Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's great to take a call on behalf of the Green Party on this really important piece of legislation. It was really great to hear that the National Party is supporting the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) and I hope what that means is that when they come asking for better pay and conditions that support will continue and what I would also say to them is when the New Zealand Education Institute come asking for support as well around pay parity and supporting early childhood education teachers that that will also happen as well. So I look forward to their continued support of what our teachers and the teachers' unions are calling for in terms of all their pay and conditions—good luck to that.I've taken quite a bit of interest in this bill and at the heart of it it is about trust. It's about trust between the teaching profession and the Teaching Council as well but also the massive strain that that trust has come under. And so not wanting to re-talk out the history of stuff like that there was the judicial review there was this legislation that—for me at least—came rushed into the House as well. But I think it's really important to remember that the context of all those particular events have happened within the pandemic; it's happened within a pandemic. So we already have teachers that are already doing all that they can do to support our students to support our children and what they're doing whether they're zooming into their classrooms to support our teachers to do a very very difficult job as well and then we've also got this happening as well.Not to mention that the vaccine mandates I know talking to some of my friends in the teaching profession—the sorts of pressures that that has put on them as well the sorts of uncertainly. I mean and I do know that it's only a very small number of teachers that haven't taken up that mandate as well. But if you're organising from a practical level your new teachers what you will do with the relieving pool—so for example maybe some of the people that you might need to rely on in that relieving pool they're actually at the retiring end of the spectrum so they might not be able to step in and support those particular schools as well. So it is in that context that we have rushed this legislation through the House. It has been rushed through the House.During the committee of the whole House I thought we had a really good discussion with the Minister and we were supportive of the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that came to the House as well. So it was good that after what—I felt—came through the Zoom hui was a lot of frustration particularly from the PPTA particularly from those teachers affiliated with the PPTA but also with the rank and file of other unions and also independent teachers as well there was some acknowledgment that things weren't well that this legislation wasn't drafted in the most timely and most constructive way possible hence the arrival of the SOP. And so we were supportive of the SOP. However as the great philosopher from South Auckland Ardijah says:Time makes the wineLike love it grows strongerI think we needed to be a lot more timely with this particular bill because of that pressure because of that pressure that we are placing upon teachers on the teaching profession within this context as well. And rushing things through makes it very very difficult for them.Because at the heart of it is that trust. We all want that trust in the institutions. We want trust in the Teaching Council—I hope we want trust in the Teaching Council because it's the same thing when we have trust in all of our institutions. The success of our response to the pandemic has been because of our trust in the health institutions our trust within health experts and our trust within our community leaders that are fronting the pandemic response as well. Well it's the same thing in education. It's exactly the same thing in education; we build up trust in our institutions within our schools our school communities our professional bodies our teachers' unions and of course the Teaching Council as well. When you build that trust in everything else flows a lot more easily.I wanted this piece of legislation to build on that trust. I wanted this legislation to help to carve out a pathway so that the teachers—particularly those ones affiliated with the PPTA—could say well actually this is a pathway which encourages trust. This is a pathway that encourages trust. But it's hard to do that when they have those pressures.I like the direction of the SOP but there were a couple of things in there which were still uncertain for me. I understand that the leadership provisions will focus on the registration and the licensing of teachers. That's really important. I think everybody around the House even over there here as well really sort of emphasised the role of the Teaching Council in terms of the registration and the licensing and that sort of thing. So having exemplars about what that might mean makes sense for me from a leadership perspective as well.And then there was also that talk about well if it's other stuff which is not related to that the Government will not support and fund those kinds of things as well. But there was a grey area for me and so when I asked the Minister around those leadership provisions out of three examples and one of them was to provide leadership to teachers and directions for the education profession. So you could probably fit that within the registration bit maybe to enhance the status of teachers and education leaders. I don't think that part fits in with the registration and licensing part it probably falls into the second part so I'm not sure how that might actually eventuate practically. And the third part is about—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Order! In the third reading speech the member will reflect on the bill as it sits on the Order Paper and as it is presented to the House.TEANAU TUIONO: OK. Thank you Madam Speaker. And so for me those points weren't clear. But I think if we took the time to walk with those teachers given the pressures that they're under we would have got that clarity. And I did hear at the second reading over there that people were saying well maybe it's one week or two weeks or three weeks—it could be a lot longer than that. From our perspective if it's for a public good if it supports accessible free education it is something that should be supported and at the heart of that is that trust in all of our institutions but in this case within the Teaching Council. I don't think with this piece of legislation that we're there yet. Thank you Madam Speaker.