Peachey Allan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Peachey Allan: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14312] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 Last Tuesday afternoon in this Parliament the next Prime Minister of New Zealand Mr John Key moved a motion that states that this House has no confidence in the Helen Clark - led Government. People throughout the land have said “Hear hear!” to that because after 8½ long failing years—years with no vision years of no ability to see the good in New Zealanders and their ambition to do better—this House this afternoon has the opportunity to end those long 8½ years. And that is what the people of New Zealand want. They do not want to see this Government in its self-interest stumble along for another 8 or 9 months and then be thrown out of office. The message from the people of New Zealand is: “Go now Labour. Get out of the way and let a John Key - led Government begin to work on the issues that need addressing—the questions that New Zealanders urgently need leadership on.” 
Why is it that after 8½ years of that Labour Government New Zealand interest rates are the second-highest they have ever been in New Zealand? Why is it that as a result of 8½ years of that Government the generation to which my four children belong cannot dream or aim for homeownership? That is not acceptable to New Zealanders and that is why New Zealanders expect members of this House this afternoon to vote in support of Mr Key’s motion—that this House has no confidence in that Government. 
It has been very interesting to listen to Government members defend themselves. Probably the most disappointing speech of all came from the Minister of Education. We have just seen in the final question for oral answer just how lacking that Minister is in his knowledge and understanding of the education portfolio and most important of all we have seen his lack of ambition for the children of New Zealand. Under his watch and under that of his predecessors over one-fifth of our children are not learning to read to write to do maths—to have a place in a successful growing economy. That is the legacy of that Government. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Watch out: they’re coming! 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I suggest that Mr Jones just sits quietly and listens for a change. He like other Labour members will be held to account by the electorate. In fact I invite Mr Jones to do the decent thing and vote in support of Mr Key’s motion so that we can sort this out before the country now. One-fifth of our children are not learning to read to write and to do maths. 
But it is worse than that. Under the watch of that Minister of Education children with special needs—the most vulnerable of our children—are being sent home from school and denied their right to a full education because the children do not have enough teacher-aide time. I invite Government members to get up on their feet and tell this House that that is acceptable. I see that their heads are down on the other side of the Chamber and so they should be—in shame and in despair. 
Why is it that in some areas of New Zealand parents with special-needs children who need placement in special schools are having to wait sometimes for 4 or 5 years until the loved child of another set of parents dies? That is what is happening. I will repeat that because I want to make sure that the members opposite hear me and then have the opportunity to get up and defend their Government. Why is it that parents of special-needs children who need special school placements have to wait for the child—the loved special-needs child—of another set of parents to die before they get a placement in a special school? That is what has come to New Zealand as a result of 8½ years of a miserable mean-spirited unimaginative non-visionary socialist Government. 
New Zealanders throughout the land have worked out that the Labour Government is more interested in ideology than in doing the best for New Zealand. Why is it that the Government outside the secondary teachers’ collective employment contract is paying more money to those teachers who choose to belong to a union than to those who do not? Why is taxpayers’ money being used to pay a bonus which I understand is in the realm of $750 on the basis that a teacher belongs to a union? I ask whether that is right. Is that sort of behaviour on the part of a Government acceptable to this House? I say to this House that if it is not acceptable—and it is not acceptable to members on this side—then members should vote in favour of Mr Key’s motion of no confidence because this will be the best chance we have during the next few weeks to get rid of this crowd and start to give back to New Zealanders their sense of a future and give back to our children the expectation that they will be able to learn regardless of where they live. 
Members on this side of the House will not tolerate all the excuses that members opposite make for not meeting their obligations to the children of New Zealand—for there not being enough special school spaces and for special-needs children having to be sent home by schools and denied their full entitlement to education. Children are not learning to read write and calculate because members on that side of the House prefer to keep a section of our population trapped in poverty. New Zealanders understand. Those members on the other side who groan and moan and just keep their heads down in despair need to realise that the people who have stood loyally behind them in election after election have finally had enough. 
At long last Labour’s natural constituency is appreciating that in John Key New Zealand has the Prime Minister of the future. In John Key New Zealanders can have confidence in knowing that at whatever point they start in life they will have every opportunity to be successful. The schooling system will work for them. The housing system will work for them. The clean-up of the streets to make their communities safe will occur under a John Key - led National Government. 
That is why this afternoon it is time for this House to say that members opposite will be held to account. I urge every member of this House whatever his or her political persuasion to recognise that out there in New Zealand the people have had enough. The people want this House this afternoon to vote in favour of John Key’s motion so that the Labour Government can be gone.