Foster-Bell Paul: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1921. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): It is a pleasure to follow on from my distinguished colleague. Can I begin by paying tribute to Dame Thea Muldoon who passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 87. Dame Thea held obviously the courtesy title of “Lady” as the wife of Sir Robert but I think it pays to point out that in her own right she was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 1986 by the then Labour Government and was actually made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She was made a Dame in her own right in the New Year honours in 1993 for the contribution she made not only as a very dignified first lady of New Zealand during Sir Robert’s premiership but for the innumerable community and charitable contributions that she made. So I think it is appropriate that all of us in this House pause for a moment to pay tribute to Dame Thea.This weekend we have an opportunity—not so much in New Zealand but we will very soon thanks to an investment that this Government is making in ultra-fast broadband and the soon to be available Netflix service—to see the next season of that much-awaited series House of Cards which is released at midnight Eastern Standard Time in the United States. This political drama for those who have not seen it features the machinations of an American political character. I do not want to give too many spoilers away for those who have not seen the first two seasons but needless to say these are the Machiavellian machinations of Frank Underwood a political character. I am not going to take a cheap shot at the Opposition but one could make any number of comparisons between Mr Underwood and some of the more Machiavellian characters across on the benches over there.For this Government I think it is a very positive mark of our level of contribution to developing ultra-fast broadband throughout the country that in March that Netflix service will be available. As we roll out ultra-fast broadband to households throughout this country New Zealanders will be able to take advantage of much faster speeds and get modern access to the sort of entertainment that those in other countries enjoy.This morning on the Education and Science Committee we heard in public hearings from a couple of our tertiary education institutions—the Tertiary Education Commission and also Education New Zealand—about some very positive work that is being done under this Government’s stewardship not onlyto help develop New Zealand’s economy but to get better outcomes for New Zealand students to make sure young Kiwis have a good opportunity to get a great education and go into good employment and also to make New Zealand a friendly and welcoming place for international students to come to.I was delighted to hear of the efforts and work being done to boost Pasifika and Māori trades training. The chief executive of the Tertiary Education Commission pointed out that at the moment we have gone from about 1000 to 1400 over the last year since the announcement in last year’s Budget of that extra investment. So it is sitting at about 1400 and he fully expects that number to go up to 5000 over the next couple of years. Those young Māori and Pasifika trades trainees are going into a system that will help them ensure that they get jobs. In fact the employment rate coming out of those qualifications is very high. That work is being done in partnership not only with educational institutions but with iwi like Ngāi Tahu particularly in Christchurch and building companies like Hawkins Construction to make sure that those young people are well quipped to participate in the modern workforce and to take advantage of some of the economic gains that this Government has hard-wired into the economy over the last 6 years.Another very positive story that we heard in that committee was around international students. I was delighted to hear that we had a massive growth of 10 percent over the last 2 years in the dollar contribution of international students to the New Zealand economy from $2.6 billion to $2.85 billion. We are on track and fully confident that a $5 billion contribution by the year 2020 can be made. Not only do those students cross-subsidise young New Zealanders doing courses but actually they are creating a business network and a politically influential network around the world that will be favourable to New Zealand. They are also giving New Zealand students a cross-cultural platform a level of competency including in languages through to just an understanding of other people’s life ways which will be very valuable and serve them well going into the future. This is just one small example of the excellent work that this John Key - led Government is doing.