Peachey Allan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Peachey Allan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1127] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 What are we doing here today? It is Valentine’s Day. I would rather be at home with my wife sharing our elder daughter’s 20th birthday. I am sure that my darling has better things to do than listen to Parliament but if she is listening I wish her a happy birthday. Instead of sharing that time with her I have sat in this House and listened to another abject failure of leadership on the part of the Prime Minister. 
Somewhere in the Prime Minister’s speech she said something about being in Government to make a difference. Well what does Labour mean by “make a difference”? It means more welfare dependency. It means more people relying on the Government for all or part of their income. It means more New Zealanders trapped in low-quality State-provided housing and stranded in crime-riddled streets—where the good people are prisoners in their homes and the criminals are free on the streets—and it means having to send their children to schools that are poorly performing. 
What “Government making a difference” means to the Labour Party is more Government-sponsored poverty for New Zealanders. Instead of the Prime Minister giving a speech that challenged us to bring out the best in ourselves as New Zealanders she gave us a speech marked by her determination to further extend welfare dependency to create more Government-sponsored poverty and to further squeeze the initiative of individual New Zealanders—New Zealanders who just want to work hard and take responsibility for themselves and for their families. There were no new policies and there was no new leadership; just tiredness. There was nothing for the 150000 New Zealand youngsters who today are making their way through school not learning to read not learning to write and not learning to do mathematics— 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: I blame the principal. 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
:—and who through the failure of this Government to give them the great gift of an outstanding education will not be able to take their places as contributors to the New Zealand economy. I listened to the Deputy Prime Minister say that he blames principals. Well I tell him that I will put my record as a principal up against his as a politician any time. 
Why is it that 150000 young New Zealanders will be denied a place in the economy? It is because of the failure of Trevor Mallard that Minister of Education who brought a vindictiveness and a meanness of spirit to the New Zealand schooling system. That Minister his successor Mr Maharey and that Government would rather have 150000 children pass through the schooling system not learning to read not learning to write and not learning to do mathematics than have national graduation standards in reading writing and maths. That Government would rather have 150000 children not learning to read not learning to write and not learning to do mathematics than test them and use that data to better inform teaching practice. 
That is a Government that prefers to mollify the teacher unions at the expense of our children. Let us be very clear about this: a child that can learn to talk can be taught to read. Yet what do we find out? In 2003 the last time statistics are available only 67 percent of primary schools in New Zealand participated in Reading Recovery. According to the statistics that are available that means that about 687 primary schools in New Zealand have no Reading Recovery programme for our children and 150000 of those children are passing through the system not learning to read. 
So let us talk about leadership or at least about the Prime Minister’s lack of it. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Who wrote this rubbish? 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I did I tell Mr Barker and it was not difficult. Labour gives us plenty of ammunition. 
The job of leaders is to create stars. Where are the stars in the Labour Party? Well they are certainly not in the Cabinet they are certainly not on the back benches and they are most certainly not sitting on the Labour list waiting for the Prime Minister to confer favour upon them. She has not created stars. How could she? She is not one herself. No star would have given such a pathetic apology for a speech as that given this afternoon by the Prime Minister. No star would have left her policeman and her driver at the mercy of the courts to cover her own culpability. An honest leader would have taken responsibility and said sorry. It is time I tell the Prime Minister for her to say sorry if only to the wives and the children of the men who now have convictions because of her. The Prime Minister was the most senior person in that motorcade. She should take responsibility. The failure of the Prime Minister to take responsibility demeans the office and it demeans us as New Zealanders. It is time that the Government took responsibility for buying the 2005 election. You will not get away with that one and you know it. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member must not use “you”. 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. I apologise. 
When we look at members of the Cabinet we see the fear in their eyes. They know that there will be a prosecution. They know that somebody might go to jail. This time the New Zealand people will demand no less. It is time for the Government to take responsibility say sorry and pay the money back. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: The school assembly must be riveted with this speaker’s ability. 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I suggest that the Minister of Housing show more concern for the tenants in sub-standard housing in Glen Innes in my electorate instead of making cheap remarks like that. 
New Zealanders thirst for freedom and our economy thirsts for freedom. How much longer can New Zealand survive a Government that prefers to redistribute income amongst its favoured groups as a substitute for policies that create more wealth? How much longer can New Zealand survive a Government that believes that the easiest money to spend is taxpayers’ money? What is it that makes Trevor Mallard or Steve Maharey believe that they are better able to decide where a child goes to school than that child’s own mum and dad? Why does this Government have so little trust in New Zealanders—so little trust in our ability to make good decisions for ourselves?