Auchinvole Chris: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Auchinvole Chris: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2644] 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE (National) 
: 
 I rise to support the amendments from the Hon Bill English and the National Party members Allan Peachey and Colin King. Surely it is time for teachers to be allowed to teach and for parents to be involved in the decision process. This bill does nothing to assist teachers in the daily practice of their profession. But when it comes to regulating this particular Labour-Progressive - part-time New Zealand First - part-time United Future Government and when it comes to churning out regulations this Government has surely reached the zenith of regulation-forming practice. One does not even need to drop a hat before new regulations are brought about in an endless array. Regulation making under this Government has become so dominant that it is practically an art form and indeed the limp legacy of Labour—once it has expired and that will not be long—will be that it has established a horrifying level of limiting regulation. 
Why has it done this? Because the Government considers it knows best—better than parents and better than teachers. Oh yes that is what it believes. This Government and its bureaucracy know best in their view and the way they impose that on the public is through regulation. This particular bill really does need the amendment from the Hon Bill English. Education is sadly not the only area of our lives where Government regulation has been flourishing but it is one of the most crucial. Education is the ladder out of the pit of poverty for many people. Education creates opportunities of equality for individuals to be individuals. We need less regulation not more. 
The benefits of the bill particularly when one has heard all that has been said this afternoon from this side of the Chamber are to be found in the amendments proposed by the Hon Bill English and by National members Colin King and Allan Peachey. Early education is when the adult is produced. “Give me the child until they are seven and I will give you the adult.” 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Who said that? 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: I believe the Jesuits said it. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: It was St Francis actually. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: Was I right then? 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Yes. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: Thank you—I did not claim it as my own. I even have it in quotation marks in my notes and I will show the member afterwards. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: But you didn’t attribute it. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: I had some hesitance because I have adapted it away from “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man” which would be the correct quote. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: We thought it was remarkably learned of you. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: Thank you very much indeed I say to Mr Duynhoven. In early childhood when young children have an astonishing capacity to absorb information and their brains are totally receptive they need nurturing—as my colleague Mr Pita Sharples pointed out. They do not need to be prescriptively regulated—as my colleague Tau Henare indicated. There needs to be creative fluidity in practice and perhaps Governments have to be more trusting in the professional expertise of the teachers and in the experience and involvement of parents siblings and grandparents. But trust is not an easy medium for the present Government to operate in because it does not deal in that particular currency; regulation is safer for it. 
This Government is not particularly comfortable in office. That is my observation having been a member since September. When pressured the Government has two areas of comfort that it rushes to when it senses any reversal. One as we see in this bill is over-regulation. The Government feels safe creating a box-ticking environment for us to live in—safe behind a barrage of rigid regulation. The other area occurs every day in question time. I watch and I listen. As soon as Ministers are under pressure they rush to their comfort zone of the 1990s when Labour members were a happy lot and nothing was their fault.