Curran ClareHon CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well last Thursday I gave a speech in the House on the Education and Training Bill where I referenced Clarence Beeby who is known as the father of modern education and was the Director-General of Education in 1939. He said Every person whatever the level of his academic ability whether he be rich or poor whether he live in town or country has the right as a citizen to a free education of a kind for which he is best suited and to the fullest extent of his powers." Later that afternoon Dan Bidois I think it was tweeted out the big reveal that he had uncovered the true underpinning of that piece of legislation which was socialism—socialism—as if it was a big reveal.I just want to say today that this bill demonstrates quite clearly that there is a huge divide between the National Party and this side of the House. Speaking as a member of the Labour Party today this utterly reflects that the National Party has not got a clue about what public good means. They seem to think that it's all about measurement and economic value for money. According to their measure if you live in a geographically outlying part of the country if you're part of a minority group and if you are not a mainstream member of society then you are not of value in terms of receiving content that is directed at you because using ratings as a measure of value for content is going to create a mainstream homogenous culture where content is not different. It does not reflect our country and this is a fundamental difference between the two sides of this House. It's something that the people of New Zealand do not respect actually and it's extremely unfortunate.I read an article a couple of weeks ago—it was in I think the The Timaru Herald—titled "The mind boggles at what aliens would think of life on earth". I'll quote from it briefly. It said "Well if they had any sense"—and this is if aliens came to Earth and were thinking of taking over—"(and one can presume that if they have the intelligence to successfully travel many millions of kilometres across the universe they have a modicum of brainpower) they'd have a quick look at our TV news bulletins and hightail it back to their improbable-looking flying saucers. After all why would they want to conquer a world that by common agreement among most scientists is entering its death throes while a vast proportion of the most influential part of the present resident population simply shrug and return to watching reality TV."Well according to Melissa Lee's bill which would ultimately use ratings as a measure this is the kind of thing we'd be getting more of—Married at First Sight The Bachelor The Block Love Island—because this is what commercial ratings delivers to us. Instead what the Government proposed when it invested $15 million more investment into content for New Zealanders was that there was an instruction to Radio New Zealand and New Zealand On Air not on exactly what that content would be but that its priorities were spelt out that they were to promote diversity and that was in terms of Māori Pacific Island other ethnicities geographical diversity young people local government people living in every community in New Zealand. No matter what their age no matter what their background and no matter what their ethnicity they would feel that their stories were being told their faces were being reflected and that their place whether physical or geographical—their sense of place in this country—was being valued. That is what we want to promote in this country and not use ratings as a measure of success. "Ratings is a very blunt instrument for measuring success." said New Zealand On Air recently. Well we cannot commend this bill to the House."