Banks John: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Banks John: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 22 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4635. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon JOHN BANKS (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 In the 30th Parliament we had Bill Rowling as the Leader of the Opposition. In the 40th Parliament we have got David Shearer as the Leader of the Opposition. Bill Rowling was so good that he was knighted for services to the National Party! In those days we had a powerful Labour front bench. I sat there and we had a powerful Labour front bench. Today the Labour Party is led by the weakest leader of this Parliament in 10 Parliaments since the heady days of the ruthless cut-through Wallace Rowling from down in Nelson. That is a statement of fact. Now we have got jokers on that side of the House in the 40th Parliament who want to be the leader. This side of the House does not care whether David Shearer is the leader or “Bill Cunliffe” is the leader. They are both as bad as one another. Labour has got no plan for the economic security of this country. It is the poorest leadership it is the poorest focused and it is the poorest performing Labour Opposition this Parliament has had in my parliamentary lifetime which is 10 Parliaments. 
I want to say to the Leader of the Opposition who I think is still at this very moment of time the hapless David Shearer that partnership schools will give an opportunity to the 20 percent of young New Zealanders who are out of school out of training out of work and out of hope. Why would the Labour Opposition in the 40th Parliament be opposed to that? Can anyone on this side of the House tell me? Why would it be opposed to that? Any idea? No idea. Why would it be opposed to giving young people hope? Why would it be opposed to giving young people opportunity? Why would it be opposed to giving young people the dignity of work? What would the Labour Party do? Let me quote from Joel Klein. The Labour Opposition in this 40th Parliament might learn something if its members obey Speakers’ rulings—on page 62 of  
Speakers’ Rulings 
—and listen and breathe through their noses. This is the proposition: “I remain convinced that the best cure for poverty is a good education. And I’m equally convinced that pointing to poverty as an excuse for why we fail to properly educate poor kids only serves to condemn more of them to lives of poverty.” 
These people in the 40th Parliament on the Opposition benches want to consign 20 percent of our young people to poverty helplessness and hopelessness without the dignity of work. This is what Joel Klein also said: “I say to”—[ 
Interruption 
] Listen to this. This is very important. Listen to this and do not forget page 60 of  
Speakers’ Rulings 
: I say to the “status-quo poverty-is-destiny crowd”—[ 
Interruption 
] Listen to that. I say to the “status-quo poverty-is-destiny crowd” that that is what the Opposition members stand for: poverty is destiny. We say that poverty is wrong. We say poverty is young kids out of school out of work out of hope and out of dignity. We are going to give them the opportunity to engage. So I say to the “status-quo poverty-is-destiny crowd” that with your support partnership schools will make a difference where it is most needed. 
Partnership schools will make a difference where it is most needed. Even the Greens know that 20 percent of our kids have been written off. The Greens even know that partnership schools can work because a proposition around partnership schools is already in place across the country. But in this 40th Parliament with the weakest leadership of the Opposition with the weakest front bench the Opposition has had in the 10 Parliaments I have been here Opposition members have got no idea. They have abandoned hope for the young. They have written off 20 percent. They will not support a proposition that has worked all over the world. We say to them: get real or stay there for the 50th Parliament and I will be back in the 50th Parliament to see that you are still there.