Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you very much Madam Chair.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Madam Assistant Speaker thank you.SIMEON BROWN: It's a pleasure to follow Chlöe Swarbrick on this bill the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill which is the first thing that this Government's actually got through Parliament—or is trying to get through Parliament—in regards to education. They've talked a big game they've promised the world and the first thing they've ever been able to get through this House is the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill. Well this is going to make a big difference! And yesterday we saw outside teachers and principals protesting about this Government's failure to try to adequately deal with some of the issues. And this is the answer?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Not me.SIMEON BROWN: Is this the answer to the problems and the real issues which they were raising outside? I heard the Minister Chris Hipkins. He was speaking outside and he said We're doing so many great things to help teachers. We're going to make the Education Council the Teaching Council. We're going to change the name of the Education Council to the Teaching Council." Well I have lots of people constantly at my door saying "We've got to change that. We've got to change the Education Council to the Teaching Council. That's the biggest issue facing teachers in New Zealand—is the name of that council. I just can't wait because that's going to solve all the problems—once we change the council name and make sure that we can do a rebranding exercise."But there's more to it than that. This bill has come about simply because of ideology—simply because—Hon David Bennett: They're paying back the unions.SIMEON BROWN: That's right Mr Bennett. They're paying back the unions. There was a review back in 2012 of the Education Council. It was a comprehensive three-year process that found significant flaws in the Teachers Council's ability—in its previous form—to enforce standards to improve teaching performance and to provide sustainable leadership and governance of the sector. This bill will reverse these changes and revert back to this dysfunctional provision. And we heard Chlöe Swarbrick go on about how there were 1036 submissions made when we changed it back in 2012-2013. A thousand-something—well where were they when they came to the Education and Workforce Committee? There were 36 submissions. I think that just shows that they realised that it had been fixed. The problem was sorted. A review was done and there aren't any problems in existence. If there were thousands of submissions and there were thousands of people lining up and making submissions to the select committee on this it might suggest that there was a problem but not one of them raised one. All they said was "Oh we need to change the name and we need to change the appointment process." And why? Because the unions want payback. Because it's the unions which put the Government into power and it's the unions which want payback. Hon David Bennett: They're paying them too. Corruption.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Order Mr Bennett.SIMEON BROWN: And look now we're getting these lectures on democracy from the other side of the House. They've got lots to tell us about democracy. Well I just want them to take a moment to reflect on the fact that they're trying to push through the electoral integrity bill and to squash freedom of expression in this House and squash freedom of expression—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Can we come back to this bill please Mr Brown.SIMEON BROWN: Well it's a very pertinent point because Mr Little is sitting there and we all know how much the unions play a role in electing leaders—and bad leaders of the Labour Party as well. So let's get back to the bill and some of the problems. So what does this bill do? It changes the name of the Education Council to the Teaching Council. It changes the composition from all appointed members to seven elected members and a few appointed members and it creates an election process and some technical changes. How many pages is the bill? It's about five pages long. It's a small technical Government bill which is one of their biggest priorities and which is going to apparently change the world for teachers. But the problems in this bill are deep and they're costly—they're deep and they're costly. Firstly the cost: $700000 over three years. We've heard what else that could go towards: 12000 additional teacher-aide hours per year. That's what teachers came and told the select committee. It's not us making this up; that's what teachers came and told the select committee. They said 12000 additional teacher-aide hours could be used per year from the money which is going to be spent on this very costly rebranding exercise.So what's this $700000 cost? It is $220000 for costs associated with rebranding; $150000 every three years to hold the elections; $105000 per annum for costs associated with increased membership such as remuneration travel and accommodation; and $10000 every three years for training and council membership—so another $700000 of taxpayer money for a rebranding exercise. You've got to wonder where the priorities of this Government are. This is taxpayers' money—hard-working New Zealanders—and they don't care. They just think "Let's just spend spend spend."