Cosgrove Clayton: Urgent Debates — Schools Canterbury—Proposed Closures and Mergers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Urgent Debates — Schools Canterbury—Proposed Closures and Mergers 
[Sitting date: 18 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5296. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: —to the point where he had to apologise. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at that comment. I do not know whether you were listening but the Speaker has already ruled on that. I require him to withdraw and apologise. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: You do not require anything. Look I did not hear. Did the member say something unparliamentary? 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I did. I called him a liar so I withdraw and apologise. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: And that is the sort of foot in mouth—foot in mouth—swashbuckling swing the lead around style that Gerry Brownlee has exhibited. That actually speaks volumes and that is why Minister of Education people have had a gutsful of that Minister over there. People have a right to be treated with sensitivity. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry because I thought you were going to wait till the member got to the end of his sentence before you got to your feet. There is a form for withdrawing and apologising in this House. Speakers have often ruled that repeating the comments again is disorderly and it is your job to stop members doing that. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member is technically right but on this occasion I asked the member. I said— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: You didn’t ask him to repeat the comment. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is true but I opened the door for him to say it. That was my fault. I think— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Everyone knows what the rules are. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: And I accept that. On this occasion I asked the member and he responded in a way that was inappropriate—I will accept. But he did withdraw and apologise. 
Chris Hipkins 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. After a member withdraws and apologises is it in order for them to loudly boast to everybody “I didn’t mean it.”? 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Well I did not hear that either. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Well there we go again. I do not mind it colleagues. Gerry Brownlee can keep doing it and keep saying it because for every Cantabrian watching they know what a buffoon he is. What he said in the Christchurch  
Press 
 last week—I am happy to furnish him with a copy—kicked Cantabrians in the guts to the point where he had to come out 2 days later and apologise to them. I will just read the member something. In the  
Press 
 on 16 September here is what a Mr Les McNamara wrote on his Facebook page: “Such an appalling way”—he is talking about the education announcement—“to treat the people of Christchurch. It’s as though the Government went out of its way to cause as much distress as possible.” I accept that that might be a bit over the top. I accept that the Minister may be incompetent but I think she did actually act in good faith. She may have a high degree of negligence and incompetence but I think she actually did not go out of her way to cause distress to people. I will grant her that. 
But I just say that 2 years down the track how many announcements have we had about earthquake matters? You would think that this Government would learn how to do it—would actually learn how to do it. Within a couple of hours of Avonside Girls’ High School and Shirley Boys High School being told that they are history and they are merging with Christchurch Girls’ High School and Christchurch Boys’ High School suddenly—it is sort of John Banks all over again—the Government has had memory loss and is going to reverse its decision. It might be OK and the schools might be allowed to stay. 
In a community that is under stress the only constant really in a family’s life in Canterbury at the moment is the kids’ schooling—is the fact that the kids can go to school. As a woman said at Ouruhia last night—she was a member I think of one of the emergency services—the one constant in her life was that she knew the kids would be looked after. There was another lady who got up and said that when there was an earthquake she did not worry about the kids at Ouruhia because she knew they would be taken care of. She knew that if it hit the fan they would be moved and they would be looked after. Such is the faith they have in their school. 
So what we are down to—and I hope this consultation is going to be high quality; I doubt it—is that parents want to know the justification for these decisions. In Ouruhia’s case they want to know why it is when the roll is stable when there is massive population growth just across the road effectively in Belfast—enough for both schools; in fact more I suspect than both could cope with—and when they have basically no damage they have not even seen an engineering report I think and an engineering assessment I believe has not been done they are on the block and it was not even signalled to them. I would have thought that if you respect that community—a community that does not ask much apart from justification from politicians for their decisions—and if you are really interested in consultation the Government the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Education would do that groundwork well before this botched announcement took place. 
If it was a high-quality announcement and that groundwork had been done then I suspect it would have been a very different meeting at Ouruhia last night. They are good parents. They are not extremist and they are not asking for something they feel is outlandish. They just cannot work out the logic behind this decision and they cannot work out why there was not a full explanation. According to the Minister Gerry Brownlee all the geotechnical information on these schools is available. According to the Minister all the consultation had been done. Yet they are left in tears many of them because they cannot work out why this decision has been rendered on them. Shame on that Minister. 
For all the weighty documents for all the run sheets does the Minister not realise that people are under extreme stress and strain in that province? I know that Gerry Brownlee will get up and he will spray us all and say this is political opportunism. That is what he interjected on my colleague before. 
Hon Hekia Parata 
: It is. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: No political opportunism as defined by the Government is anyone who stands up for the local communities and says “No.” “We disagree.” or “We are opposed.” That is labelled political opportunism by that mob over there. They tried in the first 6 months to say that we were just playing to the media. Then it was an election strategy. Well I say to that member over there the Minister of Education that I challenge her to go down to Ouruhia School Burnham School Duvauchelle School Kendal School or Burnside Primary School and say: “Well the members the people and you—the community—who oppose us you are being opportunistic.” I challenge the member to make that claim to the people of Christchurch or to make that claim about those who represent Christchurch and are local members in Christchurch. I bet you 100 bucks she will not have the fortitude to go down and make that claim in the community. We will wait and we will see whether there is any high-quality consultation and whether this Government continues to put its foot in its mouth.