Hipkins Chris: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18568. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka):There are not many clearer examples of the mismanagement of the education portfolio than the way the current Government is handling issues around the New Zealand Teachers Council. Those following along at home—and I am sure there are many people avidly following this debate at home and reading along with the volumes of the report—will note that there is only a relatively short somewhat pro forma report on the New Zealand Teachers Council in this particular volume of reviews. That is because the Education and Science Committee is currently dealing with major legislative change relating to the Teachers Council and so it was decided not to do a more comprehensive report back to the House on the current state of the Teachers Council.However there are significant issues—significant issues at least in part because although on the one hand the Government talked about wanting to raise the status of the teaching profession on the other hand it has proposed legislative change to the New Zealand Teachers Council that will completely remove all teacher representation from the governing body of that organisation. So on the one hand it says it wants teaching to be a high-trust profession and it wants the best and brightest going into teaching but then on the other hand it says it does not trust them to actually make any decisions about their own profession.I think that is somewhat ironic coming from this National Government because this National Government seems to have a higher view of real estate agents than it does of the New Zealand teaching workforce. So for example we had the debate in the House on regulating real estate agents where we got quotes from the National Government along the lines of: “We trusted the lawyers to come up with suggestions that would make their industry more user-friendly.” I suggest that the rational calm approach adopted in that instance would have been a good model to use in this instance. Those were comments it made in defence of real estate agents. So it thought that real estate agents should be trusted to regulate their own affairs but it was not willing to offer the teaching profession that same degree of trust and support.Actually there was a comment by Simon Power that I thought was very interesting when it came to real estate agents. He said “we are not in favour”—and of course the royal “we” he is talking about is the National Party—“of the vilification of an entire industry off the back of some scattered examples …”. Well the same thing can apply to the teaching profession. So often when we talk about the Teachers Council and the very difficult job it deals with the entire teaching profession gets marred by a few bad apples a few bad examples. Actually by and large those in the teaching profession in New Zealand are absolutely top-notch. They are trustworthy and dependable and we should place a very high value on them.It is going to be very interesting to see how this legislation progresses because of course the critical vote in this legislation may well be the vote of the Hon Peter Dunne. Peter Dunne made some comments on the real estate agents. He said: “In this instance this bill effectively nationalises the real estate industry because it says ‘We do not trust you to regulate your affairs and the conduct of your members in a way that is appropriate. We will therefore put in place a statutory environment that you will not have control over but that will be independent’—and that is a double-edged word at the best of times—‘so that we can ensure’ allegedly ‘a standard of public performance.’ ”That was Peter Dunne talking about real estate agents in defence of the real estate industry and their ability to have a say in the regulation of their own profession. I am going to be very interested in seeing where Peter Dunne lands on the legislation relating to the Teachers Council because the Teachers Council legislation that the current Government has proposed does the same thing to the teaching profession that Peter Dunne opposed being done to the real estate agents industry. So if he adopts that same position and I hope he does I look forward to his opposing that legislation along with the Labour Party and I am sure the other Opposition parties in the House.We do believe that teaching should be a high-trust profession. It should be one of the most respected professions in the country. We want the best and brightest to go into teaching and that means we should have some trust in them to regulate their own industry their own profession and that is what is not going to happen if the legislative changes that are proposed to the Teachers Council are enacted when that bill is reported back to the House. It will take away from the teaching profession the ability to appoint its own governing body. What is more it is not even guaranteed in the current drafting of the legislation that there will be any teachers on the body of the new Teachers Council which is being called EDUCANZ or the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. There is no guarantee whatsoever that in fact teachers will have any control over that body. I do not think that is right. I think that when the time comes we should put a great degree of trust in teachers. We should recognise that teachers are the best people to be making the decisions about the regulation of their profession and we should trust in them to run their own profession.