Simmonds PennyPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you. Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Well an education and training amendment bill again. I really wish the Minister would watch the home handyman on TV that says Do it once; do it right." because with these education and training amendment bills it seems to be in one door out another back in the door.So the purpose of this bill is to clarify safety checking processes for children's workers and school employees. Of course National supports that; it's tidying it up of course we would. It would be nice if you could get it right the first time. It extends the ban on charging trainees a compulsory student services fee for year 1. Now this is tied up with the review of vocational education; the merging of the ITP sector and the ITO—institutes of technology and polytechnics and industry training organisations sector. So it's extending that out to a period closing 31 December 2022.Now how did that not get done right in the first place? The Minister knew when he was putting this merged Te Pūkenga in place that it was going to not happen until 2022—the implementation of it. But I'd have to say having just come from the Education and Workforce Committee where we saw what a shambles that amendment has created with Te Pūkenga I'm not surprised that this has to be amended. Just on that amendment of the reform of vocational education and the setting up of Te Pūkenga if people are wanting to just keep an eye on what the Minister promises: the Minister promised a modest headcount of a head office for Te Pūkenga—139 people at a cost of $11 million. That's probably modest in this Government's view when they can throw millions and billions but I can understand now perhaps better how they got the date wrong in charging the trainee compulsory student fees.The other bit in it is about ensuring that only persons holding a teaching position are able to use physical restraint and certain other provisions around rules of intervention. So look it's a tidy-up bill and National is going to support it. And of course we want to support when there are technical amendments but it also shows the dangers of trying to do too much in too short a time—rushing things through without consultation rushing things through under urgency and then having to come and mop up later when it takes time in this House to do it. Quite frankly I would hate to think how many times this Education and Training Act has been to the House in the short time that I've been here in a year but it's certainly been frequently.So National has concerns in a number of areas of what's happening in the education sector and we would rather that we were getting amendments coming to the House for this piece of legislation that were addressing some of the key issues that we've already talked about today in the House in the education sector. We would love to see some amendments on changes that can help improve the absolutely appalling truancy rate that is in this country. And before anyone leaps up and says that's COVID it isn't COVID. Those truancy rates were there pre-COVID and they are only getting worse. We would love to see an amendment to this Act come into the House that shows something being done to improve our maths and our science results in our schools. That would be worth standing here and debating in the House. We'd even like to see something come in that shows that immigration is going to open up and allow some more maths and science teachers in to help all those schools that are franticly trying to find maths and science teachers to staff their classrooms. So look there are big issues in education happening at this very time. When we have a significant number of our young people in schools who have not been able to physically get to schools for the equivalent of over a whole term and the impact that that is likely to have on their whole learning journey we would like to see some things coming to this House that are going to address that but instead—and I said it in my last speech—we are seeing a Minister who is fiddling while Rome is burning. There is nothing substantial coming in that is showing we are supporting the teachers we are supporting the schools and the schools are going to have to deal with these young people because there has been such variation in the amount of schooling that these young people have received over lockdown time. The schools must receive some sort of support to catch up that learning for those young people or they are going to be behind their whole lives. So those are the kinds of things that we would have hoped to see coming into here. I would just be very very hesitant about seeing minor amendments like this and having to support them but seeing nothing of substance and not seeing sufficient consultation so that legislation is done right and done once in the first place. My goodness we are going to have to see some amendments come in with that shambles that is unravelling in Te Pūkenga as a result of the review of vocational education which again had that theme of consultation that wasn't done right of a Minister claiming that there was an overwhelming majority of submissions supporting it except there were 29 percent of them.So we've got some remedial work that I'm sure is going to be in front of us again with the Education and Training Act. We will support the Government because these things need to be fixed up not because we want to support you continuing to make messes. But it is taking our time it is taking the House's time it is taking select committee time and not one scrap of time has been given to these big issues in the education sector of truancy of hard-to-staff discipline areas of failing maths and science grades and of schools that are crying out for support. So we will rise and support the Education and Training Amendment Bill second reading. We hope it doesn't go out the door and come back in again with some other changes because the Minister forgot to find out about something or forgot to consult sufficiently. I understand it is likely but could the Minister please start paying some attention to detail so we don't constantly spend our time on cleaning up these shambles. Thank you Mr Speaker."