Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Mr Speaker thank you for the opportunity to stand and rise and take a call in this the general debate. Like my colleagues I would like to focus on the theme of education—in particular the theme of broken promises. We heard at the time of the Budget that in relation to education there hadn't been broken promises so much as promises that had not yet been delivered. Promises that had not been delivered but which no doubt in due course will be at some stage—The cheque's in the post." We've heard for example about the subject of school donations. The Labour Party among others now forming the Government said that donations would not need to be paid by parents of students in relation to school but it's a broken promise or rather a promise not yet delivered. The only relevance that donations have to Labour Party policy is that the union pays them to the Labour Party and they make the policy based on that. SPEAKER: Order! Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That's a serious breach of Parliament's rules—what the member has said. It's not a trifling one. It's actually a very serious allegation the member's just made. SPEAKER: It's a new member and I think he won't do it again. CHRIS PENK: Mr Speaker certainly I didn't intend to—SPEAKER: No no. We're going on now. We don't go back when we do that. CHRIS PENK: Understood. In relation to broken promises it's clear that the political will has been replaced by the ministerial "won't". Ladies and gentlemen the people of New Zealand really want the Government to focus on the things that actually matter to them. In education ladies and gentlemen this actually means doing the things that they said they would do: making good on the promises that they made instead of breaking them. Getting the basics right means for example—to choose a topic off the top of my head—class sizes. So it's not good enough merely to talk about them or to talk about them in detail that's been boasted about as a matter of policy. How about actually doing the things that the Government has said that they will do? Talk is cheap and it's only words that we've had so far. In relation to class sizes on a local parochial note I note that in the north-west of Auckland in the electorate of Helensville class sizes are increasing whereby schools are fit to burst. This has been an ongoing problem for many years and it will continue for many years in the future if the Government does not listen to the pleas of the north-west to actually do something about investing in schools in that part of the world matching the population growth. Various Opposition candidates as they then were who are now on the Government side made all kinds of statements along those lines in the education campaign—excuse me in the election campaign. That was a Freudian slip because so much did focus on the subject of education. So much was said before the election and so little was done after the election that I challenge the Government—in particular the Minister of Education—to make good on some of those promises and indeed to back up some of that rhetoric to turn the political will into ministerial will and to turn the talk into action and actually do something about that. In particular—Mr Speaker if you'll indulge me one more moment on the subject of the local needs—I would encourage the Government to consider the fact that it takes quite some time to build plan and implement new schools. That work needs to be done now by the current Government and they should not simply wait until the population increases such that they say "Well now it's time to start the process." by which time it will be too late. I would encourage the Government—and again as I say the Minister himself in particular—to take seriously the needs of that community as I have been relaying them and indeed that community has been presenting to both sides of the House over many years to actually get on and do these things. These are the basics. These are the things that they must get right. These are the things indeed that they have promised and that they must start to deliver upon. Finally we hear a lot on the subject of payment of teacher's salaries. Of course it goes without saying—or rather it might go without saying but I'll say it for the purpose of avoiding any doubt—that all people in this country recognise that teachers do a wonderful job for our children and therefore for us as a society. We must support them but we must also in thinking about paying them more actually consider ways that the might best be achieved. Now one of these ways is to allow a flexible education system whereby if a school has the resources and is able to make those teacher payments higher than they would otherwise be then that is something that should be embraced. In the case of charter schools—or partnership schools as they are correctly known—this is something that's already provided for. This is something that's already available. This is something that's being taken away. So the Government far from delivering on its actual promise to make things better is in fact in that respect and indeed in many others making things much worse. SPEAKER: Before I call Ron Mark I say to Jami-Lee Ross—the member could settle down I think."