Lees-Galloway Iain: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9825. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise to take a call on the Education Amendment Bill. Halfway through this our first term in Parliament new members are asked by a lot of people in our community to talk about our experiences and what it is like being in Parliament. One of the answers I have for my constituents is about the robustness of the parliamentary process and how important it is that a bill goes through all its different readings and the select committee process. I think this is one of those cases where we have seen a bill that Labour opposed at its first reading but it has gone to a select committee and after some sensible discussion—and I know that Mr Peachey acknowledged Trevor Mallard and his role in discussing different aspects of the bill—it has come back as something that the Labour Party can now support. 
The previous speaker Colin King referred to some of the more minor amendments and compared them with some of the more major ones. He said that the amendment in clause 15 which refers to the registration and inspection of private schools was fairly minor. I do not know that it is as minor as that. I would say that the replacement of a colon with a semicolon is minor and that the introduction of a hyphen is fairly minor— 
Grant Robertson 
: That’s not minor. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: —although with a hyphenated surname myself I think that a hyphen is fairly important and I hope that everybody remembers to get that one in there. Clause 15 refers to an amendment to section 35A. Essentially it is an amendment intended to bring private schools into line with the practice for State schools. Section 35A(9)(a)(ii) of the current Act says: “thereafter at intervals of no more than 3 years;” the chief review officer needs to review a private school. That has changed so that private schools come more into line with public or State schools. That is appropriate. It will remove some red tape for those schools. I think it is quite important. In an environment where the Government has significantly increased the public funding to State schools— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Private schools. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Sorry to private schools. 
Moana Mackey 
: Not to State schools. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Not to State schools at all actually. That was a bit of a slip of the tongue. There is a significant increase in funding to private schools. It is important that we continue to make sure that the reviews and the standards required of private schools are just as high as the standards required of State schools. 
The new change refers us to Part 28 of the original Act. It says that that part applies to every educational service and that it includes any school that receives public money appropriated by Parliament. Of course that includes private schools. They have received a significant recent increase to their funding. I am the beneficiary of a private education. I was privately educated all the way through. I know that is a little bit rare on this side of the House but that is OK. I have no problem proudly announcing that fact. It probably explains the hyphenated surname but that is OK. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: St Cuthbert’s wasn’t it? 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: No it was definitely King’s College a very masculine name I say to Mr Mallard. The point I am trying to make is that when the Government announced its increase in funding for private schools—and I am not one to pull the ladder up—I was quite interested to see what the effect would be of that increase. The effect has been that no private schools have decreased their fees. It has not increased the availability of a private education to people in New Zealand. Those schools have seen the increase as a catch-up on the past and the fees have continued to go up. So it has not increased the availability whatsoever which I think—and the Minister in the chair the Minister of Education might want to take a call on this—was the original intention of that additional funding that was made available to private schools. All it has done is leave a gap in the potential funding that could have been available to State schools.