Duncan Helen: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Duncan Helen: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:618;Page:14377] 
2.  
HELEN DUNCAN (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Has he received any reports on possible changes to the current school enrolment scheme legislation? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! We have moved on to question No. 2. I am issuing a general warning now: questions will be heard in silence. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Yes I have seen a report of one individual who has pledged to do away with enrolment scheme legislation. I have seen another report of another individual who argues that removing zoning would not solve any problems at all. That person says there should be limitations on parental choice in areas of high population growth. The first person—the person who says that the enrolment scheme legislation should be done away with—is Don Brash. The second is Bill English. Given the fact that the capital cost of new secondary schools is around $20000 per student it is clear that Mr English has the most logical position. 
Helen Duncan 
: What are the main advantages of the current school enrolment scheme legislation? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before I call the Minister I want to say that if he reads Speaker’s ruling 131/3 he will see it states that the Minister has no responsibility for the Opposition and cannot answer for its policy. He can state what he has heard but he cannot then draw those sorts of conclusions. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Is one not allowed to agree with an Opposition member in the House these days? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member knows full well that he is trifling with me now. That was not all that he was doing. Please answer the question. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Currently enrolment schemes are put in place only where schools would otherwise become overcrowded. An enrolment scheme guarantees that students have a right to attend their local school and any extra spaces for schools are allocated according to a ballot rather than having principals hand-select whom they want. One of the points I have found interesting is that while a particular party and a new leader of a party want to abolish enrolment schemes that leader is running in the very seat where they are most important. 
Hon Bill English 
: When will the Minister make good a promise made to over 1000 people in Invercargill that when he closed nine of their schools he would not force the remaining schools into zones? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I made no such promise. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Can the Minister confirm that geographical zoning was reintroduced by the National Government unopposed by ACT in November 1998— 
Peter Brown 
: Really? 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: —yes by the National Government—contingent upon the public demands of National MPs such as Christine Fletcher from blue-ribbon electorates because of the chaos the non-zoning policy was causing in their areas—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will not have people interjecting like that to me in the second person. I am getting sick and tired of the member. He has now been officially warned. That is it. I just want to say—[ 
Interruption 
]. Please be seated; I have not finished. I listened to that question carefully and the Minister cannot be asked about other parties’ policies. The Minister can be asked the question as the Hon Brian Donnelly set it out but he has to be very careful with his answer. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Yes the essence of what the member said is correct. The situation came to pass that people who lived next door to schools were in a position whereby they were able to be denied enrolment to those schools. People like Christine Fletcher took a leadership role within the National Party to ensure that the legislation came in in that form and it was broadly supported within this Parliament including by the ACT party because then— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member has gone on long enough. That is enough of an answer. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Shortly there will be an election in the United States and also one in Australia. In every other self-respecting democracy politics is a matter of record. What was sought in that last question was to put on record who did what where and when. It may be tedious for parties to hear about their sins of the past but that is part and parcel of the business of politics. I think it was unfair to sit the Minister down in those circumstances particularly when he was being so accurate about his answer. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: We have a general debate coming after question time in which that can be raised and the member knows that full well. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Does the Minister consider requiring integrated schools to accept enrolment schemes or zones to be a subterranean resurgence of last year’s failed area reviews; if not why not? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: There are two important things that interplay with each other with regard to integrated schools. One is the question of preference and then there is the question of how when limits are reached for particular schools—because all integrated schools have limited numbers—the choice should be made amongst those people of a particular religious or belief group of who is to have access to those schools and of who should make those choices. The enrolment scheme legislation that was introduced by the National Party applies to integrated schools as it does to other State schools.