Martin TraceyHon TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to strongly support the Education Amendment Bill but can I just say that that was bizarre. The contribution by the member who just resumed her seat Parmjeet Parmar was bizarre. And the fact that she is the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee concerns me immensely. We need to have a conversation about that.The reason why it concerns me is—let's just take what she ended on which was around national standards. She obviously did not listen to her own education spokesperson the Hon Nikki Kaye who in her contribution on numerous occasions has talked about the fact that the Hon Nikki Kaye when she was the Minister of Education took a Cabinet paper to the previous Cabinet—her own National Party Cabinet—saying that national standards had failed. This was a Cabinet paper. It was only at the beginning of this debate that the Hon Nikki Kaye stood up and articulated that. It was during the negotiations that the Rt Hon Bill English articulated the same thing. The National Party had already recognised they were not working and needed to move to progressions. Goodness me! Somebody inform the National Party chair of the Education and Workforce Committee please before we go much further into this term.It is amazing to me that the National Party finally realised that national standards weren't working and now—and now—articulate But what is to replace them?" when it was a National Minister of Education who created the New Zealand Curriculum. This is concerning too. Apparently none of the speakers on the Opposition side are even aware of what is in the New Zealand Curriculum created under the guidance of Lockwood Smith that has the progressions inside of them from year 1 through to year 13 that are attached to every single part of the New Zealand Curriculum. It was a National Government that did it. But it was supposed to be introduced in 2008. The professional development was supposed to be rolled out in 2009. What happened in 2008? An election. What happened in 2009? National standards were rushed through under urgency and implemented inside the New Zealand education system—completely crushing the amazingly good work of Dr Lockwood Smith. But there seems to be a bit of a lack of knowledge from the Opposition side. So that's concerning—that's concerning.Let's have a talk about the crocodile tears that are being used here and the rhetoric—the amazing descriptive rhetoric. It's an awful way that these children inside partnership or charter schools are being represented by that party. The language that they are using around these young people is incredibly concerning—incredibly concerning. I'm not going to repeat the descriptors that they have used but I find it very interesting that that party who refused to give alternative education activity centres and teen parent units any increase in funding over the decade that they were in power now articulates about our most vulnerable students—who were excluded or expelled and supposedly needed charter schools to be developed by that party—when they were the ones who refused to actually implement any funding increase even a Consumers Price Index increase for the very skilled and committed individuals inside our alternative education sector. So it's crocodile tears to decide to set up something completely new while starving those that were already working for those very students and who had begged for more funding so that they could lift their performance so that they could provide greater pastoral care so that they could put consistency across the country—it's crocodile tears.But that is something that this Government is doing. That is what we are doing. We are going to make sure that every area inside what is English medium Māori medium and alternative education is appropriately funded and is well-designed with the students at the centre—not for political gain but because those students deserve not to be set aside over somewhere else. We will not run a parallel system. These are our children all of them and we will keep them inside of our education system.I thought the other thing that was incredibly interesting was the reference to the Martin Jenkins report. So let's just talk about the last of the Martin Jenkins report that was delivered on 6 April 2018. Now let's remember this was a report commissioned by the previous Government into the performance of charter schools. The report failed to cover the schools' academic achievement because they had not been operating long enough and their NCEA data was presented in a way that was not comparable to that of other schools. So that was what Martin Jenkins said.I'm not sure where the Opposition got their information from—actually I know where. It's in the glossy brochures that Vanguard Military School put out it's in the glossy brochures that the Villa Education Trust schools put out—that is where the Opposition got their information from when they're referring to how wonderful these schools were. I mean there's no conflict of interest there obviously for those schools and their glossy brochures! There's obviously no conflict of interest there—and that's sarcasm if you didn't recognise it. But that is where I would suggest the Opposition has got their data from—because this is what the Martin Jenkins report said. This is what Martin Jenkins commissioned by that Government said. An appendix to the report said that the consultants received three years of NCEA results for students in years 11 and 13 at these schools but that it was not possible to know how many students had achieved the NCEA level expected for their year group. It said that also made it impossible to compare the charter school data with figures from other schools.Then we go on to another report that has revealed that charter school pass rates "are out of line with State schools." The reported "exam results of the controversial schools 'gave an imperfect representation of overall school performance' an analysis given to Minister Hekia Parata states."Nicola Willis: Did you visit?Hon TRACEY MARTIN: Actually I visited Vanguard Military School. I have visited the charter school up in Whangarei. I have visited—Nicola Willis: Is that where you thought the dogs were?Hon TRACEY MARTIN: Oh he we go. It's not the answer unfortunately the member wanted. I have visited charter schools. I have visited with Alwyn Poole while the idea was being floated and I explained to Alwyn Poole as he explained to me the deal he had been promised with regard to levels of funding to meet his private school funding—the deal he had been offered by the National Government at that time—and I clearly articulated to Mr Poole in that moment they will not remain: "They will not remain. Please Mr Poole do not put yourself in debt for these schools because when there is a Labour – New Zealand First – Green Government they will be gone." And today is that day. He was told. They were all told. It has been 100 percent transparent.But let's get back to this. The NCEA exam results dropped massively from charter schools when brought in line with State schools. The reported results were inflated because the charter schools also known as partnership schools were using a different method from State schools to report the pass rates. The report showed Vanguard Military School on Auckland's North Shore and Te Kura Hourua in Whangarei reported they had met their NCEA 2014 leaver targets but when the figures were analysed they did not. Vanguard reported a 100 percent pass rate for NCEA level 2. However when revised in line with NCEA standards it dropped to just 60 percent. That is below State schools.So I'm not quite sure where the Opposition gets their data from but if it's from glossy brochures from those who are promoting themselves I suggest it's not a valuable source. I suggest that they go to the reports given to Hekia Parata that showed quite clearly this model was failing. I want to assure the New Zealand public that this side of the House is going to get the education system for all our students back on line and performing how it needs to. We're not going to sideline some individuals. This is a good day for New Zealand education."