Faafoi Kris: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8873. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It is a privilege to take a call in this debate on the Prime Minister’s statement and I think it is the first time I have spoken with you in the chair so happy New Year to you.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Happy New Year.KRIS FAAFOI: It is always dangerous to quote oneself but recent events have led me to look at some of the first words I uttered during my maiden speech in this House. Quote No. 1 is potentially a no-brainer cliché but none the less it carries weight. I said that “I know that education is the game-changer.” Quote No. 2 was much more forward-looking. I said: “We want our children to have the education and opportunities to succeed in jobs we haven’t even dreamt of yet.” So that is why I am excited about 2016 and 2017. I know that side of the House has said it is excited but on this side of the House we have actually got something to be excited about.A Labour Government that takes over the Government benches next year will put a stake in the ground to make sure our young people are ready for work in the 21st century with the right skills and training and without the fear of being saddled with debt. Our Working Futures plan announced a fortnight ago by Andrew Little will ensure that all Kiwis will have a chance of living the Kiwi Dream to support their families to live in their own home in a safe community and I think that is something that most Kiwis want.Education is that game-changer and I think that every New Zealander and our country needs to ensure that we tackle the challenges that the rest of the world also faces with us with the changing nature of work. And from our end it is pretty simple. Our policy is 3 years’ free post-school education whether it be university polytech industry training or an apprenticeship because unfortunately in the future those without skills will be left behind. The nature of work is changing rapidly and our education system must keep up with it if we want to seize opportunities for the future.I believe it is also exciting in my electorate of Mana where I want to see people from the colleges of Porirua and Kāpiti move on to Whitireia Community Polytech to do that industry training to do the apprenticeship modules the Bachelor’s courses—all doing that locally supporting our local polytech and supporting our local economy. Free tertiary education will allow families who have seen tertiary study as too expensive or who did not want to be burdened with debt to change the course of their lives for the better. It will give them higher skills they will have higher incomes and will seek out loftier opportunities and I think that is something that most families want for themselves.I am biased so please do not just take my word for it. I put this policy on Facebook and I would like to quote from one local Kylie Welch who said the following on my Facebook site: “My daughter is about to start 3 years’ study at Massey University in Palmy and I hope to help her pay for a lot of it. I don’t like the idea of her starting her adult life in debt but wouldn’t it be a wonderful world to have her education paid for during those first 3 years?”. Kylie finished off with a pretty simple statement: “I’m keen”. Imagine if we could do that for Kylie and her daughter. Her daughter would study for 3 years for free and that money that Kylie was going to invest in her daughter’s education would go into the local economy it would go into paying off her mortgage and I do not see a downside to that at all.But what about this changing nature of work that we have been speaking about? It is a reality that we have to address. I think it is the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research that says that in the future 46 percent of the jobs that exist now will be gone because of automation. It is not just those manual jobs; it is the likes of accountants who are also worried about the future of their work. It is a challenge that we know we have to face and it is a challenge that that side of the House the Government completely ignores. It laughs about it and it makes gibes and jokes about this side of the House but we know it is something that has to be addressed.If it was such a joke why did the World Economic Forum in Davos have as one of its key points on its agenda the fourth industrial revolution? Is it such a joke now that we have got the foresight to look forward 10 to 15 years and say that half of the jobs that exist now may not exist and that if you want to retrain our Government will help you do that so you can continue to live that Kiwi Dream and so you can support your families?It is not a joke to us; it is real. But every time that side of the House discusses this issue they think it is a big joke. It is not a joke. It is reality and it is going to hit us hard soon if we do not start doing something about it. That is why our Working Futures policy is built for the future and that is why this side of the House has something to be excited about as we head into the next election.