Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. It's a privilege to take the final call on this third reading of the Education (National Education and Learning Priorities) Amendment Bill. Now I am confused because it sounds to me like I must have been on a completely different select committee from some of the speakers on that side of the House because what I heard from the submitters was not what they heard. But before I go any further I would like to commend the other side of the House on their colouring skills. We have seen from both Denise Lee and Nicola Willis a wonderfully coloured-in bill with yellow and orange highlighting. I suggest kindly that maybe instead of colouring the bills they do some reading. When they do reading of the bills instead of colouring they might actually discover that there's a lot of good stuff in these bills and I would like to talk a little bit about that today. I did speak in the second reading of this bill and the last time I spoke was when my colleague Jan Tinetti was in the chair during the committee of the whole House stage when she was very eloquently answering some of the questions that were remaining on this member's bill. I think it's also important to point out that this is a member's bill and there seems to be a little bit more confusion from the other side of the House with regards to a member's bill versus a bill that the Government brings to the House. This is a member's bill not a Government bill and it's been done by someone as has been mentioned who has been at the coalface for I've heard three decades—obviously she started when she was 10 years old! Jan Tinetti has done a great job shepherding this bill through the House. She is a very passionate and staunch advocate for the education sector. As has been mentioned we are tremendously proud of her. She is the very first of our wonderful class of 2017 members of Parliament and for her to bring this through all stages into law is just a really wonderful moment so I'd like to take a moment to say congratulations to Jan Tinetti. So as we have heard this bill requires the Minister to widely consult on the statement of National Education and Learning Priorities (NELPs). So that I don't run out of time to speak about this bill I will from now on refer to this particular bill as the NELPs bill. It puts children back to the centre of learning and it's giving them a say on the education that they deserve. This is where I get confused. So the other side of the House has been saying to us Look we've heard from submitters. Push this bill back. You shouldn't be doing this yet." Well actually there was not one submitter that begged and pleaded with us to put this bill back. The Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) made some suggestions that I'll come back to but there was no pleading involved at all. Actually when you consider the fact that the Opposition is asking us to just put this on ice and wait for another 12 or 18 months to consider this again they're basically saying that the voice of children and young people doesn't matter. They're basically saying "Forget about the input of young people. Let's just forget about this bill and we'll come back on this later." That is really really harsh because what this bill—clause 4 of this bill—does is it changes the current situation from where it is where the Minister at the moment can consult with maybe some of the teachers or some of the parents as is currently happening. But what we heard from our submitters—and 17 out of 20 submitters actually supported this—was that it's important that there's a much wider consultation requirement with stakeholders. So that's what this bill does: it sets out an extensive list of stakeholders that the Minister must consult with to get their views on the priorities of education. I'm catching Mr Simeon Brown's eye so I will explain a little bit to you. So "consulting widely" in the bill means that—if the member would read the bill he would see that the bill actually says "consulting widely including" and then the bill lists about 11 stakeholders in that process. "Including" doesn't mean it's an exhaustive list and in fact parents are already consulted with now so I think there has been some misunderstanding unfortunately by that member about this bill. One of the other bodies that presented on this particular bill was the IHC and they made it very clear in their submission that they believed that this bill needed to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. They particularly requested of us that any statement is developed in consultation with and actively involves persons with disability including children with disabilities through their respective organisations. So as a result of that feedback in particular this line was inserted into new section 1A(4A) in clause 4(5): to consult with "(g) national bodies representing the interests of the disability community". That is just one example of why it is so important that we add stakeholders in the process of this consultation. As I said again it was important to the majority of the submitters to this bill—we had 17 out of 20 supporters and in particular as has been mentioned already the Office of the Children's Commissioner and Judge Andrew Becroft. He outlined very clearly to us that it's so important to get the voices of the children and the young people heard to ensure that in the process of the NELPs they get all of the opportunities to reach their full potential. Also the National Council of Women Te Kaunihera Wāhine o Aotearoa told us that members have often expressed their support for better consultation. They had expressed their disappointment at the lack of authentic consultation. That is in line with what other members have touched on already: the fact that when these NELPs were first brought into law comments of inadequate consultation were disregarded by the previous Government and the then Education and Science Committee had been told that the direction of the New Zealand curriculum was being undermined and people weren't being consulted on it. I'll come back to that a bit later. Now coming back to that PPTA both Simeon Brown and Nikki Kaye mentioned that they had asked us to defer this legislation. Well it wasn't as dramatic as that at all. The PPTA in fact completely supported this legislation. What they actually said is that they had a view—and this is verbatim—that the bill could be delayed. So nothing so dramatic because they were talking of course about the significant review and the national conversations that are currently taking place. In fact the Children's Commissioner—and this is what the members on the other side on our select committee obviously have missed in that process—responded to that particular question that was put to them by the Opposition and the Children's Commissioner said that he would proceed with the bill because the wording is wide enough to accommodate any changes. Also looking at what the officials recommended—they said we shouldn't delay the commencement because they believe the first NELPs can be developed to inform new planning and reporting processes taking into account the additional consultation requirements in the bill. So on all accounts everybody was agreeing that we should continue with this bill. Now we have several times heard the Opposition say that this bill has been slashed that it does nothing there's nothing left it's just tinkering around the edges and one has to really question the fact that they are opposing a bill that they believe isn't really making much change. It really to me shows that they're very confused and Jan Tinetti already spoke about that before—that when they first introduced the NELPs they left a whole heap of gaps in that consultation process that we are tidying up in this bill. This bill is in fact fixing the errors from the Opposition.So what I would like to put to you is that this Opposition by their stance and by voting down this bill is not supporting the children's voices. They're letting children down because it is the children of course that would benefit from this particular legislation. And it seems really strange to me that in a process where you're making decisions around education where it is all about children the National Party doesn't want these children to have a voice in the decisions. It mystifies me absolutely.So I'd like to add that what we're doing with this bill in giving the children a voice in the process is absolutely in line with this Government's commitment to improving the well-being of New Zealanders and their families. It is also consistent with the words of our brilliant leader Jacinda Ardern to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child. Obviously the Opposition is not agreeing with that. The bill is also in line with the overdue investment into education—completely consistent with the Government's positive plan. Lastly I have to admit I did also use my highlighter for a message to the Opposition and that is "Cheer up". At the end of it I would like to say I commend this bill to the House. It is wonderful legislation. Thank you Jan Tinetti thank you to the select committee the Minister and everybody involved with this legislation. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker."