Davis Kelvin: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17949] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 The previous speaker Jo Goodhew mentioned that we had gone quiet on this side of the House. It was because we had all fallen asleep. But I have to admit that with that gnarly voice it was like being lulled to sleep by the Wicked Witch of the West. 
I also draw attention to the contribution that Simon Bridges made to this debate on the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). When we wanted to talk about education what did we get from a member on that side? We got points of order about laptops. That just about describes the quality of their debate about education. 
I have to commend though the Minister for Tertiary Education. I see here a press release of his from 6 April 2011. The headline is: “Combined international educational agency to boost sector”. I will not read it all but I will read the part where he says: “We have in New Zealand excellent schools well respected Universities institutes of technology and private providers.” It is wonderful at last to hear an education Minister from National actually showing that he values education and that he values educators. 
When we look at the first part of the sentence “We have in New Zealand excellent schools” I have to ask what makes an excellent school. We have students first and foremost and we have communities. Then we have the teachers; the teachers make excellent schools. But above the teachers guiding and leading we have principals. As my colleague Sue Moroney stated just before 750 principals from around New Zealand descended on Wellington and on Parliament to have their annual conference. The feedback we have received is that they were absolutely stunned that the Minister of Education Anne Tolley who was invited to welcome them here at Parliament on the Wednesday evening did not even reply to their letter inviting her to come and speak. They wrote to the Prime Minister and asked whether he would be interested in coming to the opening of their conference but he said that that was a job for his Minister of Education. There was still no reply from Minister Anne Tolley. 
I received today an email from a principal a friend I went to teachers college with who was at that conference. I will not say his name but I invite anybody here who wants to to come and see the email later to verify that it is a genuine email. It says: “Greetings. It was good to catch up at the Beehive last week. I am pleased that there are people like yourself with common sense kicking around parliament. I liked what Sue Moroney talked about.” Sue Moroney is our spokesperson on education and a woman who speaks sense when it comes to education. 
Here we get to the sad part: “Unfortunately I was disgusted by the Minister on Saturday and her comments following her address to the conference. Calling NZPF a one issue political lobby group that has never [brought] anything positive to the table is offensive and shows her total lack of any thought of negotiation or discussion. Anne Tolley obviously believes she knows best and is not even willing to talk to anyone else. I despair at where our education system is heading with her trying to lead change. Maybe it is time I gave it away”—this principal is so disillusioned with the direction of education in New Zealand that he is considering giving the game away—“and did something else—I do not want to be forced to implement such a terrible system that National Standards offers. Thankyou again to you and your colleagues for your hospitality.” 
Here is the clincher—here is the clincher everybody: “I have never voted Labour in my life but in the coming elections will be doing so—National no longer represents what I believe in for the future of New Zealand. Keep up the good work!”. I tell Dr Paul Hutchison that that email is from a principal from his electorate. He needs to be concerned because the tide is turning when it comes to educators. That email is indicative of how people in the sector are feeling about the direction that education is going in New Zealand. 
This is the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). As I said during the debate on the Education Amendment Bill (No 3) in the debate on the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) and probably in the debate on the first Education Amendment Bill once again we are debating an educational issue that actually does nothing to raise achievement. 
Here we have an education amendment bill that looks at export education. “Export education” is code for trying to lure international students into New Zealand. There is nothing wrong with that. It is about tapping into the lucrative Korean market Japanese market Chinese market and Indian market. Each of those students brings money into New Zealand and that money helps to subsidise the education system which is so underfunded by this National Government. 
Talking about tapping into that lucrative Asian market reminds me of the old Billy T James skit where Billy T James is asked what he thinks of euthanasia. Billy T James says: “Well I think we should look after our own kiddies first.” I totally agree. We should look after our New Zealand students before we start looking after everybody else’s. Nothing in this bill will actually help New Zealand students to lift their achievement or make them achieve better so we can have better social outcomes at the end of the day. 
In terms of the national standards debate obviously kids are meant to achieve national standards and they can then go on to university and tertiary education. But National has actually said because of the disjoint between its policies that it does not believe that national standards will work when it comes down to it. All the rhetoric over on that side of the House says that it is the best thing for New Zealand but when we look at National’s policies in totality we see there is a disjoint between national standards and other policies. 
If national standards are to work then we would expect all of these really positive outcomes. We would expect better health outcomes less incarceration in prisons and all those sorts of things. But Bill English stood up and said that over the next 10 years the biggest Government department in New Zealand will be the Department of Corrections. I ask how that can be—how the Department of Corrections can be the biggest department over the next 10 years—if national standards are meant to cure all those ills. If New Zealand students are meant to be achieving and doing so well why will they head off to prison and make sure that the Department of Corrections is the biggest Government department? It proves the disjoint between National’s policies. As a colleague said earlier the right arm does not know what the right foot is doing. They are trying to take them both out of their mouths at the same time. 
I am also Labour’s spokesperson on tourism. Tourism New Zealand is an organisation that promotes New Zealand internationally so that tourists will come here. Let me tell members now that Education New Zealand the new organisation might as well be an arm of Tourism New Zealand because its job is “to deliver strategies programmes and activities for promoting … New Zealand education overseas;”. There is nothing about making students learn; it is all about promoting New Zealand as an educational tourism destination. 
We are debating the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) and we should be debating something that will make students learn better learn faster and achieve beyond their potential. Instead all we are talking about it is how we can attract students to come to New Zealand so that they can spend more money to subsidise the underfunding of the New Zealand education system. 
The one part of the bill I agree with though is that once we get those students here we need to have rules about making sure they are looked after and that the courses are not trying to rip them off. There has been a bit of a history of dodgy training programmes and some students have been ripped off. I agree with the part of the bill that looks at the private training establishments. We cannot have our educational reputation being sullied because students come here and are ripped off by dodgy courses. 
Labour supports the bill to go to the select committee.