Rich Katherine: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Rich Katherine: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14115] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 I am somewhat at a loss because usually in these debates the Opposition will stand up and draw upon something that the previous speaker has said and rebut some of the pithier worthier points. But I have to admit that I did not understand a word of that speech—that stream of consciousness tirade that bumf that great wodge of words. I challenge those members over there to actually explain what we just heard: references to “build-ons” and “black boxes” Maori being “roamers” and how we are not to worry about the 800 Kiwis who get on a plane every week and leave this country because somehow that is their overseas experience. Well I hate to break it to that member there. A lot of people from this country get on those planes go to Australia and never come back. So when we are listening to constituents worried about their grandchildren and their children living in another country it is not enough for that member to stand there and say that this is just some roaming cultural aspect because it is not. 
I stand to support John Key’s motion that the House has no confidence in the Helen Clark - led Government because it failed to make a significant improvement in the areas of real importance to New Zealand because it lacks ambition because it is tired and bereft of ideas because it has lost touch with people who put it in power and has lost the vision and ability to lead this country and look at the opportunities. 
I listened to that speech today and I kept waiting for some kind of big idea some vision some set of ideas that hopefully would lift the hearts and minds the spirit of this country. I say: “Thank God they had no ideas.” I have not heard a more boring speech in this House. It was delivered in such a dispassionate way that clearly that Government has run out of ideas. Its members are not interested in what they are talking about. 
I was left with a whole bunch of questions actually. If things are so great in this country how come those 800 Kiwis are getting on a plane and leaving? How come this Government has 6000 students who do not even know whether they are in a school? There are 6000 lost students who are nowhere within the school system. If things are so great then why has truancy increased by 41 percent since 2002? Why every week are some 30000 kids not attending class? [ 
Interruption 
] It might be a simple statement for that member to comprehend. Students cannot learn if they are not in a classroom. 
I would like to know why it is if things are so great that a teacher in a classroom is now more likely to be subject to a verbal assault or a physical assault than at any time in our nation’s history. [ 
Interruption 
] Harry says that there is nothing new about that. Does that make it OK? We heard Helen Clark talking about the importance of non-governmental organisations and their delivery of social services. She did not think that when she stuck it to Plunket. She took Plunket’s contract from it and gave it to an American firm which now answers the much-beloved PlunketLine and that is now funded by fund-raising as opposed to— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Why are they so negative? 
KATHERINE RICH 
: Well it is so easy when that member is in Government I have to say. Why is it that one in five kids leaves school without the ability to read or to write well? After 8 years we were expecting a few more solutions and a few more ideas about how the Government intends to solve that as opposed to the same old same old. The set of ideas we heard from Labour today is the same it had in 1999. We heard today that we are going to have a few more reviews. We are going to have a few more reports. We are going to have a few more workshops. Well whoop-de-do. I hate to break it to those members on the other side but calling for reports and calling for reviews is not the best part of a decision. Actually doing something as a result of that report or that review and implementing it is the main bit. Any fool can call for a review or a report. Any fool can hold a cocktail function and launch something with all the fanfare of a circus but it is quite a different thing to get results. If we look at this Government ultimately it will be judged on its results. 
Certainly within the schooling system there is a lot that it should be ashamed of. More kids than ever are now leaving school without qualifications. Government officials predict that it is going to get worse. More 16 to 18-year-olds are leaving school without training and without qualifications. What is Helen Clark’s answer? Well the Government is going to put up the school leaving age to 18. I can tell the Prime Minister that schools are finding it tough keeping these kids within the school-grounds as it is without artificially raising the age and pretending that somehow it will make things different. 
I suppose ultimately New Zealanders were listening to the Prime Minister’s speech today and searching for some ideas—something that was going to make a difference. One of the things they can look at today and see is that there are no ideas. This Government is tired. It has no new ideas that will make a difference to this country. That is why John Key who is sitting on the Opposition benches will roll into town with a momentum that Government members cannot stop. They need to get used to that. [ 
Interruption 
] It was a 5-minute speech and we have quarter of an hour half an hour to keep going in which to list the litany of disgraceful decisions that Government members have made over the years. 
Ultimately come election day I think Kiwis will make their decision on which party is offering a future and which party is still talking about the past. Helen Clark’s comment that youth crime somehow is the result of what Ruth Richardson might have done when most of us were still at university was just a disgrace I have to say. One of the things this country is looking for is some solutions and we heard John Key list them today. He listed his solutions. [ 
Interruption 
] That member over there obviously was not listening. That is why I think even those members on that side of the Chamber know that ultimately there is going to be a change. They are tired and they cannot even work out any witty rebuttals in order to rebut some of the comments being made. 
If things are so great in education why is the Correspondence School being restructured a fourth time? Why are more kids leaving school without the ability to read and write at anywhere near their chronological age? Government members might think that is OK but members on this side of the Chamber are pretty distressed and disturbed by that. If people cannot read or write in a modern society then they will have no ability to participate at the level at which we expect New Zealanders to participate. More important if people cannot read and write well they have no ability to get a good job and no ability to ensure they can do the things for their families that most Kiwis want to do. 
I will come back to Parekura’s pearls of wisdom today. Those hundreds of thousands of Kiwis are not in Australia because they are looking for better prospects; they are there because they are roaming! Well who believes that? Any Kiwi can step across the ditch tomorrow and earn over one-third more than he or she is earning here. It does not matter whether they are teachers social workers or even just builders’ labourers. I think this Government with its head in the sand will ensure only that we lose more citizens than we are losing at the moment. 
It is a pleasure to speak in this House today. John Key has the answers. He has a vibrant team a good team and thankfully our opponents are so damned deluded that they think they are on the side of the angels. Well if they thought Helen Clark’s speech today was a great speech then I say: “Why don’t you just pick up your things and go home now?”. We are ready to take it to the election. One thing that is as clear as anything is that John Key will be the next Prime Minister. Not only do we know it but Government members know.