"\u003C!DOCTYPE html\u003E\u003Chtml xmlns:xlink=\u0022http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\u0022 xmlns:xsi=\u0022http://www.w3.org/2007/XMLSchema-instance\u0022 xmlns:mml=\u0022http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Chead\u003E\n    \u003CMETA http-equiv=\u0022Content-Type\u0022 content=\u0022text/html; charset=utf-16\u0022\u003E\n    \u003Cmeta name=\u0022viewport\u0022 content=\u0022width=device-width, initial-scale=1\u0022\u003E\n  \u003C/head\u003E\n  \u003Cbody style=\u0022font-family:sans-serif; font-size:100%;\u0022\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022HpsHansard\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000001\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsProceedingHeading\u0022 id=\u00220ec11bdd0b2d4779b3aeb763fe6aad00\u0022\u003EWednesday, 16 December 2009\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000003\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022cb209841e7f94408b4b0c8d8a67fa14d\u0022\u003EWednesday, 16 December 2009\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000002\u0022\u003EMr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000004\u0022\u003EPrayers.\u003C/p\u003E\n    \u003C/div\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022HpsHansard\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000005\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsProceedingHeading\u0022 id=\u002297ce86b3bcb2485781dbd61cfae30e45\u0022\u003EBusiness of the House\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000007\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u002281a4627f899f4d4b8927537bf6b11012\u0022\u003EBusiness of the House\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022 data-id=\u0022cb6a3501636240d88a4295716717d54d\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000006\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022cb6a3501636240d88a4295716717d54d\u0022\u003EHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House):\u003C/span\u003E I seek leave for there to be no general debate today, and for the House to sit beyond 6 p.m. in order to conclude business, as agreed by the Business Committee. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000008\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b3862cefd8c749988a2bef16608cec0d\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n    \u003C/div\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022HpsHansard\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000009\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsProceedingHeading\u0022 id=\u0022b4d8591ac2c044f28e9b9509da48ed0a\u0022\u003EQuestions for Oral Answer\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000010\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u002262b20c28269d402187b37b272d31caca\u0022\u003EQuestions to Ministers\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000011\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022159c54cd8dc14210a4d585f7d9e3c4b8\u0022\u003ERecession\u2014Protection for Families\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000012\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00229355283a97bc457cb3d2279e27ba4f4d\u0022\u003E1. Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition)\u003C/span\u003E to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his answers yesterday in the House about protecting families from the recession?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022 data-id=\u002264d244f4861444f78df18968250f5b45\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000013\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u002264d244f4861444f78df18968250f5b45\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister):\u003C/span\u003E Yes.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000014\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ea6e21f2b35848b1898362ceba3cc280\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: When the Prime Minister said \u201Cwe have lost 60,000\u201D jobs over the last year and \u201Cthat is a pretty good result\u201D, what is so good about an additional 60,000 hard-working New Zealanders losing their livelihoods, and why has he not intervened as effectively as the Australian Government, which, for the first time in a decade, has reduced unemployment below the level that exists in New Zealand? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000015\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022407c5152615b40ad9a009f9cb84e36c1\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: The Prime Minister said that because it was a good result. The forecasts that were based on Labour\u2019s economic mismanagement and the global recession forecast 120,000 job losses. Because of this Government\u2019s policy, only 60,000 jobs have been lost. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000016\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022dc64525d1d78493c8e45cb6f7ff2f4c1\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: When he said yesterday that he was giving pay increases to low-paid workers, why is the Government continuing to demand a zero wage increase from the thousands of people who work in our hospitals as orderlies, kitchenhands, and cleaners; and why is he offering a zero wage increase to the thousands of New Zealanders who work as caregivers for the elderly and disabled?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000017\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022e99110d0751b45ab8276350744dc2fde\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: It is clear from that question that the member does not know what negotiations and processes are going on. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000018\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220bbbf60bbed84091857240cfaf6b0f6f\u0022\u003ECatherine Delahunty\u003C/span\u003E: T\u0113n\u0101 koe, Mr Speaker. T\u0113n\u0101 koutou katoa. What does he say to the New Zealand family who have been refused a food grant, and the local food bank is empty; and what does he think the family should tell their kids they will be having for Christmas dinner?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000019\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b5464895997d4c4cbcec614c99542f1a\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: If the member is aware of a particular family in that situation, then I suggest they approach the Ministry of Social Development, because there is provision available to ensure that families have something to eat for Christmas dinner.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000020\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022df61b0ccc2384c66bd058e3319b70acd\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: When the Prime Minister said yesterday that low-paid workers had been given a tax cut, what precisely was the tax cut given to those families, with dependent children, who earn under $40,000 a year, and how did that compare with his own tax cut?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000021\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c5e2f1e40434420c932fc0006d62e3d1\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: In the October tax cuts, which were set out by the previous Labour Government, those families all received tax reductions. When it came to the 1 April tax cuts, a large group of New Zealanders had not had tax reductions, and we made sure that they got the benefits of a growing economy, as well.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022456ac666109a439e808c1fa89dbafcc7\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The question was relatively straightforward. As this Government claimed that it had given tax cuts to low-paid workers, I asked about the tax cut given to the particular group, with dependent children, that earns under $40,000. I could not tell from the Minister\u2019s comments whether he even addressed that question. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000023\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00229cc197ef4d06482fa14b82a3d57c9769\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: I must confess, as Speaker, I could pick up what he said. He said that in fact a group of people\u2014probably that group of people\u2014received tax cuts in October last year, and that a further group of people who did not receive tax cuts in October last year received them in April this year. Although it may not have been exactly the answer that the member wanted, it was an answer to the question. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000024\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225e38b13d58f8416d93f84375cb121314\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: What does the Prime Minister say to the family referred to yesterday by the Auckland City Missioner, where the income earner in the family has lost his job, the family have lost their home, and they \u201Chave nothing for Christmas, nothing for extras and are really struggling and yet a year ago they were OK\u201D; and how has he protected that family from the sharpest edges of the recession, as he quaintly puts it?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000025\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002292e476ec03c54f789976b3372e0aa996\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: As we pointed out, as a result of Government policy 60,000 families, who would have otherwise lost their jobs, have kept them. That member knows that in a recession\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000026\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c1bb5529ecbd4535a5d2293138309141\u0022\u003EHon Members\u003C/span\u003E: That\u2019s just rubbish.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000027\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002292680643bf7c4da2b24c119283955b2d\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: Unfortunately, that family probably relied on the reassurances from the Labour Government that it had fixed the economic cycle and had provided them with a permanent job. That is not how it turned out, and we are spending every waking hour cleaning up the mess left by him, which is hurting our families. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000028\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227631802633bf4c7c95c4c5cc8a06cb55\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: How many additional children have been forced below the poverty line over the last year as a result of the near-doubling of unemployment and as a result of most workers on low to middle incomes actually having a reduction in real income, or has he not bothered to ask about that?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000029\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222f1e488a255d4777afbf21a88f46c6af\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: Well, of course, the member is trying to copy political tactics from other countries, as if\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000030\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00223cb8a4c43b194dd391709b0221d0e5be\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I believe that you had a discussion about the Prime Minister\u2019s repeatedly not answering the question but going off on a tangent, and the Acting Prime Minister is doing that on this occasion today. I ask you to bring him to order. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000031\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00229992ecbdc54f4bf09974a264ac849b5a\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The slight dilemma I have is that if the honourable Leader of the Opposition reflects on his question, he will see that he basically accused the Government of not caring about people who may have lost their jobs. Under those circumstances it is difficult to expect the Acting Prime Minister to give a totally objective answer, when he has been accused of that sort of thing. If the Leader of the Opposition objects to the way it was answered, I invite him to repeat his question without making that kind of emotive allegation, and we will see whether we can get a more objective approach from both sides.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000032\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227949350de40241f497f07fc003d651bc\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: Has he asked how many additional children over the last year have been forced below the poverty line as a result of the near-doubling of the unemployment rate and the fact that a great many workers have suffered a reduction in their real incomes, as the Minister of Finance pointed out in a statement yesterday?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000033\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00228ae9c9d6f5164d5aa182fd3d27270614\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: The answer to that is yes. I have to say that this Government has found it hard work to deal with people who are hurting because the previous Government so badly mismanaged this economy. When the recession came along\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000034\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022549e49170855469a973103555bfaf1e9\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The answer to my question could not possibly be \u201Cyes\u201D. It asked how many additional children have been forced below the poverty line. \u201CYes\u201D is not an answer to that question.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000035\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00228ba0e47535ea4f54a59efbdb1f448fe4\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: I believe that\u2014and I stand to be corrected\u2014the member, in his question, asked \u201CHas he asked how many \u2026 children \u2026 have been forced \u2026\u201D, and the Hon Bill English replied \u201Cyes\u201D, which meant yes, he had asked that. My dilemma is that I think an answer to the question that was asked was given. Does the honourable member have a further supplementary question?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000036\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002279bfff2b3c7a45429568de27142afa05\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: I am still waiting for the answer to the first one.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000037\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022fe85d748ce584398846be52f591a78c6\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: No, the question was answered.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000038\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221f760bce74814815b020dcc1793eeada\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: Having asked that question, how many additional children are now living below the poverty line as a result of the doubling of the unemployment rate and the fact that a great many workers have suffered a cut in their real incomes this year?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000039\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227ad04b4d09f74e309bfb1c44384aa092\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: I cannot tell him the number off the top of the head, but I can tell him why they might be. First, workers lost their jobs because of the economic mismanagement of the previous Government. Secondly, if families have found themselves below the poverty line\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000040\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221bde868e00fa424abaf3c7f52e2c20c1\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Order!\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000041\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002218003935b1b14a1eb1ce25936b03271d\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E:\u2014it is because they are on a benefit level set by the previous Government.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000042\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a206d360537743008255c6226f8c5f4d\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: If it was not the last day of this sitting of the House, I would probably be asking the Hon Bill English to leave the Chamber, because I was on my feet. What he said was beyond what was necessary, given the question that was asked. He answered the question, and he went on to make far more comment than was necessary. It is the last day, and I will put up with it for today, but I will not do so in future.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000043\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u002219a4a47c0beb4259ae48fde27fc934e4\u0022\u003EEconomy\u2014Management\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000044\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022659f6556-09a1-4ead-bc52-05cbdb4eaab8\u0022\u003E2. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222064e9966d3b4553a64713ebbdf25b8f\u0022\u003ECRAIG FOSS (National\u2014Tukituki)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Finance: What steps has the Government taken to manage the economy in 2009?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022 data-id=\u00229828801380ae43218b778bf9dba6079d\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000045\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00229828801380ae43218b778bf9dba6079d\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance):\u003C/span\u003E The Government inherited an economy in bad shape because it had been so badly managed. The Government has had to deal with the fall-out of many families losing their jobs and finding themselves on low incomes on benefits set by the previous Government. That is why the Government has invested in long-term infrastructure, tax assistance for small businesses, a large-scale home insulation programme, and cutting red tape so that businesses can make positive decisions to employ and invest. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000046\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022659f6556-09a1-4ead-bc52-05cbdb4eaab8\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00226670da308262498584e82984eb166b56\u0022\u003ECraig Foss\u003C/span\u003E: What has been the effect of the Government\u2019s initiatives?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000047\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002278c859fdd4fe48c79b702ba86ad201a4\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: The effect of the Government\u2019s initiatives has been to protect thousands of New Zealanders from the sharpest edges of the recession. We have at the same time laid down the platform for lifting our economic performance, because all those people who have lost their jobs because the New Zealand economy was mismanaged will not get them back until a business decides to employ them.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000048\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022659f6556-09a1-4ead-bc52-05cbdb4eaab8\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00229abd947e604a4964b5614b43e4db3e64\u0022\u003ECraig Foss\u003C/span\u003E: What expressions of support has the Government received for its sensible economic management?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000049\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022e5b690f0676d4436885e4b9f4d8ac84b\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: There have been many, but there is one that I would like to quote: \u201CWe must insist on value for money from the public sector. The state must play its part in stewarding limited budgets and targeting resources to those who need them most.\u201D That was the one useful thing that the Opposition\u2019s finance spokesman said all year.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000050\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022cffa7b5dbef34c70b3c1b3a5715127c8\u0022\u003EPublic Assets\u2014Privatisation\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000051\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e0192ed9-5715-4f6c-bd52-8db4f3466087\u0022\u003E3. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022292faae76a264f1388083dc1366046ec\u0022\u003EHon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour\u2014New Lynn)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Finance: Did he say at the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update lock-up yesterday that while the Government does not plan privatisation in this term of Parliament, it recognises various assets as not well-managed or struggling to keep up with the pace; and did he single out four entities in this context?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022 data-id=\u002243adbae74df94f9f8bb658c411f3eee7\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000052\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u002243adbae74df94f9f8bb658c411f3eee7\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance):\u003C/span\u003E The answer to that is yes, and that is because that member\u2019s Government left behind a swath of badly managed taxpayers\u2019 assets, and we are trying to sort them out. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000053\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c186d0a2-99f4-408b-9b4d-d484cf19724d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c8b9ecbc291c42668226edd0cba65c27\u0022\u003EHon Lianne Dalziel\u003C/span\u003E: When the Minister said that Television New Zealand was not well-managed and was struggling to keep up with the pace, was he sending the signal that the only conclusion a National Government review will arrive at is to sell it off?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000054\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00229e38eedb1cd44543aab7c4cf3f64d1c8\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: No. I was describing the state of an asset that that member\u2019s Government left in appalling shape. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000055\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c32d183ce4844a0a9192552c667dff76\u0022\u003EJohn Boscawen\u003C/span\u003E: Does he agree with the 2025 Taskforce that \u201CIt is difficult to conceive of a reason why the New Zealand government should own a large coal-mining company, three major electricity generating and retail companies, one of New Zealand\u2019s largest exporting firms \u2026\u201D; if not, what is the compelling reason?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000056\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c790e2f2249b43f1866111e392b1e261\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: No, I do not agree with it.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000057\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022459f3753a3be45ef8b4a5793558867c1\u0022\u003EHon Darren Hughes\u003C/span\u003E: When the Minister of Finance said that Kordia and New Zealand Post were \u201Cnot well-managed\u201D and \u201Cstruggling to keep up with the pace\u201D, was he sending the signal that the only conclusion a National Government review can possibly arrive at is to sell them both off?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000058\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022e8986db1e4304fbaa41a37589732cb6b\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: No. I was describing the state of those assets. A large number of taxpayers\u2019 assets have been left in an appalling state by that member\u2019s Government. We are taking responsibility, kicking its cronies off the boards, and lifting the performance of those assets.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000059\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e0192ed9-5715-4f6c-bd52-8db4f3466087\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00223e9f52175f064828aea345a937231252\u0022\u003EHon David Cunliffe\u003C/span\u003E: When he said that New Zealand Post was \u201Cnot well-managed\u201D and \u201Cstruggling to keep up with the pace\u201D, was he talking about Kiwibank\u2019s performance? What was it that disappointed him, and why was he not more open about including Kiwibank in the State-owned enterprise sales list directly? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000060\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225fc0f6a48fcb4098a0cc86bb839723cc\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: When I made those comments I was commenting on the state of the assets. I know that Labour will not accept responsibility, but its members should apologise to New Zealanders for how much value their Government destroyed, and for how badly a lot of taxpayers\u2019 assets were run on their watch.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000061\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022d34af0c8f9754293895aeea6c38249dd\u0022\u003EJohn Boscawen\u003C/span\u003E: What is the compelling reason for the New Zealand Government to own a large coalmining company, three major electricity generating and retailing companies, and one of New Zealand\u2019s largest exporters?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000062\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002263f20472db3e4f00a90f2504f19ebe38\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: The compelling reason is that it does own them, and given that those assets were built up by taxpayers giving up their PAYE each week, this Government takes its role of protecting and growing the value of those assets very carefully. They have been built up by hard cash paid each week by people who could easily have used it for other purposes that might have suited them better. The previous Government did not understand that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000063\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e0192ed9-5715-4f6c-bd52-8db4f3466087\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022cf09aee0cdca47679f62d93fe05c7f49\u0022\u003EHon David Cunliffe\u003C/span\u003E: Why did he single out Television New Zealand, Kordia, New Zealand Post, and KiwiRail, if he does not plan to open the door to sales; is it just coincidence that this comes a day before a report recommending partial privatisation, or is it cover for his brazen manipulation of history and his obvious lack of a real plan for growth?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000064\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022cd34c208f6344752a5ee4ba6dcbf8470\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: No, I singled them out because, as I described them at the time, they are fading network businesses. It is very difficult for New Zealand Post, for Television New Zealand, or for Kordia actually to make money. If that member\u2019s Government had paid more attention to what was going on with those businesses, taxpayers would not have lost so much money.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000065\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u00224e6cdf53b4e64cf8a94ee355b751b9a7\u0022\u003ESchools, Primary\u2014Teaching of Reading and Writing\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000066\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003E4. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002216828337af68495280d5ce0c13741e59\u0022\u003EJO GOODHEW (National\u2014Rangitata)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Education: What reports has she received about the teaching of reading and writing in years 1 and 2 at primary school?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022 data-id=\u00224905835491f44102a121b4245448f178\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000067\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00224905835491f44102a121b4245448f178\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education):\u003C/span\u003E I have received a report from the Education Review Office that focused on how effectively reading and writing was taught in years 1 and 2. The report found that, although 70 percent of teachers are doing well, 30 percent are not teaching reading and writing effectively, and they set low expectations for students. It is extremely concerning that the report finds 67 percent of school leaders\u2014that is, principals and senior managers\u2014are not properly monitoring how well those young children are achieving or progressing, and that three-quarters of principals do not set high expectations of achievement levels.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000068\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022d41c7fd60b494ffea87fbec5ed71b97f\u0022\u003EJo Goodhew\u003C/span\u003E: What is the Government doing to address those issues?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000069\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ef65cea640fe4a1f800d122357828d06\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY\u003C/span\u003E: National standards, which will be in schools next year, give schools a shared set of expectations about achievement in each year of school. Plain-language reporting to parents and communities will ensure that parents are well informed about their child\u2019s progress right from when they start school. When a child is struggling, national standards will ensure that parents are aware at an early stage so that they can help. That is what parents want, and that is what this Government is making sure they get.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000070\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022802874a3-deca-48b7-9d33-9087058892f5\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002284b58ab80dfa4b42a8d45cbcedea5ef8\u0022\u003EKelvin Davis\u003C/span\u003E: Has she read page 5 of the report, which states: \u201CAlthough high teacher expectations are important, they are not sufficient on their own to enable children to achieve. Expectations for high standards must be accompanied by good teaching \u2026\u201D; and what, specifically, in her national standards, will improve teaching?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000071\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220a6d550e5fb14298a3c69a8b18070b59\u0022\u003EHon Phil Goff\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I was listening quite closely to that question and I could not hear it for the barracking from the Government benches.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000072\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a6cac6c81e6249ab913f19e85e47f9bc\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The backbenchers on the Government side were making an absolutely unacceptable level of noise. They should realise that sitting close to the wall means that noise just bounces into the centre of the Chamber and it is extraordinarily difficult to hear. I invite Kelvin Davis to repeat his question.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000073\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022802874a3-deca-48b7-9d33-9087058892f5\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00223331ed7858074415b3638017cbc7f363\u0022\u003EKelvin Davis\u003C/span\u003E: Has she read page 5 of the report, which states: \u201CAlthough high teacher expectations are important, they are not sufficient on their own to enable children to achieve. Expectations for high standards must be accompanied by good teaching \u2026\u201D; and what, specifically, in her national standards, will improve teaching?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000074\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022834b6ed26d1d499ca7610ddb8f9cc397\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY\u003C/span\u003E: Yes, I totally agree, and effective teaching is at the core of national standards. Effective teaching is using formative assessment; that is, constantly monitoring how effective the teaching is, and making changes. It is about informing parents so that they can be involved in the process too. That is what this report says principals and senior leaders in three-quarters of schools are not doing effectively for years 1 and 2.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000075\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022802874a3-deca-48b7-9d33-9087058892f5\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a936b8ae5cca48c8b35448b67e9042b5\u0022\u003EKelvin Davis\u003C/span\u003E: Can she understand the frustration of the 70 percent of teachers who are doing a great job, according to the report, but are resentful of national standards being imposed on them, threats being made to sack boards of trustees, their professional integrity being smeared, and moves to prevent criticism of the Minister?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000076\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022dea6aecc0a854d2a90e44b4207b1e093\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY\u003C/span\u003E: No, but I certainly understand the frustration of parents around this country who are fed up with unions dictating to them how their children should be educated.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000077\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022b30fc7bac0e84f4c81033c86781e6409\u0022\u003EVulnerable Citizens\u2014Prime Minister\u2019s Statements\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000078\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002209a5b71a-ca7e-4e7c-9e09-f9e63f18aa12\u0022\u003E5. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224842fbcce54e4405973e3efc754ea79a\u0022\u003EHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader\u2014Labour)\u003C/span\u003E to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his comment: \u201CThis Government is not prepared to turn its back on our most vulnerable citizens\u201D?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022 data-id=\u0022f8575fa1984d426eb2b7901ec9cbb551\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000079\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022f8575fa1984d426eb2b7901ec9cbb551\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister):\u003C/span\u003E Yes, and we have made sure this year that we do not.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000080\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002209a5b71a-ca7e-4e7c-9e09-f9e63f18aa12\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022cdfd95cfc6024d8fb8a4fc79ecdcb0a7\u0022\u003EHon Annette King\u003C/span\u003E: Does the Government still consider the National Council of Women to be an organisation that represents the views of a large cross-section of women in New Zealand, including vulnerable women? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000081\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022d8eccaa0dfeb498d9ef3e373ca8d3b74\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: The National Council of Women is a longstanding and respected organisation.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000082\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002209a5b71a-ca7e-4e7c-9e09-f9e63f18aa12\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002207271b20561543d5b648d3632eaed804\u0022\u003EHon Annette King\u003C/span\u003E: What was his response to a recent letter to him from the National Council of Women, which stated that the new accident compensation sexual abuse guidelines are discriminatory under the UN conventions, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and has he given any commitment to investigate the council\u2019s claims?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000083\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002257eed8704bda492d9b52e65be9d1d8e7\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: I am simply not familiar with the letter or any reply that the Prime Minister may have given.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000084\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002209a5b71a-ca7e-4e7c-9e09-f9e63f18aa12\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220ffe12b096f54ff3962b3a1cb53fd3d2\u0022\u003EHon Annette King\u003C/span\u003E: In light of that answer, will he respond to the National Council of Women\u2019s request that he implement temporary special measures, as provided for under the UN conventions, before 10 January 2010, when all the existing accident compensation claimants will be transferred to the new guidelines, which have been condemned by clinicians throughout New Zealand; if not, will he now endorse those guidelines so the public and the National Council of Women know where the Prime Minister of New Zealand stands on this issue?