Mallard Trevor: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Mallard Trevor: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9488] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 This is a case of our being more in sadness than in anger as far as the Opposition is concerned. I think that we have gone through the point with this Minister of Education where we were angry with the Prime Minister for her appointment when her inadequacies were shown. I think it is important to know that as Heatley has gone and as Worth has gone it is our expectation that this Minister will at some stage join that group of former Ministers. I think that the Prime Minister has to make up his mind relatively soon as to when he will hand out the Not Achieved to this Minister. 
As we focus on the different parts of this vote we would have expected this Minister to be in charge of both parts of this vote as Minister of Education. But we note that effectively half her workload has been stripped from her because of the inadequacies that have been shown and that half of the workload has been given to Mr Steven Joyce. It is sad that a Prime Minister has had to take half the workload from a front-bench Minister in the way that the Prime Minister has had to do by taking away from this Minister her responsibility for reporting on a very significant part of this vote. 
We saw the Minister at the Education and Science Committee answering on this particular topic and I think it is fair to say that there has been a previous Minister who had a worse performance at the select committee: Nick Smith I can remember. I can remember Wyatt Creech and Dr Smith appearing before the select committee and both of those people knew their subject. They did their homework; they understood. They knew what a vice-chancellor was they knew what a vote was and they knew how the system was put together. They knew what group special education was because they were responsible for it and they did their homework in the way that this Minister just does not. 
They would never have put $62 million into national standards in a way that strips money out from making actual change in education. They would never have cut the money from professional development in the way that this Minister has. She has taken $45.6 million out of professional development. 
Hon Member 
: Let’s list literacy and numeracy. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No she has not transferred it to literacy and numeracy; she has taken it out of the total money available for professional development for teachers—$45.6 million over 4 years. 
Katrina Shanks 
: 9 years and you couldn’t do it. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No—9 long years of money going up but under this Minister the money for professional development has gone down. That is because we have such a lightweight on the front bench. Again she is someone who is clearly not coping with her job. She is clearly not coping with her job in the way that people should cope. 
I am sure that my colleague will talk about adult and community education but I am going to schools now that used to have adult and community education. I have been to two schools in the last 2 weeks and I have talked to three schools if we count a meeting with a principal who came to see me. They all say that adult and community education used to make a real difference to their schools. It was something that bonded them with their community. It got adults into their schools at night and that meant that vandals did not turn up. But what has this Minister done? She has cut the funding and said to schools that there is no more money for anti-vandalism there is no more money to fix up the schools and there is no more money for the overheads that have been lost as a result of doing that—and by the way she is taking $62 million out of the Education vote for her national standards. 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: That’s just not true. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well I do not know; when I went to school 36 and 26 were 62. I know there is a new approach to numeracy on the part of Anne Tolley but that is still $62 million that could have been helping kids learn and she has stolen it.