Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Thank you very much Mr Chair. You know the funny thing about partnership schools around the world is that they are not the preserve of centre-right parties like the National Party—typically not the preserve; they are actually institutions advanced by progressive parties—or at least parties that like to call themselves progressive. I have not taken a call yet in this Education Amendment Bill debate in either the first reading or the second reading and I just want to put it on the record that partnership schools in New Zealand will go down as progressive institutions of achievement. It doesn't matter what the Labour Party says about them and it doesn't matter the defamation that Tracey Martin can fling about—Hon Tracey Martin: Ha ha ha ha!CHRIS BISHOP: —and it doesn't matter the insulting things that Tracey Martin—Hon Tracey Martin: That member should know about misleading statements. If anybody knows that member knows.CHRIS BISHOP: Well that member laughs but it is a matter of record that Tracey Martin stood in this House and compared charter schools to what people send their dogs to—what people send their animals to. It is a matter of record that Tracey Martin likened partnership schools to dog kennels. I just want to put that on the record. [Interruption] My colleagues are saying We were there." and she's gone all quiet again because she knows that that—Hon Tracey Martin: That member's not misleading the House again is he?CHRIS BISHOP: —deeply defamatory and insulting remark—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Order!Hon Tracey Martin: That member's not misleading the House?CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The Hon Tracey Martin will withdraw that comment. It is wrong to accuse someone of misleading the House.Hon Tracey Martin: Hmm hang on. I'll think about it.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Ah—Hon Tracey Martin: I withdraw and apologise.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): No you do not make a comment to the Chair like that. You stand you withdraw and apologise and that's it.Hon Tracey Martin: I withdraw and apologise.CHRIS BISHOP: Thank you very much Mr Chair. It is a matter of record that the associate education Minister did that. It is a matter of record that she defamed and insulted these partnership schools and the teachers and the students who go there. My colleagues and I unlike Ministers and members opposite have actually gone and visited these partnership schools. Anyone just needs to take a look at the speeches given by Nicola Willis and Erica Stanford and our spokesperson for education Nikki Kaye to realise how passionate they are on behalf of the students and teachers and principals of these great schools.These are not institutions advanced by centre-right parties. The biggest advocate for partnership schools—or "charter schools" as they call them in the United States—is not Donald Trump and it's not the Republican Party; it was President Barack Obama. It was President Barack Obama who started his State of the Union speech in 2012 by promising a massive expansion of partnership schools around the United States. Why? For exactly the same reasons they were introduced by the National Party and the ACT Party in New Zealand: because traditional schools don't meet the needs of all students because there's a cohort of students for whom traditional schooling has failed; there's a cohort of children for whom the innovation and flexibility provided by partnership schools which have the ability to wrap themselves around individual students and tailor their educational offering to those particular needs that they have—they know that that works. Barack Obama promised the expansion of partnership schools or charter schools throughout the United States for exactly the same reasons that we did and it is frankly reprehensible that we are standing in the House tonight debating in committee stage a bill that will get rid of schools that do so much good.It just is worth reflecting on that: we have a small number of schools set up with the best of intentions doing a good job for students who so desperately need them. It's just worth reflecting on that. These are not students who don't need assistance like the students who get the fees-free. These are students whom the Labour Party purports to represent. These are the poor the downtrodden and the indigent; the students who have struggled the most at school from the hardest backgrounds from the least well-off families in our country. Go to South Auckland Middle School and look at the students who go there and don't tell me that they don't need assistance. These are the pupils the Labour Party say they represent and they've come down here and rammed a bill through that does away with the very institution that is trying to allow these kids to escape their backgrounds.Denise Lee: How does that add up?CHRIS BISHOP: "How does that add up?" says Denise Lee. I don't know how members opposite look themselves in the mirror in the morning."