Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. He mihi nui ki Te Whare ko tēnei pō. First of all I want to acknowledge and welcome to the world Charlie Douglas Hipkins. Your daddy has a bill but something more exciting happened to him today. I remember that feeling because the day that I was supposed to be sworn into this House I became a grandmother. So I know how much more important it is when something like that happens even though I know how important a member's bill is. I understand exactly why Chris Hipkins has put in the bill but best wishes to Jade and Chris and to little Charlie. I think it is one of the nicest things that happened today—also because his father and many of us are very very passionate about innovative quality public education. Many of us totally believe in innovation in education. We believe in diversity in education. We believe in creativity in education. We believe in The New Zealand Curriculum which we have actually read which allows for all those things to take place and we believe in a world where measuring and targets are not the way in which we ensure a creative entrepreneurial visionary 21st century education. We know that because the model for charter schools which Chris Hipkins wants to abolish in this bill with our full support in the Green Party is based on States such as the United States and the United Kingdom which have the worst results—the worst results!David Seymour: So has Sweden.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: The Swedes are walking away because the results are not good. Those States have the worst results in the world. And the people who have the best most successful education systems full of the most innovative and creative thinkers for the 21st century are the people who invest in holistic curriculums and are not obsessed with standards measuring and targets. One of the reasons the Green Party opposes charters is that they are only on results. It does not matter how you get there as long as you get the results. I met the head of the Knowledge is Power Program for schools in America; I met that guy. I had a meeting with him. He had a T-shirt on that said: Work hard be nice". I am like: "Yep OK. So what about critical thinking in your schools?". "Oh no we don't teach critical thinking; we just make sure they get to college no matter what. They sign a contract these kids." Oh well that is the American way: get them in young and get them into a contract. That is not education and that model and many of those models have failed to deliver in the United States a lift in the educational abilities and strengths of that country. The charter schools models across the world have an appeal for people who feel let down by what their own child's experience is in school. That is why we need special character schools. We need particularly in this country to fund kura kaupapa. Actually we have one of the most diverse systems now in the world but we do not need for-profit privatisation and unaccountable non-trained teachers to run schools that will undermine the ability of the wonderful innovative public schools that I have been to. I know that there are many kids especially kids with learning support needs who need more than what we are giving them at this time but the solution ain't marching. The solution is not what I have seen when I have talked to some of these schools. I went and visited the Whangarei charter school right at the beginning and I said to them because they are great people that when we are Government with the Labour Party and others we will ask you whether you want to be a kura kaupapa or a special character school and we will support your transition because we understand what it is that you are trying to achieve. But we do not want you to undermine the other schools or the public quality education system. That is what it is about. It is about maintaining the integrity. If you want to be a private school pay for it. Send your kids there and pay for it but do not undermine the public quality education system which needs all of the resources by putting State money—State money belongs in the State schools in a way that the State schools have been set up to be more accountable than this model. I have visited so many awesome schools within the public system that I know that the system does not prevent diversity and creativity. Go to Kia Aroha College in South Auckland. You want to see Kia Aroha College working? You want to see what a warrior scholar looks like? It is better than marching. It ain't about passing the tick-the-box test. It is about a vibrant passionate culturally appropriate system that has got nothing to do with profit and nothing to do with measuring and everything to do with a rich diverse curriculum. It is time that I stopped being so passionate because my time is up but this is just the beginning. I support this bill. Kia ora koutou katoa."