Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): Look I am delighted to speak in this debate in terms of the financial review. The first thing I want to say is it's great to be speaking on a financial review. The last Government increased Vote Education every single year that we were in office. It went to over a record $11 billion. But what is really disappointing is that we hear the kind of rhetoric that comes from an Associate Minister like Kelvin Davis who has been totally missing in action. We heard from my colleague on partnership schools. This is a person that stood up in front of his electorate and said he would resign from Parliament if these schools closed. Well I want to tell that member exactly what the history is in terms of Māori and Pasifika achievement: 54 percent to 74 percent young Māori achieving NCEA level 2. What we also know in terms of partnership schools is that this Government has put them through a hell of a process. We've got some of our most vulnerable children in New Zealand more than a thousand kids some with very complex needs—and yes we all do hope that these schools remain open. But the reality is that this Government put in a flawed process from the beginning. A lack of communication an inability to demonstrate clear process around things like Ministers' conflicts and perceived conflicts an inability to tell these schools what their future was shifting deadlines—it has been a complete shambles. We on this side of the House support the partnership schools model because as my colleague Denise Lee already showed they are getting results for some of our most vulnerable children and we are frankly ashamed of the Government and its actions regarding partnership schools. It is relevant to this financial review because New Zealand doesn't know what the bill is for closing some of these partnership schools. We know it could be anywhere from $16 million plus a number of other payments that are being made and the Government needs to front up on this issue. In terms of national standards again we have a contrast with a previous Government that invested every single year in increasing Vote Education. We focused on accountability and high standards. This Government comes in. Ideologically it wants to get rid of partnership schools. Ideologically Chris Hipkins overnight says to every parent in New Zealand You don't have a right to have a nationwide picture of achievement so that we're able to have absolute confidence in parent reporting." He got rid of national standards overnight but the reality is that people are fighting back. Parents are fighting back. Schools are fighting back. As we demonstrated in this financial review of all those communities of learning they are currently keeping national standards not because we believe that will necessarily be the system in the future—we understand progression; we support a shift to progression—but because Chris did it without having the tools in place—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Order! If you would use the member's proper name. Thank you. Hon NIKKI KAYE: The Minister did it without having the tools in place to ensure that there isn't a whole lot more admin on teachers around reporting progression but also without ensuring that you have that reporting back to the ministry. That's where on this side of the House we support progression but we believe you need to invest in the tools that enable that nationwide picture of achievement. Then also on communities of learning—$360 million. Again the Minister is out there making changes. He's not being transparent. In three core areas of education which all focus on ensuring that we lift achievement and that we help some of our most vulnerable on this side of the House we continued to increase the budget to raise achievement—particularly for Māori and Pasifika students from 54 percent to 74 percent in terms of NCEA level 2. On the other side of the House we have a very clear theme here: ideology trumps lifting achievement ideology trumps reporting to parents and ideology trumps collaboration with communities of learning. So we are very proud of the previous investments that we've made but unfortunately for New Zealand instead of moving together with cross-party agreement on core areas of education we have an arrogant Government that has already moved without taking parents and a number of key people in terms of the profession with them to make these changes. Young people—some of our most vulnerable who have the most complex needs—will suffer because we won't be able to know exactly where we need to target some of that resource because we won't have a good nationwide picture of achievement because we won't have schools like partnership schools. We may have different schools but we won't be able to help those kids as much as we have been under some of these models. We also won't know things like the future of communities of learning. We support reviews but 15 reviews in education?"