Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It's an absolute surprise actually to take a call on this Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand) Amendment Bill in its third reading because I am no longer the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee and I certainly didn't expect to take a call after the previous speaker Jo Luxton had only spoken for two minutes despite her being so excited about this pedestrian bill that simply goes to change a name. This Government is something else. They campaigned on having a fairer transparent Government. Did we get that? No. We got the sacking of their Minister for open and transparent Government Clare Curran because she is a disgrace.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): And that's not in the bill so come to the bill please.SARAH DOWIE: I will certainly come back to the bill because I'm coming to the fact that this is a Government that is completely out of ideas. They've been disgraced in the record that they campaigned on and I'll come back to it: transparent Government fail; environmental record fail; industrial relations—look what we've got. We've got a Labour-led Government trying to grapple with New Zealand First and with the Greens and they can't seem to bring them together. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Second warning. Please come to the bill—the third reading of this bill. Thank you.SARAH DOWIE: And now what have we got here? We've got the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand) Amendment Bill and what does it do for $695000? It changes—Tim van de Molen: How much?SARAH DOWIE: —$695000—a name.We know that this Government likes reviews because I lost count when we got to about 300 but this is on the back of a review that was done in 2010—a comprehensive review that looked to raise the standard of teaching in New Zealand. We've heard on both sides of the House that that's what we agree on: we want our teachers to be held in high esteem we want our teachers to be well-supported and we want to enable our teachers to innovate and the way we do that is to have them represented by a body that is full of competency.Now all you have to do is look at that side of the House to see what elections bring about. You've got people that are cut from the same cloth rather than people that have core competencies and certainly it is true what we've heard on this side of the House: this is not top of mind for teachers. From a Government that spent billions on tertiary education yet promised to support teachers where is this Government with respect to pay negotiations? A big fat fail. We need to support our teachers and recognise them for the work they do.We need to move on from this ideological situation that the unions have put us in and innovate with regards to teaching and that's what the current Education Council does. That's what the current council does. We have core competencies and appointed members that represent teaching across the sectors that are there to enforce standards to make sure that all teachers meet the bar and to improve teaching performance and that's not necessarily done the way it was in the 1950s.Let's look at innovating. Let's look at actually communities of online learning—which I believe the Government is looking to scrap also. I can tell you that I'll be opposing that one given that my students on Stewart Island learn singing from a teacher in Nelson.Jamie Strange: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Would the member like me to give her a copy of the bill so she can—SARAH DOWIE: Oh I have a copy of the bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! That's enough of that—both sides. I do not need help from Jamie Strange or anyone else. It is the sole decision of the Chair. I have given two warnings. This is the third and final warning. I don't usually give third warnings. The member needs to speak to the bill.SARAH DOWIE: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Well I am speaking about education in general and what is planned by this Government and certainly this bill in my opinion is a waste of money. It's about a name change and it's simply playing around with a configuration that won't bring about core competencies. What it says in the bill Mr Strange is it's a prescription—a list of teachers that hold various positions. Now that does not ensure competency. It does not ensure competency through election because let's face it when you look over that side of the House any old Joe Bloggs can stand.We want a council that is going to perform that is going to raise the bar and that is going to innovate and hold our teaching profession in high esteem because let's face it these are people that shape the minds and hearts of our future and we need to make sure that New Zealand is in a fit place to lead going forward.