—tax and spend. That's all that they can do. Tax and spend—that's what this Government's priorities are. Tax and spend—that's what this Government does.What else does it do? It takes away the focus of the Education Council which will now be called the Teaching Council from skills and competencies. The 2012 review found that there was a need for the body to be more skill-based and capable of self-regulation and self-review. Well who's going to be in control of this place now? Who's going to be in control of the Teaching Council now? It'll be the unions because how many places are there on the Teaching Council? Let's see: there's one—Chlöe Swarbrick: Thirteen.SIMEON BROWN: Well how many elected members? Six members appointed and seven elected members. There's one teacher representing the early childhood education sector. Is there a union for that? Is there a union for the—Hon Member: Bound to be.SIMEON BROWN: Yeah there is; there's NZEI. There's a teacher representing the primary education sector—there's a union for that. There's one teacher representing the secondary education sector—there's a union for that. One teacher is elected by registered—there's a union for practically every single one of these appointments. They've pretty much put enough positions in there to ensure that their union mates have enough positions to ensure that there's adequate payback for their support going into the election.And what do we see in the departmental report? The departmental report—and I'll refer the members to page 21. It says "In relation to the points raised by the PPTA and NZEI about creating additional appointed positions for union representatives the bill does not prevent a union member who is a teacher from standing for election"—that's OK—"or the unions from suggesting a person for appointment." That's what the heart of this is. It's about creating positions for their union mates so that they can have people sitting around there and so they can revert back to the dysfunction that this was back before it was changed. What we're seeing is the union mates being rewarded and the Government taking a reckless spend.So let's go back to this. There was a review. This Government's got 135 reviews going costing $200 million. The fact is yes there was a review that we did of the Teachers Council back in 2012 and we took on board the recommendations and we changed the law. We made a body which has now been effective which has made a real difference and which they could only get 36 people to submit to when they wanted to change it—and now they want to change it back. That really raises the question of what this Government is going to do with the 135 reviews that they're doing—a whole 20 or something like that into education.Chlöe Swarbrick: You literally just referred to your own review.SIMEON BROWN: Are they going to be listening? Are they going to be listening—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order!SIMEON BROWN: —or are they going to be wasting more taxpayers' money?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe) Order! Sorry to interrupt the member momentarily. I say to the member Chlöe Swarbrick that it's not acceptable to change seats in the House and then interject on another member. If she wants to interject she should return to her seat or sit quietly.Tim van de Molen: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Look I was going to raise that very point myself at the conclusion of Mr Brown's speech because he was doing a sterling job of actually continuing through that. But prior to that actually we've seen a constant barrage of interjections that aren't adding anything to this debate from that side both Miss Swarbrick and previously Miss Martin. I know the Government's had a tough day and they're looking forward to recess but it's difficult when we're trying to progress through this and our speakers are facing those constant barrages without any value from those interjections.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I thank the member and I will monitor that situation very closely.SIMEON BROWN: Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker for your very wise intervention just then. Thank you so much. So where was I? I was talking about the 135 reviews that this Government's got on the 20-something reviews that they've got on education and they're wasting more and more taxpayers' money so that they can find jobs for their union mates so that they can support what their unions put them into power to do. They're wasting taxpayers' money and we have to ask the question: will they actually listen to any of these reviews?Hon David Bennett: No.SIMEON BROWN: No they won't. We know the answer. Will they listen to these reviews? Will they actually do anything with them? Will they actually know where they're going? They're reviewing literally everything. We go out there and we talk to teachers we talk to principals and they all ask the same question. They're reviewing everything because they came into Government they didn't know what they wanted to do. This is something where they thought "Well it's a quick win. We'll pick this one out of our back pocket. We'll change it back to what it was. We'll just do something quickly. Who cares about the money that it's going to cost? Who cares about taxpayers? That's not really who we represent. We just represent our union mates."We oppose the bill. We oppose changing the Education Council to the Teaching Council. What a shame of a piece of legislation.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): This is a split call—five minutes. I call the Hon Tracey Martin."