Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Speaker and it's a pleasure to take a call in this general debate. I'd just like to reflect on Kieran McAnulty. He seemed to have a lot to talk about on the polls and polling numbers. Well I'd like to just remind him that it's not once that he's lost the seat of Wairarapa; it's twice that he's lost the seat of Wairarapa and guess what? Next year it'll be three times he's lost the seat of Wairarapa. So if you want to give a lecture about polls why don't you go back to the Wairarapa—SPEAKER: Order! SIMEON BROWN: —and have a chat to them. Sorry Mr Speaker.I'd like to take a moment to talk a little bit about some of the reforms that this Government is putting through and to get back to some of the real issues which actually matter for New Zealanders. One of those issues is the issue of education. We've heard from our education spokesperson Nikki Kaye and our tertiary education spokesperson Shane Reti on the ideological reforms that this Government is pushing through in regards to our education policy.I would like to put to the House that this Parliament has seen I think the most ideological Minister of Education in New Zealand's history. Just last year we saw national standards being scrapped and partnership schools being scrapped. We saw the fees-free scheme being put in place which resulted in no increase in student numbers and we saw 18 to 20 reviews being announced. This year we now see some of those reviews coming forward and being worked through and what we again see is more ideology coming through in the Government's position.We're starting to see the outcomes of these reviews. I'd like to talk briefly about the vocational education review and the Tomorrow's Schools review. Both of them have got common themes—that is centralisation of core services to the Government. You just need to look at the review of vocational education. We're seeing all 16 institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) and all industry training organisations (ITOs) being wound into one.In terms of our schools we're seeing our boards of trustees losing many of their legal mandates and being relegated to simply having an advisory role in regards to what they do and the function that they do in their schools. What we're seeing here is a Minister of Education who is going out around the country and telling the thousands and thousands of board of trustees members that the work that they do is not valued. We're seeing a Minister going out and talking to our ITPs and ITOs and saying The work that you're doing is not valued." "I think we can do it better if we just simply centralise it." is what the Minister of Education is saying. "Let's centralise let's centralise let's centralise."—that's simply what the Minister of Education is saying.When it comes to his consultation I think it's important for this House to note the extreme rush with which he is pushing these proposals through. The reform of vocational education was two reviews being merged together at the end of last year and then with the announcement being made early this year it was only six weeks for the sector to be able to come to grips with the changes that were being proposed and to be able to come up with their response to that. The review of Tomorrow's Schools had only three months for the whole entire compulsory education sector to be able to understand what this means and to then be able to provide its feedback. I would like to acknowledge the work that Nikki Kaye and Shane Reti have done in getting out around the country and talking to thousands of people to hundreds of school principals and to our ITP sector and our ITOs and to actually be able to be on the ground and understand what will actually work and what won't.I think that the Minister of Education needs to take serious note of what the Office of the Auditor-General said when he said about the review of vocational education that "there is not enough detail to assess whether the significant structural changes will improve financial sustainability and governance of the … sector."This is something which every single ITP up and down the country—the ITOs are saying that you can't just announce changes which restructure the entire sector without actually doing the homework and doing the analysis before you put the announcement out there. What the Minister has put out there is reckless. It is putting out proposals which have not been thought through have not had the thought and the detailed policy work done and this is what we see from across this Government: a whole lot of reviews and a whole lot of announcements but no real detailed policy work in terms of their position. That is not what New Zealanders expect and we look forward to going to the vote next election and putting that to the New Zealand public. Thank you."