Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. It is a pleasure to stand and take a call on this the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) so aptly named. There's been a lot of quite fascinating and rather controversial and rather polarised points raised throughout this debate but I guess it's all the more worthwhile to kind of bring attention to a few of them given that I've jotted down a few notes particularly from the speaker who has just taken his seat Simeon Brown who I'd like to congratulate on the new arrival to his family and also for his use of the terminology OMG" which I think does perhaps demonstrate the importance of the work that we have been doing in the Education Conversation to bring it into the 21st century and to make sure that it is fit for purpose and indeed culturally appropriate.But what this piece of legislation does—it's multifaceted. The first point is around ensuring that the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand's decisions on matters relating to the teaching profession are made within the context of Government policy. This of course numerous National Party members have spoken in opposition to because they believe that there is the importance of maintaining the independence of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. They say this despite having removed arguably the independence of the Teaching Council by removing elected members and only placing on the Teaching Council ministerial appointments. Those appointments could come from wherever the Minister in charge of education would like them to come from. So it was indeed actually the National Party who took away democracy and autonomy and independence originally from the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.What we are doing—and actually with the previous piece of legislation restoring that democracy and autonomy by ensuring that there will be at least a majority of elected members to it—is also ensuring that those decisions that they are making comply with Government policy. It is simply a matter of ensuring that really important decisions that are being made around teacher training are appropriate and fit for purpose because there is currently no form of public accountability to the Teaching Council beyond the election of those to the Teaching Council from the teaching profession. So it is an insight for the general public into that work programme and what they can expect.The second point was around requiring private schools to be safe places for students. The speaker before me Simeon Brown said that these places are safe already and asked about the risk. The fact of the matter is that we simply just think that there should be a common-sense baseline that all schools whether they are public or private or otherwise should be held to. I think that's pretty straightforward and common sense because whilst that standard doesn't apply across the spectrum there is that risk that a school that is private dips below it. And you'd think that the National Party would be in favour of common sense.So too there is the removal of provision for communities of online learning. At the time that the former National Government decided to rush these changes across the line they were noted by a number of different stakeholders as hastily developed which is why it's crucially important that we have had the Government-led Education Conversation under way which I'd note we're trying to make as sustainable as possible because the National Party MPs who hold education portfolios have been invited to engage in it and I think it's really crucial that they do engage in that conversation ongoing. As was said by the Associate Minister of Education Tracey Martin communities of online learning and online learning itself existed well before the National Party decided to implement this rushed change to the legislation.And finally we ensure that school boards cannot adopt a cohort entry policy that enables children to begin school as part of a cohort before five years of age. This is something which all three parties in Government are on the record for time and again backing up as our position as has been the call from those who are actually engaged in the teaching profession those people who Dr Parmjeet Parmar the chair of my Education and Workforce Committee calls "The unions!"—yes those unions that represent our teaching profession by and large. I'm not sure who the National Party intends to be getting onside especially when they're asking for a decrease in the ratio in our classrooms and they're seeking to get alongside teachers despite underpaying them for the past 10 years when they are positioning them as an other—"The unions!"So too Dr Parmjeet Parmar said that this Government doesn't believe that people want or deserve choice. I just find that to be quite a bizarre statement given that what we have done through the process initiated under the Education Conversation is ensure that there is a huge amount of input from the public from every sector of society that is impacted by education and again by the National Party as well to feed into that process to ensure that we have a sustainable pathway forward that is depoliticised for education in this country.Coming to the heart of it those on this side of this House fundamentally believe that the purpose of education is about creating citizens—those who are creatively thinking those who critically analyse and instead of just those who are educated to compete and to solely be workers those who are able to come together and develop a new pathway forward. The Green Party is incredibly proud to be commending this bill to the House."