknowledging that we spend a huge amount on student support but not enough on research. We also have a huge number of qualifications in this country so we are reducing the number of qualifications from 6000 to 1200 which means that when our students go around the world or come back to New Zealand and study here employers can recognise in a meaningful way what their qualifications are. We are focused on modernising our school system to ensure that our kids are some of the most digitally literate in the world. That is why we are spending $1.5 billion on ultra-fast broadband and that is why we have put $1 billion as part of the mixed-ownership model the Future Investment Fund to put New Zealand schoolchildren ahead.  
The difference between this side of the House and that side of the House is its record is leadership and is actual policy. That is why New Zealanders are still supporting National in droves. That is the difference between that side of the House and this side of the House: we have a record we have policy and we have leadership.