Robertson Grant: General Debate 
Robertson Grant: General Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5687] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to follow the modest member from Tauranga Simon Bridges. Members on this side of the House have heard that when he goes home each night the song that he sings on the bus is: “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon. We have seen him playing squash and we know that he greatly enjoys being in Tauranga. After he had been thinking about Christine Rankin he said: “I know the place I want to run in—it’s Tauranga.” Tauranga is populated by older women; that is where Simon Bridges wants to be. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Cougar territory! 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Yes it is cougar territory in Tauranga. The other member from the Bay of Plenty who has already been mentioned today is Tony Ryall and on 12 May 2009 to some fanfare and a blaze of tangerine shirts and orange ties he announced a redeployment pool for jobless public servants. He said that this redeployment pool would be “established to retain and redistribute talent. … It will also look after the taxpayers’ interests by reducing the cost of redundancy payments.” Well we have seen a large number of job losses in the Public Service. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: How many? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: There have been 1500 and up to 2000 in the wider State sector. Forty-five thousand public servants—a lot of people—need to be redeployed so Tony Ryall has put in place a redeployment scheme and has set the Public Service in motion clear in his instruction that there will be redeployment. But I ask my colleagues how many people they think have been redeployed under Tony Ryall’s scheme. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: 500? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Ruth Dyson says “500?”. Do we have any others? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: 1000? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: A thousand from Darren Hughes— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: 1500? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: There is 1500 from Lianne Dalziel but—sadly—no my colleagues are wrong. Two people have been redeployed through Tony Ryall’s public servant redeployment pool. 
Hon Members 
: What! 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: No only two public servants across the entire Public Service have been redeployed as a result of Tony Ryall’s redeployment scheme and it has to be said that Tony Ryall in his tangerine shirt is not a happy camper. He is very upset that only two public servants across the whole of the Public Service have been redeployed as a result of his scheme. That is a sad indictment on a Government that said that jobs was its priority and that that was where it would be but only two public servants across the whole Public Service have been redeployed. 
Sadly we have seen time and time again from this Government the wrong choices and the wrong priorities. We have seen it with tax cuts where 3 percent of income earners received 30 percent of the benefit of tax cuts. We have seen that happen time and time again and now we hear of it with the GST proposals coming through. Those are the wrong choices and the wrong priorities. 
But the place where we have seen it the most is in education. I was appalled to be in the House today and hear Anne Tolley deliver a speech but not mention once her portfolio of education. Not once did she mention the number of people who have contacted her to say: “Turn around those cuts to night classes.” How many postcards has Anne Tolley received? How many members of her own caucus have come to her and said: “Turn around these cuts.”? Night classes are part of the fabric of our education system; they are part of lifelong learning. Dozens of constituents in my electorate have come to me to tell me how night classes have changed their lives. People have been able to set up small businesses as a result of getting back into learning. People have been able to improve their life skills. For example when they have lost a partner and have not known how to cook they have gone to night school to learn and that has given them social interaction. There are also the new migrants to New Zealand who have been looking to learn English meet people and have social interaction. But those opportunities have been taken away by Anne Tolley. That was a choice. It was a priority for National; National had an option. Thirty five million dollars has gone into private schools. That has been a choice by the National Government. It has chosen not to fund adult and community education. Mrs Tolley must now listen to the people of New Zealand; she must now turn round those cuts. We have seen a partial turn-round on the cuts to funding for people with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy and so on. We now need a full turn-round on adult and community education. 
It is time for this Government to start listening. We have had a lot of bullying behaviour and put-downs from this Government. Now is the time to get rid of the wrong choices and wrong priorities in adult and community education and to turn round and start listening to the people of New Zealand. We have seen broken promises a lack of listening and cuts throughout the education sector. Today primary school students from my electorate came to the forecourt of Parliament to say “We don’t want Enviroschools cut.” The Enviroschools programme the Artists in Schools programme and professional development for teachers have all been cut by this Government. It is time the Government started listening and changed its priorities.