New Zealand Parliamentary Debate

Questions for Oral Answer [4425]

Christopher Finlayson

: I seek leave to table issue 27 of Law News from the Auckland District Law Society, dated 21 July 2006, which refers to the Legal Services Agency survey.

Madam SPEAKER

: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection.

Schools-Information and Communications Technology

12.

MOANA MACKEY( Labour)

to the Minister of Education: What is the Government doing to ensure information and communications technology is part of the learning environment in schools?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY( Minister of Education):

Good news! Yesterday I launched the Government's 65 million-a-year e-learning action plan. This is aimed at helping schools to make use of technology to tailor their teaching to the learning needs of students. To give just one example, yesterday we launched the tablet classroom at Brooklyn School. This involves students working on handheld computers, or tablets as they are called, and allows them to be directly involved in planning their learning. The e-learning plan also involves upgrading schools' information and communications technology networks, providing laptops for teachers and access to the latest software.

Moana Mackey

: What other support is the Government providing for innovation in schools through the use of information and communications technology?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY

: Since 2000 the Labour-led Government has invested more than 300 million in information and communications technology in schools. As a result, all children now have access to information and communications technology and the learning opportunities it offers. New investments funded in this year's Budget include 812, 000 to expand videoconferencing, 4. 1 million to provide high-quality digital content for teachers and students, and 700, 000 to help remote schools with satellite broadband. I did Google and surf the net in search of the National Party's policy on information and communications technology, but just as was the case with regard to National's speech from Bill English on mainstreaming, I was unable to find it.

GENERAL DEBATE

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH( National-Rodney):

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. I have to say that the stench of corruption hangs heavily over this Labour Government this week. It does not involve just the honourable Taito Phillip Field. One has to ask what persuaded an Associate Minister of Immigration to make a decision to grant a special direction on work visas to Mr Siriwan and his partner Ms Phanngarm. These are not marginal people. Mr Siriwan had been an overstayer in New Zealand for 8 years. He had been refused a permit twice. He had a wife and two children back in Thailand. His partner Ms Phanngarm had been refused refugee status four times, was an overstayer for 5 years, and was deported from New Zealand.

The Minister claims he did not know that Mr Siriwan was working on Taito Phillip Field's house in Samoa at the time he made his decision on 17 June. That is not credible. On 8 June, in Samoa, Mrs Field, Taito Phillip Field's wife, fronted up to immigration officials in Samoa. She was waving a letter that Taito Phillip Field had written, claiming that the Minister Damien O'Connor had agreed to issue special 2- year work permits to Mr Siriwan and Ms Phanngarm, and also to direct that the 5- year ban on Ms Phanngarm's coming back to New Zealand should be revoked. When the manager in Apia, Mr James Dalmer, saw a copy of the letter Mrs Field had been waving around, written by the honourable Taito Phillip Field, he immediately, the same day, emailed Wellington. The Immigration Service's intelligence unit was staggered by what