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000085\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002286b768fec1744f59b800bce3c76a0666\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: I am sure the Prime Minister would be happy to discuss that issue, along with any other issues, with the National Council of Women. As I understand it, the guidelines that have been prepared by the Accident Compensation Corporation are consistent with the legislation passed by this House and were prepared by clinicians.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000086\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002209a5b71a-ca7e-4e7c-9e09-f9e63f18aa12\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022bddabe28a23b4cdc98803073bdc61c17\u0022\u003EHon Annette King\u003C/span\u003E: I seek leave to table the letter from the National Council of Women to the Prime Minister, dated 14 December.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000087\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022cae21a16c9c540aa99cda4b82674b5c5\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000088\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EDocument, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000089\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c7f031512af14823b8fa6bccdbe72a12\u0022\u003ETe Ururoa Flavell\u003C/span\u003E: What is he doing to address the findings of the recent OECD report, which showed that nearly one-third of New Zealanders on below-average incomes had missed out on health care because they could not afford it?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000090\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022e821b7f4efc844f9b071fb8d9565e97b\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: I would be interested in looking at that report, but I would be surprised if it was not contradicted by evidence from New Zealand, which I understand generally shows people are getting access to health care.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000091\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222485e58942d44d549d2779ff27c552e4\u0022\u003ETe Ururoa Flavell\u003C/span\u003E: Is he aware that the third Vulnerability Report showed that there is a hugely disproportionate impact for some sectors of our communities, and in particular the 14 percent unemployment rate for M\u0101ori is over three times higher than the 4.5 percent rate for P\u0101keh\u0101? What specific strategies are being devised to address the long-term inequities that have contributed to poverty and social injustice within our society?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000092\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224440a780cc674e5fbcb3c2a48cbd545b\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: Yes, the Government is fully aware that the impact of the recession is disproportionate on some groups of people. That is why it is absolutely vital that we get on and create an economy where those people get the opportunities they need to overcome their disadvantage and to get out of the low-income trap. I am pleased to say that we have been able to work with the member\u2019s party to back measures that will achieve that.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000093\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u00227b93d17477df4e14834564eb68621a26\u0022\u003EClimate Change, Copenhagen Conference\u2014Legally Binding Agreement\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000094\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E6. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224d2618e4ddf44fe1b8c663a066cebca2\u0022\u003EDr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader\u2014Green)\u003C/span\u003E to the Prime Minister: Does he agree with his Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues that it is \u201Cextremist\u201D for small developing countries like Tuvalu to push for a legally binding agreement from the Copenhagen climate conference?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022 data-id=\u00227f28ee41ac774e82b4cee0fc2c1fc6d4\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000095\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00227f28ee41ac774e82b4cee0fc2c1fc6d4\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister):\u003C/span\u003E I would disagree with the Associate Minister, if that was actually what he said, but it was not. He said that Tuvalu walking out of the negotiations in order to make that point was extremist.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000096\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00228206bf0c2b3d453cbeaeab5bb59fbe0f\u0022\u003EDr Russel Norman\u003C/span\u003E: How can his Government criticise Tuvalu\u2019s negotiating position and tactics, when the Climate Action Tracker report that he trumpeted in this House just yesterday has just downgraded its ranking of New Zealand\u2019s negotiating position from medium to inadequate, where inadequate is the lowest ranking possible?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000097\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c12b831d0ea248fbbfb60cfe80f46145\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: I am quite satisfied\u2014and the Prime Minister is probably in Copenhagen by now\u2014that those who are representing New Zealand will represent New Zealand\u2019s interests well. The only real question mark over New Zealand\u2019s credibility in these negotiations is the performance of the previous Government, of which that member was part, which oversaw record increases in carbon emissions.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000098\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f5d71749-ae91-4af7-b2bd-77260398912a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222d6fb1446d0d40578d481e5f62259283\u0022\u003EHon David Parker\u003C/span\u003E: Is he aware that small island nations like Tuvalu have been brave in stepping outside the traditional mantra of the Group of 77 by calling for controls on emissions growth in major developing countries within the Group of 77; if so, how, then, does he justify his Minister criticising Tuvalu rather than congratulating it?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000099\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002282c500c61b4a4c5a98e9c974a56cb6a6\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: The Copenhagen discussions are meant to be a negotiation. New Zealand will take part in that negotiation. We are fully aware of the concerns of the small islands. It is a bit hard to negotiate if people leave the room when it gets to the hard bit.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000100\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00229af2a17e87c745e2a0bbc66253f112ef\u0022\u003EDr Russel Norman\u003C/span\u003E: How can his Government possibly justify calling Tuvalu\u2019s position \u201Cextremist\u201D, when, in fact, New Zealand now occupies the extremist position as bringing one of the worst pledges to the table at the climate conference, according to the very report from the Climate Action Tracker that he was trumpeting yesterday?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000101\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221b17851eaa494796bee32ec7adba1337\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: As I said before, the main question mark over New Zealand\u2019s credibility is that over the last decade we had among the fastest growth in carbon emissions of many developed countries. That was under a Government of which that member was part. New Zealand has a very credible position. We have a sensible and wide-ranging emissions trading system, and a sensible target.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000102\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002250534da4b1834a3d9f1c11abaee12d31\u0022\u003EDr Russel Norman\u003C/span\u003E: Does the Prime Minister believe that Mr Groser\u2019s personal attack on Tuvalu\u2019s chief negotiator will help build New Zealand\u2019s relationship with our Pacific neighbours and foster a successful agreement at the conference?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000103\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ca7e51345a4d4150806aef94d7e0e1d2\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: As the member will know, New Zealand has strong relationships with our Pacific neighbours. As the member will also know, Mr Groser is one of the more experienced international negotiators around, and I am sure he will contribute to whatever result we can get out of Copenhagen.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000104\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002241714fa5284c4b4e9f3f52e959e1bbb5\u0022\u003EDr Russel Norman\u003C/span\u003E: Does the Prime Minister understand that Tuvalu is currently being submerged under water and could be wiped off the map by sea-level rises resulting from climate change; if so, can he understand why the delegates from Tuvalu may have strong feelings about the lack of action at the climate conference?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000105\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a0854f8bf2b9449fa7ff9a48a694c280\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: Yes. We would also argue that New Zealand is one of the few countries that are doing their bit, because we now have an emissions trading system in place after much discussion within our Parliament, which is more than almost any other country can say.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000106\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b6d23f1bf2564261a2ded92d009d34a2\u0022\u003EDr Russel Norman\u003C/span\u003E: Does the Prime Minister agree with Mr Groser\u2019s comment last week that New Zealand\u2019s ranking as medium by the Climate Action Tracker put New Zealand in respectable territory at the Copenhagen talks; if so, will the Government now revise New Zealand\u2019s negotiating position, given that New Zealand has just in the last few hours been downgraded by the same report\u2014the report that the Prime Minister gives so much weight to\u2014from medium to inadequate?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000107\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222a7e59835ccb4a9ba6dad2f64753c00b\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH\u003C/span\u003E: We have a credible and respectable position. Those who are representing New Zealand there will negotiate fundamentally in our interests to get some kind of outcome from Copenhagen that is of benefit to the whole planet. New Zealand has a credible and respectable position, and we will be sticking to it.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000108\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eb49ee66-7ca7-472d-a4a1-b099fd594dfa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022165e7f003ee04c56945dadc7af32872e\u0022\u003EDr Russel Norman\u003C/span\u003E: I seek leave to table the Climate Action Tracker report dated 16 December, which rates New Zealand\u2019s climate conference offer as inadequate.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000109\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022451d05ffe6fb4c5c99d90dd880cb7c2f\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000110\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EDocument, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000111\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022d3bcca97172b42c0a74d3f4e1686f58c\u0022\u003EHousing Affordability\u2014Initiatives\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000112\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002270dd644d-8bcf-40dc-998a-887d62d24a76\u0022\u003E7. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022285e2b4d7c944de49b2c598b9d3dcbf3\u0022\u003EMOANA MACKEY (Labour)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Housing: What new affordable housing initiatives has he implemented since becoming Minister?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022cbb83aab-9566-44c4-9029-8bda4aaca7f2\u0022 data-id=\u00225486ffa59fa3437eade60b2bfef21c19\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000113\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cbb83aab-9566-44c4-9029-8bda4aaca7f2\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00225486ffa59fa3437eade60b2bfef21c19\u0022\u003EHon PHIL HEATLEY (Minister of Housing):\u003C/span\u003E We will now underwrite loans for building on M\u0101ori land, which banks and the previous Labour Government refused to do. The Housing Innovation Fund has been boosted to $20 million. Well, what is new there? We now build houses, not simply fund administration systems, capacity building, and reports. Tenants can now buy their State houses if they choose to. Community housing groups have fed back into the Gateway Housing scheme how it can best provide for them. I thank colleagues for making it cheaper for builders to build, with the changes to the Resource Management Act and the Building Act. I thank the Minister of Finance for better managing the economy during a difficult time for those with mortgages and rents. I have more but\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000114\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022aea1b1c1c04048f4b47cb5257a6afaed\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The House has heard quite sufficient.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000115\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002270dd644d-8bcf-40dc-998a-887d62d24a76\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a844e483f95a451eaff098683208bedf\u0022\u003EMoana Mackey\u003C/span\u003E: We love the court jester routine; it is fine.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000116\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022bdf37ba0b5a44ede948e5bd521947613\u0022\u003EHon Rodney Hide\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think you know what it is, too. The member was called to ask a supplementary question, not to take an attempted cheap shot at a Minister answering questions.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000117\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222ca587777362407b835fbea9cadac0aa\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: We do not need to waste any further time on this. The point the member makes is a perfectly valid point of order, and that should not have happened. However, when Ministers go on for a little too long like that, they do invite comment, and it would be helpful if they did not do that. At the same time, the member should not have done that.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000118\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002270dd644d-8bcf-40dc-998a-887d62d24a76\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ceb2b6e3d75e4f838bdb6e48e7534d62\u0022\u003EMoana Mackey\u003C/span\u003E: How does he reconcile his claim in the House today and back in August that by extending Labour\u2019s Welcome Home Loan scheme to M\u0101ori multiple-owned land he had fixed the problem and \u201Csolved it in 9 months\u201D, with the statement of the Housing New Zealand Corporation chief executive, Lesley McTurk, to the Social Services Committee last week that \u201CWe haven\u2019t worked through the detail of the policy work.\u201D, and with the fact that she was not able to provide any details or even a time-frame for completion?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000119\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cbb83aab-9566-44c4-9029-8bda4aaca7f2\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022193d045352d441d486fe799c8283fc3c\u0022\u003EHon PHIL HEATLEY\u003C/span\u003E: We currently offer a policy for M\u0101ori wanting to build on multiple-owned land. They cannot borrow at the moment; the banks will not loan to them, because they have no security. Labour ignored this problem. The M\u0101ori Party got talking to me, it asked us to do that, and now we will. It is a great result.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000120\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002270dd644d-8bcf-40dc-998a-887d62d24a76\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022875267129c0a46ff98939d3f53fb21e1\u0022\u003EMoana Mackey\u003C/span\u003E: If this policy is currently in place, as he claims, and is not still being worked on as the Social Services Committee was told last week by the chief executive of the Housing New Zealand Corporation, how many houses have been built on M\u0101ori multiple-owned land under the extension of the Welcome Home Loan scheme?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000121\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cbb83aab-9566-44c4-9029-8bda4aaca7f2\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00226518862f1b09483db3bab30f4be65f8f\u0022\u003EHon PHIL HEATLEY\u003C/span\u003E: At the moment M\u0101ori are engaging with the Housing New Zealand Corporation on their ability to borrow. Obviously, as the policy was only just announced, they are not building houses at the moment.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000122\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002270dd644d-8bcf-40dc-998a-887d62d24a76\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227c009f65e4e74e1f85d8b2841915a4d4\u0022\u003EMoana Mackey\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I asked how many houses, and the Minister did not answer that very simple question.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000123\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227b7700891004424fabfc6fb38796a93e\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The House is very noisy and it is very hard for me to hear. However, I did hear the member\u2019s supplementary question, and it asked how many houses have been built under this policy. In trying to hear the Minister\u2019s answer under a lot of noise I did not hear the substance of the question answered. I invite the Minister to indicate to the House how many houses have been built under the policy.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000124\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cbb83aab-9566-44c4-9029-8bda4aaca7f2\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00226f9f5709473445ae88e530f17456b1c5\u0022\u003EHon PHIL HEATLEY\u003C/span\u003E: I do not have on hand how many houses are being built at the moment.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000125\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002270dd644d-8bcf-40dc-998a-887d62d24a76\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022f398a830ab1f434cbb569ed0c30af6d1\u0022\u003EMoana Mackey\u003C/span\u003E: Can he confirm that of the 40,000 State houses available to be sold to tenants, one is being prepared for sale, as reported by Television New Zealand, and does he stand by his statement that this is \u201Cmeeting our expectations\u201D, meaning that, at his expected rate of uptake, fewer than 10 homes would be sold to tenants under his Government; and how much taxpayer money has been spent on this aspirational policy?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000126\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cbb83aab-9566-44c4-9029-8bda4aaca7f2\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002296cb460112874561af72295fa0f10897\u0022\u003EHon PHIL HEATLEY\u003C/span\u003E: It is true that we are offering State house tenants the opportunity to buy their own homes, and 1,300 have shown an interest. At the moment no tenant has bought a State house, but the National Government is offering State house tenants an opportunity. We are not so condescending that we would say to State house tenants that they could never own their own home. This is not a condescending Government.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000127\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u002229bef6dc13ed4f11b7479a3cff82b999\u0022\u003EQuestion Time\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002267431f57-e958-4c83-b438-7da8061d479e\u0022 data-id=\u0022bcb63bb2c779456696526987a28ec88d\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002267431f57-e958-4c83-b438-7da8061d479e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022bcb63bb2c779456696526987a28ec88d\u0022\u003EPAUL QUINN (National):\u003C/span\u003E Mr Speaker\u2015[Interruption]\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000129\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c096a689740845e0908c0f6f94c29074\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: I apologise to the honourable member. I accept that this is the last sitting day and there is a bit of noise, but I ask members to be reasonable. Members complained when\u2015[Interruption] I am on my feet and I expect some silence. Front-bench members complained when there was noise from the back of the House; now they are making an awful lot of noise across the House. I ask them to now show some respect to the back of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000130\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022af287233113249f89ee7f37affeef075\u0022\u003ERoading\u2014Wellington-Levin Road\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000131\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002267431f57-e958-4c83-b438-7da8061d479e\u0022\u003E8. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002251a5631cb18b44f2bf63983886b05e58\u0022\u003EPAUL QUINN (National)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Transport: What reports has he received on yesterday\u2019s announcement of a strategic plan for the State Highway 1 Wellington to Levin corridor?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022 data-id=\u00220ba249ab4dfd4758aaca1ddf108655d5\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000132\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00220ba249ab4dfd4758aaca1ddf108655d5\u0022\u003EHon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport):\u003C/span\u003E I have seen many reports in the last 24 hours, mostly welcoming yesterday\u2019s announcement. The Mayor of Porirua, Jenny Brash, said Transmission Gully provides better community and environmental outcomes. The Greater Wellington chair, Fran Wilde, said it is a great Christmas present for the whole region. Even the member opposite, the Hon Darren Hughes, said that the decision to give the go-ahead to the Transmission Gully project is welcome news for motorists in the Wellington region. Of course, not everybody is happy, and I recognise different opinions. But after decades and decades of debate, we finally have a strategic plan from Wellington all the way to Levin that makes sense and has a funding track to enable it to be built.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000133\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220f061dd84007438d8b174857d79e5b42\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Supplementary question, the Hon Darren Hughes.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000134\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a4babee380bf4e2084c1d198854f27d8\u0022\u003EHon Darren Hughes\u003C/span\u003E: Did the member want to ask a supplementary question to his primary question?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000135\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c7f49760ffb24f1ab9951a6176e76bde\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The member has called for a supplementary question.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000136\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220a9ab97030bd4ef0b017249ca0134f6b\u0022\u003ESue Kedgley\u003C/span\u003E: I seek leave to table a Ministry of Transport document dated 10 December 2008, which shows that Transmission Gully will increase congestion, will reduce rail patronage by 13 percent, and could take substantially longer to open than the coastal route.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000137\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022846b400babe1462b9cfc9219ce86dd1e\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000138\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EDocument, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000139\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022f825348671604cbdb22583b9728dd8b3\u0022\u003EHon Darren Hughes\u003C/span\u003E: Does his confirmation that if there is to be a toll for Transmission Gully it will be around $3 mean that the Government will look at a public-private partnership for the construction of that road?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000140\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002223bd4520cc9e47529ba226cd3039acfd\u0022\u003EHon STEVEN JOYCE\u003C/span\u003E: I have not confirmed that there will be a toll. I have said that there quite probably will be a toll, and I have indicated it would be in the order of $2 to $3 in today\u2019s money. I do not necessarily expect that it will be a public-private partnership, because the funding is mostly in place for the project and tolling would pay only a small proportion of the cost, although every bit helps when we are talking about $1 billion. But we will see how that all develops and which construction contract arrangements proceed as the agency goes through its work.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000141\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002235568f67a62c44a0a6cc7fcc045f826a\u0022\u003EHon Peter Dunne\u003C/span\u003E: What cognisance did the Minister take of the provisions of the United Future - National confidence and supply agreement, which strongly supported the construction of Transmission Gully?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000142\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022e2ca227edcd14e12a79ee0ddc60ee4f9\u0022\u003EHon STEVEN JOYCE\u003C/span\u003E: I am very pleased that the National Party, along with United Future and other support parties, has secured the funding necessary to build the largest piece of the Wellington to Levin corridor. The member for \u014Chariu has been an outspoken supporter of Transmission Gully, and I thank him for his tireless advocacy. As the member will know better than me, over the last 9 years there has been plan after plan for this project, and only this Government has stepped up to put a funding track in place that can allow it to be built.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000143\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022de6b52e0e29144b2a44191775f8f1f93\u0022\u003EHon Darren Hughes\u003C/span\u003E: Is he aware of the considerable local opposition in Kapiti to turning a local Western Link Road, the construction of which is just months away, into a four-lane 100-kilometre-an-hour Western Link expressway? I have received 1,000 responses to it in just the last 2 days, with 76 percent of people supporting my position, and just 24 percent of people supporting National\u2019s position.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000144\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221f48434dd7c04ee1bd00047074b6baef\u0022\u003EHon STEVEN JOYCE\u003C/span\u003E: It is not a popularity contest; it is building the best strategic plan for the highway through the region. It is very important that we do so. However, I have also received lots of correspondence in the last couple of days, including from various people who have offered their support and are encouraged that the Government has made a decision. One person sent me his copy of Darren Hughes\u2019 newsletter thing.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000145\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002223de6bd3-0482-495d-88f4-7cc3f75d8442\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220119915b3d0243f4a737117253435fca\u0022\u003EHon Nathan Guy\u003C/span\u003E: What did it say?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000146\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022d40c744442384e88b956d77cced89a1c\u0022\u003EHon STEVEN JOYCE\u003C/span\u003E: It said that Labour had 9 years in Government and did nothing. There were reports after reports but nothing happened. That is what he wrote on Darren\u2019s survey form. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000147\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002223de6bd3-0482-495d-88f4-7cc3f75d8442\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a7dd4d84caf74238836ab3fdf40e9747\u0022\u003EHon Nathan Guy\u003C/span\u003E: Does this progressive and visionary Government have the funding available to follow through on the commitment to build Transmission Gully and the other Wellington roads of national significance projects?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000148\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a244152-977c-48d2-bf53-4f3a369a27a9\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224f273c6e3f0d45a2b5aba04e7e36a6da\u0022\u003EHon STEVEN JOYCE\u003C/span\u003E: Yes. The previous Labour Government committed only $400 million to Transmission Gully and asked the region to somehow fund the rest. This Government has stepped up with $11 billion in new State highway infrastructure and is getting the job done.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000149\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u00229b94ecf9ed6f4f5f94f5da32a3ccafdf\u0022\u003EInjury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill\u2014Holiday Pay\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000150\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a40f5af7-f9b0-4b44-9669-9e63be1c3ced\u0022\u003E9. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022dc787a7b8d024bd88a06d544df99fca9\u0022\u003EDARIEN FENTON (Labour)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister for ACC: What is the basis for the changes in the treatment of using holiday pay towards the costs of being injured at work in the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002280b11f68-6b57-4b8b-8922-aecd1d471975\u0022 data-id=\u0022c3c5658fad1948f7af1ae77308f37d7e\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000151\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002280b11f68-6b57-4b8b-8922-aecd1d471975\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022c3c5658fad1948f7af1ae77308f37d7e\u0022\u003EHon PANSY WONG (Acting Minister for ACC):\u003C/span\u003E This is a reinstatement of policy back to the pre-2008 position. It is consistent with the way other Government agencies, such as the Inland Revenue Department and Work and Income, treat annual leave as income for the purposes of income tax and a calculation of benefit entitlement.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000152\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a40f5af7-f9b0-4b44-9669-9e63be1c3ced\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00223201f5671808495ebdaf12a58416b324\u0022\u003EDarien Fenton\u003C/span\u003E: Why did the Minister ignore the advice from Treasury, which opposed these changes on the basis that they would save just $1 million and that the savings were small compared to the fairness concerns?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000153\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002280b11f68-6b57-4b8b-8922-aecd1d471975\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225e4bf8f25c10440197c87521fbda6196\u0022\u003EHon PANSY WONG\u003C/span\u003E: The member said that it was a saving of only $1 million. That is typical of Labour\u2019s loose attitude towards spending taxpayers\u2019 money. It explains why the net liabilities of the Accident Compensation Corporation have soared from $4 billion to $12.7 billion, and claim costs rose by 57 percent in 4 years under the previous Labour Government\u2019s watch.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000154\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a40f5af7-f9b0-4b44-9669-9e63be1c3ced\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c5b2f77a025e43c0a470171df7dcb051\u0022\u003EDarien Fenton\u003C/span\u003E: How will the Minister justify to injured workers and their families the plan to take their holiday pay, or is the Minister being a scrooge and are these changes to accident compensation just the beginning of the National Government\u2019s plan to reduce holidays for everyone?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000155\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002280b11f68-6b57-4b8b-8922-aecd1d471975\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225cf7dbcf61274823ba393059cea13dbe\u0022\u003EHon PANSY WONG\u003C/span\u003E: There is no such plan. That member sits on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee, which is right now considering the bill. I think she has plenty of opportunity to debate the issue there.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000156\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a40f5af7-f9b0-4b44-9669-9e63be1c3ced\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002238f44eaac76342658813cc930fae2364\u0022\u003EDarien Fenton\u003C/span\u003E: If the Minister were injured during the summer adjournment, would he expect the accident compensation scheme to demand that he use his holiday pay to recover?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000157\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002280b11f68-6b57-4b8b-8922-aecd1d471975\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022547593fd4fe348c69a40ab634257e4d0\u0022\u003EHon PANSY WONG\u003C/span\u003E: I am pleased the Associate Minister has the delegated authority for injury prevention; she will try very hard for New Zealanders to have a safe summer holiday break.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000158\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b86eba76031645e4b0a6597f0d94d6fb\u0022\u003EHon Trevor Mallard\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am sorry; I half expected one of my colleagues to take the point of order. There was a direct question about the use of holiday pay for accident compensation, and the response related to the delegated authority for injury prevention. There was no link between the question and the answer.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000159\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224b06f9a766ff427595411a9f3d628127\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: If the question had been an objective question that asked purely about the use of holiday pay in the event of injury, I would have been able to assist the member much more. But the question was a hypothetical question about the Minister for ACC getting injured. Under such circumstances, I do not think I can expect any particular answer of the Minister answering the question. We need more objective questions. [Interruption] I am on my feet.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000160\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022c7f5e981e9dd4d3985108027a780bc28\u0022\u003ECapital Market Development Taskforce\u2014Recommendations\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000161\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cc9c47c0-4409-44ca-ad2f-498707f27d69\u0022\u003E10. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a19fe86307174eecb3ea744e282fb0a7\u0022\u003EJONATHAN YOUNG (National\u2014New Plymouth)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Commerce: What priority will the Government give to responding to the recommendations of the Capital Market Development Taskforce?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022803002d1-e810-4bd8-b8e7-2e97d0d6f626\u0022 data-id=\u0022e1d36e08b37043f0b0c8b6b7928e8d17\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000162\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022803002d1-e810-4bd8-b8e7-2e97d0d6f626\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022e1d36e08b37043f0b0c8b6b7928e8d17\u0022\u003EHon SIMON POWER (Minister of Commerce):\u003C/span\u003E It will give that a high priority. The Prime Minister will lead the Government\u2019s response with an announcement early in 2010. I take this opportunity to thank the members of the task force for their service, and, in the spirit of Christmas, to acknowledge the previous Minister of Commerce, Lianne Dalziel, for establishing the task force.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000163\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022cc9c47c0-4409-44ca-ad2f-498707f27d69\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022588a3f4b815d4cdaa1ee7e36b29907df\u0022\u003EJonathan Young\u003C/span\u003E: What priority has the Government given to earlier recommendations of the task force?