Rurawhe AdrianADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare oti noa e mihi atu hoki ahau ki a Chris Hipkins i tēnei pō me tōna wahine a Jade me tā rāua pēpē a Charlie nō reira tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and so I applaud Chris Hipkins and his wife Jade this evening and their baby Charlie therefore congratulations to you collectively.]The member who has just resumed his seat David Seymour—I do not think he believes what he is saying. I do not think he even knows what he is saying. He actually said this—I will tell you what he said. He said that the Labour Party is hell-bent on throwing money at problems. He also said that more money does not make a difference. Well how come then that for the 369 charter school students in 2015 that Government including him threw $7474374 at those 369 students which was a heck of a lot more than it threw at students at State schools. So when he says more money does not make a difference I actually agree with him because the money that the Government threw at the Whangaruru charter school did not make a real difference a material difference for those students because—guess what? They are no longer at that school because it failed. He may not get his head around that fact but he obviously knows one thing: more money did not make a difference in that instance because it failed. That is why I acknowledge Chris Hipkins for bringing this bill to the House. I believe as I said in the debate on the Education Legislation Bill—I quoted from what the Principals' Federation said on that bill and I apply it to this. It alluded to the fact that there was a rationale that was not being stated publicly about that bill and I am applying that to this bill as well. That untold rationale is that this is an experiment to move the education system towards privatisation and commercialisation. I support what my colleague Jenny Salesa has said about that. She said that these schools are allowed to make a profit—and they are allowed to make a profit. They are allowed to make a surplus over and above what they are funded for and that is why they are funded at a much higher rate. They are funded up to five times higher than schools—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to talk mainly I think to my colleague Louisa Wall who I think is probably inciting some interjections. The problem is that her interjections are coming through Mr Rurawhe's mike and are overriding him to a certain extent. But I think Mr Bishop is probably winding her up as well.ADRIAN RURAWHE: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. As I was saying those schools are funded at up to five times greater than State schools. Hon Member: Oh rubbish.ADRIAN RURAWHE: Well people can complain but it is not hard to do the maths. We have the figures—and I have them in front of me—that quite clearly state that and if members opposite do not believe it then they should do their own research and find out for themselves. Charter schools are funded on a guaranteed minimum roll unlike State schools. State schools are funded on their actual roll and it fluctuates up and down depending on how many students are enrolled but not charter schools. Charter schools have a guaranteed minimum. Would it not be lovely if every State school in the country was able to have the same conditions of funding for their school? They would be able to have stability in their school. They would be able to plan over a long period of time just like these charter schools are. So there is inequality in how we fund schools in New Zealand and we just have to stop that. I believe that this bill is a good bill. We put forward this bill to abolish charter schools and that is exactly what this House should vote for. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.