SpeechMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): It's a pleasure to take a call in this Estimates debates on broadly the labour and education portfolios or areas of expenditure within Government. Unlike the previous speaker Denise Lee I'll actually try to address issues pertaining to those areas. That is not going to be hard at all because anyone that—sometimes we get the empty rhetoric from across the House that we're a do-nothing Government. If you're on the Education and Workforce Committee you have got waves of legislation coming at you from Ministers that are reforming their sectors.There has been considerable change already—the abolishment of national standards and charter schools and we've got the review of Tomorrow's Schools after 30 years which is now yesterday's schools—but within the Budget we have had several initiatives that are being so welcomed.I've just heard the previous speaker bemoan the $150 per student contribution to abolish school fees in decile 1 to 7 schools. Now talk about the Grinch that stole Christmas. You can't necessarily do everything in one day or in one year or in one term but we are starting to address these very real issues and they have been incredibly welcomed by these schools. It's $265 million worth of contribution and it is not a broken promise. That was a Labour Party commitment; this is a coalition Government and you have just demonstrated that you do not understand that. You do not understand how to count and the realities of coalition Governments on that side of the House.But I would like to touch on the vocational training which has come under some scrutiny. I have been involved in this debate. I was actually at the Southern Institute of Technology on Friday and they are coming together with this. They are seeing the advantages. They are starting to understand what we are trying to do. The system was broken. We've heard from the Minister that there was a 40000 decline in people going through vocational education at a time when we've got massive skills shortages in our industries. It's the likes of Business New Zealand it's the likes of the Employers and Manufacturers Association and it's the likes of Dairy NZ that are coming out and backing these reforms because they know what was broken.I would especially like to give the example of Telford. Telford was run into the ground and enfeebled under that previous Government. You sent that luminary in there Todd Barclay to sort it out at one stage and it failed miserably. They had $10 million in reserves and they were pillaged by Lincoln and you let that happen—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): I didn't—I didn't.MARK PATTERSON: Sorry Madam Chair. The National Party let that happen when they were leading the last Government and then they allowed it to fall into the hands of Taratahi. One of the great announcements the other day that has been widely regarded and well received in the South is the $4.7 million injection into Telford to put that back in its rightful place as the jewel of agricultural training in the South and hopefully it takes its place leading vocational training for agriculture into the future. I commend the Minister of Education who actually had to come off his holiday in January to save it when the wheels were almost totally off and put $1.8 million into it to just get the wheels on to get it to this point—and now followed up with $4.7 million. I absolutely commend the Minister for his work there and that has been incredibly well received.In my last minute—because a lot of this stuff has been traversed in some detail but I see that the Pike River recovery is part of this Estimates debate in this particular section. I sat in on the Finance and Expenditure Committee where Minister Little gave his contribution to that. This Government has been united in putting that travesty right—29 New Zealanders went to work that day and did not come home. We individually made commitments before the election to do something about that to put that wrong right and we have. The National Opposition have finally come round to that but never let it be forgotten: they were going to concrete that place in and we have absolutely stopped that travesty. We are going in there. We're going to give some closure to those families on what could be New Zealand's biggest—well one of its biggest—crime scenes. We are acting and I'm very proud that we are.