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000164\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022803002d1-e810-4bd8-b8e7-2e97d0d6f626\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022bd95031b4df9405e9b56513842a17979\u0022\u003EHon SIMON POWER\u003C/span\u003E: In response to the task force\u2019s interim report, the Government worked quickly to implement a number of important measures, including passing legislation to enact new, simplified disclosure prospectuses, bringing in new securities regulations, and helping to facilitate changes to the NZX listing rules in order to make it easier for firms to access capital.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000165\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c186d0a2-99f4-408b-9b4d-d484cf19724d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ac05d354b8a64621812b18f8bd816a38\u0022\u003EHon Lianne Dalziel\u003C/span\u003E: Will he rule out the task force\u2019s recommendations for the partial listing of Government assets, in line with the pre-election promise from the Prime Minister that there would be no sale of State assets in this term; or did that promise not extend to partial privatisation?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000166\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022803002d1-e810-4bd8-b8e7-2e97d0d6f626\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022cbfb8193fb4148fe91560ea3afea32a5\u0022\u003EHon SIMON POWER\u003C/span\u003E: No. The promise relates to any dilution of equity in this term. The member is quite aware of that.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000167\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022611b054b9cac42b09c742164f784acda\u0022\u003EMining in Conservation Areas\u2014Invitation to Minister\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000168\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f5d71749-ae91-4af7-b2bd-77260398912a\u0022\u003E11. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c61a1b5094354fe99ff20496c70f005e\u0022\u003EHon DAVID PARKER (Labour)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Energy and Resources: Has he received my invitation dated 14 December to accompany me, after Parliament rises, on the Gillespie Pass tramping circuit in the north-eastern parts of the Mount Aspiring National Park, so that he can inspect firsthand areas in the conservation estate included in his stocktake of mineral resources, and will he accept it?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022 data-id=\u00227b9b56d6628b4fa9a7051676577cd85d\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000169\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00227b9b56d6628b4fa9a7051676577cd85d\u0022\u003EHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Energy and Resources):\u003C/span\u003E I have received that invitation, and I say to the member that I think the itinerary that he has put together, for he and I to traipse through the backblocks of New Zealand, is truly splendid. So, on the one hand, I am deeply touched that the member wants to spend so much quality time in the high country alone with me, but on the other hand, I notice that all I am required to do is bring a pair of boots. I have seen that film Brokeback Mountain, so I am afraid that I will remain unavailable. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000170\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f5d71749-ae91-4af7-b2bd-77260398912a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022076aafcb443c42aeb1b6dca632f1d48e\u0022\u003EHon David Parker\u003C/span\u003E: Will the Minister reconsider if I offer to carry his pack? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000171\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ce9c1ba5ffb6467586177142cd79e7aa\u0022\u003EHon GERRY BROWNLEE\u003C/span\u003E: Given the circumstances, not even if hell freezes over. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000172\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f5d71749-ae91-4af7-b2bd-77260398912a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022bfb40d0f6cbc4af8bc46b6340b3ac4a9\u0022\u003EHon David Parker\u003C/span\u003E: Why will the Minister not accept my altruistic offer, made in the spirit of Christmas goodwill, and, once and for all, throw off that epithet of \u201CMinister of Stationary Energy\u201D?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000173\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022744daf2d981d4111a5525b50aa5dbaf9\u0022\u003EHon GERRY BROWNLEE\u003C/span\u003E: Not even will the spirit of Christmas cause me to make such a fundamental life-change. I will assure the member that I appreciate the sentiment\u2014well, actually I do not appreciate all of the sentiment behind the invitation, but I understand what he is trying to say, and I will be spending time over the Christmas break enjoying some of New Zealand\u2019s more pristine areas. Unfortunately, he will not be accompanying me. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000174\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002241146229-4d11-415b-a4ac-f4e2b923e95d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002218d429e08ccc4b509147a078d5f4a948\u0022\u003EHon Christopher Finlayson\u003C/span\u003E: Does the Minister expect to receive any other invitations from members of the Opposition? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000175\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b60107e04d5847f196d56d669db9b81f\u0022\u003EHon GERRY BROWNLEE\u003C/span\u003E: Yes, I do. I live in great hope that I will receive an invitation from the Hon David Cunliffe, the man of the people, to enjoy champagne and oysters at his Herne Bay residence, where I understand the theme of the function will be \u201CMy Future; Your Best Interests.\u201D Further, I expect to receive a tramping invitation from the Hon Shane Jones to tramp up and down Queen Street and drop into McDonald\u2019s, where we will have lunch with Parekura Horomia. I also anticipate an invitation from the Hon Phil Goff, but I understand that it will be a \u201CBring Your Own Vote\u201D party, and that not many will be going. Despite these exhortations, and despite the desire of Opposition members for me to join them in these ventures, I want to make it very clear that, regardless of their needs, I am not jumping the waka. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000176\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022d52e59e3-2195-4c95-a654-665c11b39b63\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b04fdbb210f544308e76117420db2e39\u0022\u003EHon Parekura Horomia\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would not like Mr Brownlee to go away ill-informed. It was Burger King, not McDonald\u2019s. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000177\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e6b4dc55-3561-49a8-a871-ae005354ef90\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022be158ba25f7a47a1a2f4432e1844bd7d\u0022\u003EHon GERRY BROWNLEE\u003C/span\u003E: I hope that my slip of the tongue has not destroyed Mr Horomia\u2019s sponsorship deal.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000178\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022aab86a466b0b40bfab6e26446ae66157\u0022\u003EGreenhouse Gas Emissions\u2014Agricultural Sector Research\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000179\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022\u003E12. \u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022d2072c6d46d44aff83e1030c631b2036\u0022\u003ECOLIN KING (National\u2014Kaik\u014Dura)\u003C/span\u003E to the Minister of Agriculture: What steps has the Government recently made to progress agricultural greenhouse gas research?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022e4b09a29-dfd3-42c0-8585-11463bd6077b\u0022 data-id=\u0022ab9bfc9d844348258e5969b1647365fc\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000180\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e4b09a29-dfd3-42c0-8585-11463bd6077b\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022ab9bfc9d844348258e5969b1647365fc\u0022\u003EHon DAVID CARTER (Minister of Agriculture):\u003C/span\u003E We have taken big steps. For several months I and Tim Groser have been working extremely hard to build international support for the New Zealand concept of a global alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases. This work will come to fruition overnight in Copenhagen, where a significant number of developing and developed nations will join New Zealand to formally establish the alliance. In addition, New Zealand will announce a major funding contribution equalling tens of millions of dollars to the alliance. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000181\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00223c66e2700b814c518ad17e46d9161ada\u0022\u003EColin King\u003C/span\u003E: Why is the Government contributing unprecedented funding and effort to the global alliance?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000182\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e4b09a29-dfd3-42c0-8585-11463bd6077b\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ad77ea64af974e6f954d85e4b0ea563c\u0022\u003EHon DAVID CARTER\u003C/span\u003E: The global alliance stands to be the biggest single effort that the world has ever seen aimed at practically addressing the challenge of reducing farming emissions while ensuring that food production meets the demands of a growing world population. The Government proposed the alliance and is supporting it strongly because we are committed to ensuring that farmers have practical and realistic solutions to reduce their emissions.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000183\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022471dee54-f59e-4497-b3d3-c39044ce7169\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002230f9e694cb3f4dd891633f0768665a02\u0022\u003EHon Damien O\u2019Connor\u003C/span\u003E: Will this new agreement commit the dairy industry to a 25 percent cut in emissions by 2020, as the United States has just announced; if not, why not?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000184\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022e4b09a29-dfd3-42c0-8585-11463bd6077b\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002256da51bc77be4bca857e7bc5758bae33\u0022\u003EHon DAVID CARTER\u003C/span\u003E: It will not specifically do so; the alliance will allow scientists from all around the world to find solutions by which not only the dairy industry but all farmers can look to reduce emissions while not reducing production.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n    \u003C/div\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022HpsHansard\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsProceedingHeading\u0022\u003EBills\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000185\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022f72ce4a5984c456fb4cdc1713b87913d\u0022\u003EEducation (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000186\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubproceedingHeading\u0022 id=\u0022416f89c3883840d2b9c35553b30e07a9\u0022\u003EThird Reading\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022 data-id=\u0022b64982a08aab4fc59c5814f04f1e36b9\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000187\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022b64982a08aab4fc59c5814f04f1e36b9\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Tertiary Education):\u003C/span\u003E I move, That the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. This bill introduces new legal arrangements that will enable polytechnic councils and the Crown to respond decisively and appropriately to the educational and financial challenges facing the sector. The new arrangements need to be in place as soon as possible to give the reconstituted councils time to start addressing the financial pressures on their polytechnics. I therefore thank the members of the Education and Science Committee for their consideration of this bill within a shortened time frame. I also acknowledge the hard work of officials, select committee staff, and parliamentary counsel in progressing this bill. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000188\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EThis National-led Government is committed to establishing a world-leading education system\u2014one that equips New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills, and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century. A key priority is the development of high-quality, relevant, and efficient tertiary education provision that meets the needs of students, employers, and the economy. The polytechnic sector has an important role to play within the tertiary education system as the primary provider of vocational education and training opportunities for New Zealanders. It is critical, therefore, that New Zealand has well-governed polytechnics that are educationally sound and financially viable. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000189\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EAt present, educational performance across the polytechnic sector varies from good to poor.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000190\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022997ed2c9d5af43d8ad16db13caceb876\u0022\u003EHon Members\u003C/span\u003E: Oops, she\u2019s lost her place already.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000191\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002212e272c5051d4619bc519905630b9d39\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY\u003C/span\u003E: Of concern to this Government are the six polytechnics\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000192\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022eaa92a01ce0e497bb7ebeb8caed702d3\u0022\u003EHon Trevor Mallard\u003C/span\u003E: Read the book.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000193\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221225de8748af4f1e90829d52a1fcc938\u0022\u003ESue Moroney\u003C/span\u003E: She\u2019s looking for the pictures.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000194\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224c4c421cf01f46109505e372eb3b503e\u0022\u003EHon ANNE TOLLEY\u003C/span\u003E: There are no pictures. Of concern to this Government are the six polytechnics whose educational performance has been identified as poor. Indications are that without major changes, these polytechnics will be unable to achieve significant improvements over the medium to long term in the quality of education provided to students. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000195\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EHistorically, financial performance has also varied across the polytechnic sector, for a number of reasons. Some polytechnics have not managed costs within revenue. Others have faced increased competition from private providers. Regional polytechnics have been unable to take advantage of economies of scale, because of the decline in their local population base. Since 2005-06 the sector has received $416 million in extraordinary funding to address issues of poor financial performance. Despite such assistance, six polytechnics will not be financially viable in 2011. A further six can become financially viable, but only through compromising educational quality. Across the board, polytechnics are not living within their means. In 2008 polytechnics spent on average $1,131 for every $1,000 of core income earned. Given the tight financial environment within which this Government has to operate, the polytechnic sector can no longer rely on additional funding being made available to address financial viability issues. Rapid, innovative, and decisive action will need to be taken by polytechnic councils and the Crown to address the educational and financial challenges facing the sector. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000196\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EThe bill establishes new legal arrangements that provide polytechnic councils and the Crown with greater decision-making flexibility. For the benefit of the House I will reiterate the bill\u2019s objectives. This bill\u2019s first objective is to improve the governance capability and effectiveness of polytechnic councils. The second objective is to allow the Crown to more effectively respond to the risks posed by polytechnics with educational or financial performance issues. This bill introduces new governance arrangements for polytechnics, with the aim of building the capability of councils for decisive and responsive decision-making. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000197\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EAs a number of submitters commented, a reduction in the size of polytechnic councils from the current 12 to 20 members would be of considerable benefit. From 1 May 2010\u2014or earlier, if circumstances require\u2014polytechnic councils will consist of eight members only. Each polytechnic council will comprise four ministerial appointees and four council appointees. Again, I thank the Education and Science Committee for its recommendation that councils be given the discretion to appoint four members. This pragmatic approach recognises the advantages of giving a polytech council greater flexibility to tailor its composition to reflect the particular needs and interests of its community. It will also enable the responsible Minister to appoint the chairperson and deputy chairperson from amongst all eight members instead of only five. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000198\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EUnder the bill, there will be a new emphasis on achieving and maintaining good governance practices. Appointments to polytech councils are to be made on the basis of relevant skills and experience, especially governance experience. Council members will be expected to comply with new individual duties, which will reflect the primary obligation of members to act in the interests of the polytech as a whole. The introduction of such duties was welcomed by submitters. This Government regards the need for adherence to good governance practices as a serious matter. It is important, as is demonstrated through members being made accountable to both the responsible Minister and the polytech council itself for breaches of the new individual duties. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000199\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EA feature of this bill is the collaborative governance arrangements, which include the formation of a combined council governing two or more polytechs. The decision to enter into such an arrangement is a voluntary one to be made by each participating council. The inclusion of collaborative governance arrangements within the bill enables councils to consider innovative solutions to future governance issues and ensures that the legislation will not pose a barrier to their implementation. The bill also addresses the Crown\u2019s ability to respond appropriately and in a timely manner when individual polytechnics are at risk educationally or financially. On the passage of the bill, an extended interventions framework will come into effect for the polytech sector; one intervention will provide for a gradually escalating series of responses to situations of risk. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000200\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003EA number of miscellaneous amendments are included in this bill. The most significant are those enabling the Manukau Institute of Technology to establish a tertiary high school from the beginning of 2010. I am delighted at the endorsement of the proposal for a trial project received from submitters and members of the select committee. This Government is committed to reducing the number of 15 to 19-year-olds who are leaving school early and without adequate qualifications. The operation of a tertiary high school is a significant step, and I thank members of the House for their support. I am pleased to commend the bill to the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022 data-id=\u00227cc53e5a70444471b01852bdb65ef344\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000201\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00227cc53e5a70444471b01852bdb65ef344\u0022\u003EHon MARYAN STREET (Labour):\u003C/span\u003E I will begin with something that has been lacking in the contributions of the National members to the entire passage of this Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill, and that is a vision for what the polytech sector ought to be able to achieve and contribute to New Zealand. Polytechnics provide an extraordinary range of educational opportunities, which an intelligent Government should be able to use in order to guide them to meet the future needs of this country. The skills development that is required at this time in our history depends on the kind of vision that one has for the country a decade or two\u2014or more\u2014on from here. We know that that kind of vision, and the kind of energy that could be given to the polytech sector, is missing, because this is the only piece of legislation that the Minister for Tertiary Education, the Hon Anne Tolley, can come up with to direct our polytechs for the future. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000202\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003EThis is a bad law. It is a limiting, constricting, and restrictive bill. We should be looking at how to harness and energise the polytech sector to do what is needed to provide the skills for the future of New Zealand. This bill is not a response to regional learning needs. Polytechs are a response to regional learning needs. That is their purpose. They fulfil an extraordinary need. They fill a gap in an essential part of the delivery of tertiary education in New Zealand. Part of it concerns the preparation and the upskilling of the workforce\u2014that is, the current workforce, not just the future workforce. So for those people who are not able, because of family commitments, to migrate to large cities to go to universities, then polytechnics are exactly the right place for them to access tertiary education opportunities\u2014whether they are diploma, certificate, or degree programmes\u2014locally, and as close to them as possible. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000203\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003EIf this was a visionary piece of legislation that equipped New Zealand to meet the educational needs that would prepare us adequately for the future, it would be applied to w\u0101nanga and to universities, as well. If there was anything visionary about this legislation, why would it not be applied to w\u0101nanga and universities? The answer is that the M\u0101ori Party would not have a bar of this legislation being applied to w\u0101nanga, and therefore there was a political reason for the Government not to extend the provisions of this legislation to w\u0101nanga. The reason it is not extended to universities is that they are too hard for the Minister to deal with. So we are left with the polytechs. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000204\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003EWhat is the basis of this legislation? The Minister has tried to outline\u2014for the first time, I have to say, in the entire presentation of this bill before the House\u2014some rationale for the development of this legislation. It goes like this. It is based on old information; it is based on a mentality that the Government had when it was in Opposition. I thought that it might have got out of that mindset by now, a year into its tenure as the Government. Government members are stuck back in their Opposition heyday of accusing everything in polytechs of being a twilight golf course\u2014that everything was a twilight golf programme that they could mock, parody, and ridicule. Any concerns about those objections, raised in the 9 years those members were in Opposition, were\u2014if they were justified\u2014addressed by the previous Labour Government. This Government is acting on old information and outdated data. It needs to get out more and go and visit the local polytechs to find out what they are, in fact, offering. They are upskilling not only our young people, and not only our second-chance learners, but adult and working people in New Zealand who are looking to upskill and reskill themselves, in the event that they have lost jobs. So this Government has taken this legislation to address old, outdated information. Its members have not kept up, the analysis is inadequate, and the recipe is not appropriate. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000205\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003EThis legislation cuts back the numbers on polytechnic councils. That is the major thing that this legislation does. Nothing in the bill is about a vision for polytechs. Nothing in it is about the skill needs of the present and future workforce of New Zealand. It is simply all about governance. Who said that governance was in trouble in the polytechs? I absolutely dispute the Minister\u2019s claim about viability in the polytech sector. If the Minister had some vision about polytechs, she would know that it costs to provide tertiary education opportunities in a long, skinny country like ours, just as it costs to provide hospitals in regions. The purpose of having polytechs in regions is to enable educational opportunities that are post-compulsory to be made as available as they can be, to as many people as possible. That is a vision; that is the start of a vision. In response to that legitimate vision for polytechs, this Government is cutting back the numbers on councils. In so doing, I say to M\u0101ori Party members, it cuts iwi representation\u2014it cuts them out. The bill says that it is desirable to have M\u0101ori representation, but it makes no effort to ensure that that happens. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000206\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003EThe bill cuts out student representation\u2014representation from students who have contributed. I will quote from chief executive officers who made submissions to the Education and Science Committee. The chair of the Wintec council, Gordon Chesterman, said of the students association that its members had contributed greatly to the council in the 9 years he had been chair. They had been very professional and had made a great contribution. He said: \u201CI certainly wouldn\u2019t be frightened of having that continue around the table.\u201D So what is it that the Minister is frightened of? What is it that the Minister does not want to have around the polytech council tables that could assist appropriate governance? It is community input, community representation, and people knowing what is required on the ground in each region. It is, in fact, people to direct the polytech, through the governance structure, to deliver its mandate to provide relevant tertiary education offerings and courses to the people in those regions. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000207\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00227df975cd-93d2-4f55-9bc5-d2790e28e043\u0022\u003ESo we have the cutting out of iwi representation, of representation from students and staff, and of industry representation. Surely, this Minister could have listened to employers around the country, but that is not the pattern of her tenure in this portfolio. She does not make a habit of listening to anybody, so even industry representatives, who are able to say what industry requires in each region, are unable to be guaranteed a position on a polytech council. This is not a visionary piece of legislation. It is not even about a tight financial environment, as the Minister said in her speech. This is about a lack of vision for the tertiary education sector. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022749d97b8-a772-4227-83da-b5e264c37bc0\u0022 data-id=\u00225b6461af47a94bc491039283cb51c79c\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000208\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022749d97b8-a772-4227-83da-b5e264c37bc0\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00225b6461af47a94bc491039283cb51c79c\u0022\u003EALLAN PEACHEY (National\u2014T\u0101maki):\u003C/span\u003E I would like to take a moment in the short time that is available to me to thank the officials who serviced the Education and Science Committee and who, on many occasion, were required to work under considerable pressure, as indeed were the committee members themselves. It became very apparent early on that there was a sharp division between the Opposition parties\u2014Labour and the Greens\u2014and National and ACT about the nature of representation. But I am gratified to be able to report to the House that all members engaged in a constructive and positive manner, and I believe that the submitters who were heard by the committee were given fair and considered consideration and were treated with respect. I thank all members of the committee on both sides of the House for that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000209\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022749d97b8-a772-4227-83da-b5e264c37bc0\u0022\u003EI want to make a couple of comments about the division that exists between the two sides of the House. Labour members have, in their work in the committee\u2014and fair enough\u2014and in their speeches during the Committee stage yesterday, made a lot of the point of representation. It seems to me that the critical issue concerns what is more important: whether it is the structure of representation, or the quality of the learning opportunities that exist for students in the polytechs. What this bill attempts to do is restructure the system of governance to make it more responsive to the needs of students in the lecture rooms, the workshops, the laboratories, and that sort of thing. The big work is yet to be done, and that is the appointment to councils of top-quality people who will be able to give the polytech sector the standard of governance it will require if it is to move forward. Thank you.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022 data-id=\u00223a499c9033b24b65ae2761d6234f1ae9\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000210\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00223a499c9033b24b65ae2761d6234f1ae9\u0022\u003EHon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour\u2014Hutt South):\u003C/span\u003E I regret that the member who has just resumed his seat, Allan Peachey, did not take his full time, because in my opinion that member, of all the National members\u2014in fact of all the people on that side of the House\u2014has the best grasp of the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill. He worked hard, as chair of the Education and Science Committee, to try to broker a compromise that was in the interests of the polytechnic sector and of long-term stability in that sector. But, unfortunately, the woman was not for turning, and for that reason we were unable to make that sort of progress. I think Mr Peachey understands the potential of the sector in a period of relative turn-down. During a recession and coming out of a recession are really important times for polytechnics to be involved in skill development and in working with the business community, in particular, in order to prioritise and get the resources where they need to be, so that we have the skill development that this country so desperately needs. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000211\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003EI think all of us accept that the current shape of polytechnic governance is not perfect. I think all of us believe that there are too many members on some of the councils. There is an acceptance that we could bring the numbers down without losing anything, and that from that we could get a coherence that would work. I see that the member is nodding. But I think there is also a view amongst many people that the changes have gone too far, and that when the Minister for Tertiary Education forces her appointments to be made, then, at that point, the gaps will become apparent. There will be communities, or communities of interest, that will not have any input at that particular level, although we all think that input is important and valuable. Obviously, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating in that particular area. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000212\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003EI join the chairperson of the Education and Science Committee in thanking the officials. They did do a good job. It is fair to say that during the process they were under some pressure, because, as I have discussed with the chair, they forgot, I think, whom they were advising. I think that for a period of time they thought they were advising the Minister, and they were getting the Minister to clear their reports to the select committee. That, of course, is constitutionally inappropriate. They were appointed as advisers to the select committee on the bill, and for them to brief directly someone who was not a member of the select committee was not appropriate. In the end, I think we cleared that issue up and got it sorted, but there was a period of tension when the officials indicated that it was their intention to breach the privilege of this House and to report directly to a member who was not a member of that select committee. It does not matter whether that member is their Minister; for the purposes of this exercise they were appointed as advisers to the committee. I can hear the Minister chirping. She does not understand the legislation, and she certainly does not understand the importance that this Parliament has put on its privileges and the approach that should be taken in that area. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000213\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003EI say to the M\u0101ori Party members that I regret that their amendment was not passed. I regret that they did not do some work on it earlier, because I think it was the sort of amendment that had the potential to garner further support from other parts of the House if, in fact, there had been a proper process. In fact, I think a member who sits directly behind the M\u0101ori Party whip, if he had been pushed pretty hard, could well have been talked into supporting it, because it is absolutely consistent with the things that he has been pushing for over a period of time. But the records will show\u2014and I regret to say this to the M\u0101ori Party\u2014that on the first reading and the second reading, the M\u0101ori Party members voted for the continuation of this legislation, which wipes out M\u0101ori representation. It is all very well for those members to say other people did that too, but Mr Flavell would never have accepted that sort of excuse from children when he was involved in the education system. The fact that Johnny and George did it does not mean that Sam should do it, as well. That excuse is the approach that Mr Flavell is using at the moment, and it is just not good enough. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000214\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003EI turn to the Minister and say I really appreciate seeing her in the House today. I appreciate that she gave a speech. I appreciate that she covered the areas that were missing in the second reading, in the speech that she did not give. I appreciated her fleeting visit to the House during the second reading, and I appreciate how fast she moved when she realised what was going on in the House. It is pretty sad when a member who has been here, I think, for 7 years, and who has been a Minister for a year, does not understand that she has to be present in the House to make a second reading speech. Anne Tolley used to be a whip\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000215\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002267431f57-e958-4c83-b438-7da8061d479e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002244d967a2e93a45a49fad4290bb420f57\u0022\u003EPaul Quinn\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Yesterday a number of points of order were taken against that member for referring to a member who was not present in the House, and he continues to do that now.