Parata Hekia: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: General Debate[Sitting date: 04 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13247. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Yesterday I had delight and pride in publishing theseinfographics on the New Zealand Education Profile. But what question do we get today from the Opposition? A pathetic question on the integration of Wanganui Collegiate School which happened over 8 months ago and that is all that Opposition members can talk about. What thisinfographic shows in one sheet is the distinction between this Government and the Opposition and the three contenders for the leadership out there. First of all we are aspirational. We want five out of five kids to be successful yet in the entire 9 years of that administration those members were happy to wring their hands over one out of five kids being failed by our system yet they were going out and telling their traditional roots how committed they were to them. In 9 years they made not a dint of effort or difference to those people. This Government in the 5 years we have been in office has tackled the hard questions. We are aspirational.Another distinction is that we are accountable. We are prepared to say what we are going to do which is to ensure that 85 percent of 18-year-olds should have the minimum qualification so that they can participate in the labour market so that they can earn the incomes they want for their own homes and so that they are independent of government. This is all completely opposite to what the Opposition wants. It wants unhappy undereducated aggrieved dependent people because that is whom it relies on in order for it to suck votes out of people who deserve better. We are giving them better.We are transparent. We report on what we are trying to do. We identify the challenges still ahead of us and they are significant. Although on average four out of five kids are being successful and that is great and we want them to do better that masks another picture where there are too many young people who are still failing and too many of those are Māori and Pasifika have special education needs or come from poorer homes. This Government is dedicated to delivering to all of them.We are detailed. We know how many boys how many girls what ethnicity and in what part of the country because the more precise we can be the more targeted and responsible we can be with taxpayers’ money. We are not a lolly scramble Government unlike the members on the Opposition side who are out and about across the country promising things that they have no costings for and indeed have no policy framework for let alone a budget. We are committed to a world-class education system and we know that one of the characteristics of that is a data-rich environment. We know that the ability to operate effectively—with what the evidence tells us—will be important for raising the educational status of every one of our New Zealand children.Each of the three Labour members who are out there auditioning to become the next leader of the Labour Party got a great education—each and every one of them. Is there one promise they have made about education? Not at all. Have they mentioned it all? Not once. No they talked about full employment—yes full employment requires skilled qualified young people. That is the big step that the Opposition has not fully understood. This side of the House has and we are dedicated to it. It is committed to a Pasifika television channel but not to Pasifika education. We too are committed to the culture the language and the identity of the wonderfully diverse Pasifika community that is contributing to this country. But guess what? Their contribution to themselves their own aiga and their communities is going to be stronger on the back of a good education. That is what we are committed to long before we get a television channel.What else have Labour members promised to do? Well they have promised a 50 percent female quota for caucus but they have not looked at how well girls are doing in our education system. They have promised not to block the man ban if the party wants it but they have not focused on what we need to do for boys in education and for brown boys in particular which our system has not yet proved it is able to deliver to. So yes we have got Labour-lite leaders out there talking and talking and talking based on having had an excellent education themselves but there is not one word and not one commitment to education for New Zealanders.This Government puts its money where its mouth is. We have put $9.7 billion into Vote Education this year. That is a 74 percent increase on early childhood education and a 30 percent increase on schooling. This Opposition has talked about the closures of schools by this Government. Well let me—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.