Moroney Sue: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Moroney Sue: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 22 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4640. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 One of the highlights of this debate so far has to be the bizarre contribution from John Banks which we heard before. When he has not got amnesia he is becoming a soothsayer. He confidently predicted that David Shearer would be the Leader of the Opposition in the 50th Parliament. Well I have got news for John Banks: this is the 50th Parliament. This is actually the 50th Parliament so he might well be right but I think even more telling was his very confident prediction that he John Banks would be back in the 50th Parliament as an MP. I think he knows that he is toast at the next election because all he could be confident about was that he would be present in the 50th Parliament. That is the one we have got right now so there is a bit of news for John Banks. 
The other bit of news for John Banks is a picture that I think tells us everything we need to know about charter schools. It is doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment. It has got a picture of John Banks on it and it says “Charter schools: one rich white man wants to set up schools for poor brown kids to make a profit for his friends”. I think that is all we need to know about charter schools. That is exactly what it is and that National Party is backing him all the way. That is the agenda of John Banks. He is interested just in his mates making a profit out of our education system. This is nothing to do with improving achievement in education. If it was to do with improving achievement in education then that Government would want the best-quality teachers in front of every classroom in the land. What we know is that what that Government really wants to do is have unqualified staff—I am not going to even call them teachers actually—in charter schools. If they are not qualified to teach they are not teachers. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Yes they are. 
SUE MORONEY 
: They are not teachers if they are not qualified to teach. This idea that any old person can get up understand the art and the magic of teaching and actually improve successful educational outcomes for our children lives only over there on the Government benches. Every parent up and down the country knows that this Government is completely out of touch with what is required for improving the quality of our education system. 
When it comes to arguing for better-quality education then the arguments for that opinion are to be found on the Labour benches—not on the National Party benches. We know that deep down in their hearts those members want to increase class sizes. That is their big answer to improving the quality of our education. They want to increase class sizes but only after they have dumbed down the teaching profession. They started it in early childhood education. That is where they started. They cut the funding for qualified teachers in early childhood education. They started dropping the standards at the very beginning for the youngest children who need it the most. That is where they started. They did that in 2010. They think they are pretty clever because they got away with that. But parents up and down the country were not prepared to let them get away with that ridiculous idea that somehow increasing the number of children in a class causing their teacher to have many more interactions with many more children would actually be better for all of our children. 
They are the only ones who believe that. They still believe it—they still do believe it. I think the blank faces opposite tell me everything I need to know: they think they just got the sell job wrong on it actually. They still believe that increasing the number of children in the classes of our primary intermediate and secondary schools will somehow improve the quality of education. That is a nonsense. They are now completely exposed on the nonsense about what they think about education. To them it is all about cost. They see education as a cost. Here in the Labour Party we know that education is an investment and not any old investment but one of the best investments that any Government can make in the future of its country. It is absolutely clear because of that Government’s poor performance in education that its members do regard it as a cost to be contained not an opportunity to be invested in. 
They also misled the public on their intentions around league tables. What was their former Minister of Education saying before the election last year? Anne Tolley said: “I want to make it very clear to the member that the Ministry of Education will not be publishing league tables. I will say that again to the member: the ministry will not be publishing league tables.” 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: That’s right. 
SUE MORONEY 
: That was Anne Tolley. She is just agreeing that she said exactly that. What is the Government planning to do now but publish league tables?