Goodhew Jo: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Goodhew Jo: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:660;Page:8762] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata) 
: 
 Yesterday the Prime Minister gave a speech in this House that outlined the priorities of the National-led Government for this year. However his speech was an abridged version of the 9000 word - plus address that members will find tabled in the House. I can assure all New Zealanders that those 9000 words are certainly worth a read. It is a very good and reassuring read. It is a good read because it is a plan that sets out to improve the lot of all New Zealanders. There are no winners and losers; all New Zealanders are taken into account in that plan. It is a plan to move New Zealand into maximising the opportunities we have to have a much more economically sound nation. The plan also addresses aspects of our nation that have been metaphorically speaking holding New Zealand back for many years and we know under whose stewardship that was do we not? 
This afternoon I intend to dwell on the aspects of that plan that have particular resonance for me and for my electorate of Rangitata. The year 2010 is when New Zealand needs to accelerate out of the remnants of the recession. We have turned the corner but there is much further to go. This is the year when those New Zealanders who have lost their jobs need to feel uplifted by a confidence in a Government that is willing to change some of the baseline settings that have seen this country languish in recent years when quite massive surpluses allowed us an opportunity to strive ahead but we did not manage it. We did not achieve it; all of those opportunities were squandered under a Labour Government. The National Government has a different plan for New Zealand. We will not be able to utilise vast surpluses as Labour did but we have a plan that addresses the reasons why we as a country have been performing below our potential. We can do so much better and we are ambitious enough to get on with the business. 
This afternoon in question time we saw a pitiful display from an Opposition that just does not get it. It slates national standards the very chance we have to address the woeful record of one in five students getting to National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 and not making the cut. We cannot continue to deliver that sort of future to approximately 150000 young New Zealanders. That is a failure that Labour might be happy with but we on this side of the Chamber are not. 
In the course of last year I visited almost all of the schools in my electorate. I went to 34 schools and to some of them more than once. National standards were on the agenda for discussion and when principals or teachers did not raise it with me I raised it with them. You see I am not scared to talk to schools to educators and to parents. I certainly am aware that the parents of our nation some 73 percent and more want national standards. They want to know how their children are getting on at school and they want to help in making it better. I acknowledge that many of the schools in my electorate are reporting to parents on student achievement and I was heartened to hear and see examples. National’s plan to implement national standards will not change good practices in schools but it will set a benchmark that is consistent across all schools and an expectation that the current level of school achievement is absolutely not OK. We can do so much better. 
I have been constructively working with the schools of Rangitata to answer their questions about national standards and we are doing so in a very constructive manner. We absolutely do not ignore the fact that there are some students one in five in New Zealand who are not achieving their potential; the educators admit it. The concept of national standards to measure achievement then educate students so they make progress is sound. The issue is not where the student starts from; it is how far he or she progresses. We need to use all of the resources at our disposal and that includes parents. Children spend a whole lot more of their day at home with their parents so let us use that resource to help them progress. We have always acknowledged that there is some uneasiness about national standards but now is the time to commit to our kids. It is about the students and it is about New Zealand’s young people and we need to get on with it. 
The Prime Minister uttered some words during his speech that were music to my ears. John Key talked about unlocking resources that can aid our economic recovery and what is more this Government has the guts to get on with it. The natural resource that is most important to the Rangitata electorate is water. The people of mid-Canterbury and South Canterbury know it and since making my maiden speech I have been promoting its importance. When the Prime Minister said that we will unlock resources for economic benefit to create better-paid jobs for New Zealanders where this is also consistent with our environmental conservation and other objectives my heart warmed. When the Prime Minister went on to reiterate that National will continue the reforms of the Resource Management Act I could hear the cheering in the sheep yards in the cowsheds and on the tractors in my electorate. 
When John Key went on to say that this year a National Government will remove particular regulatory roadblocks to water storage and irrigation in Canterbury I could hear the cheering in the streets the banks the businesses and the paddocks of my electorate. But wait I then saw an article in the newspaper. It was an interview with the “buddy MP” Ruth Dyson who seems to have had an epiphany. She was cheering on irrigation in mid-Canterbury. I was scratching my head and I thought to myself: “Surely not. This can’t be coming from the former Labour Minister who presided in a Government that sat idly by while resource consents got harder and harder to get not to mention much more expensive.” It is the same group of Labourites who spent most of their time decrying farmers for ruining the environment. Under Labour farming was still considered a sunset industry. I can tell members that if Labour’s approach to issues like tenure review the heavy impositions of costs under the Labour emissions trading system and the added compliance burden that appeared to be unstemmed under Labour had continued farming might well have become a sunset industry. Fortunately in our caucus we have a strong sound base of people who understand agriculture and none more so than our Minister of Agriculture the Hon David Carter. 
Another issue of importance to me is the social issue. When I was elected I vowed that anyone who could work deserved the satisfaction of having a job. Anyone who could work should work. The ill-conceived headline of the time read “Beneficiaries beware Goodhew”. But this view is based on the constituents who told me they felt trapped in welfare and wanted so much more for themselves and also for their families. “Give me a job just any job will do” some of them said to me. I have heard that before and I have heard it quite recently. I have heard it from our Minister for Social Development and Employment; that certainly is her mantra. The mantra is to get a job any job—get one’s CV in order to achieve the good feeling of being in work. 
As we move out of this recession now is the time to take on that mantra and to say we will deliver jobs to New Zealanders. Part of that will be achieved by lifting educational achievement in our schools and building opportunities for New Zealanders. We will also work to increase the number of children from poor communities participating in early childhood education. It is fair to say that that start to their education is vitally important and one that National shares a commitment to. But it is more than that. We need trades and skills as well. We will introduce changes to give secondary schools the flexibility to run trades training programmes and we will progress the Youth Guarantee so that 16 and 17-year-olds can get vocational training outside of school. School is not the right place for all of our young people. If we trap them in school all they will do is interfere with the education of students who actually want to be at school. We need to give them options that improve their future chance of getting a job and having a life that they deserve. 
In tertiary education we need to drive policy that ensures tertiary providers deliver quality courses that are relevant to the job market and by golly we have seen some amazing examples of courses that are not relevant to the job market. We need to work with universities to support excellence. 
This National Government has a huge agenda for 2010. We on this side of the Chamber are really excited. New Zealand deserves to get these things going and under a John Key - led National Government it will happen in 2010.