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000216\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002203bc0052-6dd8-4807-998a-4768a4732e0b\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022de9d66e3a209400ca7ddd20fb0ba7436\u0022\u003EThe ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker)\u003C/span\u003E: I say to the member that if he wants to raise a point of order, he should come directly to it. What happened yesterday is in yesterday\u2019s newspapers, and it is not particularly relevant to what is happening today. I listened very carefully to the member\u2019s presentation. He made comments about how he appreciates the Minister being in the House and appreciates the time that is spent here, and he did not refer directly to the Minister being absent from the House, which was the subject of the member\u2019s point of order. Therefore, the member is in order and I invite him to continue.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000217\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002238b32e3d01344c60812f0037e726064f\u0022\u003EHon TREVOR MALLARD\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I thought you might have dealt with the fact that Paul Quinn referred to the Minister\u2019s absence from the House in his point of order. That, in itself, was out of order.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000218\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002203bc0052-6dd8-4807-998a-4768a4732e0b\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022312279e13840452d9331a2ee3b0d24e5\u0022\u003EThe ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker)\u003C/span\u003E: That is not a point of order. The member will continue.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000219\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225b142119bdb54c9cb994efc4dd8b482f\u0022\u003EHon TREVOR MALLARD\u003C/span\u003E: As I say, I very much appreciate the fact that the Minister has turned up today and has used her second reading speech, so that all the work of the officials has not gone amiss. I regret the fact that she appeared to get her pages out of order and lost her way as she was giving her speech. My advice to her is that it is very useful, before one comes to the House, to read through a speech, and to make sure that the pages are in the right order and that it makes sense. Then she will not make a mistake again of the type that she made. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000220\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003EI cannot remember back to the Minister\u2019s first reading speech, but I must say that\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000221\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222280ad3882004c098660d5c1291394f6\u0022\u003EHon Anne Tolley\u003C/span\u003E: You do have trouble with your memory.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000222\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002247cc3b72ce674de8a7dcd333ee03df4a\u0022\u003EHon TREVOR MALLARD\u003C/span\u003E: The Minister\u2019s first reading speech did not create a great impression on me, but I know that her \u201Csecond reading speech\u201D made no impression at all. In the Committee stage she did 3 minutes and 20 seconds over a period of 2 hours, during which time she was signing her Christmas cards, and I say that showed very well on Parliament TV. I compliment the technicians, who showed the Minister on a number of occasions, when they thought she was going to speak, writing on her Christmas cards. But I think we are having the third reading now, and what did the Minister do? She got the pages of her speech wrong. She got at least three pages out of the four wrong, and the first one I cannot remember.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000223\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022977cccaf-581d-4f48-924e-32bf6c54a93d\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225203abb3e2694ec1a3af661cb15f35ac\u0022\u003EHon Anne Tolley\u003C/span\u003E: Have you got anything to say about the bill?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000224\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a66a7513a96945a49c7a4d9f53ab8d78\u0022\u003EHon TREVOR MALLARD\u003C/span\u003E: The Minister is chirping away, asking whether I have anything to say about the bill. I have actually been in the House and I have talked about the bill right through the debate. I am sorry that that member has not chosen to get on her feet and speak properly on the bill, up until now. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000225\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003EThe Minister can chirp, criticise, wail, and cry, but in the end this bill will go down as the legislation that has struck out representation from iwi on polytechnic councils. National has said to Business New Zealand that it does not want its representatives, who know about the local economy, to be on councils. National does not want local business people to be on polytechnic councils, because Anne Tolley knows best. I say people should talk to Anne Tolley about the WelTec council, talk to her about the people from the Wairarapa who are on the Universal College of Learning council, and talk to her about Gordon Chesterman, who used to run the election campaigns for the National Party in Hamilton. He came to the select committee and said we should not do this. A whole pile of people who are members of the National Party know about polytechnics. We know that they are members of the National Party, because they told us that. We have worked with them in the past, and we know them well. They are good people, mainly. I appointed numbers of them to polytechnic councils, because they had the talent to do the job. The Minister has said that what they say does not matter. Anne Tolley does not care what her National Party members say, and she does not care what the chairs of the councils say, because she knows best.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022 data-id=\u0022cf64633710d44346aa9355c89d758f54\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000226\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022cf64633710d44346aa9355c89d758f54\u0022\u003ECATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):\u003C/span\u003E T\u0113n\u0101 koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. T\u0113n\u0101 koutou katoa. I will start by recognising the officials who worked on the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill, the chair of the Education and Science Committee, and all the members of the select committee. I think it was a fair process, even if there was not a constructive outcome. As a part-time member of the select committee, it took me a while to grasp what this bill was all about. I thought it was about improving education, but eventually I grasped that it was about extending control and facilitating business governance. Thus I came to agree with some of the other speakers in the Committee stage yesterday, who said that the bill had been misnamed. The bill could be more accurately described as the \u201CGut the Polytech Councils Bill\u201D, or the \u201CDesirable in Principle Retro-racism Bill\u201D, or perhaps the \u201CYes, Minister, You Choose Bill\u201D. What does the bill have to do with improving tertiary education? We do not know. The Government was certainly not able to explain it at the select committee. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000227\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EI do agree with Maryan Street\u2019s comments on the speech the Minister has just made to explain it, but it has not really helped. It seems like one of those weird niche ideas that someone has dreamt up in response to a challenging educational environment. Maybe if we severely cut the numbers of people on councils, everything will magically be more efficient. Sometimes I think if I hear the word \u201Cefficiency\u201D in education again, I will have a tiny breakdown. What is so efficient about reducing tangata whenua, community, union, and employer representation on a polytech council? What test of efficiency are we using? What is so efficient about reducing councils to eight seats, and then ensuring the Minister selects half of them? Who will be efficiently marginalised? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000228\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EThis bill is built on a number of bad marginalising concepts. Bad idea No. 1 is to get rid of any M\u0101ori representation as of right. The M\u0101ori Party put up perfectly good amendments on this issue, and Maryan Street also attempted to get the bill back on some kind of fairness track. The M\u0101ori Party described positive working models whereby mana whenua and polytechs are now working together on councils to ensure that the interests of the many M\u0101ori students are well looked after. The Minister just implied in her speech that the problem with this kind of representation is that it represents a particular interest group, not the interest of the polytech as a whole. This ignores the fact that some parts of the community get systematically forgotten unless their interests are actually at the table. It ignores the fact that although we can work for the good of the whole from our different places, we cannot speak for each other. I cannot speak for M\u0101ori student needs, even though I have spent many years teaching M\u0101ori students in polytechnics. That is why we need M\u0101ori and students at the table, to make sure that the invisible is made visible. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000229\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EIt is a bit like Parliament: who would want only one culture, one gender, one class, or one age group making all the decisions in this place? Who is made invisible in that process? Then there is the small matter of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the articles that relate to governance of tauiwi and rangatiratanga of tangata whenua. Without giving members a 3-hour lecture on the articles of the Treaty, I would like to point out that the relationship\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000230\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00224a11ce4e-9fb3-4738-b0be-5a9f81d975da\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022e0068d2e64a0435499327fa9c9a9c0d8\u0022\u003EHon Maurice Williamson\u003C/span\u003E: We would like the 3 hours.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000231\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ba4c8e3f97674594b7c72ee8753daa5f\u0022\u003ECATHERINE DELAHUNTY\u003C/span\u003E: I know that members opposite would love it; I could do it brilliantly. I would like to point out that the relationship was established in 1840, and the opportunities to make that relationship vibrant and effective exist through arrangements between mana whenua and P\u0101keh\u0101 institutions now. To deliberately reduce M\u0101ori representation at the same time as endorsing a M\u0101ori flag is a deep contradiction that the Government needs to explain. This issue is important not just for Waiariki Institute of Technology or Tair\u0101whiti Polytechnic, but for the southern campuses and city campuses as well. Honouring Te Tiriti is not just about the number of M\u0101ori students on campus. It is about the right of mana whenua to assert the issues associated with the whenua, wh\u0101nau, hap\u016B, and iwi where the polytechnic is situated, and from a mana whenua perspective. Why would we step back from that relationship and write a bill that reduces rights of representation to the phrase \u201Cdesirable in principle\u201D? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000232\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EStudent representation is very important on polytech boards. It is very hard to get student representation, as polytechnics are traditionally less organised and unionised, especially in the smaller regions. A student representative plays a vital role in grounding the council decisions in the reality of the experiences of the student body. A teacher or an administrator or a ministerial appointment cannot see the world through the eyes of the student, who is living with the debts, the workload, the campus infrastructure, and the social challenges of that particular environment. To meet the student needs, a council needs to hear a student voice, not as a lobby group at a meeting but as an equal with a place at the table as of right. The staff or union representative is also important, because the teaching staff live with the consequences of all council decisions and have a unique perspective. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000233\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EThere are many community people who should be at the table presenting their views and knowledge, not just one person alone amongst a group of insiders. How well the group of at least 10 people serve their polytech really depends on a good process, on trust, and on good leadership within the group. So why would the Minister be the one appointing the chair and the deputy chair? The Government tells us that a council can appoint any configuration of eight people. We can choose which representatives one\u2019s particularly community requires. But the Government is saying that with four ministerial appointments, we can choose only four from either the former statutory appointees or from our community. We cannot have both as of right. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000234\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EAs I said in the Committee, the issues facing polytechnics are very challenging. They include financial survival in a difficult economic environment, and walking the line between being a community education provider and user-pays pressures, which successive Governments have ratcheted ever upwards. Polytechnics are required to be in touch with the needs of local employers\u2014now without necessarily being able to include those employers on their councils. They are supposed to provide for cultural and educational diversity, often in communities where people have very little money and no extra resources. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000235\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003EI am speaking from experience, having worked in the Bay of Plenty, at Tair\u0101whiti, at Waiariki, and in Wairoa, in various outposts of polytechnics. I know firsthand the struggle to resource and meet the needs of students in these environments. It is not about reducing the governance input. In order to keep up the growth in financial expansion that polytechs are expected to do, they have to keep inventing courses and getting students signed up. In some cases, the courses are severely undersubscribed and on the brink of being unsustainable. The solution is not necessarily to cut the governance or cut the courses, but to actually invest in education. The pool of suitably qualified tutors can be very small, and small-town pressures to graduate students can be very real. We need to be resourcing these institutions. On top of this, those polytech councils will now be 50 percent externally appointed by people who are not necessarily connected to those communities in any way. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000236\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220ee528dc-7870-4553-95ed-5ec0cab60f07\u0022\u003ETherefore, we say that this bill is not helpful. If polytechnics are to flourish, the issues they have brought to the select committee need to be respected. Although I was only one of the Green members who sat on that committee, I heard a lot of the submitters and I read all of the submissions. It is simply not true to say that there was enthusiasm for this bill or respect for the proposal around governance. Instead, we have this very, very strange law, which nobody seems excited about, or proud of, or wants to speak very long upon, yet it will pass. No one will be better off and the real challenges in tertiary education have not been addressed. The Green Party is very aware of those challenges. We think that we should be addressing those challenges through legislation and through the select committee consideration. But those challenges have not even been discussed, because they are not on the table through this legislation. I have to say that this is a bad end to a sad year for education. We will not be supporting this bill. Kia ora.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022 data-id=\u0022dc0b17b3b6354e03a3f0fa38c10fd75d\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000237\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022dc0b17b3b6354e03a3f0fa38c10fd75d\u0022\u003ETE URUROA FLAVELL (M\u0101ori Party\u2014Waiariki):\u003C/span\u003E T\u0113n\u0101 koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Merry Christmas to you, in case I do not see you later on, and a happy New Year. Kia ora t\u0101tou katoa e te Whare. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000238\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EI do not think it is any surprise that every time the M\u0101ori Party stands in this House we stand firm, I think, and I hope, on the foundation of kaupapa M\u0101ori. What is kaupapa M\u0101ori? It is the inherited values of our ancestors. We hope that we bring those values to every debate as we seek to represent the authentic, independent voice of M\u0101ori in this Parliament. Central to our approach has been the commitment to kotahitanga, to a common unity of purpose. A commitment to kotahitanga is not mutually exclusive. It can also embrace diversity and difference. Importantly, it requires the representation of all interests within the scope of the overall design. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000239\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EWhen we looked at the proposals for the new interventions framework for the polytechnic sector, we thought about how best to ensure representation issues were taken seriously. Our aspiration has always been for increased M\u0101ori representation on tertiary governance bodies, including mana whenua and M\u0101ori student representation. Yet the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill moves in the opposite direction, in that the size of the polytechnic councils would be reduced from between 12 and 20 members to eight members, with four of the eight members to be appointed by the Minister for Tertiary Education. In effect, this means that there will be no guaranteed seats for staff, students, iwi M\u0101ori, and community representatives. This is completely against the aspiration we hold in the M\u0101ori Party, and as a consequence we voiced our opposition in our vote in the first reading. We knew that providing for only one community member would mean that most M\u0101ori representative seats would be scrapped. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000240\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EThere is no provision in the current legislation for M\u0101ori representatives of any kind. Although some might refer to the requirement of section 171(4) of the Education Act, that \u201CIt is desirable that the council of an institution should reflect so far as is reasonably practicable,\u2014(a) the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the communities served by the institution;\u201D, in practice it is basically a toothless provision. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000241\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EIn the Committee stage I noted that we cannot rely on those sorts of clauses for the special status of M\u0101ori, because they do not address the constitutional significance of the Treaty in any debate on M\u0101ori representation. Our constituencies have elected us into Parliament to do everything we can to advance their aspirations. Fear of failure cannot be a justification not to try something. Our members have always urged us to act, believing that it is far better to try and fail than to fail to try in the first place. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000242\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EDuring the Committee stage I put forward an amendment to establish a process for M\u0101ori representation that would be transparent and clearly stated, whereby the appointee truly reflects the values and aspirations of the community. The idea was to create not only a requirement for M\u0101ori representation, but also for it to come from across the board: two academic staff positions with one for M\u0101ori, and two student positions with one for M\u0101ori, as well as M\u0101ori community representation. All community representative nominations would need to at least be passed by local hap\u016B and iwi. The amendments increase the membership of the polytechnic councils from eight to 12, and they reinstate compulsory seats for the vice-chancellor, academic staff, students, and community-appointed members. In addition, specific provision is made for M\u0101ori membership on the council in order to give real expression to the Treaty of Waitangi. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000243\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EThe issue of M\u0101ori student representation on councils has always been of great importance for M\u0101ori students and to Te Mana \u0100konga, the association of M\u0101ori students across all campuses. That organisation has a Treaty claim to amend the Education Act to explicitly provide for M\u0101ori student membership, so the amendment we put forward was a positive signal to that very large constituency that there are members of Parliament who are willing to listen and to learn from their leadership. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000244\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EThe issue of a M\u0101ori staff representative has also been of much interest among our membership and, indeed, right across the education sector. We were keen that the polytechnic councils would be able to benefit from members who have the capacity to uphold academic standards in teaching, learning, and research. It was also a deliberate effort to try to layer in greater recognition of kaupapa M\u0101ori, in both standards and methodologies. Of course, it is not solely an issue of representation but is also one of the complexity of well-intentioned legislation with mismatched policy, inconsistent strategy, and mismatched business plans. I am reminded of the saying by another great Te Arawa philosopher: \u201CNever be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.\u201D \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000245\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EThe legislators, policy makers, writers, and architects of the tertiary education governance arrangements sure had the highest intentions, but if it does not make a difference on the ground then surely we need to take the risk and look for solutions that will. That was where we were coming from in terms of our bicultural model that recognises M\u0101ori representation on polytechnic councils. The M\u0101ori Party has greatly valued the support of the Waiariki Institute of Technology in developing this model. It is about representation within a new paradigm that was all about our recognition and representation against the Treaty model. What we want is very simple. As far as is possible, we want to see councils reflect the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the communities they serve. It is pretty simple. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000246\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EThere is an important element to the discussion that I believe members of the House need to consider. If we acknowledge that the larger proportion of M\u0101ori constituents fall within the lowest socio-economic bracket, which we also acknowledge stems largely from Crown policies retarding M\u0101ori social and economic growth from as early as 1840, then surely it makes sound economic sense to recognise that the clauses alone will not serve the wider interests of the group. The greatest of high-flying intentions will amount to nothing unless there are faces at the table to speak to the immediate, short-term, and long-term needs of all the people across the community. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000247\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EInconsistency within the legislation, the Treasury allocation to each ministry, the policy writers\u2019 approach to give actual meaning to these clauses, and the strategic and business plans within our public agencies are what have let us down. This repetitive failure forces us as a party to demand more on behalf of M\u0101ori, but what we are really asking for is clear consistency and equal access for all people within Aotearoa who sit every day within a less privileged position. Unfortunately for all of us, M\u0101ori make up a far greater majority within that grouping, and this is why we are forced to ask the hard questions. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000248\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EAt the select committee stage, Te R\u016Bnanga o Manukau Institute of Technology took these views to the table. It recommended that consideration be given to the inclusion of a M\u0101ori directorate function, in its case known as Te Amorangi. In the legislation there is an acknowledgment of the high percentage of unemployed and uneducated tangata whenua in the Counties-Manukau area. Other submitters also echoed that view. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation suggested that diverse communities cannot be adequately represented by a single person. The students association of the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology also made the point that students are key stakeholders in polytechnics and contribute a lot to their councils, so their views should be heard. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000249\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EIt is all now part of the record that we were unsuccessful in having our amendments voted into law, but we tried, and we will continue to try, to ensure that polytechnics are of the people, that Parliament is of the people, and ultimately, that the people are why we are actually here. We will continue to work with the Minister to find a way to address our pleas, and we are hopeful of some momentum being gained. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000250\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EIn closing, I reflect on the Hon Trevor Mallard\u2019s statement. Even he will acknowledge that if legislation is going to pass in this House and it can be done without M\u0101ori Party support, I suppose that is the situation in terms of the democracy of the House. But we have stated our case, and we will continue to state our case into the future. As a parting shot, I hope that if there are members who wish to espouse the place of M\u0101ori at the representative table, then over the holidays it would be good for them to look towards the correct pronunciation of M\u0101ori words as a starting point. It would then give some meaning to the notion of allowing M\u0101ori to be at the representative table. Kia ora t\u0101tou.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022 data-id=\u0022d75bd369edd84e51af5d6585ed05641d\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000251\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022d75bd369edd84e51af5d6585ed05641d\u0022\u003ECOLIN KING (National\u2014Kaik\u014Dura):\u003C/span\u003E It is a pleasure to speak to the third reading of the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill. In doing so, I say that good governance is the most basic of needs for a successful polytech sector. No matter how we look at it, until now that has been lacking. This bill is an appropriate framework for that good governance model. The absence of good governance has seen many polytechnics lurching and staggering to perform their very basic functions. Good governance is the foundation of building a trusting relationship with others in the tertiary sector, like the industry training organisations, which are the industry representatives. That relationship, too, is lacking. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000252\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022\u003EWhen we look at it, we can see that the Opposition members\u2019 hissy fit is all about the reduced number of representatives on councils\u2014going from 12 and 20 down to eight\u2014but those members have failed to acknowledge the important role that industry training organisations have been meant to play in representing industry. Over the last 9 years of a visionless Labour Government, we have observed the development of a totally dysfunctional relationship between the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics of New Zealand and the industry training organisations. It is called the \u201Coverlapping provision\u201D. The less-than-optimum relationship has greatly hindered the performance of the skills and trade training sector. This legislation will develop the necessary framework to improve that essential relationship between industry and the industry training organisation sector. That is why we want to see a much stronger working relationship between polytechnics and industry training organisations. This Government recognises the importance of a dynamic and responsive institutes of technology and polytechnics sector, and in doing so has implemented a more progressive intervention framework that I am sure we in the House all agree with.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000253\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022\u003EThis intervention process has two new stages: firstly, specialist help, and, secondly, performance improvement plans before the existing Crown commissioner intervention. When enacted, this bill will ensure positive working partnerships between the Tertiary Education Commission, industry training organisations, and polytechs. Gone will be the wasteful days when polytechs headed to Wellington, asking for more and more money. Gone will be the rorts and the soft courses that did nothing but fund the wasteful appetites of dysfunctional polytechs. Gone will be the days when the Government masked the bailing out of polytechnics with cleverly named reinvestment funds to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000254\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ffff330f-1757-41d6-9973-25244f0fdada\u0022\u003EThis bill is the architect of a first-class polytechnic system that will work in tandem with industry and the needs of its students. This bill is urgently required for good governance, but, equally as important, for a first-class tertiary education system, which this country needs going into the future. On that basis, I commend this bill to the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022 data-id=\u0022646b6ca8d18248619d77e2a8b3ba2479\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000255\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022646b6ca8d18248619d77e2a8b3ba2479\u0022\u003ESUE MORONEY (Labour):\u003C/span\u003E There we have it: at the eleventh hour in the third reading of the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill, the Government is scrambling to find a reason to pass this appalling bill. Colin King, a Government member of Parliament, has come up with yet another reason why this bill has been put before the House. Apparently it is because it will force the industry training organisation sector and the technical institutes and polytechnics sector to talk to each other. I wish we could go back to the select committee deliberation on this bill, because I sat on the Education and Science Committee\u2014as did Colin King\u2014which considered this bill, and nowhere in this legislation is there any requirement for the industry training organisation sector and the technical institutes and polytechnics sector to meet and discuss anything. I think this demonstrates to us that the Government does not have a clue why it has put this legislation in place. At the eleventh hour a Government member is scrambling around trying to come up with something that makes him feel a bit better about it, but, sadly, the reason he has come up with has absolutely nothing to do with the legislation. It would be laughable if it were not so serious that the Government, in its scrambling around for reasons to justify this appalling bill, is taking the community voice out of our polytechnic sector. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000256\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EThese are challenging times, when we need a Government with a specific strategy for skills and skills development, particularly for our young people. As we speak, far too many of our young people end up on the scrap heap, in the dole queues, and on the unemployment benefit, and that number is growing. Sadly, that number will grow significantly in the coming weeks and months, as young people leave the compulsory education sector and look for training opportunities. Many of those young people will be looking to our polytechnics for those training opportunities. Unfortunately, this legislation does nothing to enhance their opportunities for training. It has been well traversed in this House that the Minister for Tertiary Education, who put forward this legislation, has been so short-sighted in her approach that she refuses to lift the cap on the number of students who can be trained through the polytechnic sector, even though growing numbers of people are going on to the dole queue. This Minister would rather pay the unemployment benefit to growing numbers of our young people than have them trained, their skills enhanced, and their opportunities in life enhanced by lifting the cap in the polytechnic sector. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000257\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EInstead, what she has to offer this country on the last sitting day of Parliament is this bill. What does it do? It dumbs down the community voice, and it particularly takes away the voice of M\u0101ori on polytechnic councils. I think that is a disgrace in this day and age in Aotearoa. It is disgraceful, and it also show us exactly where this National Government stands in its complete disregard for the M\u0101ori people and the rightful place they have in decision making in this country. Yesterday this Government told M\u0101ori people that on only 1 day of the year they can fly a flag from some buildings\u2014and it is a flag that only some of them agree with. They cannot have a seat around the table, and they certainly cannot have a guaranteed voice in the decision making on polytechnic councils, or on local authority bodies such as the super-city. Any time that M\u0101ori get some real power and some real decision-making opportunities, this Government shuts them down. So it is complete and utter symbolism to fly a flag on some buildings for one day of the year, when on every occasion that this Government gets the opportunity to keep and retain a M\u0101ori voice around the table it gets rid of it, as the Government is doing in this bill. It is not as if the Labour Party, the M\u0101ori Party, and the Greens have been asking the Government to add something that does not already exist; we have been begging it not to take away a voice that already exists for M\u0101ori around the polytechnic council table. But what has the Government done? It has completely ignored that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000258\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EThe symbolism of a flag will not mean a thing if this Government will not give a real voice to M\u0101ori concerns, M\u0101ori futures, and M\u0101ori directions. That is why I was so surprised to see the M\u0101ori Party support this bill in its second reading. I think it shows how misguided the M\u0101ori Party members are. I know they were well intentioned. They thought they could talk this Government round. It was absolutely clear to every other party in this House that that was never going to happen. But in their naivety they believed that their party had a working relationship with this Government that meant it could make a difference. Well, that was na\u00EFve, and it continues to be naive that the M\u0101ori Party can trumpet the fact that a flag will be flying for a day but it cannot get any traction when it comes to stopping this Government from removing the voice of M\u0101ori from around the council table. That is the reality of the very sad position that the M\u0101ori Party is in today. