Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): I want to start by congratulating Darroch Ball on his bill being drawn from the ballot but I am taking this call to oppose this bill. As a great believer in education I believe that every child should get the opportunity to do well in their life and in education—it could be through a traditional pathway it could be a vocational pathway through partnership schools or it could be secondary or tertiary programmes that we deliver through Youth Guarantee programmes. Our education system has been strengthened a lot under this National Government and we are seeing some really good results. I hear a lot of positive feedback when I am out and about talking to schools talking to parents talking to students.So this bill—Darroch Ball's bill—the Youth Employment Training and Education Bill is based on the 6 weeks' Limited Service Volunteer programme which is for 17- to 25-year-old people who are on jobseeker support and is delivered through the Ministry of Social Development. That programme is for only 6 weeks and yes we are getting some good outcomes but there is a big difference: that is for 17- to 25-year-old people.Darroch Ball's bill is to allow 15-year-olds—yes young people; 15-year-old people who will require parental consent—to take up a 3-year full-time programme with our New Zealand Defence Force. This will be non-deployable non-combat—that is understood—but what this bill wants to achieve is that these young people will gain numeracy and literacy skill to at least NCEA level 2 and vocational training while being there. So that part of the bill makes me feel that we are shifting the responsibility for educating our young people from our education system to our New Zealand Defence Force.The bill does not explain how everything would work. It does not explain the New Zealand Defence Force's custodial role. It does not tell us what the operational impact on the New Zealand Defence Force will be. It does not tell us what the role of the Ministry of Social Development will be or how both the Ministry of Social Development and the New Zealand Defence Force will be delivering this programme.If this bill is just to give better outcomes for young people we already have several programmes in place as we have heard from colleagues on this side. We have the Gateway programme to provide work training for young people from year 11 we have service academies to provide more engagement in learning we have Youth Guarantee to help 16- to 19-year-old young people to achieve NCEA level 2 we have Youth Service and we have extended Youth Service to 18- and 19-year-old young people. We want to see that these people are in education or in some form of training so that they can get into employment. We have special programmes for Māori and Pacific people. We have Māori and Pacific trades training to help them to get into trade industries which helps people aged from 16 to 40 and then we have employment programmes for Pacific people.So there are several programmes available already for these young people and they are giving us some really good results. Not just that in education we have communities of learning which is a new way of helping our young people achieve better in education. About communities of learning: when I am talking to schools in Mount Roskill where 11 schools are part of the communities of learning the feedback is great. It is about schools coming together as a group and coming up with shared goals to help students in those schools.So talking about the achievements of young people helping them to do well in life we have seen a significant increase in the achievements of Māori and Pacific students at NCEA level 2. There are ways through our education system that these young people can achieve numeracy and literacy skills through to NCEA level 2. Not just that it is also about setting good role models for these young people so that they can do well in their lives. Through our social investment approach we have seen that there are fewer children now in benefit-dependent families. They see the adults around them taking up training courses and going to work so that helps them to decide what they want to do in their life. So yes they understand by seeing the adults in their family that they should stay in education because in the long run that is going to help them do well in their life.Overall I feel that this bill is not thought through properly. There could be some unintended consequences. As some of my colleagues on this side have mentioned some 15-year-old young people might think that it is very attractive to get into the army instead of staying in school. So that is why I do not support this bill. Thank you.