Seymour David; Williams PotoDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's good to be back. Spare a thought for the Minister of Education Chris Hipkins. Nine long years ago sitting in a dusty hall in Wainuiōmata a Labour electorate committee—almost entirely consisting of teachers—made him a member of Parliament by selecting him in a safe Labour seat. Nine long years ago thinking What will he do to make the education system for New Zealand children better?" And he gets there. He gets the limousine up to Government House and he's made a Minister by the Governor-General. He has the power. And what does he do? What does he do? He allows teachers to elect their own professional body. Well seven of them. Seven of the 13—not all of them. But he allows the teachers not the students—this has nothing to do with students; this is all to do with teachers. He allows the teachers to elect their own professional body. What an achievement for Chris Hipkins after nine years of waiting to make a difference in Government!But I digress. It is actually a serious matter here. People in the Epsom electorate board of trustees chairs principals and parents tell me every day that they are approaching this 2018 school year with great trepidation because schools do not have enough teachers. They tell me it has become almost impossible for somebody on a teacher's starting salary—or even near the top of the scale—to live in central Auckland and actually get to work with either housing costs or commute costs in an economical way and the result is shortages of teachers and the result is the principal has to go in and teach a few classes. They have to take four classes split them up and reconstitute them into five—there's Michael Wood. He knows. He represents a central Auckland electorate. It's a pity he hasn't been heard in caucus because he should have been raising this issue.What is the Government doing about this? What is the Labour Party doing about this problem? They've seriously tried to argue that more people will enter the teaching profession if they can actually elect people on to the Education Council—but wait there's more—it's going to be renamed the Teaching Council. That is going to turbocharge the teaching profession! That is going to make education better for all New Zealand children—or not. What they should have done is taken the billion dollars that they're going to be spending every year rewarding those kids who do do well in our education system—they should have taken that billion bucks a year for free tertiary education for those kids who do do well those ones who tend to be from decile 10 schools those ones who tend to be overwhelmingly white and Asian the ones that I represent in Epsom; they should have taken the money away from giving them a benefit of free tertiary education and actually put the money into paying good teachers well.You can spend as much time as you like saying you can elect your own council and we'll rename your council but what this Government could have done tonight what Chris Hipkins could have done after his years and years of waiting to finally hold the ring is seriously improve the payment of teachers not patronise them; show them they're valued with cold hard cash instead of giving that money to the most privileged people in New Zealand: those who are already accessing a tertiary education.That's what this bill should have been about tonight. It should have been about alleviating the very real and tangible teacher shortage that we have in central Auckland by paying teachers properly instead of trying to buy them off by simply changing the name and the constitution of an organisation that I would guess doesn't figure too greatly in most people's decision to enter or stay in the teaching profession compared with the chronic problem of underpayment.That's what a Government could have done but sadly we're going to have this trivial change a sop to teachers ignoring the needs of students ignoring the real needs of the education system patronising teachers with a small artificial change to their arrangement—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise. Your time has expired."