Tolley Anne: General Debate 
Tolley Anne: General Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19599] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I want to talk about the Hon Phil Goff. He is a nice man Phil Goff. I quite like him. He has been an effective Minister in his time but his time is up. It is time for him to go. There are two reasons why I think it is time that Phil Goff was out of here. The first reason is that that lot sitting over there do not respect him. Watch their body language when they are with him. They do not respect him. In fact they are so busy fighting one another that he is left out on his own. It was interesting to see when he appointed the new education spokesman after the Darren Hughes debacle. Whom did Goff appoint? He appointed his friend David Shearer. He is a good friend. He brought him into Parliament. What did the Labour caucus do? They rolled him and they put in Sue Moroney as the spokesperson on early childhood education.  
Sue Moroney spent 70 percent of the time at the estimates hearing last week talking about early childhood education—the small part of preschool. What about the big compulsory sector? Where were the questions on that? Sue Moroney is so into education she cannot even read a Budget document. She believes that if there is a 5 percent increase in roll numbers a 5 percent increase in the operations grant is needed. It is no wonder the New Zealand Educational Institute loves her.  
Speaking of which the New Zealand Educational Institute sent out postcards. It had a postcard campaign: “Early Childhood Education sets the scene for life”. Turn it over and it says: “Dear Prime Minister”. This is a postcard to the Prime Minister. It says: “Add your personal message to the Prime Minister and we will deliver it.” The post note here is free: “ECE Campaign”. If you filled in this postcard who do you think would get it? The New Zealand Educational Institute. And who would they give it to? It would be the Prime Minister because that is what it says. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It might be a valid question but I really do not think that you would have filled in a postcard to be sent to the Prime Minister. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I accept the member’s point but I do not like interrupting speeches. The member could have raised that point at the end of the speech. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: Mr Speaker I am sure you did not fill in a postcard. But if you had filled in a postcard would you not think that it would go to the Prime Minister? Who do we think received these postcards? The Prime Minister? No. The Minister of Education? No. The Minister of Finance who controls the Budget? No. 
Hon Member 
: Who got them? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: It was Sue Moroney. The New Zealand Educational Institute ran a campaign and who ended up with the campaign database? Sue Moroney. Poor old Phil Goff said: “Actually we were just going to write to these people to tell them what was happening with the postcards.”  
Our friend Whale Oil Beef Hooked has been trawling through Labour emails for a long time. The blogger from Whale Oil Beef Hooked has to be the email friend of the world. He said he found an email sitting there ready to go out from Sue Moroney which said things like “Last year you filled in a postcard for the New Zealand Educational Institute.” It talked about how Labour was fighting hard to stop the early childhood education cuts: “Our focus will be quality … We need your support. … Please like our Facebook page” and share it with your friends. “Please feel welcome to email me any time with your views. Kind regards Sue Moroney”. Where is the Prime Minister in all of this? Who has the postcards? Does the Prime Minister have the postcards? No. Sue Moroney has the postcards.  
We know that Phil Goff does not know what is going on in his caucus; he has no idea. Sue Moroney is working with the New Zealand Educational Institute which is supposed to be a union representing teachers. Maybe Sue Moroney is mounting a campaign with the New Zealand Educational Institute for the leadership of Labour after the next election. The New Zealand Educational Institute has by the way launched on its website a very active election campaign so maybe Phil Goff does not even know what is happening to the election campaign. The New Zealand Educational Institute has it all laid out with all the targeted electorates for the election campaign and scripts for conversations to have with people. It would be interesting to see whether Sue Moroney is going out and talking to people in the context of early childhood education saying “Please think about signing our early childhood education petition here.” and saying things in the school context about children being able to learn at their own rate.