Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Kei te whakanuia te kaupapa o ngā kura hourua. Kei te mihi tēnei kaimahi mō ngā tamariki tauira Māori ngā tamariki tauira Pasifika ngā tamariki katoa o ngā kura hourua ēnei kura ngā kākano o te ao hou te ao mātauranga.[I would like to celebrate charter schools. This worker would like to acknowledge the children Māori students Pasifika students and all the young people of charter schools these schools that sow the seeds of education in the modern age.]I celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. It is a special week and it's also a real privilege to talk tonight in regards to partnership schools. What I just did there in my mihi was refer to partnership schools as the seeds of the new world: the world of learning and the world of knowledge.So it's actually quite fitting that in Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori we reference the importance of partnership schools to the Māori and of course to the Pasifika community and to all children as I did in my mihi. I want to focus on the human side. It's always about the human side. That's our role. That's what we are here for. I couldn't be any more clearer we couldn't be any more clearer here that the Government has not fully understood the impact that partnership schools have had on individual lives.So it's fitting tonight that I read a submission and that submission is from a parent of Middle School West Auckland. Here's what it says: My daughter started going there after several attempts to stop the bullying in her school. My daughter's schooling went down and she ended up having her lunch in the toilets so she would not be picked on. Middle School West Auckland has made a huge difference to her schooling and confidence. My daughter has found her voice her place in society and is learning so much that she is asking for more challenges. The model used in this works for her and many other children similar to her. Most of these children would have been classed as truants and deviants by society but they are all talented and smart children who needed another way to bring it out of them.As a strong Labour supporter I have always believed that Labour supported difference individualism experiences and thinking outside of the box. Let these charter schools continue in their work and allow the children who are mainly in poverty and disadvantage have another chance of not ending up another statistic in the criminal and social system. Even though it is an hour trip for us outside our route to work and paying for bus and ferry for their return I would do it again. Talk to the children. Remove the fact that it is a National initiative. My daughter is a strong wāhine who needs to be uplifted and empowered not to be told that her education is wrong and pointless. Let the children have a chance please."Those words say it better than I ever could. There's a reason why people have rallied behind these schools and communities have actually grown around these schools. It's because they recognise the positive and life-changing amazing impact that these schools have on individual children and their families. They want these schools to stay. They have been very loud clear and vocal on that. Calls for compassion literally have been ignored. The Treaty of Waitangi claim is being lodged. As a select committee we listened to Toby Curtis Dame Tariana Turia and a massive number of other senior Māori leaders yet the Minister fails to recognise the gravity of this situation. He continues to unabashedly remove the schools; on what—the basis of pure ideology.I received a letter today from those leaders—those same Māori leaders as I know every other member in this House did. Every single MP received the same letter where those senior Māori leaders appealed directly to the Prime Minister to reconsider these changes. Despite what Tracey Martin has said tonight in the House there are still calls today for an appeal against these changes. The letter says that by removing partnership schools the actions of the Government are compelling them to return to a system that's been "failing our tamariki for 178 years." They do not want a return to that system. They only ask for the most basic consideration. What's that? That the Prime Minister actually visit the schools so that she can see and understand for herself why they've achieved so much. They ask that affected students parents whānau and communities are consulted with before any further changes—that's reasonable. And they've asked first and foremost for a commitment to the principles of the partnership from the Treaty of Waitangi. What they're doing is simply asking the Government to wait.They acknowledge that we've come in the process up to this point tonight and they're asking the Government to wait—wait until the Waitangi Tribunal has made findings on what has been we all know a massively flawed process. That's the least that the Government could do. The least the Government could do is to make sure that—and this is another quote; the final words in that letter to the Prime Minister—"justice and fairness prevail."Now I want to pick up on something that Tracey Martin said earlier. She's laying the claim that students will get over the summer break and return to school just as they had it before. No they won't because it's not a partnership school model any more. Tonight and the continuation of this debate which will probably be next week is closure. So they might get over the summer break and go to school but it's not going to be the same school that they were in. That's a definitive fact.What they don't have is flexible funding and flexible governance arrangements—the things that they're asking for and they've been wanting to keep the same. They don't have that assurance. They'll be coming back from the summer break to a different school. That is a fact.I also want to touch in my last few moments of time on what is—and the letter refers to this—a flawed process. It is quite unbelievable the process that some of these partnership schools had to go through to get to the point where they are today: massive moments of uncertainty and letters back and forth from the Ministry of Education. They did not know whether they were up or down starting or closing; all they knew was that they had been placed into huge uncertainty and didn't know whether they'd have a school to go to after the summer break.The Minister also left our committee hanging and I take personal exception to that. It's actually fascinating that I'm standing here along with my other colleagues from the Education and Workforce Committee because as of yesterday we didn't know that we would be debating this bill. This is a massive massive seismic shift in the education system and instead of certainty for us to be able to debate this we were possibly—well we actually didn't end up going—going up to Auckland for our Education and Workforce Committee on another topic.So it's right and it's fitting and interesting that the Minister of Education—who also wears another hat as the Leader of the House—saw fit to do the right thing and here we are tonight. My heartfelt plea is that the Government continue to see the human side of what they're doing and to pay very close attention to that letter that has gone to the Prime Minister and to all of us: pleading for a pause pleading for the opportunity to hear through and see through that Waitangi Tribunal process and to do right by mokopuna all around this country. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I look forward to hearing that the Government will do the right thing."