Horan Brendan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Horan Brendan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7581. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BRENDAN HORAN (Independent) 
: 
 I want to amend the Prime Minister’s motion to delete all the words after “Government” and to substitute the words “providing that Government delivers an unequivocal commitment to New Zealand’s children and to ensuring they can grow up to be great New Zealanders and requires the John Key - led administration to present such a commitment to the House.” 
I would like to start by congratulating the honourable members David Clark and Nanaia Mahuta two members who along with the honourable Richard Prosser have had children born during the current Parliament. I offer my heartfelt congratulations. Children are a great blessing a taonga a treasure beyond all compare. Their arrival heralds a new beginning joy love hope and promise for their entire family. There is a saying that it takes a village to raise a child and that village shares in the joy of that child’s successes. The honourable members are providing a home and an upbringing rich in culture. In short the honourable members are building a cultural identity through solid parental responsibility. 
I use the term “family cultural identity” because if we cast our eyes back 40 years or so over half of our country’s families would be considered poor if we applied today’s standards. Families then were much larger with several children often more. They lacked technology but what they did not lack was family culture. In the main children were born and the whole family participated in their upbringing. A free and equal education was available to all. Money may have been tight but food was easily grown and most homes had a vege garden. Many men knew how to hunt and fish employment was readily available and most jobs were jobs for life. 
If we compare those conditions with today’s many households have Sky television a computer and mobile hand-held devices yet some of these households are in cultural deficit with parents being unaware of basic hygiene and support and without the knowledge to rear a healthy loved child. So it would be fair to say that the accepted family culture of our society is either in abundance or deficit and with the shocking statistics that we have of children in poverty in 2011 2012 and now heading into 2013 make no mistake—New Zealand is in a critical parlous state of family cultural deficit. 
 We need to lift the measure of the culture into which our children are born. I believe that in the digital world this should be so much easier. Parenting programmes support services and educating a family on how to rear their child are all possible but it means a real commitment from this Government and indeed every member of this House to raise the bar effect positive change and save the hundreds of thousands of New Zealand children at risk. 
I wish to reflect on the role of Government and of Parliament. The Government is not the answer to everything that New Zealanders and their children need nor is the Government able to be every answer and nor should it. But surely the Government whichever party or parties form it must provide a basic starting point a framework a framework of security in the home in the street and in employment hope for the future that all New Zealanders can share and an education to allow every child an equal opportunity. For New Zealanders who want to work the adage should ring true that if you want to work and you work hard and fair you will be rewarded. To achieve this we need a Government to create a framework where companies can be assured of a stable dollar relevant to an export-led recovery for New Zealand a tax regime that will encourage growth and development in our manufacturing sector so that full-time employment is available and to not have a Government claiming it has created new jobs when many of them are only part-time or minimum wage jobs. 
For the thousands of Kiwis who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own many in redundancies many in our State-owned enterprises where is the framework for upward mobility and for willing New Zealand workers to learn new skills and competencies? Our university students are coming out of university with qualifications but they are also carrying the burden of student debt—some with debts of over $100000. Sadly many of these highly qualified graduates are unable to find employment within New Zealand the country of their birth. 
Today we heard the Prime Minister touch on digital media and he lauded National’s ultra-fast broadband roll-out. But at current levels we are still working towards the year 2019 before the majority of New Zealanders will be able to utilise this technology. How far behind the rest of the world will we be if we have to wait that long? Where is the ultra-fast wireless structure to take advantage of ultra-fast broadband? Ultra-fast broadband is a device-based technology but where are the educative planning programmes to utilise these technologies? 
I would like to touch on charter schools as many New Zealanders are shocked to see a section in the bill that would remove from children the most basic of protections—the scrutiny afforded by the Official Information Act and the protection of oversight by the Ombudsman. It was the Ombudsman’s 2007 investigation that drew bullying in schools to a national focus. How can it be that we would make private charter schools exempt from such scrutiny? I am not at all confident that National’s plan for charter schools will even come close to meeting the needs of children families and communities in New Zealand and I am deeply concerned along with most parents at this Government’s lack of commitment to teachers. We have had the Novopay fiasco where our teachers appear to be disrespected so much that after 3 months some are still not being paid correctly. Is this an indication of a Government that is taking education seriously? 
In the Maori Affairs Committee we are inquiring into poverty. We have heard submissions in public session and they have been heart-rending. The common denominator is all too familiar—the breakdown of the family unit and a failure of families to embrace education. Not one child in New Zealand chooses to starve but it is happening. Not one New Zealand child chooses to be abused but it is happening. Not one child chooses to have no loving home but it is happening. We the 121 members of Parliament must act now.