Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): Well the last few weeks have been utterly disastrous for the New Zealand Labour Party and I take three key things away from the debacle over partnership schools and its list. I take away that first Labour is hopelessly internally divided; secondly Andrew Little has absolutely no authority over his own caucus; and thirdly—and most importantly—Labour is not ready to govern this country. Let us start with internal division. Nowhere is this better evidenced than in the absolute debacle over partnership schools. It is easy to forget that this controversy inside the Labour Party has a long history. It is not just from the last few days and weeks. Kelvin Davis lost his associate education spokesmanship for attending a partnership school fund-raiser in defiance of his leader. Peeni Henare went with him as well. Why is it that a lot of Māori MPs inside the Labour Party want to support partnership schools? Because they know they are making a difference. They are working. They are targeting young Kiwis who have traditionally missed out on the educational advantages that others enjoy. It is a new model of school and an innovative approach to tackling educational disadvantage and it just staggers me that the social democratic party—or at least the allegedly social democratic party—that is the Labour Party cannot get on board with something as progressive and as equitable as partnership schools. The biggest proponent of partnership schools worldwide was Barack Obama. They have been implemented in democratic states around the United States and the Labour Māori caucus knows they are working. Then we get to Willie Jackson who said I truly believe in the partnership school model." and who criticised the Labour education spokesperson Chris Hipkins and gave him an E for his bill that purported to shut down partnership schools. As Peeni Henare said why would you want to stop something that is working? He said that that is the bottom line. So Labour is hopelessly internally divided. Chris Hipkins said: "Don't worry; the policy is crystal clear." Well it is clear as mud. Willie Jackson who is going to potentially—if is he ranked high enough—enter the Labour Party caucus after the election runs a partnership school and Peeni Henare goes to fund-raisers for partnership schools but Chris Hipkins says they will be closed down and Andrew Little says: "I can't answer that for you. I just don't know." So those members' policy is not crystal clear. It is as clear as mud. But it is not just about partnership schools. Whether it is Māori prisons with Adrian Rurawhe and Peeni Henare and Kelvin Davis backing the policy and Andrew Little going against it or whether it is Poto Williams writing press releases with public relations companies against Labour Party candidates—I will just repeat that; a member of the Labour Party caucus hired a public relations company to write a press release about a future putative member of the Labour Party caucus—those guys are hopelessly divided. They are a festering cesspit of hate and hostility. The second takeaway from the last few weeks is that Andrew Little has no authority over his caucus. He has been writing cheques to people that they cannot bank. He told Willie Jackson he would be ranked in the top 10 on the Labour Party list. Well that did not come true. He told Trevor Mallard that he would be ranked in the top five and he is only in the 30s—that has not come true. He has been rebutting Kelvin Davis. He has been rejecting the advice of all of his spokespeople. Kelvin Davis is the Labour Party's corrections spokesperson who feels it is OK to freelance on corrections policy and have it denied by his leader but that has not stopped other members of the Labour Party caucus coming out in support of him. These guys cannot run a coherent policy they cannot run a stable Opposition and that is actually the third and most important point—the Labour Party is fundamentally not ready to govern this country. I echo what my colleague and friend Todd Muller said earlier which is basically that if you cannot run yourselves how can you expect people in the country to vote for you? The New Zealand people are not going to vote for the rabble that is the current Labour Party. I will just repeat what has happened in the last few days: you have Labour Party spokespeople issuing press releases about candidates for office opposing them; you have complete internal division over what those members' policy is on partnership schools; and you have spokespeople criticising other spokespeople. That is not a party that is ready for Government and that is why on 23 September I am confident that the New Zealand people will vote for the return of the strong stable Bill English - led Government."