Parmar ParmjeetEDUCATION (SCHOOL DONATIONS) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingDebate resumed from 19 September.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity to take this call. If one is looking for an example of a bad bill this is a perfect example—the Education (School Donations) Amendment Bill—because this is actually this Government's broken promise. It was not long ago in the 2017 general election that they campaigned on getting rid of school donations and the message was delivered as if they were going to get rid of school donations completely. Then because of the pressure from the Opposition they came up with this legislation which applies only to deciles 1 to 7 schools. It doesn't even apply to all schools; it applies only to deciles 1 to 7 schools. And what it says is—as it was tabled—the bill is to provide $150 per child for schools that will opt in for this policy. It was made clear—very clear—in the original legislation that if schools are opting in for this policy they will not be able to go out and seek any kind of donation. But then the Minister got the message from schools—because schools decided they're not going to opt in for this policy because this is not going to work for them to provide for everything that they need to provide for students in their schools. The Minister didn't want another failed policy after his failed fees-free policy so then during the committee of the whole House he decided to table a Supplementary Order Paper which of course is supported by all Government parties. So this Supplementary Order Paper now becomes part of this legislation which allows schools—schools that will be part of this scheme—to still go out and seek a donation and this will be for school camps. School camps we know are quite expensive. But what I found really interesting was that the Minister said that they will be able to go out to seek this money but they will be required to call it a camp donation not a camp fee. In the third reading speech the Minister said this is about free education in New Zealand schools". He said that this is about "removing financial barriers to participation in education in New Zealand at every level". Changing the term from camp fee to camp donation—how does that reduce any kind of financial pressure that parents feel because of schools going out asking for donations? It doesn't make any sense; who is the Minister trying to fool here? At the end of the day parents will have to pay in dollars whether it's a camp fee or a camp donation so that's why I said this is actually a very good example of very bad legislation.And now because of this schools that are deciles 8 9 and 10 feel that they have been discriminated because here clearly the Minister doesn't understand that some students going to those decile schools come from families that cannot afford to pay those school donations. So the Minister completely ignored those schools so this applies only to deciles 1 to 7 schools. The second thing about this legislation is that schools are now going to be stuck in the middle because if they opt in for this policy and then go out to ask for this camp donation then they will have to do an explanation to all these parents because parents will assume that because they have opted in for this policy they shouldn't be going out and asking for any donation. So schools will be spending a lot of their administration time explaining this to parents. And if we look at the other option—that is schools not opting in for this policy—then again because parents will hear from parents of students that go to other schools that have opted in for this policy they will be asking questions to the schools of their children and then again schools will be wasting a lot of time explaining to those parents why they haven't opted in for this policy. Because clearly there are schools that don't want to opt in for this policy because they know that this is not going to be sufficient for everything that they want to provide to students in their schools. So it is not going to deliver for schools. This bill is not going to deliver for parents and this bill is not going to do anything for students to improve the education that they receive in these schools that are deciles 1 to 7. So we oppose this legislation. Thank you."