O'Connor Simon; Williams PotoSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Madam Assistant Speaker I am really pleased to take a call in this Address in Reply debate and can I acknowledge you as Assistant Speaker. Congratulations on your role and to Adrian Rurawhe as well but particularly to you Madam Assistant Speaker. I thought we had a very positive working relationship on the Health Committee. Perhaps if I could put it this way I suspect both of us will miss working on that committee. Can I acknowledge the Deputy Speaker as well and of course the Speaker himself Trevor Mallard—now the Rt Hon Trevor Mallard—for taking the role.But as I begin this speech I think it is really appropriate to turn to the people of Tāmaki and to thank them for—in fact first and foremost—an incredible party vote response. Tāmaki's as blue as blue and they turned out in droves. My thanks to all those people in the electorate who supported the National Party. Thanks too that they took the opportunity to tick the box twice and include me in that and I'm very pleased to be returning to this House for my third term.The people there in Tāmaki are quite remarkable and one element of it—it doesn't matter if they are in St Heliers or Glenn Innes Ōrakei or Glendowie they are very quick to give their thoughts and opinions on things and that is actually quite a refreshing thing for a local MP. I never go to bed or wake in the morning worrying or wondering what the people there think. So they are disappointed which will be no surprise that we were not able to negotiate our way to Government. We certainly were able to bring an enormous vote overall. In fact—I think one of my colleagues was telling me earlier today—actually the same numbers effectively voted National this time as they did back in 2014. We just weren't able to quite pull it over the line. But I am relishing the opportunity to be in Opposition. Not wanting to be by any means but you relish the chances that you're given. I'm one of these sort of—it doesn't always go well with my theology but actually a bit of a fatalist. That actually—Sarah Dowie: It's because it's like shooting fish in a barrel.SIMON O'CONNOR: It is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. It's been proving quite amusing like chasing people in the North around the bush. But actually it's an opportunity and you have to take them. To the people of Tāmaki we'll continue to be a strong voice for them here in this Parliament with issues that concern them.Hon Shane Jones: What about Prince Harry?SIMON O'CONNOR: But also to—oh we're coming to that. You're going to really like this one Shane.Hon Member: What about Rob?SIMON O'CONNOR: Absolutely; it's just going to go on and on—but also to take the role of Opposition and hold this Government to account. This now is for Shane Jones. But of course we are replying to the Speech from the Throne and it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge as this House did today—in fact it was quite remarkable that this House was completely united in affirming its support for the Queen and the monarchy of New Zealand. I think it's fantastic particularly for anyone here who understands democracy and good governance as is often spoken of by me in the House. But I do want to acknowledge Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for their engagement. This is indeed an exciting time. I would want to echo the sentiments of some people today that they should be invited down here as quickly as possible. Perhaps newer members of the House won't realise but actually the tourist potential of when we have the royal family down here is huge. There was a select committee report I think about 2 years ago that highlighted the sort of tenfold increase in the likes of spending and visitors to this country when we bring members of our royal family down here. So I think it's fantastic.Just continuing the theme for Shane Jones' sake I want to congratulate Her Majesty herself and Prince Philip on their 70th wedding anniversary which as that honourable member will know was on 20 November—70 years; their platinum jubilee.Hon Scott Simpson: The member opposite was there.SIMON O'CONNOR: The member opposite may well have been there; I won't quiz him—we're not in oral question time. Look I'm only coming up to one year married and I just note that if Rachel and I do reach the platinum anniversary it will be in the year 2086—could be a long time.Look those matters aside we now have a Government that really has no idea what it's doing. The previous member who just resumed his seat Chris Bishop I think quite eloquently touched on a number of the problems. Really what we have here is a bunch of people—and I'm talking now about Labour Greens and New Zealand First—who campaigned in poetry but are now having to govern in prose. I'm not even sure they'll even be doing that.In fact in many ways I can't help but think they're governing via Post-it notes; sort of throwing Post-it notes around and seeing what happens to stick on the wall. Some of the Post-it notes are green some are black and white some are certainly red. They just sort of wait and see what lands there. In fact when I think about the colours of Post-it notes or the types some of them are even Post-it notes in the