Goodhew JoHon JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata): My head is reeling. It has been a very long time since I have heard this side of the House described as the summer of love" territory. But anyway the purpose of this particular bill has been aptly described by a previous speaker the chair of the Education and Science Committee as "going backwards". I would have to say that it is not even "back to the future"; it is simply going straight ahead backwards.The changes that the member wishes to bring into play in this bill simply only make sense to me if the member has been listening to only one particular group.Tracey Martin: Oh here we go. Let's pick on the teachers. Hon JO GOODHEW: It is not the schools that I know Tracey Martin visits on a regular basis. She is very good at visiting schools. She has good connections into schools.Tracey Martin: Oh don't be too nice Jo!Hon JO GOODHEW: This is a compliment Ms Martin and you should take it as such. You are one of the good ones who talks to schools not to just the union. In fact that is what happens on this side of the House. We visit schools. So let me tell you what schools have been saying to me lately and what conversations we have been having. Because there is one thing that comes through every single time and it is the child at the centre of it and the child's education. It is not all about what we call their professional body. In fact they have not raised it at all. What they wanted to know was that there would be teachers on that body and there are irrespective of who appoints them.The Education Council came before the select committee just recently and yes as the previous member on her feet from the Green Party Catherine Delahunty said they are charged with lifting the status of the profession—but the profession lets itself down so jolly often that that certainly has not helped. When I go into schools the school teachers and principals want to talk to me about children and behaviour that is challenging the teaching profession because they are really tough to deal with. They want to talk to me about the communities of learning (COLs) and I would like to mention the COLs to the House. We have got to an amazing milestone with more than half a million students operating in schools where we have got a phenomenal number—1100 teachers and principals appointed to new positions in communities of learning. It is not a small amount of money we are investing in improving the education of the children at the centre of this.To me it reminds me of a musical we did at school where one of the songs was called "What's in a Name?" It was Dracula Spectacula I have to say. Here we are debating the very name of this organisation. When it comes to a code we have heard from the Education Council that there has been huge collaboration in the way the code has been put together. The sector has been very engaged in it. Actually the sector obviously gets it. It is not in what you call it; it is what is in it. It is what is in the education. It is what is in the profession that means that it delivers status to itself. That I think is what we should be thinking about.The conversations that are happening on that side of the House are clearly very different to what we are listening to. A conversation with the union will be a very different conversation from a conversation with school principals and with school teachers. Getting into the schools and asking not what is the matter with them but what matters to them—and what they tell me is that the children are at the centre of what matters to them. It is not the name of something. They want to know that the teaching profession is valued—I get that—and great teachers are the best assets we can have in our children's lives other than amazing parents. So put the two together and children will succeed. But we need to as a Government be doing all we can to make sure there are more and more and more great teachers in our schools and fantastic principals and that they are sharing their skills around so that there are more and more fantastic schools delivering for our students. Thank you."