Patterson Mark; Rurawhe AdrianMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): I have great pleasure in rising to reiterate New Zealand First's strong support for this Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand) Amendment Bill. This bill of course looks to amend the Education Act 1989. Of course at its heart this bill is about giving the profession of teachers their own voice on their own council. I cannot believe we are actually having this debate. This is such a no-brainer that it shouldn't even really be of any contention; it should be supported from across the House and it is disappointing to see indeed that that is not so.At its heart it's about democracy. It's about teachers having that voice and the balance. I would push back on the previous speech from the member Parmjeet Parmar: this does have an absolute balance. There are seven teacher-elected members out of 13. They have the majority. There is a balance from primary and secondary principals and teachers and early childhood—and we've heard how important that is from the second reading speech of Jo Luxton as she represented her area of expertise in the early childhood sector. The six appointed members—it gives the Minister of Education the ability to look at where the skills gap might be and to appoint the appropriate people. It's a totally appropriate well-balanced board set-up which will serve this profession well.This is a profession that is indeed in some sort of crisis. We are seeing that the number of teachers coming forward into training is down 40 percent at a time when we have rising population and greater demand. Just last week in Southland in the newspaper—in the Southland Times—there was a school that had to send a class home because they didn't have a teacher. So this is about addressing the issues of making teaching a more—lifting it as a profession. We have talked quite a bit about this on our side of the House: how do we value teachers more? The absolute minimum we can do is allow them to elect their own representatives on their own professional body. It is absolutely demeaning to that profession not to accord them that courtesy.There was a recent study this week—it got quite a lot of media coverage—about the number of young people school-leavers that are considering teaching as a profession and it is concerningly low. So this is yet another measure we are putting in place. As the previous speaker alluded there are a number of education bills before the House at the moment as we seek to redress a lot of the problems that besiege that sector.There has been some talk that previously there was only a 13 percent turnout in those elections and I did get mocked a little bit for pointing that out in my second reading contribution. It's about having that mechanism. I've had some experience in this in my own industry—in the meat industry. We sought to change our cooperative and at that stage we had 14 percent participation in our director elections. Within two years that was sitting at 60 percent as farmers rallied and that's the point: that mechanism exists. If teachers wish to rally around a cause they've got the majority on their council and they've got the ability to vote for it. So it's the mechanism that's there. Sometimes when turnout's low it suggests some form of comfort with the status quo so I wouldn't use that as a measure particularly. It's about having that mechanism and the ability to have that voice.Also the cost has been brought up. The majority of those costs are spread out over three years. The $700000—most of that cost is in running these elections and since we've established that that principle is important that is a small price to pay. The rebranding—I wonder how much the rebranding cost in 2015 when the New Zealand Teachers Council was replaced by the Education Council. It would be interesting to go back to the Hansard and hear the railing of the then Government about the cost of that particular transition which I would imagine would be the same. It is a little bit galling to be lectured by the Opposition about costs. At least we're not having first-class airline tickets for sheep to go to Saudi Arabia and absolutely outrageous and ridiculous expenditures like that. So I think that in terms of putting democracy into the Teaching Council this cost is not something that we should be quibbling over in terms of the importance of this step.So in saying that I will just conclude by once again reiterating New Zealand First's strong support for this bill. It does demonstrate again the strong cohesive Government on this side of the House getting on with the job and pulling together good legislation with a united front as we stand in lock step behind this bill. Without further ado on behalf of New Zealand First I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Before I call the next speaker can I remind both sides of the House that the third reading is about the bill as accepted by the committee of the whole House. We've had two speeches since I've come to the Chair that have drifted off on to other matters that are not part of this bill. So I just want to remind members.