Cunliffe David: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Cunliffe David: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:619] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 Is this not interesting? Here we are on a Saturday in this maniac burst of pseudo-urgency considering poorly thought-through bills. We are setting aside the proper processes of Parliament and conveying the impression of urgency and the impression of action—the impression of government. We fiddle while the world burns. Is this a serious response in anybody’s book to the international economic crisis? Kiwi mums and dads at home or at work this morning are feeling apprehensive about the future of their jobs and more apprehensive after the passing of the 90-day “hire and fire at will” bill. They are at home and feeling apprehensive about their ability to pay the bills and what are we doing? Pinging them with fines for truancy. 
So why are we doing this? No one likes truancy. We have as the previous speaker admitted put in a raft of policies to address it and we have been making progress. But is it not interesting that the party that decried nanny Statism and the erosion of civil liberty—the imposition of solutions against the many to address the problems of the few—is now addressing this with a blanket law to fine parents for something that none of us including most parents would want to see? 
Achievement does not equal compulsory testing attendance does not equal compulsory fining and a safe society does not simplistically equal tougher sentences. Those things are apparent rather than real. They are worthy goals but they are tokenistic solutions. They give the impression of action rather than being real action. 
I picked up this bill off the Table and thought I must have picked up an amendment. But no this is the whole bill—an introduction and one page of measures. We are setting aside the select committee process to pass flimflam. This is flimflam. This is not policy this is not government; this is complete procedural and policy nonsense. 
The reason we are here on Saturday is that this is an abuse of Parliament. If anybody at home was in doubt Anne Tolley proved it. She first recognised the range of measures that our Government put through. She then said that this new Government had a range of things it wanted to do on truancy. OK I ask where they are and moreover I ask why those measures are not in the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill. If the Government does not have them ready yet I ask why this so-called bill is on the Table. Why is it on the Table being considered under urgency when apparently most of what the Government is going to do is not here? Why does the Government not tell the public what it is going to do? It cannot possibly be this bill because this bill is a joke. 
I think the public knows that this bill is not a solution; it is the impression of a solution. It is not a policy; it is the impression of a policy. This is not government; it is the impression of a Government. The difference between National and Labour is that we take the public seriously and we give them the honour of knowing that they can tell the difference between good policy and bad policy. They know this is a joke and an excuse for government while the world burns and the new Government is really trying to work out what to do. The Government is here to convey the impression of urgency without having anything real to put through because it wants to look like an action-oriented Government whereas in fact this is not real action. In the world around us the Americans are debating the bail-out of the auto industry the British are restructuring their banking system Australia has just announced another major stimulus package and what is our Government doing? It is fining parents for truancy as if that is going to change the world and as if that merits urgency. I say to members opposite that they are here today because they are abusing Parliament and the public. Members opposite may give the impression of being a Government but we will most definitely be a real Opposition.