Key John: State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
Key John: State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10640] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 If I was to stand before this House tonight and tell members that this bill is a complete and utter disgrace and that the Minister should be ashamed of it members would not be surprised that that was coming from the National Party. But I could be speaking on behalf of the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) because the PPTA also finds this bill a disgrace. What is more it has read the Labour Party manifesto. It has read the bits about partnership. The words that one sees in the Labour Party manifesto are about partnership and working hand-in-hand with the community. But this Government is not in such a partnership. This Government reeks of arrogance; it bathes in it. The Government is telling the PPTA that because it does not like what the association is doing—standing up for its people—it will change the legislation. 
The last Labour Minister whom we saw come into this House with such an arrogant view was the Hon Dr Michael Cullen. He came into this House and said: “We won. You lost. Eat that!”. That went down like a cup of cold sick with the public of New Zealand in just the same way that this legislation will go down. The Minister of Education the Hon Trevor Mallard is now coming to this House and saying: “You won. I lost. Beat this!”. That is what he is doing. In this bill called the State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) he is changing the rules of the game because he cannot beat the PPTA. The PPTA had a very valid argument indeed. It had the argument that teachers are underpaid in this country. Good teachers are not being paid what they deserve and we know that they deserve a great deal more. This is just a classic example of what we have seen from the Labour Government since it has been in power which is a continuation and an expansion of the nanny State. 
We can see the nanny State wherever we look. We have seen it in the health sector with primary health organisations being rolled out all over the place to give free health-care whether that is to millionaires or to people who really need it. We have seen it in accident compensation where we had a perfectly operating private sector. But this Government came in and said that no the private sector might be doing very well might know how accident compensation works best and might be able to deliver results for New Zealanders that were proven to work but Labour would still nationalise it. We have seen it in the area of superannuation with the “Cullen fund”. Labour does not trust New Zealanders. The Labour Government’s message is that it does not trust New Zealanders to save for and invest in their own retirement so it is delivering the wholesale “Cullen fund” and sending 85 percent of it off shore so we do not even invest in our own country—in our own people and the very businesses that drive economic growth in this country. That is what Labour is doing. 
Here lo and behold exactly the same principles are to operate in education. I am very surprised at that because today the OECD released a 159-page report that told the people of New Zealand the policies of the current Labour Government are failing. They are failing in all sorts of areas and education is one of them. So when I see this bill I can tell members that I know it is a very sad day indeed. The Government cannot win the argument cannot believe in the boards of trustees and the people who are engaged in delivering education in our society and thinks it does not have the competency the skills or the ability to win the argument. So the Government has got the sledgehammer out and in a very arrogant way has delivered legislation that it thinks is the king hit. 
I would suggest that if Trevor Mallard has the guts to front up at the PPTA annual general meeting next year he will find a very different president from the one who probably welcomed him in 1999. This president has stated in his own annual report: “It is time to find another Minister to take education forward.” When someone’s own people have turned on a person that person knows he or she is in the schtuck. One knows one is in serious trouble when one’s own people turn on one. That is the sort of reception that will await this Minister of Education when he fronts up—that is presuming he does front up. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The member is making it up. 
JOHN KEY 
: The member is not making it up. The member is reading an accurate statement which he is happy to present to the House at any particular time.