Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Madam Chair I'd like to put in a complaint—an ethical complaint—against the member who just resumed her seat Denise Lee. It is not fair to bludgeon the Government with facts like that! It is not fair to read out what the Education Review Office has said consistently about partnership schools kura hourua: every time they have been investigated bar one partnership schools kura hourua are well prepared are innovative and are serving populations of students who are otherwise failed by the so-called panacea of the State education system.When I was looking through the annual review for this particular debate and this particular committee I found a little piece of irony. There is under the heading Legislation concerning partnership schools" a series of points about that legislation and about partnership schools but what's interesting is the paragraph above: "Māori and Pacific achievement in writing and reading declining right across the education system". At a time when the Government has been elected saying that it is here to help the downtrodden the people neglected the people who haven't had a decent chance in the one big gift the State gives them to make the most of their lives—and that is education—what comes after the paragraph saying "Māori and Pacific achievement in writing and reading declining"? Well legislation concerning partnership schools. And what does it say? It says the Education Amendment Bill would remove the partnership school model and not allow the establishment of new schools.How does a Government come to a conclusion like this? How does a Minister who comes to this Parliament who slogs away through Rimutaka for years and years make these kinds of decisions? I don't know. Folks does he look at the evidence? Does he release the official Government report funded by the taxpayer created by Martin Jenkins on the performance of these schools? No he does not. Does he give the schools the opportunity to make their case? No he does not. He simply announces that "We won. You lost. Eat that!" Because the Labour Party won the election they're able to take away the futures and the hopes of a group of students.There's Clayton Mitchell. He's a thinking man; everyone in this Chamber knows that. He's thinking "I don't think this is right. I think this Seymour guy has a point." Hon Members: Ha ha!DAVID SEYMOUR: The fact of the matter is that these schools were working and the fact that the Minister has refused to release the evidence the fact that the Government members squirm so awkwardly—and some of the new backbench members did that fake laugh that they're still perfecting when uncomfortable.Hon Members: Ha ha!DAVID SEYMOUR: There she goes again. It tells us that they know what they're doing with partnership schools is wrong. But it gets worse than that. Not only is the underlying policy decision wrong for a Government that says it wants to help the downtrodden and give every Kiwi kid an opportunity; not only is it wrong to close schools against all the evidence including the Government's suppressed evidence that has said just that; not only is it wrong to close such schools but the way it's being done is going to be the first line in this Government's epitaph.The problem is and we saw it in question time today that the Minister came into the role so prejudiced by his heritage and upbringing that he didn't take a moment's time to consider the facts. He didn't take a moment to think about the procedure around closing these schools. The report says there's been no legal action just yet. Well the people at home know what's coming. They only have to wait. This Minister has conflicted himself; he's tied himself up in knots; he's ignored the facts that other Ministers in his Cabinet run the schools spoke to his office and have received money for running partnership schools exactly while he was damning them. He's covered all of that up and it's all going to come out and not only is it bad policy but the people on the Labour benches will rue the day that they rushed into bad policy tied themselves up in knots and wrote the first line of their Government's epitaph."