Martin Tracey: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18879. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First):Kia ora Mr Speaker. In the next—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have called Tracey Martin. Your time starts again. [Interruption] Order! If the members want to have that conversation then they can leave the Chamber. Tracey Martin—starting now.TRACEY MARTIN: New Zealanders I would suggest you take note of the two major parties that you have just heard trying to out-policy each other. Within the next few weeks New Zealand First will have up on its website its refreshed 2014 manifesto. The New Zealand public will be able to go and see that manifesto and see why New Zealand First lives up to its name and actually puts New Zealanders first. Rather than trying to compete for a political arena we concentrate on putting the people of our country first in every decision we make.With regard to the education policy that will actually come up on that website I am proud to have participated strongly in the writing of that education policy and to have consulted front-line people in education. We have not decided to pick an academic expert who suits us similar to what this current Government has done. We have gone and spoken to the parents and the teachers and had the student voice inside the development of our policy.New Zealand First is going to put the aspiration back into education. For example take one little aspiration which this Government continues to articulate but cannot live up to that of five out of five students being successful. This Government cannot get even five out of five charter schools successful. This Government forced into a position by one of its three other coalition partners has actually created an environment where it has handed over $8.6 million worth of taxpayers’ money in a single budgetary year—in a single budgetary year—and it cannot get even five out of five schools right. I am asking you the parents of New Zealand: how many teacher aide hours would that actually pay for do you think for your Asperger’s child for your autistic child or for your child with any other special needs? How many one-day school places for gifted and talented children do you think that would have provided? The fact is that this Government lost its aspiration for your gifted and talented children by removing the “well above” achievement category of its flawed national standards. It decided that just having the “above” category is fine. The Government has no aspiration for New Zealand’s children.But let us go back to the fact that it cannot even get five out of five special schools right—schools funded for the ACT Party; the legacy of a dying party. Let us have a look at Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru. On 29 May the Minister of Education stood up and said that these schools would be more transparent and more accountable and that the contracts would hold them to account on assisting those students or they would be closed—or they would be closed. That was in May. On 17 April the business director of Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru resigned. The Ministry of Education put in a supervising facilitator because the place was falling apart and the Government knew it was going to. Previously prior to it even being said that it would become a charter school the authorisation board—headed by again an ex - ACT Party president and with John Morris on it no less—recommended that this particular applicant go forward.The ministry tried to advise the Minister yet again that this would be a mistake. The ministry said that the applicant had a long way to go to arrange suitable facilities finalise the academic curriculum and find suitable staff. So the ministry identified all the key risks. We also have the fact disclosed under an Official Information Act request that half the school was not built as was pointed out by New Zealand First in December 2013. The school shifted its focus from the toilets which were not going to be ready to then decide that it would not have a kitchen ready so the children could not continue.The other thing that was really interesting about this Government was that it told the public of New Zealand that these schools would have an open-door policy—that any child could bowl up to a charter school and access these schools. Have a look at Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru’s enrolment priorities. You have to be the child of a staff member first you have to be Ngāti Wai second—Hon Tau Henare: Leave them alone. Why don’t you leave them alone you bully?TRACEY MARTIN: Because Mr Henare those children have been let down by your Government. These were among the most vulnerable children—seven of them had to be removed to be protected from other students—and your Government does not care. Your Government as shown in documents has hidden it and kept a lid on it. As the Ministry of Education employee and Official Information Act documents have quite clearly pointed out the Government has said it will not tell the public; it has kept the lid on it for as long as it can.Hon Tau Henare: Keep your nose out of it.TRACEY MARTIN: Mr Henare and this Government do not care for vulnerable children. This was spin and New Zealand needs to see through it.