Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): I find it so interesting that the only thing the last three Labour MPs could speak about was the National Party leadership race. Do you know why that is? I'll tell you why that is. That is because they are deflecting because the issue of the day is charter schools and they don't want to talk about it. They will do anything in their power not to talk about charter schools and I'll tell you why.Actually what they've been doing is they've been hiding away in their offices all day thinking about clever things like horse races and dog handlers. What I've been thinking about is the ton of garbage that has been coming out of the Labour Government over the last few months about charter schools because they are ideologically opposed to them.The Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern called charter schools at the end of last year a failed model. Well let's take a look at the actual reality not just that spin. Vanguard Military School is a charter school in my electorate that I will stand up for. Let's look at their results—let's look at their results. The reality is Vanguard Military School—their NCEA results for last year for level 2 were 89 percent compared to the national average of 77 percent. And do you know what? Those Māori MPs opposite me should be interested in the fact that Vanguard have 50 percent of their roll who are Māori students.So you know what? Given Miss Ardern's speech at Waitangi about the distance between the whare and the homestead and how that represented the difference in equality that we still have and her hopes for the future I'm sure she would be interested in Vanguard's roll-based results for last year for Māori students. Level 2—90 percent compared to the national average of 72. Let's look at level 3—95 percent compared to the national average of 55 percent. For a failed model charter schools certainly seem to be working for Māori and Mr Jackson knows that.Today in question time Jacinda Ardern was so very concerned that charter schools have unregistered teachers and don't teach to the curriculum. So let's look at her very grave concerns. The teachers are unregistered—the Labour Government say it with such passion you'd be forgiven for thinking that the local P dealer was teaching chemistry. The reality is that teachers of core subjects are registered teachers. Vanguard employs two unregistered teachers. One is a defence force teacher and the other one is a Te Reo teacher.What about the charter schools who are not teaching to the curriculum? Again you'd be forgiven for thinking that Vanguard students get credits for making coffee and braiding each other's hair. Well I can tell you that Vanguard like most other charter schools teaches to the New Zealand curriculum. In fact English maths and PE are compulsory.So why given all of this is it that one of the first pieces of education legislation is to get rid of these amazing schools? The reality is that these schools work; they just don't work for the unions. Unfortunately Mr Hipkins—in his inept Government this whole issue has become a massive omnishambles.Let's break it down: the negotiation process whereby Mr Hipkins blindsided schools with two press releases that he put out with his intentions to close charter schools down without even bothering to phone them first. Or how about Mr Hipkins' empty offer to transition charter schools to special character schools? Like the ministry meeting with Vanguard this week for the first time and expecting them to have an application for special character school status in by 1 April. They have to make a decision after four years of operation in six measly weeks. Well that is a very bad April Fool's joke. If only Mr Hipkins was as good at talking to charter schools as he is with the Australian Labor Party.Then we have the Labour Party's backtracking Māori MPs: Jackson Henare and Davis. Kelvin Davis my favourite one pledged to resign from Parliament if the next Labour Government closes either of the charter schools in Whangarei. What about the charter schools in my electorate which are also in his electorate that he's never visited? Vanguard—he has never even visited them. He hasn't even picked up the phone to call them. That is a disgrace. He has been their MP for three years and he's never walked in the door. Why is he not standing up for the 50 percent Māori students in that school?As much as I like beating up on the Government this is about the children of those partnership schools the children that I have visited and spoken to. I have looked in their eyes and seen the future that they now have under the charter school model that they didn't have before. Thank you.