Banks John: Education Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBanks John: Education Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 04 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10682. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JOHN BANKS (Leader—ACT): What a weak contribution by the “co-loser” of the Green Party. How weak and pathetic being attacked at this hour of the night by—Metiria Turei: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at that insult that was levelled at me—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I think that after the conduct of the member during her speech and the way in which she lifted the tone of the debate outside the realm of the debate what the member has said—she might not like it but it is a response that is to be expected.Denise Roche: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is this a new point of order?Denise Roche: No it is on the same issue—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No I have ruled on it.Hon JOHN BANKS: Thank you Mr Speaker. They get dressed up on television with the lipstick and the make-up and butter would not melt in their mouths—Metiria Turei: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I am on my feet.Metiria Turei: I take personal offence at that comment about my appearance and ask that he be required to withdraw and apologise.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think it is perfectly on the same plane as the remarks that the member made previously and—[Interruption] Order! Look I understand whether or not a member takes offence but when the member gives offence and then jumps to her feet I believe that the point of order is out of order. John Banks.Hon Members: Point of order.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have ruled on this matter. [Interruption] I have ruled on this matter. [Interruption] Order! Please sit I am on my feet. But the member will desist from any further comments in relation to personal matters.Denise Roche: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have ruled on the matter.Denise Roche: A different issue.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: A new point of order?Denise Roche: I am offended by the sexism and you have not addressed that.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I have ruled on the matter.Hon JOHN BANKS: The chairman of the Iwi Education Authority came to this Parliament. He is one of the most distinguished Māori educators in New Zealand. His name is Dr Toby Curtis and he says that Māori undereducation in this country is institutionalised and expected. Well we say it is institutionalised but it is not expected and we do not like it. We do not like kids going through 11 years of education and at the end of 11 years of education not being able to read and write. The Labour Party Opposition the apologist for the teacher unions might think that that is OK but we say that it is not OK because we want five out of five kids to have a world-class education. The leader of the Māori Iwi Education Authority came to the Education and Science Committee and he said to it solemnly that this bill is well overdue. He wants it to pass in its total content.Tonight is a celebration. It is a loss for the Labour Party it is a loss for the Green Party and it is a loss for the losers of New Zealand First but it is a big win for kids struggling out there in an education system that has doomed them to failure and that is the 20 percent of our kids who leave school with no educational qualification whatsoever.Almost 25 years ago Parliament passed the Education Act 1989 and put the Picot report into effect giving us Tomorrow’s Schools. Parliament wanted to empower educators and school committees. Parliament wanted to educate educators and school communities as well. It wanted to decentralise and liberate the compulsory education sector. The then Labour Government said that reforms would address inequality of achievement but the teacher unions cried foul. The teacher unions said that only education experts like teacher unions not parents would be able to govern schools. We on this side of the House say that on this the teachers unions have got it wrong. The schoolkids who are underprivileged schoolkids who come from deprived homes and Māori and Pacific schoolkids we are putting on a pedestal tonight because this bill promoted by the ACT Party and supported by the National Party and the Māori Party no less—the Māori Party no less—says that this is well overdue. In fact the teacher unions said that Tomorrow’s Schools was a first step in privatisation. I was in Parliament 25 years ago when the teacher unions came here and the apologists from the teacher unions on that side of the House said that it was the first step in the privatisation of education and no such thing is happening.All these arguments tired and worn out are ringing in our ears. The truth is that the union opposition to partnership schools has been straight out of the old playbook. They are the same tired old lines they trot out at any attempt at reform of the education sector.Twenty percent of the education sector is an institutional failure to the kids in that sector tonight and that is what the Iwi Education Authority came to the Parliament and told us. We have a long tail of underachievement in New Zealand. I say that it is not good enough the ACT Party says that it is not good enough the National Party says that it is not good enough and the Māori Party says that it is not good enough. Tonight