spirit of Donald Trump. We have a left-wing Government that is anti-immigration and we have a left-wing Government that is anti the TPP. In fact from what I understand there is no other left-wing Government—in fact probably not even a left-wing party in the world—that is so supportive of Donald Trump's policies particularly again as I say around immigration and the TPP. It must create very confusing conversations when this governing party fronts up to the likes of the Trudeaus of the world and tries to explain things.I was very pleased to pick up the corrections portfolio. I think for me it illustrates one of the problems this Government is already running into. We've had the former spokesperson now Minister talk about reducing the prison population by 30 percent—very lofty lofty goals. The problem is that a few weeks in there are absolutely no details on how this will be achieved. As a number of people already around the country are asking me how can a Government profess to be tough on crime—and we've heard that from the Minister of Police; we've certainly heard it from the Minister of Justice—and at the same time be reducing the prison population by simply not releasing people into the community? I have been at pains already to point out to the House—not in this speech but in some of my questions—that most people in fact over 75 percent of people in our prisons are there for violent offences. It is one of those myths out there that we're actually locking people up for drug offences but by and large we're not—Hon Andrew Little: What about the other 30 percent?SIMON O'CONNOR: Well actually we can't do the math—Hon Andrew Little: That's right—with a proper parole system we could let them go!SIMON O'CONNOR: So we already have here the illustration of the problems. We have the Minister of Justice yell out It's 30 percent." No it's 25 percent of people in prisons who are there for non-violent activities but that member's Government is wanting to release 30 percent. So you know I'll leave people to do the math there. Look I'm also very pleased to take up the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. I'm not going to go into detail there but obviously a fascinating area along with defence and trade.But I do want to use the last couple of moments to touch on a couple of other critical areas. The main one is actually around education and the push to close the partnership schools—or the kura hourua sometimes inaccurately known as partnership schools. I want to put on the record that these schools are remarkable. I've had some engagement with a number of them. In fact a couple of weeks ago I was at a huge gathering called Trust Live pulling students teachers and the community together to celebrate. What is achieved in these schools for these young people is remarkable. It has turned lives around. Members who have been in this House a little while will know this particularly those of us who sat through the select committee process that it was people often from those communities they say they represent—and it's general but it is the Pacific and Māori communities and lower socio-economic groups within European New Zealanders who are crying out for this—and now they're seeing the results and it's absolutely remarkable but equally sad that this Government is looking to shut those down.It's very representative to me of a one-size-fits-all approach which always fits very well with the left wing—one size fits all and come hell or high water people will fit that; they will be made to fit that. It probably suits their union mates particularly in the education sector that will not deign any opportunity for someone to work outside their model lest it show them up but I think it is absolutely sad that young people in New Zealand particularly on the periphery are going to lose an opportunity here.I want to sort of probably highlight in a different way—and I did point it out a few weeks ago in a very brief speech. We hear a lot about diversity these days; it's sort of one of the buzz words that's flicked around. I'd like to put it to the left in particular that they look at diversity when it comes to education; that actually it's fine to have a State system but equally it's good to have an integrated system and a private system and to have a little bit of diversity and have these charter schools as well. Because you know that's what people want and we want to respect that. In fact we want to be tolerant of that. Lest I even mention this phrase today with some of the news out there it could even be argued as a human right but maybe others in this House particularly on the other side might like to opine on that a little bit.There are also issues in health. I congratulate the new Minister. I worked with Dr David Clark on the Health Committee. He has a huge road ahead of him. So much has been promised; how that's going to be fulfilled leaves many questions. I am particularly disappointed that somehow this falsity of something called "medical marijuana" is being put forward as some great priority in health when one can think of so many other things that are going on. On that my time is up but congratulations again Madam Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): This is a split call—the Hon Julie Anne Genter."