Sio William: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee[Sitting date: 29 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10529. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I want to begin by saying that for Pacific communities—and I am sure my colleagues across the Chamber will acknowledge this—education is one of the key aspirations of parents. In fact if we go back a ways to the first migrants one of the fundamental reasons for leaving the islands and coming to New Zealand was not only to ensure that there were opportunities—Hon Trevor Mallard: Including the United Kingdom—including the British islands.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: —absolutely—to get jobs to support families but more important to give their children and the next generation educational opportunities that would provide them with a better way of life.Today that is still reflected in the attitudes of many many families throughout South Auckland in particular that I referred to. In fact you will find that there is a lot of competition by families who might live in Māngere Ōtara Papatoetoe or Manurewa for their children to go to high schools outside of those areas because they believe “If those are the top schools then let’s send our kids to the top schools.”Notwithstanding that they acknowledge we have one of the best education systems there is. In fact our education system has been acknowledged worldwide as one of the best. In fact a couple of years ago a colleague of mine—I have forgotten what his name is; a former MP—Pete Hodgson and I visited Mexico. Mexico was looking to New Zealand to help it lift the educational capacity of its population. There is no doubt that we have an obligation and I think most members of this Committee recognise that to lift the educational standards of our children of the children of this nation. In particular I think there needs to be a special focus on Pacific children and on Māori children when we recognise once and for all that one of the fastest-growing populations in New Zealand has a role to play in the future of New Zealand.Therefore let me get to the point. Because this Education Amendment Bill is what this Government is offering—because this is what this Government is offering—the Pacific communities feel that they have no choice but to take what is on offer and yet they agree that this is the wrong thing. They know that this is the wrong thing.Talk to Associate Professor Damon Salesa of the University of Auckland who spent 10 years in the United States and whose children attended some of the local charter schools there. He will tell you that as far as he is concerned charter schools are not successful particularly in reference to minority groups particularly in reference to low-income groups. They are not successful in the United States. How can we then expect that they are going to be successful here in New Zealand? I think we already have the tools in our Education Act. We already have the tools so why are we not looking at our education system to fix that and allow for the Pacific communities and the Māori communities to take up what they really want—for languages to be part and parcel of the curriculum?By introducing charter schools for the population of New Zealand what it says to us in South Auckland is this Government is ready to gut the New Zealand education system to take away the public education system that we have all enjoyed and of which that part of the Chamber as well as this side of the Chamber have been beneficiaries. Instead it is now wanting to privatise the schools and set them up in such a way. Why would we accept an unqualified teacher to teach our children? Would that part of the Chamber accept an unqualified doctor to address the illnesses of their children? That is what that side of the Chamber is saying about the populations out in Manakau—that they do not deserve the best education system that they do not deserve a public education system and that we have got to find it for ourselves.I have heard from people whose children attended charter schools in America. They say that that is no choice at all for a population such as ours. That is not a choice and—