Tolley Anne: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Tolley Anne: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:651;Page:582] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I move  
That the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. 
 As I stated at the first reading this bill implements policy changes that this Government has committed to as part of our priority action plan for education. The bill delivers on that commitment by raising the standards of achievement and attendance in compulsory education. 
I start by first of all thanking all the speakers who have contributed from this side of the House in support of the first reading of this bill. Also I particularly want to congratulate Kelvin Davis on his very thoughtful and pertinent contribution. I could not disagree with anything that he said and I congratulate him on the work he has done with his teachers and his community for the children who have been under his care and guardianship. I think he has done an outstanding job. I ask him why he is so afraid of ensuring that every school throughout New Zealand is doing the sorts of things that he was doing for his community and his children. Why is he so afraid of that? How could he possibly vote against this bill when all it seeks to do is set in place the framework that will ensure that that happens so that all New Zealand children have the opportunity to be taught by teachers who respect them who care about their aspirations and who are prepared to work to those top standards that this bill enables the Minister to set. Why on earth could he not vote for a bill that would enable every child to get that sort of education? 
The previous Government ignored reality and the Minister ignored his own Education Review Office which reported that fewer than half of the schools in New Zealand were doing an excellent job like that. More than half the schools were failing to ensure that the children who were under their care had that quality of teaching— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Where are the resources? Are you going to put in more resources? How much? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: Yes we have. The former Minister asks me whether we are putting in the resources. In our policy we have said that there is an extra $18 million a year going in to support the teachers once they have identified the children who are not meeting those standards. 
One of the speakers from the other side stood up and said that the introduction of national standards is potentially dangerous. We had the old secret agenda out again. Apparently it is potentially dangerous to set standards for children. We heard from Dr Pita Sharples what has happened to Maori children in this country year after year under that Labour Government. What is so wrong with lifting the sights of those children and setting the standards so that all children have an opportunity to get an excellent education? Why is the Labour Party so afraid of making sure that all children have the opportunity that a good education can give them and why is the Labour Party so afraid of making sure that parents know what their children are doing where their children excel and where they need some extra help? What is wrong with a parent knowing that? 
I tell this House tonight that I have been deluged with emails from people since this bill was mooted. I have been deluged with parents saying: “We cannot get that information about our children from our schools. We want to know what we can do to help our children and our schools will not tell us. Thank you Mrs Tolley.” They are saying: “Thank you for taking the opportunity under this new Government to be part of the education of our children.” They are grateful because they want the best for their children and they want the opportunity to take part in that. 
I again ask the members of the previous Labour Government why they are so afraid of a bill that lifts aspirations for children and includes parents in the educational process. Why is that potentially dangerous for New Zealand children? I think a Labour Opposition that is intent on keeping too many children and particularly Maori children uneducated illiterate and innumerate is potentially dangerous for this country. Those members will not accept that there is a need for standards in this country. We are committed to a policy of national standards but we are also committed to working with the sector to— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Why don’t you care what the sector has got to say? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I have been talking with the sector for months about the consultation process that we will go through. 
This bill does nothing more than enable the Minister to set the standards. It does not set the standards; it enables the Minister to set the standards. We have stated that we will go out to people in the sector and consult them about how those standards are set and what they should look like. The literacy progressions are already out there. I have talked to the sector about the literacy progressions and they are not scary. They set out expectations of what children could and should be learning right throughout their schooling. That is the sort of thing that we are talking about with the sector because at the moment there are a whole lot of guidelines out there. There is the Literacy Professional Development Project the targeted achievement for Pasifika programme and a whole range of different benchmarks out there. Well this National Government is saying no. We will have one set of national standards that everybody understands that can lift every child and give every child the opportunity to get a good education. 
I do not understand how a former Labour Government could vote against that. I do not understand how the member Kelvin Davis who was a principal who knows how this works and who has proved what we can do with children with constant assessment and by putting support in around individual children involving the parents and telling them what they can do and where their children are could vote against this bill. It does nothing more than allow the Minister to set some standards that are agreed with the sector. I do not understand how he can vote against it. 
The second part of this bill is about truancy and we have not heard much about that tonight. We believe that it is important to send a strong message that if children are not at school then they cannot learn. A member opposite asked what will happen when the children turn up to school on 4 February. Well I will tell the member what will happen. If they turn up to school they will have an opportunity to learn. They will not be truant and therefore the truancy part of this bill will not apply to them. But there are children out there who are kept at home by their parents to keep their parents company. There are children out there who are kept at home to look after siblings. There are children out there who are deliberately kept away from school by their parents. Those children are being denied the opportunity of an education and National is going to make sure we send a strong message that that is not acceptable. 
Every child has the right to go to school and get an education because we know that a good education will lift children out of the poverty that the Green member Metiria Turei spoke so eloquently about. The only opportunity children will get is a good education and it is unfair if their parents are deliberately keeping them from school so we will put the fines up for truancy. Let me say this—I want to finish on this. If members think that $3000 is too big a fine I say that in this country we have a maximum fine of $3000 for failing to register a dog. I say that it is more important to send one’s child to school.