Martin TraceyHon TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. I think it's very telling that Paul Goldsmith the previous speaker talked about thick but not very well thought out" and I've got to say I agree with him with regard to the speech he just gave. What it showed was a lack of understanding about what this bill is really about.What happened with the previous Government was—and I think it's very interesting that the Hon Nikki Kaye talked about the fact that the last Government "bailed out" the Teachers Council. What that meant was that the Teachers Council previously—before the changes that were made by the past National Government—was under so much pressure when it came to nominating and electing individuals for more responsibility the profession was so abused distressed and pressured that they couldn't feel that they could do that. So what did the previous National Government decide to do? They took away democracy altogether. That's what we at street level call throwing out the baby with the bathwater.What the current Minister has done is to say that we will support and come up with a medium. So what we're going to do apart from removing some of the pressures—e.g. reporting on national standards that were neither national nor standard—is make sure that we do a review of NCEA so that our secondary school teachers are actually able to concentrate on teaching and learning and not on tick-boxes; work with the profession to remove some of the administrative pressures so that they can feel free to stand for election and they have the time to think about representing their profession on bodies such as this; and at the same time make sure that the Minister can appoint for those specific areas where we need nuances.Because if you look at the bill what the bill has done is said there are several elected positions that hit the mainstream areas of education. But I have delegations for example around children in care. I would like to lobby the Minister of Education to make sure that one of the representatives on the Teachers Council would be somebody who understands what are the educational needs of children in care. I also have delegations as an Associate Minister of Education around children who have disabilities or other challenges inside of education and there is a space for the Minister in the six people that the Minister would appoint to that body to actually be able to have a representative there so that voice can be heard.Let's be clear—teachers pay for this body. I think there's an old saying that he who pays saves or something like that right? Right so teachers pay for this body. At the end of the day under the legislation that the previous Government passed they were going to have not only no representation on the Education Council they were going to have increased delivery of things that had previously been done by the Ministry of Education through the Education Council and teachers were going to have to pay for it but with no elected representation. What this Government believes is that it is appropriate for this profession to be trusted as other professions are trusted to elect their own members to their own council. If they're paying they should be able to put a percentage of the representatives on to that body.The New Zealand public has consistently said that teachers are among the most trusted of the public servants—because that's who teachers are. When you cap public servants what happens is policemen and nurses and doctors in hospitals and teachers are part of those under that pressure. Teachers are among our most trusted public servants except by the previous Government. The previous Government decided that they were not a trustworthy profession to elect their own body. So instead of working with the profession and saying "How can we make it easier for you to have this democratic body?" they threw it out. This Government does not believe that is appropriate so we will change and pass this piece of legislation.New Zealand First has an issue with this bill. This bill was originally drawn as a member's bill from the ballot. It perfectly matches what New Zealand First campaigned on what the Green Party campaigned on and what the Labour Party campaigned on except for the name. The Minister of Education understands that and it's a conversation a topic that has been discussed. At the moment it is the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill 2017. We will lobby and we understand we can work constructively with the Minister of Education to amend the title of this bill to "Education (Teachers Council of Aotearoa New Zealand) Amendment Bill 2017"—Hon Tim Macindoe: Oh that'll make a big difference. Oh that will make a huge difference.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: —to better reflect what is the appropriate description of our nation. And Mr Tim Macindoe is going to decide that that is the pivotal point of the bill that he's now going to discuss going forward. But that's OK—that's OK.I do want to acknowledge Graham Stoop. I want to acknowledge Graham Stoop. I want to acknowledge the Education Council that was put in place by the last Minister of Education. They stoically held back the previous Minister of Education and the direction of travel she wanted to go in. They stoically resisted any attempts of dictatorial behaviour by consulting with the profession to try and create what was the shift from a code of conduct to a code of ethics. Again another way that the previous National Government dismissed what are professionals what are grown-ups what are people who are highly trained. If we intend to lift the status of this profession then all parties in this House must recognise the high quality high level of training and the professionalism of this institutional body and the people that they represent. The National Party over the previous nine years destroyed that level of trust between the profession and this House. This Government intends to replace it.The one thing that I would say about the Education Council is that I think it's very very unfortunate that a member of them decided to go and try and open some charter schools. I think of the good work that was made by Graham Stoop and other members of that council—when a member of that council betrayed the trust of the profession by deciding that those who were participating in what is a world-leading education system could not be trusted alone and that they were going to go off and create a charter school. I think that was disappointing. I think it was unfortunate for that particular person who is actually of high quality.So at the end of the day New Zealand First will support this bill. We will support it because we've always supported it. We have supported the recognition of the teaching profession as a profession—as a profession. The number of times I've sat in an Education and Science Committee where a National Party member has told me that actually anybody can teach. The number of times I have heard that—Hon Tim Macindoe: Rubbish. What rubbish. I sat on the committee with you. I never heard that.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: If I had 10c for every time I had heard that then I would be a rich woman today Mr Macindoe. And actually I've heard another member of that select committee at the time I was sitting on it tell me that it doesn't matter what school you went to it's the colour of the tie you have on. So therefore I think what we've got is this is a Government that has decided that we refuse to just dish off democracy because it might be easier. We refuse to just chuck off democracy because a dictatorship is easier to do and possibly cheaper. We believe in this profession. We believe in actually working with our teachers. We believe that through a collaborative environment a collegial environment—which is a very education word—through a collegial environment we will do better for our children. So New Zealand First will support this bill. We support the Minister and—Simeon Brown: Yap yap yap.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: —we support Mr Brown the teachers of New Zealand and they should know it. This Government campaigned on it this Government is delivering for it and that Opposition tried to crush them."