Tolley Anne: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTolley Anne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 30 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15708. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police): Well the 2014 election year has begun predictably. National led off and announced its education policy which was focused on lifting educational achievement for all New Zealand children. It was well targeted and as a result parents teachers and school leaders love it. It was well-thought-through and it was well costed and we know how we are going to fund it.The Greens—well the Greens held a picnic and I think what resulted from that was that they gave the kids a sandwich actually—they gave four kids a sandwich. [Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Can I have some respect for the member trying to address the House. Courtesy is contagious Mr Mallard.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. They insulted all the parents of kids in low-decile schools by saying essentially that those parents cannot feed their kids and that their kids are unhealthy. More important the Greens reinforced their lack of ambition for these kids by confirming their belief that poor kids cannot learn. It is not that the poor kids are not bright or that they are not hard-working; they simply cannot learn because their parents do not earn enough dollars. I find that insulting.While we are on insults I am actually rather insulted as a constituent MP. I serve an electorate day after day week after week meeting and talking with people in my home communities. I have to say that they are not well off. In my electorate I represent some of the poorest communities in New Zealand. I am actually insulted to be lectured on how out of touch I am with average New Zealanders by a list MP who has no constituents lives in a castle and comes to the House dressed in $2000 designer jackets and tells me that I am out of touch. Well actually I say to the Green MPs: “Come into my patch and have a look. Come into my patch.” We have some fantastic schools—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! There are people interjecting who are not even in their seats. It is not permitted.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I sat in the school prize-giving for theŌpōtiki Primary School at the end of last year. They filled the local hall—actually they filled the picture theatre—all those parents there with huge ambitions for their kids. It is an enormously successful school focused on increasing kids’ vocabulary and particularly on increasing their ability to read. It is a very successful school. I also went over toIlminster Intermediate School in Kaiti. Again it is right in the heart of a low socio-economic community in Gisborne. Again there was a hall filled with parents all with big ambitions—bright ambitions—for their kids succeeding at school in a poor area. Their parents might not have a lot of money but they have huge ambitions and huge aspirations for their kids—just as this John Key - led Government has.We believe that those kids deserve the very best education that the State can provide and we know that just because they are poor it does not mean that with great teachers and great schools they cannot learn. So I say to the Greens: “Get out there and get in touch with real New Zealanders. Go out and win an electorate and then you can deal with real people and with their real issues.”That brings us to Labour. Well how embarrassing—I mean how embarrassing a start for the Labour Opposition this year. Its Best Start turns out to be its worst start—its absolute worst start. In fact you might call it a stop start. Last night its leader had to admit that he had got it wrong in his baby bonus speech. And what did he do? He blamed the speech-writer. For heaven’s sake—he is delivering probably the most important speech of the year which sets the agenda for the Labour Opposition and he does not check his speech before he reads it—he does not check it and re-check it for facts. That tells us that he is either a lazy politician relying on his speech-writer or he is not prepared to be accountable. He is not prepared to take responsibility for his mistake. Either one of those does not make a good leader.But he is still tricky is he not—he is still tricky. He said that he got it wrong in his speech but we know that the details were not in the glossy brochures. They were not in the explanations of the policy. They were not in the Q and As. We know that nobody picked up the phone to the media and said “Hey listen guys when we said 59000 actually it isn’t 59000—you’ve got it wrong.” Nobody did that. We know that his Labour colleagues over there did not know the details either because we saw their faces as day after day we have pulled out the actual truth about their policies. They had no idea that their leader was taking them down this path. We have slowly found out that it is not 59000. In fact we are still not sure exactly how many people are going to get this baby bonus—probably only beneficiaries and single-income families earning $150000. That is probably what it is going to come down to. I call it a “failed to start” actually.I just want to read out little bits of an article that appeared in theGisborne Herald lately written by a lady called MerePōhatu a very good community worker. The article is headed “High on success”. It highlights for me the sensible approach that this Government has taken to focus on targeted wraparound support for our most vulnerable families and parents and why spraying hundreds of millions of dollars around hoping to fix a problem has never worked in the bad old days of Labour Governments and will not work now despite—Maggie Barry: They don’t learn though.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: No they do not learn. So Mere said: “High on success—I just spotted the guy selling legal drugs counting all yourmokopuna’s money in his shop. Indeed he hardly had a chance to count it all up because your mokopuna kept interrupting him to buy more of the stuff. Readers I have also spotted your kids with their little kids sitting in their double-parked cars while mum is in the shop buying the chemical standing in her pyjamas with her $50 note in her hand and the car running. But she’s not coming out of that shop with much change but man are those kids going to have a great time. Mum if she’s buying it for herself will be off her face high as a kite and maybe she’ll come down slow or maybe she’ll come down with a big fat whack and maybe your mokopuna have had no kai and are hungry and they get the whack. The next $20 or so and the next day it starts all over again. And the guy in the shop is hardly having time to count yourmokopuna’s money and yourmokos all have got loyalty cards to that shop. They are platinum plus members. 2014 and I am absolutely flabbergasted to see so many people giving this guy money to get off their faces. I wish they would spend the money on education and learning and good kai for theirwhānau.”This is not me saying it; this is a sad sad article written by a lady who works in these communities who has worked there for years who sees this happening and it is breaking her heart. The question is whether more dollars will help those families.I am proud to be part of John Key’s team which has through the toughest economic times focused on addressing the real drivers of poverty and despair in our communities by working alongside people to help them into jobs or into training; by ensuring thatthere is extra help with budgeting and managing their incomes; by prioritising insulation for their homes to keep them warm and dry and healthy; by inoculating their children against preventable diseases and setting out to eliminate rheumatic fever; by supporting community initiatives like community gardens and mural projects; by setting up neighbourhood policing teams to help people keep themselves safe and secure in their homes and neighbourhoods; by the outstanding work that Paula Bennett and—to a lesser extent—I and now Hekia Parata have done to support teenage mums and dads with home support places and programmes education early childhood education parenting and budgeting help and advice and ongoing mentoring and support; and again by the outstanding work protecting vulnerable babies and children from violence that Paula Bennett is leading.Some families need special care and assistance. Some kids need more than just a cash payment; they need someone to look out for them—their families their community and their Government—so that they get as Mere says education and learning and good kai for theirwhānau.