Tinetti JanHon JAN TINETTI (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm somewhat perturbed to hear the Minister the Hon David Seymour minimising in this debate the importance of an education bill and saying that this is stuff that all sides would be really interested in and that would mean we would shorten the process because of it. It would be very rare that an education bill would have a shortened select committee because it is education—we are talking about our kids; we are talking about our present and our future. It is really surprising to me that the Minister would take this sort of line of thought around the fact that because we've had a failed experiment of charter schools in the past it means we're not going to consult with any great detail on them. I would have thought because it was a failed experiment we should have had more consultation happen.The Minister has sort of minimised the last two parts of the bill as well and I want to talk about those first as the reason why we do need to have a very good and robust select committee including the timing of it. It really concerns me that we would shorten that time. And then I would like to come back to the charter schools and the failed experiment that we've had and why that consultation needs to be longer.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): I do warn the member that this is quite a tight debate.Hon JAN TINETTI: I do know that Mr Speaker and thank you for reminding me of that. I am well aware of that. I'm talking about why the time frame needs to be a normal time frame. So please Mr Speaker I'm well aware but you're very welcome to keep reminding me of that as well.With that early childhood change the Minister said that most people would be happy about that and so there wouldn't be any need to have that conversation. That is not the feedback that I have had from the early childhood sector and therefore there will be a lot of people who will be very interested in the network management provisions. They understand the implications of that for the early childhood sector particularly in those low socioeconomic areas. I know there is a large number of them who want to take the time to submit on this particular part of this bill and that they see this as their opportunity to have their thoughts and their wishes being said and heard across this House. The only time they will have is during the select committee process so to shorten that time is a real concern.I'd also say for them they would be really concerned having heard the previous debate that the Minister did spend a lot of time speaking about charter schools and probably thinks that people will not be submitting so much on the early childhood side of this whereas in fact there are a lot of people out there who are very concerned that the early childhood provision part of this bill is kind of being rammed in with charter schools and they see that they've become the poor relation to the schooling sector. They want to make their voices heard in this particular process so to shorten that time is absolutely insulting to those people from that particular sector. I'm really urging the Minister to rethink for those particular people for whom he has the oversight as Associate Minister with his early childhood hat on.There is also the attendance but I'm not really going to spend much time talking about that. I think there will be people who will submit on that.Hon David Seymour: I can imagine the member wouldn't want to talk about attendance!Hon JAN TINETTI: I am absolutely quite happy to talk about attendance Mr Seymour but this is not the time to talk about this. As the Speaker has said this is the time to be talking about the length of time we're spending at select committee. So let's have a conversation about that at another stage. And let's have a conversation about the invitation that you gave to me at select committee which I notice hasn't been forthcoming since select committee last week. But I do look forward to getting that invitation anytime soon to my office and then we can meet up to talk about attendance further.Let's put that aside now and go back to talk about charter schools and why it is really important to have the correct time spent on this at our select committee. The Minister talked about why he thinks we need a shorter time around the fact that he'd already piloted the charter school model back between 2014 and—whatever the time was; five years he had of that failed experiment. And it was a failed experiment. So therefore there are a number of people who have said they want to be able to speak on this to present on it to be able to speak on it. But not only that what the Minister has failed to say in his speech right up front about this particular part of the debate is that this is not the same. He is actually putting a very new part and a very big change into our education system. He is talking about current public schools having the opportunity to become charter schools.Now that is one of the biggest changes to hit our education sector. Why would we shorten the debate? That is going to take choice away from our kids—and I will say why in a moment. Why would we shorten that debate to make that specific change in our education sector? Why I say that it takes choice away from our kids is that if a school that has an enrolment zone that is a current State school chooses to become a charter school what choice do those young people have to go anywhere else when all of those schools around them have an enrolment zone? The Minister has taken the choice away—Hon Member: What's this got to do with the report-back date?Hon JAN TINETTI: And thank you Mr Speaker; that's exactly why we cannot have a shortened debate on this. Our education system is far far far too important to narrow this down to about eight weeks of consultation. In that time we're not talking about eight weeks of consultation; we're talking of only a few weeks—or even a few days really—where written submissions come in and then we have to hear the many oral submissions that come in.I was on the select committee in 2018 when we talked about the repealing of the charter schools legislation. I know how many people submitted to that. We're talking in the thousands of people who submitted to that. To shorten a select committee process right now is not OK in the education sector. It is putting our young people's education at risk by taking away the true debate. But the Minister is over there saying that that is not right. That is exactly what is right. I remember the last time the Minister submitted to the select committee on charter schools and he urged the committee to listen to what he said and he urged the committee to pay due diligence and really think about it. He is not giving people that same due diligence by shortening this period. He is taking that away from people and that is not OK. He has stood up before in this House about how we should have a strong democratic process and he is now the one who is saying we will shorten it because we have run this system in the past. We have not run this system as it stands at the moment we have not run it the way that he has set out in his bill and we have not run it with those schools that are currently State schools becoming charter schools.One of the final points that I would like to make is that consultation with Māori is really important in this particular instance and I fear that shortening this process will take away from that consultation. Māori are very much who the Minister has identified or one of the key demographics that the Minister has identified and we have strong ways of doing our consultation and working with our consultation with Māori. I fear that the voices of Māori who don't align particularly to iwi groups will be marginalised but I also fear that the voices of those in iwi groups will be marginalised in this particular process. Whether they come in support or whether they come against the charter schools their voices will be marginalised in a much shorter process. I am really really concerned that an area that we do really well and we get told about overseas that we do really well with our Māori-medium education will not have the opportunity in such a short time frame to be able to give that consultation.My final point is that there are a lot of young people with learning support needs who have contacted me about this bill. They are concerned about the lottery of the roles that could occur and do occur overseas with charter schools. They want to have the time. They want to have a full and strong process throughout the select committee to consider this bill. The Minister has taken that democratic right away.