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000259\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EThis bill has also been used to remove the voice of students. If there is a group that ought to have a say in the future of the polytechnic councils and what they deliver, it is, of course, students. They are, after all, the client. They are the people whom the polytechnic councils are there to serve. Yet if we join the dots between this legislation, put forward by the Minister for Tertiary Education, and another bill being promoted by this Government\u2014it happens to be a member\u2019s bill, in the name of Sir Roger Douglas, to make student union membership voluntary\u2014we can see what is happening to the student voice in this country. There is a common theme, and it is about dumbing down the voice of students. That alarms me, because I wonder what the Minister and her Government have coming forward for tertiary education, if they are taking such major steps right now to dumb down the student voice. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000260\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EIt is not just the student voice that will no longer necessarily be around the polytechnic council table; it is also the representation of women. Although women were not specifically prescribed for in the current legislation that we are, fortunately, still working to, most of the gender representation of women on polytechnic councils came from the staff representatives and the student representatives. After 1 May next year they will no longer be mandated to be sitting around the council table. So I fear for the gender balance on those councils. Why is that balance important? Polytechnics train all of our nurses; the polytechnic sector trains all of our early childhood educators; and that sector provides trades opportunities for many, many women. So the voice of women on the polytechnic council is incredibly important. I am surprised to see a Government that is busy telling private businesses to get their act together in increasing the number of women on their boards, while doing everything in its power legislatively to ensure that there is not such a strong voice for women on the boards and councils that it has control over. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000261\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EI am also concerned about the removal of the industry voice from the polytechnic council. If we hear one criticism about our tertiary institutions, it is that sometimes they care more about academic achievements and they are not so connected with industry and what it needs in terms of skill shortages and its training needs. This bill takes away the Business New Zealand representation and the union representation from around the table. So the very people who have an intimate knowledge of what the local workforce looks like are no longer around that table. I fail to see how that improves educational opportunities, how it improves training outcomes, and how it improves employment opportunities for our young people in the polytechnic sector. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000262\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b2567d3e-a09c-47b4-bd50-2f5bb4049762\u0022\u003EIn closing, I say that we have seen this before in this country, and it has been a dismal failure. This is going back to the dim, dark days of the 1990s. The last time a National Government tried this on, it was with our hospital boards. It appointed all of the members of hospital boards. It took away community representation then, and what an utter shambles that was! It was the forerunner to user-pays and the forerunner to privatisation. I hope I am wrong, but I see that around the corner for our polytechnic sector, as well. I am proud to stand here as a member of the Labour Party and oppose the third reading of this shocking bill.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u00220fc05f1c-47b0-4fb0-8298-2f347adae4e3\u0022 data-id=\u002281f5cf6157dd4ebdab14bd7029bc6368\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000263\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220fc05f1c-47b0-4fb0-8298-2f347adae4e3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u002281f5cf6157dd4ebdab14bd7029bc6368\u0022\u003EHon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS (ACT):\u003C/span\u003E The Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill is, or at least it should be, all about students. It should be about which governance structure is most likely to deliver a quality product for the student: the subject and the skills that they require. But if we listen today to the Greens, to Labour members, and to the M\u0101ori Party, we would think it is all about representation on the board. Labour wants representation for the sake of it, whether or not the person is qualified. If we listened to the Labour Party, we would hear that we simply have to have a student on the board, whether or not the student is up to it. We have to have a staff member on the board\u2014forget the conflict of interest. We have to have a union representative, we have to have a businessman on the board, and we have to have M\u0101ori representation. Nothing whatsoever is mentioned about a quality product for the student, yet I always thought that polytechs were there for the students. Labour members do not ask themselves what will deliver a quality product, but rather, they talk about the tokenism of having students or unionists. When Labour\u2019s previous leader, Helen Clark, was Prime Minister, she sent out a letter at election time about education. She mentioned public schools 12 times in the letter, but never once mentioned students. We have heard that again today. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000264\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220fc05f1c-47b0-4fb0-8298-2f347adae4e3\u0022\u003EThis sector needs to have a quality board at every polytech throughout the country. The fact is that we will have a quality board if the Minister appoints a quality chairperson and a quality deputy chairperson. If we get a quality chairperson and a quality deputy chairperson, they will ensure that a quality chief executive officer is appointed. If we have this in place, the system will work. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000265\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220fc05f1c-47b0-4fb0-8298-2f347adae4e3\u0022\u003EThe first question any quality board will ask is what the needs of the people who live in this area are. It will ask what the potential students\u2019 needs are and which subjects and skills they need. We are talking about having to have a student on the board\u2014one student, picked at random. What about the 1,000 or 2,000 students who actually attend the polytech? They would rather have a polytech that meets their needs. They would rather have a board that understands their needs and is able to deliver quality governance. But, no! Labour would prefer to have a student, or a staff member, or a union representative on the board. It does not care about the quality of the product; it simply cares about representation.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000266\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022490ccdbf-7c22-4e12-98f2-f3aa08f8e676\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002246cd2990edc7427e877a7056c67fa396\u0022\u003EIain Lees-Galloway\u003C/span\u003E: Is that right? The staff members don\u2019t care?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000267\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220fc05f1c-47b0-4fb0-8298-2f347adae4e3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221fb88d17952749439049fedbc9dc2d5d\u0022\u003EHon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS\u003C/span\u003E: I am not saying they do not care. The first point is that it is not good governance to have a staff member on the board, in my view. It is not good governance to have a student representative on the board. Any board worth its salt will meet regularly with the staff representatives and with student representatives. There is one key thing that will mean this sector goes ahead, and that is the whole issue of the appointment of the chair and the deputy. If we can get that right, if the Minister selects those people right, then they will ensure we have a good chief executive and the whole thing will move forward. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000268\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00220fc05f1c-47b0-4fb0-8298-2f347adae4e3\u0022\u003EWithout that, frankly, we will have the shambles that the previous Labour Government created and left. It left the shambles of having 20 people on a board. It left the shambles of having every interest group on the board, and those groups did not go there with the view of looking at the governance of the institution as a whole, but rather, went there with the narrow interest of what was good for the student, what was good for the staff, what was good for the union, or what was good for whomever they were representing on the board. Any board functions only when the seven or eight members are looking after the overall governance and the interests of the institution. If we have that we will move ahead, and we will not have the shambles that Labour left us.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022 data-id=\u0022d57b23bc84194eab958f21a74990cf02\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000269\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022d57b23bc84194eab958f21a74990cf02\u0022\u003EJO GOODHEW (National\u2014Rangitata):\u003C/span\u003E I rise to take a call in the third reading debate of the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill. I begin by congratulating Sir Roger Douglas on bringing us back to what really matters\u2014the students. The students really do matter\u2014believe or not, I say to the Labour members\u2014and because they matter, the governance of these polytechs matters. I will address, and perhaps counter, the culture of fear, evil prophecy, and scaremongering that we have heard about from the other side. This is not just today in the House; it happened repeatedly throughout the process of this bill.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000270\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003EThere are 20 polytechnics. They have been allocated $596 million for 2009, and we as taxpayers should want value for money. We should want good governance. We should want delivery of good education standards coming out of these polytechs, and educational outcomes that improve those who actually study there. There are more than 186,000 students at our 20 polytechnics. There are 68,000 fulltime-equivalents and they deserve no less than good governance. The sector is diverse. There are many subject areas and many communities to serve. Polytechs need to run effectively; they need to run efficiently. So why do we need this legislation? Well, I ask members to think about the $416 million, good money after bad, that was spent by Labour in trying to correct\u2014no, no, it just threw the money at the polytechs and hoped that they would get better from the gift. It does not work like that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000271\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003EThis bill does not remove the voice of students. It does not remove the voice of staff. It does not stop M\u0101ori representation, Pacific Island representation, or female representation. Believe me, it does not. Four members of a polytechnic council will be selected by the current council. They can be four students if the council wants them, four staff members if it wants them, or whoever it thinks represents the community. They can be four M\u0101ori.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000272\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224c193e1901124ceab09fdca319adbcaf\u0022\u003EHon Member\u003C/span\u003E: The Minister\u2019s choice!\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000273\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00224bf66bacdf4a4243bd92f6dd8ff548f9\u0022\u003EJO GOODHEW\u003C/span\u003E: The current polytechnics will select them, not the Minister. The Minister will appoint four members. It is clear to me that Labour members have not been awake in the select committee process. They have not read the bill. Maybe they simply do not want to understand. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000274\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002260200136-9d63-4a82-b4f5-c00411adb1fd\u0022\u003EHowever, good governance is what polytechnics like my own, Aoraki Polytechnic, are looking for. They have accepted the challenge of making selections prior to the implementation date. They have said that they are looking for good governance skills, good high-level business and financial skills, legal skills, strategic thinking skills, governance experience, leadership ability, and knowledge of the sector. They have said that eight members can achieve that, and they look forward to being able to rise to the challenge of selecting four. They have also said to the Minister that they will be looking for her help in appointments to their council. Having 12 to 20 members on a council did not mean good governance, nor does eight. Good skills mean good governance, and eight members are plenty to achieve that. This bill addresses the issues within the sector. It is a good bill and I commend it to the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022 data-id=\u0022695abf133ced4d6f8f07ffd6802e2983\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000275\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022695abf133ced4d6f8f07ffd6802e2983\u0022\u003EDAVID SHEARER (Labour\u2014Mt Albert):\u003C/span\u003E I would like to take a call on the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill, because at the end of that speech I was more confused about what we are doing here, at the end of the sitting, than I was beforehand. I will correct the previous member who was speaking, Jo Goodhew, on what the Waiariki Institute of Technology actually said about governance. It said that it wanted nine to 12 members. That is what the people in your community want, and you are telling them that they want something else. That is exactly what they want.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000276\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f4112fc5-c53f-4aa9-bf6d-5a05ce6252cf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002233a85b9aa716469d88f0f3dd5a10084e\u0022\u003EThe ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy)\u003C/span\u003E: Mind the pronouns. Do not include the Speaker.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000277\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002265cb7230d57a429b81d321ac18ab46ed\u0022\u003EDAVID SHEARER\u003C/span\u003E: I am sorry, Mr Assistant Speaker; I apologise. I sat through the hearing of the submissions by the Education and Science Committee, and I agree with my colleagues that they were handled with courtesy. We listened very carefully to those who came and spoke to us. But the overwhelming impression from those people who came along to submit to us was their unanimous disagreement with this legislation. It is bad legislation. This is what they said. The Universal College of Learning said it does not enable communities to be represented well. The Council of Trade Unions recommended eight to 12 people on the boards; the Waiariki Institute of Technology, as I have said, recommended nine to 12; and the Manukau Institute of Technology said up to 12. They wanted to keep their community input. Without the numbers, they did not believe they would be able to keep their community input. They did not believe they would be able to meet the gaps in skills.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000278\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002267431f57-e958-4c83-b438-7da8061d479e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002270c1455b89354056b487577a01d17759\u0022\u003EPaul Quinn\u003C/span\u003E: Why? Did you ask them? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000279\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225789ab5562354ad1b9d840aa852793ef\u0022\u003EDAVID SHEARER\u003C/span\u003E: They run these polytechnics, as that member quite rightly knows. That is the reason why they believe they need to have those numbers. Unitec said that membership of eight would impact on the skills of the representatives. It recommended that discretion to increase the number to 12\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000280\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002267431f57-e958-4c83-b438-7da8061d479e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220c9814f13da448dcbd6e158ddf90b80d\u0022\u003EPaul Quinn\u003C/span\u003E: Why? What was their reason? They didn\u2019t give you one? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000281\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f4112fc5-c53f-4aa9-bf6d-5a05ce6252cf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227a88b89efd9248a19758dfe1302e9252\u0022\u003EThe ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy)\u003C/span\u003E: Order! \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000282\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00222fc5691289e04122852a6d51e67f32b2\u0022\u003EDAVID SHEARER\u003C/span\u003E: Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. The bottom line is that there is an assumption here that somehow the system is broken because, as the Minister for Tertiary Education said, half a dozen polytechs are not financially viable at the moment. The bottom line is that, in the end, we are not sure that reducing the number of representatives on the boards to eight will fix the problem. We could be coming back here in a year or two to look at the polytechnic situation again, having realised that limiting the boards to eight representatives has not worked. Why? Because we have done no analysis. There has been no analysis of those six polytechnics to see what the problem is. Polytechnics such as Unitec, in my own electorate, have said that they have had a 13 percent increase in students and no increase in funds. That is one of the reasons why polytechnics are not doing well at the moment. They have not had the funding to meet their needs.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000283\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003ESir Roger Douglas talked about the need to look at the student and the student\u2019s needs. Yes, of course that is right, but then he digressed about the need to look at the boards, and that is exactly what this legislation that we are looking at does. Maryan Street mentioned the fact that all that is done by this legislation, which we are debating on the last sitting day of the year, is to change the boards, without any analysis of whether that will improve the functioning of those polytechs. I believe that it is a complete waste of time, particularly when submitter after submitter who came to the select committee unanimously disagreed with the legislation.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000284\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003EThe Human Rights Commission, which does not have a vested interest, said one size does not fit all. We have an extraordinary range of polytechnics, yet we are restricting them to having only eight members: four appointed by the Minister, and four coming from the communities. A number of polytechnics have multiple campuses and multiple communities, and they will not be able to be represented under this new legislation. Their boards simply will not have the scope. It is not about numbers; it is about management. Jo Goodhew just said that. Why are we sitting in the House today, on the last sitting day of the year, debating the numbers? It does not make any sense. It is about competence and it is about community. Those are the key issues\u2014not the numbers.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000285\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003EWhat else did the Human Rights Commission go on to say? It said that smaller does not mean better management. Again, I agree with the Human Rights Commission. I think Allan Peachey agreed with the Human Rights Commission, and so did other National members, who are feeling rather uncomfortable in their seats. People from their own electorates who had come in to submit were disagreeing with the legislation, which was being rammed down their throats.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000286\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003EThe other thing that people brought up was their worry over the ministerial control. They asked where is the independence of these organisations; where is the independence of polytechnics to be able to run their own affairs, respond to their own communities, and respond to the business and work environment that is around them. That was what they were asking. They also asked why there are to be eight members. Eight is not a good number. They asked why we should not have an odd number of councillors; at least, that way there could be a majority, rather than the boards occasionally being tied four-each and unable to get a good decision.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000287\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003EThis is a bill without any analysis of what the real problem is. It is designed to fix a problem about which we have no analysis, and it is being applied not to the polytechnics that are failing or not doing well but to all polytechnics, regardless of their size, regardless of their location, regardless of their make-up, and regardless of their community involvement. That is what is happening in this legislation. As I said, only a handful of polytechnics are not performing. It was mentioned to me that there were 13 percent more students but no increase in staff to support them. My colleague Sue Moroney also mentioned that the real issue is that student numbers are now being capped; students not being able to go to polytechnic is the real issue. It is not about reducing the number of board members from 20 to eight; it is about good management, and it is about polytechnics that are responsible and responsive to their own communities.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000288\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003EQuite bizarrely, the Minister said in her 20 August press release: \u201CWe are ensuring that in the future polytechnics have strong, skilled Councils, which will make them easier to govern, more effective, and responsive to their communities.\u201D I am at a loss to understand how polytechnics can be more responsive to their communities with a smaller number of people from their communities on their boards. All of the polytechnics talked about the value of the range of experience they have on their boards, whether that experience be from the local community, the business community, the union movement, or M\u0101ori people of the area. All of the polytechnics spoke about the value of having those people on their boards. Now we will be restricting that responsiveness, as well.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000289\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022dfa851f0-ef7b-4834-bc41-1b3b645a3495\u0022\u003ELastly, I will say that the proposal by the Manukau Institute of Technology that is part of this legislation has the backing of the Labour Party, even though we are voting against the legislation as a whole. Mr Stuart Middleton from the Manukau Institute of Technology has done an excellent job, and he deserves to be commended. He is a former teacher of me and of others in this House, and we support his proposal. Thank you.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022a68928ea-9dd8-4a30-8e2c-a0f49dfc8bea\u0022 data-id=\u002298ca50047616498bacfefc5b6b2dcc2c\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000290\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a68928ea-9dd8-4a30-8e2c-a0f49dfc8bea\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u002298ca50047616498bacfefc5b6b2dcc2c\u0022\u003ELOUISE UPSTON (National\u2014Taup\u014D):\u003C/span\u003E I stand in support of the third reading of the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill in the name of the Minister for Tertiary Education. If I might say so, she is a hard-working Minister who is relentlessly committed to educational excellence. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000291\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a68928ea-9dd8-4a30-8e2c-a0f49dfc8bea\u0022\u003EI believe that the children are our future. We need to teach them well and let them lead the way. We need to show them all the beauty they possess inside, and give them a sense of pride to make it easier. Our young people deserve the best education possible. This bill will ensure better governance of polytechnics. It will ensure that our young people receive higher-quality education. This bill is about students and it is about what they deserve. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000292\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a68928ea-9dd8-4a30-8e2c-a0f49dfc8bea\u0022\u003EPolytechnics are extremely important to all of our local communities as well as to our national economy. We need strong institutions that are financially sound as well as responsive to the needs of their communities and their local economies\u2014institutions that meet changing needs. This bill proposes that the membership of polytechnic councils be reduced in size from 20 to eight members. Submitters told us that they agreed that the number on councils was too high; they agreed that they wanted flexibility. That is what this bill delivers. Four members will be appointed by the Minister and four by the councils themselves. The Government will not dictate to the council how those four members are made up; the individual councils will have that choice. That allows them to choose what suits them best. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000293\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a68928ea-9dd8-4a30-8e2c-a0f49dfc8bea\u0022\u003EThis bill is yet another fine piece of legislation that has been passed by the National-led Government, led by the fine Prime Minister, John Key. Goodness, I have lost count of how many bills we have passed this year! There have been over 70 bills and they are delivering the promises that we made to New Zealanders. They are delivering a brighter future for all. I commend this bill to the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca id=\u00224df582f7afaa44a981ecad9e7121cc28\u0022 name=\u0022division\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022HpsDivision\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsItem\u0022\u003EA party vote was called for on the question, That the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp class=\u0022HpsDivision\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsItem\u0022\u003EAyes 64\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp class=\u0022HpsDivision\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsItem\u0022\u003ENew Zealand National 58; ACT New Zealand 5; United Future 1.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp class=\u0022HpsDivision\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsItem\u0022\u003ENoes 56\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp class=\u0022HpsDivision\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsItem\u0022\u003ENew Zealand Labour 43; Green Party 9; M\u0101ori Party 4.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp class=\u0022HpsDivision\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsItem\u0022\u003EBill read a third time.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n    \u003C/div\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022HpsHansard\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000294\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsProceedingHeading\u0022 id=\u00224cdbb3fcdd2c443eab46890c27d636d3\u0022\u003EAdjournment\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n    \u003C/div\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022HpsHansard\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000295\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsProceedingHeading\u0022 id=\u00223a80d6a33efa4305aa56977bcdd262b9\u0022\u003ESittings of the House\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000297\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsSubjectHeading\u0022 id=\u0022f93f4bd2b286405aaf9c52f89813209c\u0022\u003ESittings of the House\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022 data-id=\u002275c0ec9d363c4a1b9123efd6af9e94c1\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000296\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u002275c0ec9d363c4a1b9123efd6af9e94c1\u0022\u003EHon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister):\u003C/span\u003E I move, That the House do now adjourn until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, and that the sitting days in 2010 be as follows:\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000298\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EFebruary 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000299\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EMarch 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000300\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EApril 1, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000301\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EMay 4, 5, 6, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000302\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EJune 1, 2, 3, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000303\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EJuly 1, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000304\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EAugust 3, 4, 5, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000305\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003ESeptember 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000306\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EOctober 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000307\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003ENovember 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25;\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000308\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EDecember 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000309\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EIt has been a long year for the New Zealand economy and for New Zealand families. If we cast our minds back to January or February when the House got back together, we will remember that the world was transfixed by a financial crisis, and there were some very real concerns that the economies of the developed world would go into some kind of free fall and meltdown. So coming to the end of the year we are able to reflect on what is perhaps New Zealand\u2019s good fortune\u2014we dodged the worst of the financial crisis\u2014and also on the good management of a Government that has helped to stabilise the economy, and helped to stabilise and rebuild confidence. Yesterday the Government produced some economic forecasts that show some improvement on the Budget as recently as the middle of the year.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000310\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EIt is a time also when we should reflect on those who are hardest hit by a recession, and generally in this recession, as in others, they are often those who are least able to carry that burden. So there will be families going into Christmas where the primary earner, or both earners, have lost their jobs, and they will be concerned about what their prospects are for next year. In fact, many of them will be concerned about how they will get through next week. That is why it is so important that we continue to focus on policy that will give hope to those families who face Christmas with doubts about their own futures.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000311\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EIt is also traditional at this time of year to thank those who have helped to make our democracy work, and on behalf of the Prime Minister I wish to do that. But I start by thanking the Prime Minister for his leadership, and also for something that we have not seen in politics for a long time, and that is the sheer enjoyment of the job. The sheer enjoyment of the job is a happy change from the dour, sad look of the previous Labour Government as it departed this Chamber just 13 or 14 months ago.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000312\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI thank you, Mr Speaker, for your oversight of the Chamber. I see now that the public holds you in the same high esteem in which we have always held you. I have been in the House with you for 19 years, Mr Speaker, and it is pleasing to see that others are seeing those aspects of your character that we have always known about. I thank your Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000313\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI thank the staff and officers of Parliament in the Clerk\u2019s Office and the travel office, the security staff, and the police who work in the complex and always have a pleasant word for us. I thank the select committee staff, the Hansard reporters, the messengers, the catering staff, and the cleaners, whom many of us see coming into the building just as we are leaving. I thank the librarians in the Parliamentary Library, Parliamentary Service, the staff who support our MPs, and also our out-of-Parliament offices and the staff there who tirelessly work for our constituents, many of whom of course have greater needs because of the recession.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000314\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI thank those staff who actively support the Government: the staff in Ministers\u2019 offices and in the whips\u2019 office; the staff in the Cabinet Office and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, who with their high degree of professionalism ensure the successful operation of Cabinet; the support staff in Ministerial Services and the Visits and Ceremonial Office; the VIP Transport Service staff, who also always have a pleasant conversation with us to pass the time of day; and the staff of the Parliamentary Counsel Office.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000315\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI also thank officials from Government departments. It is always a big deal for officials when the Government changes, but this year I acknowledge the professionalism and excellence of the New Zealand Public Service. It has handled a change of Government, and a drastic change in fiscal outlook, with professionalism, with independence, and, I might say, in some cases with courage and urgency.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000316\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI thank the Government\u2019s support parties. They came to the support arrangements with this Government with great goodwill, and, I can say, with something of a divergence of interest and opinions. But it has always been clear from the start that the relationships we have with United Future, the ACT Party, and the M\u0101ori Party are relationships based on respect, not always agreement. I thank them for the integrity they have brought to some sometimes very difficult issues\u2014the integrity of being open with their concerns, and of dealing openly about those concerns with other Ministers, and their integrity in backing the position that the Government has come to. I am very pleased to note that the innovations this Government has made in building on changes that the previous Government made to coalition arrangements have worked out well\u2014such as support party Ministers regularly attending Cabinet committees. That has created, I think, more of a sense of a collective interest and a broad understanding of each other\u2019s points of view about a wide range of issues. I acknowledge the critical part that those parties have played in bringing stable Government, and if there was a year when stable Government was needed in New Zealand, it was this year when there has been so much uncertainty in the wider world. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000317\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI thank the press gallery, whose esteemed members have provided careful reporting and thorough analysis of what the Government has been doing, and who have shared in a professional manner both the good news about what the Government is doing, the bad news about what the economy is doing, and the occasional minor issue that the press thinks is a big issue. But, you know, that is all part of the political process.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000318\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI also thank the lobbyists, because they have learnt what good governance is about. We have had to educate them; when they turn up now they bring along serious cases, and they are willing to take responsibility for the discussions and the decisions that are made. How many times have members of the National-led Government had lobbyists and interest groups say to them: \u201CIsn\u2019t it great the Government has changed.\u201D? And some of Labour\u2019s best friends have come along and said to us that it is great that the Government has changed. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000319\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EI thank the Opposition for giving us such a free run. I never thought that getting into Government in a recession would be so easy in the Chamber, and so easy in the battleground of the media. I particularly thank my Opposition counterpart, David Cunliffe. I had thought through the year that he was auditioning for the leadership of the Labour Party, but he is not; he is auditioning to be the next James Bond. What is more, he has almost persuaded me that he might be the right sort of person for that part.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000320\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003EOf course, the Labour Party can reflect on the year. At the start of the year its leadership was secure and firm, but now, by the end of the year, it is in doubt. There is no point in Labour denying that, because I know what it looks like. I can give Mr Goff in fine detail the manual that his caucus is following\u2014step one through to step 17. Labour members are up to about step two, but there is nothing more inevitable than step three, step four, and step five, and I am quite happy to report on the benchmarks as they go. So the first report, I tell Mr Goff, is that Labour members are on step two. There will be a barbecue season\u2014there is absolutely no doubt about that. There will be a barbecue season. But I can tell members that it will not be at Phil\u2019s place. It will not be at Phil\u2019s place. I wish the Opposition and their families all the best of Christmases.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022 data-id=\u00229c664e1b5283486999f3887164e210b5\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000321\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00229c664e1b5283486999f3887164e210b5\u0022\u003EHon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition):\u003C/span\u003E A year ago today Bill English moved the adjournment motion\u2014and just as badly\u2014but at that stage Steven Joyce was not smiling quite as much as he is in the House today. I want to go back to Bill English\u2019s speech of a year ago, because he described the outgoing Labour administration as \u201Cscandal ridden\u201D. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000322\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EAt the very time Bill English was giving that speech he was busy. He was busy rearranging his personal affairs so he could claim twice as much for his housing allowance as any other Minister had ever got\u2014$47,000\u2014by claiming he had no pecuniary interest in his own home. The Auditor-General said that Mr English patently did have a pecuniary interest in his home. Mr English, of course, claimed that he lived in Dipton to be eligible for any housing allowance at all, but, at the same time, he was claiming that he lived in Wellington to be eligible for a self-drive car. I ask Bill English whether it was Dipton or Wellington. Which was it? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000323\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EAnyway, $47,000 was not enough. He wanted more. He wanted more for his cleaner. The irony of that is that the cleaner was part of that very same occupation that Mr English, as Minister of Finance, said did not deserve a pay rise this year, despite the fact cleaners are low-income earners. Bill English launched the crusade to cut the real incomes of the lowest-income people of this country from the \u201Cmoral high ground\u201D of claiming $47,000 a year in housing allowances alone. That is more than any of those cleaners get from their entire income for the year. That is no moral high ground at all, I say to Mr English. Mr English has the temerity to talk about scandals, but when it comes to scandals, Mr English is the gift that keeps on taking. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000324\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003ESadly, Mr English is not alone. There is Mr Hide over there. That is Mr Hide, the perk-buster. Mr Hide was into perks as hard and fast as he could. He was claiming he was against perks but he was secretly taking them. Then, of course, there was Mr Harawira. He was happy to have the taxpayer meet the cost of his travel to Europe but he did not turn up at the meeting the taxpayer paid for him to go to. For Mr Harawira, accountability apparently is a P\u0101keh\u0101 concept, and the people who paid the taxes for him to go were worthy only of insult and obscenity. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000325\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EWhen Mr English finished his speech last year he promised that the National Government would act in favour of the majority of this country. Over the last year we have seen from this National Government anything but that. This National Government looks after privilege. Why else, this time last year, did Bill English move through Parliament legislation that gave 30 percent of the money for tax cuts to the top 3 percent, including himself and his colleagues over there? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000326\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bb158206-360b-4757-8d72-f7d0994e1fb3\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022284ae29ead094651a7aa98ab7d9ce688\u0022\u003EHon Bill English\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am having a bit of trouble hearing the member because colleagues of mine are able to read his speech from a BlackBerry. He left out the bit about multinationals. I seek leave to table his speech.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000327\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002247782669ec964b2eb8138559ea6467e7\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: I think I had better take that as a good-humoured interjection. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000328\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00223b9e831bac5a4bb6bf99a1262947faa2\u0022\u003EHon PHIL GOFF\u003C/span\u003E: This Government is about privilege. It claims it has no money to meet the basic needs of ordinary working New Zealanders, but it has put $110 billion aside to look after the interests of the multinationals and the polluters. The Government did not bill those who are causing the pollution, which is what an emissions trading scheme was meant to be about. Rather, the bill will be passed on to hard-working New Zealand taxpayers, who will be paying for decades to come for this Government\u2019s dirty deal on the emissions trading scheme, which will be disastrous for our economy and disastrous for our environment. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000329\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EThis Government does not put the burden on the privileged. There is no point, Mr English, in the cheap words of sympathy you gave to low-income earners at the start of your speech when you have been looking after the privileged and you have been putting the burden of this recession fully and squarely on low-income earners.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000330\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002262dd57afcf1f4fa69ee9090411f63b92\u0022\u003EHon Rodney Hide\u003C/span\u003E: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It happened several times there, but the member knows he should not be bringing the Speaker into the debate.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000331\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221307aded57c74b25be81f1c8d6930c44\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The member is\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000332\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022a2bc82a6123b423db55f131df9d09cfb\u0022\u003EHon Trevor Mallard\u003C/span\u003E: Mr Speaker, he\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000333\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022fb9d01b8deab430cafd51b1fd2856ab6\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: I do not need any assistance on the matter. Mr Hide is quite correct. I did not want to intervene, because I did not want to interrupt the speech of the honourable Leader of the Opposition. But he must not use the word \u201Cyou\u201D.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000334\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002279db8b64-1f9b-4416-9b81-a12963db9cbf\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002233cc976a1d2f400f8bf2cc1ff93540b9\u0022\u003EHon Trevor Mallard\u003C/span\u003E: He said \u201Cyou, Mr English\u201D.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000335\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022b7f517fe226d427db6567412e18eab71\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: The member has been in the House long enough to know that saying \u201Cyou, Mr English\u201D is totally inconsistent with the Standing Orders. A member cannot, for good reason, say that, because it personalises the debate. The member cannot say \u201Cyou, Mr English\u201D; the member cannot use \u201Cyou\u201D because \u201Cyou\u201D is referring to the Speaker. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000336\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225afc60ddf4974f9fb8b2bd0576f8d808\u0022\u003EHon PHIL GOFF\u003C/span\u003E: Yesterday Mr Key, in this House, boasted that having 60,000 additional New Zealanders deprived of their livelihood through unemployment was \u201Ca pretty good result\u201D. But I will tell National members, who do not seem to understand what it means to a person to be unemployed, about the case of a young man whom Maryan Street and I visited, by chance, in Nelson last Thursday. An article about him has been written in the Nelson Mail. The young man\u2019s name is Ivan Culpitt. He is 22 years old. He has, over the last 7 months, applied for 20 jobs but failed to get them. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000337\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EMr Culpitt is desperate to get off the sickness benefit and get into work. He turned up at the place we were visiting, McCashin\u2019s Brewery and Malthouse, and told the employer he would work for nothing\u2014work for nothing\u2014because he was so desperate to get a job. The woman who was running that brewery, a very nice woman by the name of Emma McCashin, said in this article and to us on the ground that every week she is phoned by people so desperate for work that they are indeed prepared to work for nothing. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000338\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EI acknowledge the commitment of Ivan Culpitt to finding that job, but no New Zealander and no young New Zealander should have to go out and work for nothing because things are so tough and that person cannot get a job. I say to the National members opposite that when they are smug and arrogant about those people\u2014as they were during question time\u2014they should think about that young man and about the New Zealanders who are suffering at the moment because they have no chance of employment. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000339\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EAs we adjourn this House, and as we think about what we may be doing a week out from now when we spend time with our families, I ask the members of the Government\u2014both National and ACT members\u2014to think about what was said yesterday by the Auckland City Missioner, Diane Robertson, about what is happening in her agency. She said that a new class of people is coming through her agency. She is seeing people who had never been there before and who had never asked for assistance before\u2014thousands of additional New Zealanders.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000340\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EWe have heard the same story from the Salvation Army, from the Citizens Advice Bureaux, and from the Family Budgeting Services. She told us a story about a woman who came in with three young children. The woman\u2019s husband had been made redundant 8 weeks earlier. The family had lost their home. They had no money for Christmas, and nothing for extras. I ask National members not to give us the cheap words we have heard from the Deputy Prime Minister, but, for God\u2019s sake, I ask that next year they start to govern for ordinary New Zealanders who are missing out on the things that New Zealanders should be able to expect to have in life. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000341\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EFinally, I acknowledge the parliamentary staff, who do the work that makes the functioning of this institution possible. I will begin with you, Mr Speaker, and your office. Thank you for your service to the House this year. I acknowledge also the Clerk, and the Clerk\u2019s Office, for the work they do. I thank the Hansard reporters, who are sometimes called upon to write down things\u2014particularly from the Government benches\u2014that do not make much sense. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000342\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003EI thank the security staff and the messengers, who have had to fight this year for a decent wage for working in this House, and I thank the cleaning staff, who are still fighting to get a decent wage. I acknowledge our executive assistants, and our media, research, clerical, and electorate office staff. They work hard, and they work professionally. For those of us who have the privilege of having drivers, I acknowledge them, also, for the work they do. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000343\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c699e7c6-53b9-470c-a14a-378cb6fc8a04\u0022\u003ELast but not least, I acknowledge the spouses and families of parliamentarians, from whichever side of the House we sit on. Our families and our partners do not choose the careers that we have chosen for ourselves, but too often they pay the price for that\u2014the price of our absence, and the price of unwanted publicity. I wish all our colleagues and all New Zealanders a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022 data-id=\u00220a723791e243419db1882a775ffeca75\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000344\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00220a723791e243419db1882a775ffeca75\u0022\u003EKEITH LOCKE (Green):\u003C/span\u003E First of all, on behalf of the Green Party I extend to all members in this Chamber our best wishes for the season, and I extend best wishes particularly to the Speaker. I think our Speaker has really put his heart and soul into the job\u2014probably more than any other Speaker I have seen since I have been here. We certainly appreciate his efforts to get Ministers to answer the questions at question time, rather than to talk around them. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000345\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EThe Green Party, like the previous two speakers, also wishes to send its greetings to all those many people in this complex who help us to do our work, including ushers, security staff, police, messengers, travel office people, Bellamy\u2019s workers, librarians, and everyone in the Clerk\u2019s Office, including all the select committee staff. That is not to forget, of course, our own personal party staff, executive assistants, out-of-Parliament people, and administrative, research, and media staff. Finally, this Christmas we should not forget those largely unseen but hard-working people who clean our offices at night, and who, as Phil Goff just mentioned, are underpaid. The Green Party is also concerned at the underpayment of the security staff, and we strongly support them in their negotiations and collective action through the New Zealand Public Service Association to get a better deal. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000346\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EChristmas is a time of goodwill to all men and women, and I think we should be thinking particularly of those poor families who will not have the wherewithal to have a sumptuous Christmas dinner, or to buy much in the way of presents for their kids. Unfortunately, New Zealand is becoming a more unequal society with serious levels of poverty, and flowing from that we have a serious crime problem. However, at Christmas we should have compassion both for the victims of offences and for the criminals in jail, and for the families of both of them. It was estimated on Radio New Zealand this morning that there are 20,000 children of prisoners, and we should remember them because they will not be having a very good Christmas with their father or mother in jail. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000347\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EThis year Chief Justice Sian Elias gave us a strong hint that we should be looking at ways of reducing crime other than just locking up more and more people for longer. The decade-long battle between Labour and National about who can be the toughest on criminals has resulted in New Zealand having one of the highest imprisonment rates in the Western World. Only the Greens and the M\u0101ori Party have argued for a better approach, focusing more on restorative justice and rehabilitation than on punishment. Mind you, there is one crime that the Greens are thinking of adding to the statute book, and that is a crime against the climate. But that might not get a majority in the House, because some of the current members here might end up being incarcerated. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000348\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EThat brings me to Copenhagen. Our MPs on the spot, Jeanette Fitzsimons and Kennedy Graham, say that the rallying cry on Copenhagen streets this week has been \u201Cclimate justice\u201D, which means that rich countries with higher per capita emissions have to take the prime responsibility for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, and also make a huge financial contribution to poorer countries to allow them to move to a lower-carbon economy. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000349\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EThe need for climate justice shows that we cannot solve fundamental environmental problems\u2014and climate change is the pre-eminent one\u2014without addressing the social and economic inequalities between nations and within nations. This also highlights why the Greens are so strong on international human rights. Countries that are not democratic are generally despoilers of the environment. In this respect we are disappointed that John Key has followed Helen Clark in keeping Ministers away from the Dalai Lama when he visits, in order to satisfy the political mandarins in Beijing. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000350\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EFour Green MPs did meet the Dalai Lama when he visited this month. His comments on what was happening on the Tibetan Plateau were alarming. The massive deforestation by Chinese loggers can only increase greenhouse gas emissions, and it can also reduce rainfall on the plateau. When we combine that with global warming melting the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, we are looking at an environmental and social catastrophe, because almost half the world\u2019s population in South Asia, East Asia, and South-east Asia relies on water coming from the Tibetan Plateau. The one-party dictatorship in China is simply not up to solving such a vital ecological problem, which is why we must strongly support all the democratic forces in China, be they harassed Chinese human rights campaigners or those wanting more rights for the Tibetan and Uighur people.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000351\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EThe urgency of massive expenditure by rich countries to combat climate change is one reason why we should be against wars, such as that being prosecuted by the United States in Afghanistan, unfortunately with the assistance of our SAS. About $1.4 trillion is currently being spent annually on military equipment and fighting wars. Would it not be a better use of that money to spread renewable power generation in poorer countries, rather than use it to drop bombs on them? \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000352\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003ENext year the Green Party will be continuing to challenge the largely \u201Cbusiness as usual\u201D economic policies of National and Labour. We know that this unsettles those wedded to economic orthodoxy, where the dominant measure of economic health appears to be the growth of GDP largely through producing more consumer goods and further drawing down on the world\u2019s scarce resources. We are confident that next year even more New Zealanders will be agreeing with the Greens about the need for a more intelligent approach towards a more sustainable economic future. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000353\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EThis year has been a year of transition for the Greens, with nearly half of our caucus being first-term MPs, including David Clendon, who replaced Sue Bradford when she left recently. Sue Bradford achieved so much for us during her 10 years in Parliament and won huge public respect. We have also been lucky to have Russel Norman and Metiria Turei so capably step into the shoes of our founding co-leaders Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000354\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EHere is a sample of what we in the Green Party have achieved this past year. We have put a lot of work into what we call the Green New Deal, and that is a green answer to the combined economic and environmental crises we face. We were able to advance some of the items under the Green New Deal under our memorandum of understanding with National to work together on issues where we can agree. This includes the $323 million home insulation scheme to make 180,000 homes warmer and drier. Another project that is consistent with the Green New Deal has been the national cycleway, where our MP Kevin Hague has been working closely with John Key. Mind you, most of what National has done is not socially or environmentally friendly and has increased greenhouse gas emissions, such as the focus on new motorway construction in and around Wellington and Auckland, which will only encourage more travel by car. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000355\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EMuch of National\u2019s programme has eroded gains of previous years, often through reduced funding. This includes the accident compensation levy rises, cuts to night school funding, less support for community organisations, and amendments to the Resource Management Act. But even when we have not been able to defeat a bad bill, we have sometimes been able to moderate it. In the debate over the Resource Management Act amendments, for example, Russel Norman teamed up with community and environmental groups to ensure that Kiwis still have some say over our water, land, and wildlife. Russel has been a champion of progressive tax and banking reform, and he blew the whistle on proposals for factory dairy-farming in the Mackenzie Country. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000356\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022b8383f38-c78c-4e5d-8324-677d91e95c49\u0022\u003EMetiria Turei has shone light on National\u2019s plans to allow some level of mining in our conservation estate. We say we should love our national parks and protect them, not mine them. Catherine Delahunty has battled for New Zealanders to be given information about toxic sites, which took a big step forward with the introduction of new rules that require councils to make public what they know. Sue Kedgley has kept up the good fight for consumers to know where their food comes from.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022 data-id=\u0022fb6b4a09cc1c49b18db3c265b034462e\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000357\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022fb6b4a09cc1c49b18db3c265b034462e\u0022\u003EHon RODNEY HIDE (Leader\u2014ACT):\u003C/span\u003E First of all, let me wish the very best to all the good people of Epsom, who have done a wonderful job of supporting their local member. I have to say that, on becoming a Minister, I was very concerned about whether I would be able to perform adequately the duties of a local member, but I have to say that, with the help of other Ministers, it has been very easy. What I found with National Ministers is that they actually do care about individual constituents, so when I have taken concerns to the respective Ministers, we have had a very good result and the outcome that we would expect. I would also like to thank all the ACT supporters and all the ACT voters who have supported us over the years. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000358\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EOur goal this year was to show that we could work well in Government, that we could work well with the parties in Government, and also that we could make a difference within Government, so that giving one\u2019s party vote to ACT would actually mean something. I believe that we have demonstrated that. I would like, in particular, to say how marvellous it has been to work with the Prime Minister, John Key. John Key said at the start, following the election, that what was important to him was not the words on the paper of any confidence and supply agreement, but the relationship that would be developed between National and the confidence and supply parties. I have to say that the Prime Minister and every other Minister have actually worked very, very hard in terms of their integrity and their respect for the ACT Party, and likewise with the M\u0101ori Party and United Future. The leadership John Key has shown in respect of the confidence and supply parties has made for a stronger and a better Government than would otherwise be the case. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000359\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EI thank all the Ministers I have worked with. It has been a fabulous year. I also particularly thank the M\u0101ori Party and United Future. Oftentimes we disagree on the policy issues, but that is what we would expect when we come from different political parties. At no time have those disagreements spilled over into any loss of respect or into attack or insult. The relationship has been one of utmost dignity, and I have to say I greatly admire the M\u0101ori Party as a consequence. I thank my electorate staff for working tirelessly on behalf of the people of Epsom. I also thank Mr John Carter, the Associate Minister of Local Government, because he has worked incredibly hard in that role, and, without doubt, we actually have two Ministers of local government rather than one Minister and an Associate Minister. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000360\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EI thank Brendan Boyle and the team at the Department of Internal Affairs, and the officials at the Ministry for Economic Development and at Treasury, whom I work with. I thank them sincerely for their superb efforts. There is no doubt that those departments have faced big challenges, and they have worked hard, especially on the reforms under way in Auckland. The Auckland Transition Agency, established to oversee the move to one unitary council in Auckland, is doing a fantastic job. Executive chair Mark Ford, general counsel Rob Fisher, and the team at the agency deserve mention for their calm, determined, and professional work on what is no small task. I am grateful to them for all their efforts, and look forward to their continuing in that job. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000361\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003ETo my parliamentary colleagues, and in particular Mr Cunliffe, on the Opposition benches, the ACT Party extends its very best for the Christmas break and for a holiday with their families and friends. Of course, we often disagree on matters of policy, but we share a common goal, which is to make New Zealand a better place for everyone. We disagree oftentimes about the best way to do that, but I do not think there is anyone in this Parliament who does not want the best for our country.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000362\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EMr Speaker, your efforts in this House deserve special mention. I agree with all the commentators who laud your work in making Parliament an institution of which we can all be proud. I think that you have shown leadership and wisdom that has done New Zealand and our great institution of Westminster parliamentary democracy a wonderful service. I wish you and your wife a very good Christmas and holiday. You can reflect on putting something into our country and into our Parliament that is no mean achievement, and that is a great respect for Parliament. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000363\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EI also thank everyone who works in the precincts. They have been mentioned, but we all know that what makes our Parliament work is all the hard work of others who support the MPs, often at difficult hours and often in difficult time frames. They, too, can have a break.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000364\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EI also wish the press gallery a good break and a good 2010. The relationship between the Government\u2014and indeed politicians generally\u2014and the press gallery is a robust one, as it should be in any functioning democracy. I think that we have a great respect for the journalists, and I think, too, despite what people might think at times, the journalists too have a great respect for us as politicians, and, more particularly, for this great institution that is our Parliament and this wonderful thing that is our democracy. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000365\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022bc1e9f65-e08b-4939-867c-22ef093e2a4e\u0022\u003EIt has been a tough year for Kiwis, and a year of some considerable uncertainty. It has certainly been a tough year for a Minister of Finance grappling with a difficult set of accounts and a worldwide recession. It has been good to end the year on some good news on the economic front. What we know about Kiwis is that we can have a great Christmas confident in the knowledge that next year will be better because we actually have had a good and stable Government making the right decisions, and that our Parliament is in good heart. So, too, are the values of this great country in terms of our work ethic, our enterprise, and the positivity that we can all revel in, in this country, from the Prime Minister down. Thank you.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022 data-id=\u00227641afd6140d459d84c71a60be6881ba\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000366\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00227641afd6140d459d84c71a60be6881ba\u0022\u003EHon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader\u2014M\u0101ori Party):\u003C/span\u003E T\u0113n\u0101 koe, Mr Speaker. T\u0113n\u0101 tatou katoa i t\u0113nei r\u0101 whakamutunga. The debating chamber must be the most unusual destination to take one\u2019s honeymoon, but you, Mr Speaker, can be proud of the wedding banquet that you presided over in this last year. The M\u0101ori Party stands to congratulate you on the distinguished presence and wise counsel that you have demonstrated in this House. We have valued the fair and firm way in which this Chamber has been managed, and a particular delight for us has been to hear the deep resonance of the tone that you have brought to the karakia. We expect that this skill will be heard more frequently next year, with the introduction of simultaneous interpretation in the House. We extend our thanks also to Lindsay Tisch as Deputy Speaker, and to Rick Barker and Eric Roy in their roles as Assistant Speakers. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000367\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EI want to take this time also to acknowledge the leadership of Mary Harris\u2014t\u0113n\u0101 koe\u2014and to thank the Office of the Clerk of the House, the party whips right across the House, the Serjeant-at-Arms, the Usher of the Black Rod, the Hansard recorders, and all those who maintain the order, the decorum, and the history of our Parliament. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000368\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EWe are at a critical juncture in the history of politics. In this last 12 months the M\u0101ori Party has been able to ensure the M\u0101ori voice is heard by the Government, and that it is included in, and informs, decision making. We believe that M\u0101ori need to be participants in decision making, not just recipients of it. So policy by policy, bill by bill, we have seen the expression of tangata whenua in debates on aquaculture, broadcasting, employment, criminal justice, the social services, education, and many more. Of course there have been some notable exceptions, in which the collective decision-making capacity of Cabinet, or indeed this Parliament, has not taken the time to respond to the call from M\u0101ori. I am thinking of the Te R\u0101 o Matariki/Matariki Day Bill, put up by my colleague Rahui Katene\u2014a wonderful gesture on the pathway to nationhood, which was voted down by this Parliament. I think of the Auckland governance legislation, which ignored the proposals of mana whenua and rejected the expert analysis of the mana whenua forum of Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua of Tainui. There is also the failure to act in the best interests of M\u0101ori in the polytechnic sector or, more broadly, in adult education. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000369\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EAlthough we may agree or disagree with it, the strong, independent voice of M\u0101ori will prevail, and we will continue to represent the aspirations of our people in every breath that we take. I spoke earlier of the history that has been shaped in this Parliament. Five years ago the Foreshore and Seabed Act was passed\u2014an Act that polarised the nation and provoked a debate on Kiwi versus iwi. As one of the key negotiating points of the relationship agreement that we signed with National, we initiated a review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which has resulted in the Prime Minister indicating a strong likelihood that the Act will be repealed. I commend the work of the ministerial review panel, led by Judge Taih\u0101k\u016Brei Durie. Its report revealed that the Act was built on shaky foundations, and gave M\u0101ori such umbrage that they considered the propriety of the Government\u2019s delivering some form of apology for, or recognition of, having done wrong. This has not happened as yet, but it was a very positive development that Dr Michael Cullen, in his final press conference, conceded that Labour should not have legislated to prevent M\u0101ori from seeking customary title from the M\u0101ori Land Court to the foreshore and seabed. It is only disappointing that the new Leader of the Opposition has not been able to honour those parting words. But we look forward to a new year in which options for a replacement regime will be considered. