Cunliffe DavidHon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): We are in the dead of Thursday afternoon and it is a great pleasure to rise to my feet to oppose this Trump Education Legislation Bill". May I join with my colleagues firstly in wishing Chris Hipkins and his partner Jade the very very heartiest congratulations on the birth of their lovely boy Charlie. It is terrific to see the next generation of Labour leadership being in training already. Can I also acknowledge Hekia Parata because for all of the albatrosses that she has had around her ministerial neck she has always kept a smile on her dial always kept a sense of poise with that portfolio and she has done good service for the Government. We appreciate that it is a tough job and that she is doing her very best so we wish her well when Mr Key makes a decision about how long she will warm that seat for.Today is 20 October. Today is the date of the third US presidential debate. It was the historic moment when a candidate declared that they would not necessarily accept the result of the US election—something that has been incredibly harshly panned across the globe and across the US political spectrum. The reason I mention that is that the Republican candidate Donald Trump has made according to The Economist magazine a feature of something called post-truth politics; he does not give a damn whether there are any facts or evidence in his argument as long as he gets a sound bite and he becomes more and more outrageous to shore up his base. The reason I mention it is that exactly the same approach has been employed by the "Trump National Government" in respect of charter schools. Charter schools are a post-reality form of education. In the real world in the reality-based school we use things like the Education Review Office to see how we are going. We use the Official Information Act to allow the public to get information about how schools and the Ministry of Education are performing. We have teacher training standards so that the teachers we put in front of our children are qualified to teach them. In the "Trump National Government's" charter schools fantasy land "Planet Key" none of the above applies—none of it applies. You do not need to be a qualified teacher to get a job stumping up in a charter school. You are immune from the Official Information Act in a post-reality charter school and no one is going to give a damn what your results are because you are not even subject to the Education Review Office. The reason that I feel just a tad passionate about this is I do not want to see creeping Trump-ism in New Zealand and charter schools are the thin end of the wedge.Why would we give to private investors Government taxpayer-funded capital so they can purchase assets and when they go belly-up not have to return them to the taxpayer? Why would we pay three to five times as much to educate a student—that is the taxpayer subsidising three to five times as much per student in a Trump-ist charter school—what a regular school gets in the same community? It is such nonsense except it is not an accident because certain private interests have lobbied the ever kind and generous National Government for a business break so that they can make profit out of educating children. In this post-reality "Trump" school of education charter schools are the way to go and it does not matter what the evidence says—it does not matter if the results are indiscernible from State schools teaching on one-third of the budget in the same community the Government is so ideologically wedded to this that it will do it anyway. And to make matters worse it will mouth off about evidence-based policy. This is the opposite. This is post-reality politics ideological claptrap self-interested rorting and destruction of the public education system—just like those National Government members who are so out of touch that they want to ruin State housing and turn it over to so-called social housing providers so they can make a buck even if they are run from offshore. And the average Kiwi has had an absolute gutsful. Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman: Yeah the polls show that!Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: That is why the polls do show Minister Coleman that John Key's popularity is lower today than at any point since he became Prime Minister. Two of the last three polls show National at its lowest level of support since it first took office. Two of three polls show National barely above 40 percent. I am looking forward to the first 39 percent poll. I am looking forward to the smile on Simon Bridges' face when the first 39 percent poll comes in because he will be one step closer to his succession plan. But will Jonathan Coleman be smiling as well sitting next to him? God imagine the jostling that goes on in that front bench when the writing is just a little bit more discernibly on the wall. Imagine that voice that you hear coming through the ether that sort of "Heh heh heh" that is Judith Collins plotting her takeover and then euthanasia of the entire National front bench as she amasses all portfolios unto herself. It is the same level of logic as this bill because it has the same relationship to the truth. It has a Trump-like elastic relationship with the truth. If members opposite think that this is funny it was just yesterday that we heard that the Telford institute was being fined $1.5 million because it rorted the tertiary education system. The disease that started with National's "Trump" charter schools and infected the private training establishment sector has now gone all the way to the university sector. Lincoln University a once-proud institution is having to pay $1.5 million back for embezzling the Government—embezzling the Government—of $1.5 million by overstating the duration of courses delivered through its Telford division.This bill gives those same institutions the ability to invest in charter schools. Why would we want universities investing in charter schools? Why would we ask universities to obey a certain set of transparency and prudential measures when they are doing their core business but then exempt them from the same criteria when they are investing in "Trump" charter schools? Why would we do that? I challenge the Minister I challenge any member opposite to take to their feet and explain to the New Zealand public what possible logical explanation there can be for asking universities to dodge the normal requirements so that they can invest in these ideological-claptrap charter schools.Speaking of post-reality politics in the real world parents have to drop their kids at school and then go and work an 8- or 9- or 10-hour day and then if they are lucky find some way to get somebody to pick their kids up. In the post-truth "Planet Key" world we have got a bill that says: "Hey we can change school hours as much as we like. Parents will just have to fit in." In the real world being a principal of a school—as my colleague has said—is a full-time job. In this "Trump" post-reality bill—what the heck? It is a part-time job! A principal could run three schools at once—except I hope not in my electorate of New Lynn. Not in Kelston not in Green Bay not in Lynnfield not in Avondale—no no no no. We think it is a full-time job and we are quite happy with our principals who are very important leaders in our communities sticking to their day job.Summing up this bill is the thin edge of a deep divide in New Zealand politics between those who think that the public education system is worth protecting and that it should be accountable and should be transparent and those who are prepared to mortgage our children's future and take a punt to do favours for private investors. I say shame on them because it took decades to build up a world-class public education system and we do not need post-truth Trump-lite ideologues on the Government benches wrecking it to set up some get-rich-quick scheme for their mates."