Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (National): National supports this bill the Education and Training Amendment Bill which largely proposes technical amendments that fix up the principal Act. But let me say here we are again. This House has spent inordinate time during this term of Parliament fixing up legislative errors in legislation brought forward by this Government. Members opposite may think that that's no big thing—who cares; it's just Parliament's time.Hon Dr David Clark: Opposition didn't do its job last time.NICOLA WILLIS: I would remind members opposite including Minister David Clark who's currently barracking at me that he is here funded by taxpayers and that the time of this House the support for this House is time that could otherwise be spent on issues that are far more important to everyday New Zealanders. Let's remember the context.Anna Lorck: What's more important than education?NICOLA WILLIS: Anna Lorck asks me What's more important?" Thank you for that wonderful question. I will tell you Anna Lorck what is more important. What is more important than spending the House's time on technical amendments to a piece of legislation is the fact that two out of five children in this country do not regularly attend school. What future do those children have? What hope do they have Anna Lorck? What hope do they have Minister Jan Tinetti? Actually we have major issues in our education system and this bill does absolutely nothing to progress solutions to them.Every hour we spend in this House has an opportunity cost. Every hour officials spend doing technical amendments to bills every moment that the Minister spends having to fix up sloppy mistakes he's made in the past is a minute not spent confronting the genuine challenges of our time which in the education system are real. They are palpable. We have kids not going to school. We have kids failing to learn to read and write. We have kids who can't do maths and what's the Minister of Education doing? He's doing technical amendments to the Education and Training Act.I notice that the members opposite have suddenly got a lot louder haven't they colleagues? They've suddenly got a little bit louder and I think that's because it's actually a bit embarrassing for them. I think it's because they know that their constituents who gave them their support and their votes at the last election didn't do that with the understanding that they would come to Parliament and spend their time representing them by pushing through technical amendments following sloppy mistakes. They know that actually New Zealanders expect pretty simple things. They expect that our schools will have children who attend them and that where children aren't attending school where two out of five children aren't regularly attending school that the Minister of Education will see that for the crisis that it is and that he will prioritise the time and resources of his ministry of his officials and of his own time towards addressing that problem.The members opposite know that every minute we are spending on technical amendments to change Schedule 20 relating to enrolment schemes and Schedule 23 relating to electing and co-opting board members and Schedule 24 which relates to national student numbers is a minute not spent on the more real issues confronting our education system. Hon Member: Stop filibustering.NICOLA WILLIS: Was it Minister David Clark who made that contribution? He said to me that I was filibustering. Well I'd offer this to you Mr Speaker. Members on the Education and Workforce Committee spent some time considering this bill. This bill has multiple provisions and it's actually not the first time that a bill has been brought forward to fix up the Education and Training Act. I think it is absolutely appropriate that at the second reading of a bill which is fundamentally about the way the education system in New Zealand works that we do say "What is the opportunity cost of this legislation?" Members opposite may think that there is a big money tree at the end of the garden and that there is room to do love and sunshine for all but I tell you what actually members opposite would do well to learn that Government is about priorities. Government should be about where you spend your time resources and energy and what problems you focus on fixing. So it is absolutely relevant to this debate that we have an education and training amendment bill before us that does nothing not a thing to address attendance to address falling literacy levels to address declining numeracy levels and that does not a thing to lift student achievement.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm going to give the member a little bit of encouragement to talk not about what's not in the bill but what is in the bill. I ask her to do that now please.NICOLA WILLIS: I'm going to do that and I really hope that New Zealanders are listening. I hope that while they listen to me doing that while I tell them about what's in this bill they have in the back of their mind "This is what I sent Greg O'Connor to Parliament to do." What they sent Greg O'Connor to Parliament to do was as the explanatory note of the bill states "Clauses 5 to 7 amend sections 99(1) and (2)(b) 100(1) and 101(4) which relate to the use of physical restraint at registered schools including by teachers. The amendments clarify that only persons holding a [current] teaching position can use physical restraint in accordance with the provisions." And the reason we're doing that here is because there were drafting errors in the original Act that members opposite failed to pick up at select committee that the Minister failed to pick up and that his hundreds of officials at the Ministry of Education failed to pick up. So here we are doing those clauses. What Greg O'Connor the member for Ōhāriu came to Parliament to do was ensure that the House could spend its time on clause 8 which "amends section 171(2) which authorises interventions in State schools by the Secretary for Education (the Secretary) or the Minister. The amendment ensures that the provision directly corresponds with section 78I(1A) of the repealed Education Act 1989 which relates to interventions that may be used by the Secretary." Is anyone following this? My sense is that these sorts of technical amendments are not what anyone sitting in this Chamber today thought they came to Parliament to do. My sense is that when I talk to voters about the great education challenges facing our country what they want for their kids and what they expect legislators to be focused on it's not actually about fixing up technical amendments and schedules in the new Education and Training Act.Actually what we do I think have a right to expect is that when we're continually having to do these fix-up bills that someone somewhere maybe the Minister or maybe one of the good members opposite sits down and says "I think the officials at the Ministry of Education have got a bit sloppy. I think we need to demand better from them." Actually it's not appropriate that the Minister is having to waste time on this that members in the House are having to waste time on it and that officials are having to waste time on it. I think it is absolutely appropriate in a second reading speech that we ask those questions and I wonder whether the Minister of Education is happy that this sort of fix-up is continuing to have to happen.I want to be realistic. A bill like this is necessary. We can't as legislators let mistakes in the law continue and perpetuate when we are aware of them and when we know they could cause technical and legal difficulty in the future. It is appropriate to support amendments that make a piece of legislation function effectively in the way that it should. And yes it is also true that from time to time mistakes will be made in the parliamentary process. I fully acknowledge that. Those mistakes have been made on both sides of the House with National-led Governments and with Labour-led Governments. But the point I'm simply making today in this contribution is that we have had to have fix-up after fix-up after fix-up to the Education and Training Act and that is in the absence of any meaningful reforms and changes to genuinely address the very real problems in our education system. I could keep talking to you about the clauses in this bill but I don't think it's the best use of the House's time and I would ask members opposite to consider that next time they bring an education and training amendment bill to the House it actually does something to get kids better educated in this country. Thank you Mr Speaker."