Tinetti JanJAN TINETTI (Labour): Madam Assistant Speaker I am absolutely excited and delighted to be speaking on this bill here today. In fact I was just so excited all day that this was coming up because as an educator of 28 years' experience and having seen the lowest morale in the profession that I have ever seen over the past few years this is the most important part of education at the moment. If we have a low morale in our workforce then we have the biggest problem that we have. And we are addressing that as a Government here today and that is why it is so exciting to be here and be speaking on this bill here today.Along with the education amendment legislation that was set up teachers have had to go through a lot in the last few years. They have had a lot taken from them but they have persisted because they have believed in their profession and they have believed that they are always putting the learner at the centre and they believed in kids. But that has become harder and harder and harder. And as a principal the lowest point that I ever saw teachers get to was when the Education Council was set up under the Education Amendment Act 2015 a couple of years ago. It was a real kick to teachers. It was where teachers said The Government doesn't care about us. We don't matter to them anymore." and we felt low. As a teaching profession we felt lower than low.This was a punitive approach and seen as a punitive approach to control us as a teaching profession. But as any behavioural psychologist will advise a punitive approach never brings out the best in anybody. In fact it actually brings out the worst. Was that what we were after as a country? I think not. Teachers want the best. I go back to it. Teachers want the best for their students. They want to always put the students at the centre. Teachers saw the establishment of the Education Council as a sign that the Government did not trust the teaching profession to have any role in governing itself that the Government at that time saw the teaching profession as being inferior to other professions who had a say in their governing bodies: professions such as doctors lawyers and nurses.Why were teachers not afforded that same responsibility at the time? Every single teacher—every single teacher—can tell stories of how they have to defend their profession to people outside of teaching. One thing that we've always had going for us is that we knew the Government of the day no matter what political stripes that Government had always had the teachers' back until the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) was introduced and that's why morale got so low.One such story that happened to me was quite some time ago—many years ago in fact near the beginning of my career. I was talking to a National MP at the time who told me that he did not want his sons to become teachers. When I inquired why thinking it was probably because of the safety around males in teaching which is something that we were addressing at that time as well he said "No it's because teaching's not seen to be a good enough profession." My answer to him at the time was "I love what I do. I am passionate about teaching. And you know what?" I said to that person "I can do what you're doing. And you know what else? You can change that perception. You can do something about that." Well guess what? I'm doing what he's doing and I am here today and that's why I'm so excited. Because we are not only taking a step to give democratic rights back to our teachers once again we are actually taking a step to change the status of teaching here today. This is a step in the right direction to change the status for the better for our teaching profession.Today the Government has made a statement with this bill. Today we say teachers matter. Today this Government takes a step in raising that status and in letting the teaching profession know that we will work with them not against them. Today we let our teachers know that we trust them as professionals. We've heard our Minister the Minister of Education talk about partnership and working as partners with our teachers. Well we are here today saying that we want to work as partners. We trust and respect the knowledge but with that comes the aspect that in any good partnership you need to trust and respect the knowledge and skills that each member of the partnership brings. Teachers must trust us. We are going to pledge that you will be able to trust us. The teachers will be able to trust us and we will trust the teachers.But there comes a warning with the building of that partnership and I have said this before. When we have such partnerships there will be challenging times because we would challenge each other and there will be times when we feel uncomfortable. But that is great because any teacher will also tell any one of us in this room that the uncomfortable times bring out the best in our students bring out the best in our learning. And the uncomfortable times in any partnership will bring out the best in our teaching profession and the best in this Government. I am looking forward to the journey that is ahead of us. I can remember a quote a few years ago from Dr Jean Mitaera at a conference that I was at: "What we plant today [is] their harvest tomorrow." What we are planting today is our children and future learners' harvest tomorrow. Raising the status of the professions and the steps that we are taking today is how we are making things better and harvesting good learning outcomes for our children tomorrow. We are putting the learning needs of our children and our students firmly back into the centre.Thirty-two years ago this week I walked through the gates of Christchurch Teachers' College. Four years after that I graduated with my Bachelor of Education and my diploma in teaching and I have been proud from that moment to call myself a teacher. No matter what journey I took in education I have been incredibly proud to stand up and say "I am a teacher." The last few years have been difficult. They were the most difficult of my career because suddenly I didn't feel valued.I was proud to be a teacher. Today I am exceptionally exceptionally proud to be part of this Government which is putting teachers back at the centre and I am exceptionally proud that we are taking a journey from this moment to say that our teachers matter because we are putting trust and faith back in our teaching profession. We are going to reap the harvest with our learners and see better outcomes for our children. Thank you."