kids are the winners. The Labour Party members are losers the New Zealand Firstmembers are losers and the Green Party members are losers on this philosophical debate because Parliament on balance has said that we are going to change it.It is shocking that any system could take a child through their formative years and after 13 years in the system turn out a student who is functionally illiterate and in no way prepared for the modern world. Partnership schools will make a real difference to New Zealand’s most disadvantaged students and for the life of me I cannot understand why the teacher unions and their apologists on the other side of the House are opposed to lifting the tide that floats all boats.The policy is not an attack on our teachers who by and large do a fantastic job. The policy acknowledges the contribution of the 35000 support staff in our schools who are so frequently belittled by the Opposition because they are not registered. They are belittled—35000 people who help out in schools every day of the week are belittled. We acknowledge them.No one is saying that this is a quick fix. No one here is saying that there are not a number of ways of addressing institutionalised failure. We are not going to spend this money on education and find that 20 percent of the kids leave after 13 years of education as failures. Every second Māori has not passed National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 1. Every second Pacific student has not passed NCEA level 1. The decision will be based on the needs of students as it should be not on the needs of teacher unions and not on the needs of the Labour Party - Green coalition of losers.Both the Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission have been invited to work with the Ministry of Education on these contracts. Thankfully Parliament was not swayed by the Opposition’s attempt to limit the types of organisations that can run partnership schools. Achieving educational improvements and being accountable always mattered more than whether a partnership school is run by a trust charity business iwi or church group.I want to thank Cam Calder the chairman of the Education and Science Committee. I want to thank the Prime Minister and Hekia Parata and her colleague Nikki Kaye for the support they have given us and I want to thank the Māori Party because the Māori Party does not want institutionalised failure amongst Māori any longer. The Māori Party does not want kids to leave school after 13 years with no literacy and no numeracy. The Māori Party wants aspiration for young Māori and the Pacific Island representatives on the other side of the House should be ashamed of themselves for not supporting this—ashamed of themselves. Every second young Pacific student leaves school after 13 years without NCEA level 1 maths or English.I have good news for the House tonight: 35 quality applications have been made from groups across the country to turn this policy into something very worthwhile to turn education into an opportunity for everyone and to make sure that Māori and Pacific kids can foot it with the best of the other kids in the schools and have the dignity of work after a first-class education.It is a big loss for the small-minded apologists for the schoolteacher unions opposite and it is a big big win for kids up and down the country who are wondering what they are going to do when they have had 11 years at school and they cannot read and cannot write. Partnership schools will be established in areas that experience significant underachievement where students are underserved by the current system. I cannot for the life of me understand why the educated people on the other side of the House do not want a world-class education for everyone. They can sling the abuse and they do not like it they can wear the lipstick and look good on TV and make a big impression and they do not like it—Denise Roche: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Hon JOHN BANKS: —but they do not like it because they come into the House—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! There is a point of order.Denise Roche: Once more we are having to put up with sexism from that member and I find it really offensive.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I did ask the member to desist. He will withdraw the remark.Hon JOHN BANKS: I withdraw. The ACT Party—Hon Members: Apologise.Hon JOHN BANKS: If these members opposite would breathe through their noses and listen for a minute I have got a compelling finish to this great piece of policy change. It is going to revolutionise education in this country for our poorest students right across the board.Sue Moroney: Downwards downwards—you’ll make it worse.Hon JOHN BANKS: Listen carefully Mrs Moroney and you might learn something. The unelected member of Parliament from the Labour Party might learn something if she breathed through her nose and this is what it is. We want to be associated with partnership schools. These schools will stand or fall on their results as it should be. I want to thank everyone who has helped support the passage of this bill and who believes like ACT does that every child deserves a world-class education—every single child deserves a world-class education. This is a land of opportunity and our future is predicated on looking after the poorest of the poor who can raise their aspirations by having an education that teaches them to read and to write. Partnership schools will make a difference—a big difference. Roll on first day first term 2014.