Macindoe Tim: Urgent Debates — Student Achievement—OECD ReportText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: Urgent Debates — Student Achievement—OECD Report[Sitting date: 04 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15228. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): I am astonished that the Labour Party would initiate a snap debate on this topic this afternoon. It has to amount to one of the greatest political own goals that I have seen in my 5 years in this House. The reason is very clear but I want to restate it particularly for the benefit of anyone who may have just tuned in to the debate in the last 20 minutes.What we are talking about here is clearly a result of the failure of policy initiated and enacted by Labour because not one of the children whose results we are looking at in this particular exercise is in any way caught up by the policies that the National Government has taken in order to turn things round. The reality is that the children who did well under the Programme for International Student Assessment back in 2000 had been educated under a National Government in the 1990s. Then we had 9 years of the Clark Government during which time Labour told us: “You don’t need to assess. You do not need to monitor. You do not need to have accurate reporting. All you need to do is trust that all will be well.”Well I want to remind members of this House that I was a teacher and I am very proud to say I was a teacher. I was a secondary school teacher and I found that to be one of the most rewarding and challenging things I have ever done in my life. We all know that teachers have a hugely challenging job. It is a dynamic very complex very rewarding and at times very frustrating profession. So I acknowledge the huge job that is done by teachers the length and breadth of this country and I am very proud to have worked with many of them and to consider many of them my friends.I have to say I was not impressed by the absolute baloney and propaganda I had to sit through last Friday night in a DVD put together by the New Zealand Educational Institute which was nothing but a slanderous attack on the current Government and our Ministers. If that was a professional thing by a group of teachers then I have to say thank goodness that more and more of them are turning away from the New Zealand Educational Institute. But let us not for one moment negate the important job that teachers are doing and I do acknowledge them.So why have we got to this point? Is it a lack of investment? Well clearly it is not because successive Governments have increased the investment in education and this Government I am very proud to say has increased Vote Education by 40 percent since 2008. We are now investing 20 percent of all public expenditure in education which is the second-highest percentage of any Government in the OECD invest in education. So it is not a lack of investment. Could it be the lack of a coherent and effective and relevant curriculum? No that is not true either because we know that the New Zealand curriculum is highly regarded internationally.So it has to be something else—and it is a range of factors. There is no question about that. We all know that many children are dragged into school or pushed into school and many of them do not get there. Truancy is a factor. Dysfunctional backgrounds are a factor. We know that there are a whole range of socio-economic factors that go into the mix. But what we have to do is say: “We’ve got to get them there and we are not going to accept the fact that some of them are doomed to failure.” And unfortunately that was the philosophy of the previous Government.We are saying that one in five not achieving anything is not good enough and we are determined to raise the bar. I salute Anne Tolley for the huge work she did in the face of some appalling opposition and personal abuse to show when she was the Minister of Education that we were serious in our commitment to the New Zealand public that we would raise achievements in education. We are doing it and the results are showing through. In 5 to 10 years’ time when we are having another debate in this House on the Programme for International Student Assessment results I guarantee that we will be looking at better results.I want to salute the Hon Hekia Parata for carrying on. She took the baton from Anne Tolley after the last election and she has continued to do a good job. I want to tell you how incredibly proud I am to be a colleague of Hekia Parata. I have seldom seen any Minister subjected to such appalling abuse and such misinformation as she is. Whenever she comes to Hamilton she makes a terrific impression. I have hosted her at a publicmeeting. The media is not interested in covering it but she tackles head-on all the topics the people are interested in. She answers in a very full coherent and reasonable way all the questions. And I have to say what is most important is that she is absolutely passionate about education. She speaks with the passion of one who really cares about what she is doing. She loves the job and she is achieving what we need her to. I am confident that we are on the right track under our policies and I say shame on the previous Government for getting us to this position.