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000370\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EThe impact of the economic climate has, of course, been a huge influence on this Parliament. We have been responsible for the progressing of a number of work streams that emerged from the employment summit, including a focus on M\u0101ori skills acquisition, involving significant investment across a number of sectors in M\u0101ori industry training places. I established the M\u0101ori Economic Taskforce, which has enabled us to move forward with optimism as we think of the huge challenges facing our nation, particularly in addressing high unemployment. I congratulate my colleague Tariana on her initiative in the Community Max scheme, which has paved the foundation for many of our wh\u0101nau in determining their own local work options. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000371\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EThrough tough times, inevitably we rely on the community and the voluntary sector to support people in need. The M\u0101ori Party recognises the dedicated sacrifice and commitment of the many local heroes and \u201Csheroes\u201D who maintain our communities and care for our people. Within this group are those who care for our elderly, the disabled, our children, those with mental health issues, those who have suffered the tragedy of family violence, and those who are more vulnerable than others. We commend all of them for the devoted way in which they care for the lives of others. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000372\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EBut if there is one key area in which to bring about the gains needed in order for our nation to advance, it will be Wh\u0101nau Ora. This policy is transformational. It is about re-energising and re-empowering wh\u0101nau to do it for themselves: to determine their own destiny. It is about pride, it is about potential, and it is about our wh\u0101nau being the beacon of hope for our future. We know that if we can invest in our wh\u0101nau to take care of their own, to assume their responsibilities for their collective health and well-being, then ultimately the taxpayer of this land will benefit from that. Wh\u0101nau Ora places wh\u0101nau at the centre and builds on the strengths and capabilities already present in the wh\u0101nau. It is a new approach: an approach in which we trust wh\u0101nau will lead the way. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000373\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EAs one example, I have introduced an initiative around m\u0101ra kai to promote community gardening amongst M\u0101ori in order to restore the ability of M\u0101ori to nourish and feed themselves from their own gardens. The initiative refocuses our energies to promote self-sufficiency, well-being, and healthy activity, as well as reviving the lost art of gardening knowledge, including our values of kaitiakitanga and whanaungatanga. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000374\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EIn thinking of these values, I turn to extend the appreciation of the M\u0101ori Party to all the amazing people who care for our well-being within this environment: the messengers here in the House, who travel miles to keep us informed; the library staff, who upturn every stone to keep us updated; the security staff, who keep us safe; the staff at Bellamy\u2019s and Copperfields, who keep us fed; the receptionists and telephonists, who keep us connected; the VIP drivers; the Ministerial Services and Parliamentary Service staff; the cleaners; the information technology helpdesk; the building and maintenance team; and the gardeners who keep the premises in pristine condition and maintain the dignity of the House. There are the parliamentary officers who run the Bills Office, who serve the select committees, or who manage Cabinet committees; and, of course, we know that a day in the life of any politician can be made or broken through the lens and pens of the press gallery. We salute them all for their efforts. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000375\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EIn our own M\u0101ori Party offices, we are indebted to the expert advice of our research team, the talents and quick wit of our media team, the challenge and thrust of our political advisers, the institutional confidence of our departmental advisers, and the ever-wonderful management and manaakitanga of our executive team. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000376\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EWe have had an incredible year in Government, and, as a party with influence in this Parliament, the considerable gains achieved through Budget 2009 and the emissions trading scheme have been possible because of the quality of the relationship we enjoy with National. I thank the Prime Minister for the courage of his vision in extending his hand of welcome to us. His enthusiastic approach to leadership has been embraced by us all, and we have all appreciated the confidence and trust of members of his team, from senior Cabinet members to backbenchers alike. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000377\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002219767ece-60f1-4014-9855-74afaa34e699\u0022\u003EFinally, I acknowledge the amazing energy and excellent leadership of my colleagues and friends Tariana, Te Ururoa, Rahui, and Hone. We end this year as we began it, united in our vision to make this nation great again. I call the attention of the House to the need to look carefully at the symbolism of the national M\u0101ori flag announced earlier this week. Within the spiral-like koru of the black, red, and white design, there is the symbolism of the curving fern frond, bringing with it the unfolding of new life, hope for the future, and the promise of renewal. I wish this for every member of this House. We thank members for the work that they do on behalf of New Zealand. We commend them for their commitment, their hard work, and the sacrifices that they and their families make for the common good of our nation. We look forward to returning in 2010 to work together across the House, to embrace opportunities for cooperation, and to truly consider the moments of transformation that will make the greatest difference for the people of Aotearoa. Ng\u0101 mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou. Happy Christmas; happy New Year. May Father Christmas fill everyone\u2019s stockings with good ideas about how to work with the M\u0101ori Party. Kia ora koutou.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022 data-id=\u00223a4ac0aec796413d8531b8e7c0621f71\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000378\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u00223a4ac0aec796413d8531b8e7c0621f71\u0022\u003EHon PETER DUNNE (Leader\u2014United Future):\u003C/span\u003E Mr Speaker, I will begin by acknowledging the tremendous job you have done as our Speaker in the last 12 months. Many commentators have made reference to the way in which you have brought a sense of dignity and order to the House. I think, as someone who has been here for a little while, that you have done more to restore the standing of Parliament in the public eye than any other single politician in the time that I have been here. I say that not lightly, because you have had a very awesome task ahead of you. I think the combination of people sitting down each day to watch on television question time, and seeing your insistence\u2014much, I suspect, to the infuriation of Ministers at times\u2014that Ministers answer the questions that are being put to them, has had two consequences: firstly, the quality of answers is better, and, secondly, the quality of questions being asked is better, too, because the prospect of getting an answer is that much greater. I acknowledge the work you have done, and I think that all of this House owes you a huge debt for what you have done to restore the standing of Parliament in the public eye. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000379\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EI want also at this early stage to acknowledge the commitment, dedication, and support I have received from my own staff during the year, including my office staff and my departmental staff in respect of inland revenue and health; the Cabinet office; and the myriad other people who work to make this place the institution that it is: the library staff, the catering staff, the security staff, the Parliamentary Service staff, Ministerial Services, the Cabinet Office, the VIP drivers, the gardeners, and everyone\u2014you name it\u2014who makes Parliament this unique village that it is. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000380\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EWe often overlook the fact that as we come to our adjournment, their time goes on. Their shifts will continue. I was talking today to one of our security people, who told me that he was manning the Christmas and Boxing Day shift at this building. While we are out celebrating, the staff who serve us will continue to work here. I think we should acknowledge that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000381\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EFor me this year ends on a very high note. I know that members will forgive me a little bit of obsession, perhaps, but I was delighted that yesterday saw the culmination of what has been for me a very long campaign to see the Transmission Gully decision finally made in the interests of the people of Wellington. It has been 15 years since I took up this cause. In that time, we have had petitions to Parliament, I have brought members\u2019 bills to Parliament, and I have managed to get it in confidence and supply agreements with both Governments. I want to acknowledge particularly the support of the Hon Winnie Laban and the Hon Darren Hughes on the Opposition side, and the support of the Minister of Transport on the Government side, in bringing this matter to fruition. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000382\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EThis issue has for the rest of New Zealand, I think, a certain quaint feel to it. Why on earth are we obsessed in Wellington about a motorway or a highway? But the reality is that for the people of this region it is important, and I think that the overwhelming majority of people of the region will be grateful for the fact that the campaign has transcended political boundaries in the main and is finally now being successful, and I think we should celebrate that, right on Christmas. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000383\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003E I was also delighted last week to be able to release an issues paper regarding what has been a long-held United Future policy of income splitting for parents with dependent children, as the next step towards the introduction of legislation that will give effect to that policy next year. As part of our confidence and supply agreement with National there will be support for a bill being referred to a select committee. I believe that, in the broad context of the way in which we treat households and the whole issue about the best way of ensuring that those kids and families get the best start in life, this will be a very timely issue for debate next year.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000384\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EIt will come along at the same time as we will be engrossed in working through the detail of the report of the tax working-group due shortly. Given its brief of looking at how the Government\u2019s medium-term objective of aligning tax rates could be achieved, and all of the issues that have arisen in consequence as part of its consideration, a very critical part of the work that the Minister of Finance, other colleagues, and I will be doing early in the new year will be to translate its recommendations into good, sound policy for the future. That is another reason to make sure that the forthcoming summer break is a good one. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000385\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EMany people have mentioned in the course of the debate already that this has not been the easiest of years for New Zealand. At the start of the year we faced the enormous uncertainty of an international economic crisis, the depth of which we knew not, and the duration of which we could only speculate upon, but we could note at the time the international anxiety that this looked like being the Great Depression all over again. As 2009 draws to a close, we can perhaps breathe a little easier in New Zealand that our worst fears have not been realised. But that is not to diminish the fact that for many New Zealanders this has been a tough and difficult year. The consequences will take some time to work themselves out. As we approach the Christmas break, I think we should reflect upon the fact that for many people it might not be the warm and effusive time it might otherwise have been. There may be some cutting back on the presents for the kids and there may not be the level of hospitality around the Christmas table, but Kiwis are trying to make do and Kiwis are looking forward to the future. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000386\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EI want to make this observation, as well: we are all looking forward to our summer break and to the sentiment of the gathering of family and friends, but there will be a category of New Zealanders for whom that will not be possible. There are many people for whom Christmas is a time of dread, actually. They may have lost a loved one during the year or they may have family overseas. For whatever reason, they will be alone. For them, we should spare more than a passing thought. They are the people who, as all of the commercial and other pressures about the Christmas period weigh down upon them, become increasingly fearful of what it might mean. While we are celebrating and while all of us are looking forward to escaping this place, I ask members to just spare a thought for those who will be less well off, less fortunate, and who will be waiting for Christmas to pass so that the normal sphere of life will resume for them. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000387\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003ENext year will be a year of huge challenge. This year the Government has really been settling down. The challenge next year\u2014and the Government knows its challenge\u2014is to translate a lot of the plans that have been put in place this year, a lot of the preparatory work that has been done, into definite plans, policies, and actions. I know that Ministers have a big workload ahead of them, and the consequence of that is that next year will be full of immense excitement. There will be all sorts of issues for members to grapple with. The select committees that have been working hard this year will work even harder next year as the legislative programme will be fuller than it has been this year. On that reason alone, members deserve a good break. They deserve some time to recharge the batteries, to perhaps read the books they have thought about reading all year but have had to discard in favour of the latest departmental or other report, to reintroduce themselves to family and friends, and to perhaps just be able to enjoy a normal lifestyle for a period of time. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000388\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022f555a23a-d230-4f03-80ba-a44e6ec8bd29\u0022\u003EI do not intend to detain the House longer. I simply want to wish everyone, right around this Chamber and throughout these precincts, the very best for Christmas, and a happy and successful 2010. When the House resumes in February, I look forward to the political debate resuming as well.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022 data-id=\u0022cc15fc1b422a4f618f979bc3c0a14025\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000389\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022cc15fc1b422a4f618f979bc3c0a14025\u0022\u003ECHRIS TREMAIN (National\u2014Napier):\u003C/span\u003E I begin by wishing you, Mr Speaker, and Alexandra a merry Christmas. I acknowledge the efforts you have put into lifting the standards in the House. I think the behaviour in the Chamber reflects a superb new level. I also wish a merry Christmas to all New Zealanders, in particular to the people of my rohe of Ahuriri\u2014Napier. I say to them that it is a privilege to be their MP and I definitely appreciate it. I wish a merry Christmas to all my friends and colleagues around the Chamber. It has been a tough year, but it has been a lot of fun. I say to members to make sure they have time with their families and to look forward to coming back to the House early. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000390\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EI reflect the comments of Bill English when he thanked all the staff of the House and all the workers, who have done such a huge job in this place. They make it happen for us. In the spirit of Christmas, I also acknowledge my whipping colleagues: Jo, Stevie, Darren, Kennedy, Te Ururoa, and David. We have a professional relationship that at times is one in which we do not agree, but I think we have worked at a level this year that has meant that the House has worked on a very professional level. If we reflect on it, we see that 70-odd bills were passed through this House this year. I understand that the average over the years has been in the low 60s, so that has been a good effort from around the House. I am proud of it, and I am proud to acknowledge the work of Gerry Brownlee in that particular effort. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000391\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EI do not think we can go past thanking the people of New Zealand. Without them, our party would not be in Government and our friends in the minority parties would not be here as well, so I thank New Zealanders around the country for supporting our Government and for giving us the absolute privilege to be here. As we have come through this recession, it is very easy for the Government to stand up and take the plaudits and the accolades. But, actually, the hard-working New Zealanders of this country\u2014the businessmen and businesswomen, and the employees in those companies\u2014have got us through this recession. I think we need to thank them for all the hard work they have done throughout the year. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000392\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EI acknowledge that, but, in doing so, I also acknowledge all the people who have lost their jobs. The thing that often grates on me in this House, particularly when we are going through a recession, is that we forget the businesses that fell over throughout the recession and how tough it is for people to stand up and lay someone off. I have been a businessman for most of my life, and laying someone off is the toughest thing you have to do. I acknowledge the businesspeople who have tightened their belts and have got on with the job even though it is tough. I acknowledge the employees who also acknowledged that we were in a recessionary time and did not push for the wage rises that they perhaps deserved this year. In particular, I acknowledge those employees out there who lost their jobs. It is tough, but I want them to know that this Government has supported them through this recession. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000393\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EIn my speech today, I want to look at some of the things we as a Government have done this year to support the country and to take it forward. If we think about those employees who have lost their jobs, we should ask what we as a Government have done that we can reflect on. We lifted the minimum wage from $12 to $12.50 an hour in a recession, when it would have been very easy not to. We held benefits and entitlements at a level throughout that recession, when we were facing down the barrel of 10 years of deficit. We looked at that recession and said that we needed to provide a safety net for employees who got themselves into difficulty, and we retained those entitlements. We were still able to deliver $1 billion in tax cuts. We protected savings in the wholesale and retail bank markets. We assisted thousands of workers in the Job Support Scheme. We provided 16,900\u2014\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000394\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022f4bc63dd7ec0488fa4b65d921c323937\u0022\u003EHon Member\u003C/span\u003E: How many?\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000395\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022317871568a454fabb2bc6ffab2ad2057\u0022\u003ECHRIS TREMAIN\u003C/span\u003E: \u201416,900 opportunities for 16 to 24-year-olds. I acknowledge the rise in unemployment among young people in my own electorate of Napier. It is a real concern, so I am proud of what Paula Bennett has done. I am proud of what the Prime Minister did in putting those schemes together for 16,900 people. I acknowledge that this scheme will not solve the problems of every unemployed person out there, but it is a hang of a lot, it is a great start, and it shows that we are out there trying to do the best we can. In that regard, we made a good start with home insulation. We have a goal of getting 180,000 homes insulated, and that is no mean feat. We have already got out this year and delivered on that goal, and it has provided jobs for people and warmer homes. It is absolutely superb. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000396\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EIn going forward, this country has set a platform that will provide a pathway to grow as a country. In that regard, we have done something that I also think we should reflect on: we have capped the numbers in the core bureaucracy. It needed to be done, as that number grew exponentially over the last 9 years. We have put $7.5 billion into infrastructure expenditure, and we keep rolling out the announcements on that infrastructure. This week Steven Joyce was out there announcing Transmission Gully and the whole route from Wellington up to \u014Ctaki, something that has been on the books for 20-odd years. We want to reflect on the fact that this Government has got out there and made decisions and tough calls. Even when lobbies have not supported where we have gone, we have gone out there and done the hard yards. I am particularly proud of that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000397\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EOn top of that, we have had a $500 million relief package for small businesses, we have simplified the Resource Management Act to make it easier, we have undertaken some major structural reform reviews, and this week Gerry Brownlee was out there with a review of the entire energy system. Once again, we are setting a platform for growth and are trying to introduce more competition in the sector. We cannot guarantee we will stop price rises, but we can aim to keep them low, which is good. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000398\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EIn health, we have done some wonderful things. We said at the election that we would increase the amount of elective surgery. It had been increasing at about 1,500 a year. We said we would lift that increase to 4,500 a year, and what did we do? We lifted it to 11,000 this year. That was a pretty good effort. Some smaller but very important things include our commitment to Herceptin, which we delivered on. We provide a 12-month programme of Herceptin. PlunketLine is another. For people like me who have a young family, it was a particularly important initiative that we rolled out. Another thing, which I know my good colleague Katrina Shanks supported throughout the election, was maternity care. We listened to the New Zealand public, who told us that maternity care was important, and I know that as I had three babies at that time. It was not good enough for mothers to be rolled out of maternity care when they did not feel it was time to go, so we put another $104 million into maternity care. That $104 million gives mothers and fathers more choice in maternity care, and I think that is absolutely fantastic. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000399\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EI reflect on where we have got to in law and order. There has been a clamp down on gangs and P. The police have new powers, which has been absolutely fantastic, and tougher penalties can now be imposed. The whole P initiative led by the Prime Minister is just a sample of things to come. Our Prime Minister got multiple departments to put their heads together, and they have delivered results. We are already seeing the results roll out around the country with less P being taken and more P penalties. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000400\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EI will finish by talking about education, because for me that is a critical area going forward. I show my support for Anne Tolley and the wonderful way in which she is dealing with national standards. For me it is one of the most important things going forward next year, and I think the country will definitely get in behind it. At this point in time 20 percent of our children are leaving high school unable to read, write, or do maths to a level that will get them by in a modern economy\u201420 percent! We can do a couple of things. We can wring our hands and say that it is too hard, so we will just continue with 20 percent being in that position, or we can get out there and say that we will do something about it. We can say that we are going to do something for those kids and for the parents of New Zealand. Anne Tolley has bravely gone against the teacher unions, and against some of the principals and some teachers, and said that we actually care for parents and for children, that we are out there, and that we are going to introduce national standards. Those standards are coming in next year and I am looking forward to that roll-out. I accept there is a dual responsibility for parents to work with the schools. I think we need to bring the pendulum of responsibility in education back towards parents, as well. The responsibility does not rest just with teachers; it rests with the families and they need to understand that, as well. So I am excited about that. I am excited about national standards and I am very positive about this Government and next year. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000401\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221368ba6c-25be-40f6-a2a0-8f81e1f78b79\u0022\u003EIt has been a great year and one in which I have been proud to be part of this John Key - led Government. It has been a privilege to be in this House and to be the member of Parliament for Napier. Thank you very much and merry Christmas to everybody in the House. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022 data-id=\u002283fe203f1f344a04b84823bb0ed92a1f\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000402\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u002283fe203f1f344a04b84823bb0ed92a1f\u0022\u003EHon DARREN HUGHES (Labour):\u003C/span\u003E It is always a pleasure to follow on from my friend the chief Government whip, who in his maiden speech admitted that he had been an active member of Toastmasters. After that performance, I hope he does that for free. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000403\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221dbd2811-8e58-4ffb-848d-31c0eaa9690a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022adda95619f12401dba54d213324b3fe2\u0022\u003EChris Hipkins\u003C/span\u003E: Keep taking the lessons.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000404\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022ac232f0ad8a949f29230dcb3979c63af\u0022\u003EHon DARREN HUGHES\u003C/span\u003E: Mr Hipkins suggests that he keeps taking the lessons. He is a good man, he is good to work with, but he always reminds me of a character from the TV programme The Office for some reason, I am not quite sure why. But I am looking forward to working with him next year. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000405\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EI join the Leader of the Opposition in thanking all the agencies of Parliament that we work with every day, starting with the Clerk\u2019s Office and all the organisations that come down from that organisation; the travel office, member and staff services, in particular those who work with the Government and Opposition whips, the receptionists and telephonists, the buildings people, finance people, and messengers; the Chamber and gallery staff, who are our social workers and carers inside this building and this Chamber, the visitors officers, library staff, security, the executive assistants from all the parties who work so hard, and, of course, Bellamy\u2019s. Also, on behalf of the Labour Party, I acknowledge our staff in Fraser House who worked to support us so much during the year. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000406\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EI pay tribute to you, Mr Speaker, and congratulate you on a very fine year as the Speaker of the House. You are very much enjoying the job and it is a pleasure for us as an Opposition to work with you. You have set out some pretty clear rules as to the way you like things to be followed and the expectations the Opposition can have if we comply with that. I think there is a little bit too much pressure on you, Mr Speaker. The tributes to you today have been almost funereal in their praise. In fact, one media commentator gave you 10 out of 10. I think that elevating you to perfection at this stage is a little tough on you. It is almost the Barack Obama Nobel Peace Prize for Speakership. You are doing a great job, Mr Speaker, but we do not expect perfection from you. But it is certainly good to work with you. We acknowledge your deputy the honourable Lindsay Tisch, and the Hon Rick Barker and Eric Roy who serve you as Assistant Speakers. I also make special mention of Beryl Bright, Trish Wanden, and Roland Todd in your office, who really are a great help to all parties in Parliament and deserve to be mentioned. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000407\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EIt has been an extraordinary year for the country. We have been told that we have to tighten our belts and that the way to do this is to get rid of Moroccan cooking classes, and if we do this everything will be fine in our country. I am really concerned about the condescending attitude towards adult and community education, because if there is anybody who needs a chance in our country in the workforce it can be found through adult and community education. But if there is any member of Parliament who could do with a night course it would be Gerry Brownlee, on House management. I think it is really wrong that Anne Tolley wants to lord it over her other front-bench colleagues by that approach.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000408\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u00221dbd2811-8e58-4ffb-848d-31c0eaa9690a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022045c20353ffd43d09dbcf33af476471c\u0022\u003EChris Hipkins\u003C/span\u003E: Bill English has a house management problem, too.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000409\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022c28814e922504b3d8815d56f6bfb307b\u0022\u003EHon DARREN HUGHES\u003C/span\u003E: There are many house management problems on the Government side, some of them with a capital \u201CH\u201D and others more residential in their nature. But we do need a change in the way in which Parliament is managed. Thirty-eight percent of parliamentary sitting time in the last 12 months has been under urgency. In fact, we have had urgency so often since the change of Government happened that Grant Robertson said we should stop calling it urgency and start calling it \u201Cnormalcy\u201D, because it seems to be part of our everyday programme. It has been hard to see what has been so urgent. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000410\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022a68928ea-9dd8-4a30-8e2c-a0f49dfc8bea\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022aee5306d31624c3b9b2bf58a5e88a658\u0022\u003ELouise Upston\u003C/span\u003E: It\u2019s a hard-working Government.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000411\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u0022cd0db33174c146d18f2a9760a066a89a\u0022\u003EHon DARREN HUGHES\u003C/span\u003E: I hear Government backbenchers interjecting, procedural experts that they are. I am sure they could advise the House that one-quarter of all bills passed into law this year were Labour Government bills. That was how urgent it was for Parliament to meet in order to progress legislation, because it was so important to continue and pass into law those 9 terrible years of a Labour Government. So we had urgency on those matters. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000412\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003ETo be fair to the Government, the National Party introduced 59 of its own bills, but 60 percent of them had a truncated select committee process. They either did not go to a select committee for the full length of time or the select committee had to meet at the same time as the House was meeting. I say that from a parliamentary point of view that has not been helpful for our Parliament at all. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000413\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EOf course, those were the bills we got to see. One of the innovations this year was to debate bills no one had ever seen before, apart from the Government. That was a very unusual practice that the Government adopted, and thankfully it was one that, as the year came to an end, was not being repeated. Despite the enormous cooperation the Opposition has tried to give the Government\u2014we have tried to help it out along the way\u2014some of the issues to do with constant urgency and bills not being given a fair shake at a select committee are not good for Parliament, and I hope that will change next year. We would certainly be in support of that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000414\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EFlags have been in the news a lot this week, and it has been a year in which a lot of ideas have been run up the flagpole, only to be run back down it again or left at half mast as the political winds have changed constantly around the Government. We saw the Prime Minister, in his first full year as Prime Minister, achieving his boyhood dream to be Prime Minister of New Zealand. Quite what comes next we are not sure, but he will keep on smiling. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000415\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002209df18dc668e44499116ea52ef77b4c4\u0022\u003EHon Member\u003C/span\u003E: Nor is he.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000416\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00221c45598744ed4330bc08fb2ecf16b45a\u0022\u003EHon DARREN HUGHES\u003C/span\u003E: Nor is he, but he is relaxed and comfortable about everything. It does not matter what happens: \u201CI\u2019m relaxed about it,\u201D he says, \u201CI\u2019m comfortable about it.\u201D The only time we consider that he might not be so sure about an issue is when the gasp happens. That is when he says: \u201CI\u2019m relaxed about that, I\u2019m comfortable about that\u2014gasp, gasp!\u201D. When the gasp is on, we know that the Prime Minister has decided there is something that might be a little bit more urgent, and which might require his attention. But we are treated to The Late Show with David Letterman every day at question time, without the applause, the humour, the comedy, or the intellect. Other than that, it is exactly like the David Letterman show when the Prime Minister is speaking. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000417\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EThen, of course, we have Bill English. As Phil Goff said, Bill English is kind of like the gift that keeps on giving\u2014or, in his case, the gift that keeps on taking, as Mr Goff said\u2014all through the year. All through the year Bill English was a reminder of how good he had been in 2002, when we on this side of the House used to call him \u201CSecret Agent Bill English\u201D, who was sent by the Labour Party into the National Party to destroy it from within. In the 2002 election he showed his political expertise in that particular regard. We thought he had finished with that, but this year he was back doing as much possible damage to himself and to the Government as he possibly could. He ends the year as a shadow of himself, but we are so glad about one thing: he is still in his job. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000418\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EThe worst thing that could have happened for the Opposition would be if Steven Joyce had taken over as Minister of Finance. We are so glad that Bill English is clinging on, connecting the seatbelt in the self-drive ministerial car as tight as it will go to make sure that he cannot be moved out of it. An interesting point about his speech this afternoon was how proud Government members are that the lobbyists like them. Can anyone be more poll-driven than that? He said that it was a Government for corporate lobbyists, and that the lobbyists loved it when they came to see the Government, because they got treated with respect, and the Government did everything they said. It is apparently an enormous honour for the Government that whenever a lobbyist comes in, it happens to roll over. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000419\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EDid members note the bitterness as Bill English recounted his own time in Opposition? Those memories are seared on his mind. They drive what he does every day, and it is no wonder that every day at question time we watch him more than anyone else, because when the Prime Minister is answering questions, he is busy whispering him the information, and when the Minister of Education is not so much answering a question as attempting to make a contribution to the House, he is whispering the answers into her ear as well. I should say about the Hon Anne Tolley that we think she is the best Minister in the Government. We hope she becomes Prime Minister and National Party leader. We think that would be a very good thing, indeed! She has our full support in that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000420\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EThe limited vision with which Bill English has addressed the House this year as Minister of Finance has been shameful. He has tried to misrepresent and distort the record of the previous Labour Government. The truth is that man inherited a strong economy. He inherited low debt, he inherited low unemployment, and he inherited a set of accounts that were better than any other country all around the world. This party opposite campaigned on closing the gap with Australia. It has certainly made a difference to the gap with Australia. There are more people in work in Australia and fewer unemployed in that country than there are in our country now, and that is the record that that National Government has. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000421\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003ENational cut KiwiSaver and cut the Superannuation Fund this year. Those members are only interested in a 3-year electoral cycle; they are not interested in the long-term future of this country. That National Government asked us to believe that Jonathan Coleman, Wayne Mapp, Pansy Wong, Phil Heatley, and Kate Wilkinson are among the top 20 politicians in New Zealand. We are asked to believe that they are the brains trust in the Cabinet, who are able to drive our country. The only expression I have seen on Kate Wilkinson\u2019s face this week has been one of pained inquisition. She cannot decide whether to put folate into the Christmas cakes. We look forward to finding out about that. Tony Ryall, of course, has entertained us with his shirt and tie combo. No wonder he needed the Diplomatic Protection Squad to look after him when he was Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand. Goodness knows how much it is costing to follow acting Prime Ministers around New Zealand! I do not know how dangerous this country is, but for all those years Michael Cullen never needed the Diplomatic Protection Squad behind him, but when No. 5 is the Acting Prime Minister half the police squad flies to Tauranga to look after him. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000422\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EWe are looking forward to hearing what Maurice Williamson has got to do. Maurice is used to talking in capital letters all the time. Now he only has one little letter, an \u201Ch\u201D, to worry about before Christmas. I hope the M\u0101ori Party read the Foreshore and Seabed Act Hansard over Christmas. I hope those members read the third reading speeches. The problem with the Foreshore and Seabed Act is that it was opposed by the M\u0101ori Party because it did not think it gave M\u0101ori enough rights, and it was opposed by National because it thought it gave M\u0101ori too many rights. So with all the great aroha that is going on between the two parties, I wonder whether they will resolve that issue next year. I think it will be very difficult for them to do that. I hope the M\u0101ori Party take cognisance of this particular point. Dr Sharples mentioned unity and also Hone Harawira. It is not so much kotahitanga as \u201Ckoruatanga\u201D, I would have thought in that particular respect, with that particular party. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000423\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022c437bda8-4741-4ac5-89ab-b0818e1ab9fa\u0022\u003EI have to mention the Opposition\u2019s gratefulness that we have had the chance to meet Aaron Gilmore this year. We are just absolutely amazed at the brilliance of the man. He has a 28-page CV, and he is suing Al Gore because Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet. The only question on our mind is how that man got beaten by Paul Quinn for a higher list space.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022 data-id=\u0022564ba3c72ad44fc7b52e381e12dacb32\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000424\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022564ba3c72ad44fc7b52e381e12dacb32\u0022\u003ESUE KEDGLEY (Green):\u003C/span\u003E It is that time again when we all look back on the year that has passed and make wishes and predictions for the year ahead. I will spend a few minutes sharing my New Year wishes. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000425\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003EMy first wish is that we stop endlessly, boringly, comparing ourselves with Australia. It is obvious that the purpose of the Government\u2019s endless tedious comparisons with Australia is to make us all feel so inadequate and so poor compared with our Australian cousins that we will somehow buy the idea that we need some radical right-wing surgery in the form of \u201CRogernomics Part 2\u201D. But the truth is that in terms of our equality of life, Australia does not begin to compare with New Zealand. Australia is so short of water that many Australians are able to shower only once a week in the middle of the night and wash their clothes about once a month. They are in the process of banning open-plan offices as a result of that. When Australians are not fleeing from snakes, droughts, or raging bushfires they risk being killed by jellyfish\u2014if they are brave enough to go swimming\u2014and that is if sharks have not eaten them first. Let us stop drooling with envy about Australia and acknowledge that our quality of life is far superior to that of Australians. Our magnificent landscapes, pristine national parks, and native forests are the envy of the entire world, not just Australia. At least they would be if we can keep the bulldozers away from our national parks and stop the Government\u2019s insane plan to mine some of the most treasured parts of New Zealand that make us unique. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000426\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003EMy second wish is that the Government will announce on Christmas Day that the minimum wage is increased to $15 an hour. People cannot live decently on $12.50 an hour; everyone knows that. Thousands of New Zealand families cannot afford food for their children. They cannot pay their bills, they are staving off their creditors, and in the meantime we have chief executives of Government entities like Television New Zealand (TVNZ) earning more than $800,000 a year. It is obscene.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000427\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003EMy third wish is that we are spared by some Christmas miracle from \u201CRogernomics Part 2\u201D and that it turns out that Roger Douglas wasted his time coming back to this Parliament, and that Rodney Hide\u2019s plans to corporatise the Auckland Council and start selling off its $28 billion worth of assets are somehow thwarted and stopped in their tracks by some sort of divine intervention, or maybe a popular uprising.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000428\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003EMy fourth wish is that we will not allow a factory farm for 18,000 cattle to be built on the pristine Mackenzie Basin or anywhere else in New Zealand and that we will finally put an end to the hideously cruel practice of keeping animals in cages. But I am not holding my breath. I predicted that the pig code would not be released for consultation this year, and, sadly, I have been proven right. The pig-headed Pork Industry Board is holding a gun to the Minister of Agriculture\u2019s head, endlessly delaying the release of the code by the threat of legal injunction. This is pork-barrel politics at its worst. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000429\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003EMy fifth wish is that the Government will stop using failed 1970s roading policies and stop its plans for a four-lane motorway from Levin to Wellington airport, which will sever entire communities, increase congestion, undermine public transport, and encourage more and more cars into Wellington\u2019s already narrow and congested streets and ruin the Basin Reserve. It is ironic that on the day the Prime Minister leaves for Copenhagen to hobnob with world leaders and try to explain why we intend to do nothing\u2014absolutely nothing\u2014to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions the Government announces a huge new motorway that will vastly increase our carbon emissions as well as our dependence on oil. If the International Energy Agency is right, oil prices will be so high in 10 years\u2019 time that when the motorway comes on stream few people will be able to afford to travel on it anyway.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000430\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022eaaad191-62cf-43e8-a772-63a71dbf4d4a\u0022\u003EI have many, many more Christmas wishes. I wish that we will stick with MMP and that we do not go back to the elected dictatorships of first-past-the-post politics. I wish that we would finally begin to regulate the financial sector. Finally, since I have run out of time, I wish all of my colleagues a very merry Christmas and give my thanks to the Green Party staff, to the Green Party supporters, to all of the people who work in this House, and to you, Mr Speaker, for your fantastic chairmanship of this House over the past year. Thank you very much.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022 data-id=\u0022a1760cc79bfc4b8bbc4c2e18f242f101\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000431\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022a1760cc79bfc4b8bbc4c2e18f242f101\u0022\u003EJOHN BOSCAWEN (ACT):\u003C/span\u003E I also would like to acknowledge all those who have made a contribution to the successful running of this House over the past 12 months. I wish them all the best for the festive season.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000432\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EI do not have the humour of Darren Hughes, but I want to use this opportunity to discuss a very serious matter. Sadly, however, many thousands of New Zealanders will not enjoy the Christmas they might otherwise have had\u2014those who have lost heavily in finance company collapses. In particular, I think of those mainly elderly investors in Strategic Finance who in the last 2 days have received letters advising them that they cannot rely on the undertakings that were made in the moratorium document, and, in particular, they cannot rely on receiving a payment on 7 January.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000433\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EWhat concerns me, however, is that I believe that the accounts that were presented to the moratorium showed a misleading position and did not properly disclose the true quality of the company\u2019s securities. The 2008 accounts clearly showed securities as being either first or second mortgages. Those are the accounts on which investors based their decision to vote in the moratorium. However, the most recent accounts of Strategic Finance to 30 June 2009 introduced a third category of security. In addition to first and second mortgages, we have a thing called a second mortgage with subordinated position. That is defined to be a second mortgage where the company participates with other lenders/investors, but the company\u2019s position is subordinated to those lenders/investors.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000434\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EThe effect of this is real and substantial. Although the mortgage, on the face of it, may be a second mortgage, the substance is that the transaction is now a third-ranking security. And it is a substance that matters. I do not believe that the investors who voted in that moratorium last December knew that a significant number of strategic assets were third-ranking securities. To give members an example of such a transaction, I understand that, in respect of the Denarau Fiji project on which Strategic Finance has lent, approximately $30 million worth of priority investors in the second mortgage will need to be paid before the debenture-holders.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000435\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EIn disclosing this new, third category of securities, the accounts go back and restate what the figures actually were at June 2008. The accounts show for the first time the true picture as it was at 30 June 2008, and they show that some $68 million of mortgages that had previously been classified as second mortgages were indeed this third-ranking security.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000436\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EI believe that those mainly elderly investors who voted at the moratorium would not have been aware that there was some $68 million in third-ranking securities. The directors have already written off $28 million of this figure, and I would not be surprised if the remaining balance, the full $68 million, was written off. What I see as just as bad is that no attempt has been made by Strategic Finance to comment on this reclassification of its accounts. There has been no attempt to comment on and inform investors that, in actual fact, $68 million of those securities at 30 June 2008 were, indeed, third-ranking, rather than second-ranking as they were purported to be.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000437\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EI rang the auditors, KPMG, this morning, and inquired as to why they did not require disclosure of this information at 30 June 2008. I am yet to hear back from them. I would be interested to know also why they did not comment on it in their auditors\u2019 report.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000438\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EI accept that the directors are fully entitled to enter into securities that are effectively third-ranking; I only say that that information should have been properly disclosed to those investors before they voted on it in the moratorium. I believe that it was misinformation, and I believe that the time has now come for the Government to appoint a statutory manager. The Government needs to take control of this company so that investors can have confidence in the information they are given about these securities.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000439\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003EWith that, I wish all members the best of the festive season. I am sorry that I have taken this opportunity to raise such a serious but, I think, very important matter. Thank you.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022 data-id=\u0022d604bb58af3e4af58cfd9e51fec42e41\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000440\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022d604bb58af3e4af58cfd9e51fec42e41\u0022\u003ETE URUROA FLAVELL (M\u0101ori Party\u2014Waiariki):\u003C/span\u003E Tihei mauri ora! Whakataka te hau ki te uru, whakataka te hau ki te tonga. Kia m\u0101kinakina ki uta, kia m\u0101taratara ki tai. Kia h\u012B ake ana te at\u0101kura. He tio, he huka, he hauh\u016B. Tihei mauri ora! E te Mana Whakaw\u0101, t\u0113n\u0101 koe. Te Kaihaut\u016B o te Whare P\u0101remata, ka nui te mihi ki a koe, ki \u014D waewae, ki \u014D ringaringa, ko te hunga e \u0101whina nei i a koe ki te kawe haere i ng\u0101 tikanga o te Whare nei. Ka mihi ki te Whare, hei whaiwhai haere i te \u0101huatanga o ng\u0101 k\u014Drero i runga i te marae. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000441\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EE hia k\u0113 nei ng\u0101 mate kua p\u0101 mai ki te Ao M\u0101ori, otir\u0101 ki te motu i t\u0113nei tau. He \u0101wangawanga n\u014Dku kei whakahuatia ake \u0113tahi, ka mahue ake \u0113tahi ki waho. Engari, i a au e t\u016B ake nei, ka hoki ng\u0101 mahara ki te hunga kua ngaro, ko Jane Marsden t\u0113r\u0101 o roto o Ng\u0101i Takoto; ko H\u0101wea Vercoe t\u0113r\u0101, o roto i a Ng\u0101ti Awa, o roto i a au i a Te Arawa; ko Arapeta T\u0101hana; ko T\u0101 Hauata Morrison, ko r\u0101tau katoa o roto i a au i a Te Arawa; ko Tikirau Stevens o Ng\u0101i T\u016Bhoe; ko Arthur Te Takinga Smallman o T\u016Bwharetoa; ko Eru P\u014Dtaka Dewes o Ng\u0101ti Porou, o Ng\u0101ti Uep\u014Dhatu, o Te Wh\u0101nau-o-P\u014Dkai; ko Diggeress Te Kanawa, o roto o Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto; ko Merito o Ng\u0101ti Awa, o Ng\u0101i T\u016Bhoe; t\u0113r\u0101 o ng\u0101 pou o roto o T\u016Bmatauenga a Jim Takarangi o Whanganui; ko te kuia r\u0101, a Utauta Hau, o roto o Ng\u0101ti Toa, o Ng\u0101ti Koata, o Ng\u0101ti Raukawa; ko Patariki Ngata, o roto o Ng\u0101ti Porou, \u0101, o roto o Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, o Ng\u0101ti Ira; tae atu ki a Tui Adams\u2014t\u0113r\u0101 k\u0101hui kua ngaro atu i te tirohanga kanohi i t\u0113nei tau kua hipa ake. Ka tangi, ka tangi, ka tangi ki a r\u0101tau kua ngaro atu ki te p\u014D, te p\u014D uriuri, te p\u014D tangotango. E kui m\u0101, e koro m\u0101, e tama m\u0101, e hine m\u0101 i te p\u014D, moe mai, moe mai, moe mai r\u0101. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000442\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EKa hoki mai an\u014D ki a t\u0101tau e te Whare. Kua tae ki te w\u0101 o te Kirihimete me harikoa ka tika. Ko te mate k\u0113, ar\u0101 an\u014D \u0113tahi hunga i t\u016B ki te mura o te ahi. Ko Len Snee t\u0113r\u0101, uri o roto o Ng\u0101ti Kahungunu, o te papak\u0101inga o Takapau, i rongo nei te ngau o mate. Ko r\u0101tau te hunga i t\u016B ki mua i te pakanga. Ehara i te mea he mataku k\u0101o, he toa. He toa. I t\u016B, ki te mura o te ahi. N\u014D reira, ko t\u0101ku i te w\u0101 poto nei, te w\u0101hi kua tukuna mai ki a au. Ko te k\u012B atu ki a t\u0101tau, kia kaua t\u0101tau e mataku ki te t\u016B, ki mua o te ahi, ki te mura o te ahi, me k\u012B. He aha i p\u0113r\u0101 ai taku k\u014Drero? I te roanga o t\u0113nei tau n\u014D n\u0101 tata tonu nei, ko te Tiriti o Waitangi t\u0113tahi kaupapa i k\u014Drerohia. Ko te haki M\u0101ori t\u0113tahi take i k\u014Drerohia. Ko \u0113tahi, ko t\u0101 r\u0101tau mahi, he whakawehewehe i a t\u0101tau. Ko t\u0101ku ki a t\u0101tau, kaua e mataku ki te Tiriti o Waitangi. E kore a ia e ngau i a koe.  Kaua t\u0101tau e mataku ki te haki tino rangatiranga. E kore ia e ngau i a koe. E kore ia e pana i t\u014D tou. E kore ia e whakamataku, e whakamate i a koe, k\u0101o. Ko t\u0101na mahi, ko te haki, ko te Tiriti o Waitangi, he kaupapa hei whakakotahi i a t\u0101tou. N\u014D reira kaua e whakah\u0113 i te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ko t\u0101na kaupapa he whakakotahi nei i a t\u0101tau, koinei t\u0101ku e k\u012B nei m\u014D te Kirihimete, \u0101ta w\u0101nanga i te k\u014Drero nei. H\u0101unga te k\u014Drero m\u014D te moni, h\u0101unga te k\u014Drero ngahau, kei te pai \u0113r\u0101, pai tonu te k\u014Drero. Engari ko t\u0101ku noa ake ki a t\u0101tau, \u0101 - P\u0101ti M\u0101ori nei, \u0101ta w\u0101nanga ake i te mea e whakakotahi nei i a t\u0101tau, kaua ko ng\u0101 mea e whakawehe nei i a t\u0101tau. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000443\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EN\u014D reira n\u0101 runga i t\u0113r\u0101 whakaaro, kia hoki mai t\u0101tau, anei te mahi, anei te m\u012Bhini. Ko te reo M\u0101ori ka k\u014Drerohia i te Whare nei. Ko t\u0113nei mea, he mea \u0101whina i a koe kia m\u014Dhio he aha te p\u016Btake o te k\u014Drero. Kaua e mataku ki a ia, e kore ia e ngau i a koe. T\u0101pirihia ki te taringa kia p\u0101oho t\u014D t\u0101tau reo ki uta, ki tai, ki w\u012Bw\u012B, ki w\u0101w\u0101, kia taea ai e au te k\u012B atu, meri Kirihimete, ng\u0101 mihi o te Tau Hou ki a t\u0101tau katoa. Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui. E ko koia, e ara e!\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000444\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003E[An interpretation in English was given to the House.]\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000445\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003E[Behold the breath of life! Cease the winds from the west; cease the winds from the south. Let the breeze blow over the land; let the breeze blow over the ocean. Let the red-tipped dawn come with a sharpened air, a touch of frost, a promise of a glorious day. Behold the breath of life! Greetings to you, Mr Speaker. I acknowledge the great work you have done, with the assistance of your staff, in upholding House procedures. I acknowledge the House in respect of addressing issues debated in M\u0101oridom.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000446\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EM\u0101ori and the nation have suffered many deaths this year. My concern is that I may mention some and leave out others. But as I stand before you I am mindful of those who have passed on, like Jane Marsden of Ng\u0101i Takoto; H\u0101wea Vercoe of Ng\u0101ti Awa, a descendant also of my own tribe of Te Arawa; Arapeta T\u0101hana and Sir Howard Morrison, and all those from within me of Te Arawa; Tikirau Stevens of Ng\u0101i T\u016Bhoe; Arthur Te Takinga Smallman of T\u016Bwharetoa; Eru P\u014Dtaka Dewes of Ng\u0101ti Porou, Ng\u0101ti Uep\u014Dhatu, and the Te Wh\u0101nau-o-P\u014Dkai; Diggeress Te Kanawa of Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto; Gerry Merito of Ng\u0101ti Awa and Ng\u0101i T\u016Bhoe; Jim Takarangi of Whanganui, and pillar of the 28th M\u0101ori Battalion; the elderly lady Utauta Hau of Ng\u0101ti Toa, Ng\u0101ti Koata, and Ng\u0101ti Raukawa; Patariki Ngata of Ng\u0101ti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, and Ng\u0101ti Ira; as well as Tui Adams\u2014that group of people who have passed away this year. I mourn, lament, and grieve their passing into the night that is dark and to be felt. Rest the elderly womenfolk and menfolk, as well as the not so old; sleep on and rest there. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000447\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003EI come back to us, the House. It is Christmas time, so it is only appropriate that we be joyful. However, there were others who stood at the forefront of the battle, like Len Snee, a descendant of Ng\u0101ti Kahungunu from Takapau, who died in the line of duty. He was not afraid; he was brave. So I say to us, in the short time I have been given, that we should not be afraid to stand before the fire, so to speak. Why do I say that? During this year and just recently, the Treaty of Waitangi was hotly debated. The M\u0101ori flag has been a topic of discussion, as well. Some people have tried to divide us. My advice is not to fear the Treaty of Waitangi, it will not bite you. Do not fear the tino rangatiratanga flag, it will not bite or kick you. The flag and the Treaty of Waitangi bring us together. Therefore, do not reject the Treaty of Waitangi. Its purpose is to unite us, and that is why I ask you to think carefully during the Christmas break about what I am saying. Aside from talking about money, or humorous speeches, that is fine. But I and the M\u0101ori Party urge you to think about what unites us, not what divides us. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000448\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ec266512-9fe8-47da-883e-48f046ee5059\u0022\u003ESo with that thought in mind, here are some devices that we will use when we come back to listen to the M\u0101ori language being spoken in this House. This will help you understand what is being said. Do not be afraid of it; it will not hurt you. Put it in your ear so that our language can be broadcast far and wide, so I can say merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone. Be strong, be courageous, and be brave. Rise up!]\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022 data-id=\u0022e2d82a8094234ae884890ffd4a37fd9b\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000449\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022e2d82a8094234ae884890ffd4a37fd9b\u0022\u003EJOHN BOSCAWEN (ACT):\u003C/span\u003E I seek leave to table an extract\u2014page 81\u2014from the Strategic Finance financial accounts for June 2008.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000450\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002208336c641f2b43a78bb373cae7294982\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000451\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EDocument, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000452\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00227aca613112084522b1c5b54685501d5d\u0022\u003EJOHN BOSCAWEN\u003C/span\u003E: I seek leave to table page 54 of the Strategic Finance financial accounts for June 2009, in which the asset values of 2008 are actually restated. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000453\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00228d62972126274180ba5ce2dfd647edd9\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000454\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EDocument, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000455\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002277ec6495-df45-43ac-aaa1-a03b5dd4c128\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00220cadbe305ed04462a19da804c0bb6638\u0022\u003EJOHN BOSCAWEN\u003C/span\u003E: I seek leave to table, for the benefit of consistency, the full accounts for 2008 and 2009, so that those two documents can be read in context.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000456\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002292633adc8a284c84a31f26deefce84ec\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Leave is sought to table those documents. Is there any objection? There is no objection. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000457\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EDocuments, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ca name=\u0022member\u0022 data-type=\u0022article\u0022 data-memberid=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022 data-id=\u0022e3bc2c2a8afb4dde80fa23f97c3428a9\u0022\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000458\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsByToc\u0022 id=\u0022e3bc2c2a8afb4dde80fa23f97c3428a9\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: Honourable members, I thank you all for the kind comments that you have made this evening and thank you also for the way you have acknowledged the hundreds of people who work so hard to make Parliament function. I particularly thank my Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Tisch. Lindsay has worked enormous hours in this Chamber, and I think he deserves acknowledgment for that. He has done a wonderful job in coordinating the work of the presiding officers\u2019 team here, and I just acknowledge the tremendous job he has done. I also thank my Assistant Speakers, the Hon Rick Barker and Eric Roy, for the way they have maintained the style that I have wanted to see brought to this House. I think the team has done a great job. Thanks so much. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000459\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003ETo the Leader of the House, the Hon Gerry Brownlee, and the shadow leader, the Hon Darren Hughes, can I thank you guys for the constructive approach you take to the work of this place, and the whips of all the parties, and the other members of the Business Committee. The public does not see that vital work that you people do but I certainly appreciate the way you contribute to the functioning of Parliament, and I have to say it is a privilege and a pleasure to work with you. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000460\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EI thank very much the Clerk of the House, Mary Harris. She does a superb job. She has earned my enormous respect, and I think she carries on the outstanding traditions of the Clerks whom I have been privileged to serve with over many years in this place, and I just want to thank Mary so much for that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000461\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003ETo the Clerk\u2019s Office staff: they keep this House functioning, and sometimes under quite challenging circumstances. I thank them for that. The select committee clerks, the Hansard team, the outstanding Parliamentary Library people, our loyal Chamber and gallery officers, the interpreters, the messengers, the security staff, the reception and visitors people, the Travel Office, Bellamy\u2019s, and, behind the scenes, Geoff Thorn and the Parliamentary Service team, all do so much to make this place work. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000462\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EI acknowledge the courtesy with which the press gallery have treated me, and thank them very much for that. I also acknowledge the work of the radio and television technicians. It is interesting for the television technicians; the new pace that I have brought to question time, as Speaker, has been quite a challenge for televising question time for Parliament. They have done a great job, and the technical challenges have been quite significant for them. I thank my Serjeant-at-Arms, Brent Smith, who has done a wonderful job. My own office staff work so hard to run my office on just half the budget that it ran under previously. So I thank Roland, Trish, and the incomparable Beryl. Beryl is now in her 24th year working with me and goodness knows why she puts up with me. But she is a living legend in this place and I want to thank her most sincerely for that. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000463\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EMembers, you have worked very hard this year\u2014565 hours and 49 minutes to yesterday. That is 88 hours more than the same year in the previous electoral cycle of 2006. I am advised that 66 Government bills have been passed, but, interestingly, no members\u2019 bills have been passed this year, or, at least, no new members\u2019 bills have been passed. There have been 19,822 questions for written answers, which is pretty typical. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000464\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u002275a05f96-2474-4c90-a6ea-cf7b5798e03e\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u002217dffb82719e4fec8d0381efacfc300b\u0022\u003EHon Ruth Dyson\u003C/span\u003E: That was after yesterday.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000465\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsBy\u0022 id=\u00225dda6726fa1c4ef29f66dd43dcee2c82\u0022\u003EMr SPEAKER\u003C/span\u003E: OK, that was after yesterday. One record that I would not want to see members try to break in future years was the 30,046 amendments to the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill passed in May under urgency, after 33 hours in the Committee stage. Only 16 of those 30,046 amendments were agreed to; 29,084 of them were ruled out of order; 946 were defeated, which meant an awful lot of voting. I have to confess that the public actually thought that our television system had gone on the blink and was just recycling the same vote. They did not realise the date was changing by 1 day. But I am not sure that the outcome was ideal and I think the Standing Orders Committee will be looking at that issue. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000466\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EThis last year has seen two of our longstanding members retire. The Rt Hon Helen Clark and the Hon Dr Michael Cullen, first elected to this place in 1981, both distinguished members of the New Zealand Parliament, retired this year. I want to acknowledge their retirement. The previous Controller and Auditor-General, Kevin Brady, retired after 38 years at the Audit Office, 7 years as Controller and Auditor-General. I acknowledge the integrity and professionalism that he brought to that work. In doing so, I acknowledge Lyn Provost, the new Controller and Auditor-General, who took up her position on 5 October. Lyn had a long career in the Audit Office herself, and at the State Services Commission and Archives New Zealand, before her recent role as Deputy Commissioner of Police. We also, of course, welcomed this year our new kaum\u0101tua, Rose White-Tahup\u0101rae, who handles the M\u0101ori protocols of Parliament with enormous integrity, warmth, and great dignity. \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000467\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EFinally, I thank you all, my colleagues here at Parliament. The challenge this year of the release of members\u2019 expenses, I realise, has put huge pressure on your spouses and on your families. I just promise you that I will continue to work to try to smooth out the wrinkles that are still inherent in that arrangement, because I feel very deeply for some of the stresses that I have caused you. You have treated with great good grace my ruling on the new Standing Order 368 covering the tabling of documents. I also acknowledge the constructive way that Ministers have responded to my re-emphasising the requirement in Standing Order 377 for an answer to be given to a question if it can be given consistent with the public interest. You have all made this House and its proceedings more worthwhile, better humoured, and of greater public interest, and for that my thanks to each and every one of you. It is a real privilege to serve as your Speaker. Have a great Christmas, enjoy the New Year, go safely. I look forward to seeing you all in the new year. Go well! \u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000468\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EMotion agreed to.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp id=\u0022id20091216f586327beac54016b71eb739818858cb000469\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022HpsNormal\u0022 id=\u0022ac169d29-4849-42c2-a4a7-f344fd416503\u0022\u003EThe House adjourned at 6.09 p.m.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n    \u003C/div\u003E\n  \u003C/body\u003E\n\u003C/html\u003E"