Faafoi KrisKRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Can I begin my contribution by acknowledging two people. First is the Labour Party spokesperson on education Chris Hipkins who has recently become a father. I have not had a chance to speak in the House since I found out that news so congratulations to him and also to his partner Jade on the arrival of Charlie. Also can I acknowledge the current Minister of Education who yesterday announced her retirement from politics. She also happens to be a list member based in my electorate of Mana. I just want to take a very short time to acknowledge her. I have had three elections against her.Grant Robertson: How many of them have you won?KRIS FAAFOI: I will not mention that. The record already shows that. The demeanour in which we have held our campaigns has been good respectful and at many times humorous. So I would just like to acknowledge Hekia as a political opponent locally. Having said that there have been many times when I have tried to whip up activity against her locally against some of the changes that she has made in education. Certainly the one that I think is of note is when she backtracked on class sizes. I would like to acknowledge the teachers in my electorate for getting out early one morning to attend a Porirua Chamber of Commerce meeting that was being held and making their voices known—not just locally but on behalf of all teachers and schools around the country—to send the message that what the Government was doing at that time was wrong. There is also a push at the moment to say that the current moves by the Government in a number of areas but also within this legislation are wrong. One of the benefits that you have in being a Wellington member is that every so often you can sneak away while the House is sitting—not sneak; I had leave—to be able to attend events. This morning I had the pleasure of accompanying the New Zealand Educational Institute's (NZEI) Better funding better learning" bus outside Tītahi Bay Primary School. I think the Government should be very concerned about some of its moves on education because a lot of the parents whom I spoke with outside Tītahi Bay Primary School with the NZEI members from Tītahi Bay Primary School and also from Holy Family School in Porirua this morning had an excellent response to the campaign that the NZEI is running to ask for better funding for schools and learning and for the general support of the State education sector. In the next half of my speech I want to talk about principals. One of my other colleagues mentioned the position of "super-principals". I think this is where the Government does have a misunderstanding of principals as they operate now. I believe that at the moment certainly the principals in my electorate whom I have contact with are already "super-principals". What we ask of them is immense. Not only do they have to operate as an educator and as a chief executive to make sure that they can pay the bills but also they are the chief social workers and mentors and motivators not just for the staff but also for some of the parents who have issues with their children who are going to that school. The principals are the ones who when I am meeting them are saying out of the sides of their mouths that they have to make sure they can tell me their concerns around the education sector while also ushering in children to get apples from the apple box that is sitting in their office because the kids want some food. Giving principals the possibility that there will be an uber-principal under the current legislation I think shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how important a role a principal has in the community. This brings me to the final point that I want to make which was raised with me by a local principal. This is not an educational change as such but a change to the State Sector Act within this piece of legislation. There is concern that if we do have this change it will take away the ability for principals to be a mouthpiece for the community. There is the ability for the State Services Commissioner to say: "Well here's the contract but we're adding this on to it." There is concern amongst principals who have a track record of standing up for the community regardless of which stripe of Government is in office at that stage and of being able to stand up against whatever changes the Government is proposing because it is not in the best interests of their schools their families and their communities that a change is being made—there is concern that this piece of legislation may muzzle that community voice that a principal has. The principal is not just someone who sits behind a desk and orders teachers around. A principal is someone in the community who is seen as a leader in their community. I think this piece of legislation is very damaging to that position and to the principal's standing in the community if they are not able to have that leadership role and speak out on important issues. I think that is a major danger of this legislation."