Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:613;Page:10225] 
3.  
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What advice if any has he received from the Minister for Sport and Recreation as to how children’s fitness and health may be affected if they have to be transported long distances to school rather than encouraged to walk or cycle to a local school as a result of school closures? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Education 
: The Minister advises that he himself has consulted on the matter raised by the member. There is more likely to be a functional network of schools to which some children can walk or cycle if school closures occur as part of a planned network review. If schools are left to bleed slowly dry as the school population declines distances between schools will become more random and make the option of walking to school less not more available. 
Metiria Turei 
: When the Minister spoke about responsibility and the benefits of physical activity to the Project K Weet-Bix Kiwi Kids walkathon on 7 August did he also explain to those children how his Government can both sponsor walking and cycling to school under the walking bus programme and under the network reviews close their schools and force them into cars and buses? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I was not at the Project K breakfast so I do not know exactly what he said but I would imagine that if the issue was raised he would have said that he supports young people having access to good physical activity and that he also supports a very high level of educational quality and he is not prepared to let schools around the country bleed dry. He wants to ensure that a planned way gives them an option of having good education. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Are issues relating to the children’s overall well-being taken into account as part of the network review process? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes. The actual process of network reviews is tough on both students and communities. However the overall objective is to provide an end result that takes into account children’s educational social and physical well-being. Better educational resources teachers with better professional support greater opportunities for a range of social experiences and interaction as well as improved physical facilities should all result from network review processes. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why is it that whenever parents raise their concerns about their school being closed—such as the distance that they will have to walk their children to the next school—the Minister always loses his rag and threatens to leave the meetings? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: He does not. I say to the member on the other side as he screeches and yells in a way that I know he deplores elsewhere that the issue is an easy one. It is one of ensuring that educational quality is guaranteed to people where population is declining. The foolish policy being followed by Mr English raises a situation that he knows himself he would not implement. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Is the Minister aware of the Massey University research of the late 1980s I think by the St Georges which demonstrated that the most significant factor in the depression of educational achievement was not ethnicity nor socioeconomic status but in fact was the distance a child had to travel to school and is that research finding being considered in the current school reviews? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: In fact I can say that from my own personal point of view. The St Georges are friends of mine and I am well aware of most of their research. The member will also know that the policy of the Minister of Education is always to provide an evidence base for his policies. While I cannot guarantee that that particular piece of research is taken into account I can guarantee him that evidence is. 
Rod Donald 
: If the Minister persists with closing either the Invercargill South School or the Invercargill Middle School what advice does he have for 5-year-old pupils from those schools on how to walk or bike to their new school safely given that he will be forcing them to cross two four-lane roads—one a State highway and one without any controlled intersections the main trunk railway line and the Otepuni stream? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No decisions have been made about which schools will close in that area. However I put the question to the member once again. Of course we will want young people to be safe as they travel to school. Of course we want them to travel there in a way that is appropriate. But is the member recommending that every single school in this country with a falling population should be kept open? If he is I doubt that he will ever be in Government to implement that. 
Hon Bill English 
: Given the Minister’s statement that he makes all his decisions on the basis of evidence what evidence is there that the Makarewa School which is full has 130 pupils and has an outstanding record of educational achievement should be closed? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I do not have familiarity with that particular school. Therefore I am not able to answer the question in particular. However I return to the basic point. The Minister is not interested in closing schools that are full operating and have a future. He is interested in ensuring that all schools are viable and able to offer a good education to their pupils. 
Sue Bradford 
: How will closing the Blackball School forcing children to travel further afield by car or bus assist their fitness and does he believe that perhaps the founders of the Labour Party will be spinning in their graves at the proposed loss of that historic community’s only school especially given that the entire population is dedicated to its maintenance? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I imagine that the forefathers of the Labour movement will not spin in their graves when they hear that this party is committed to giving those young children the best quality education possible. By going to a school that is larger and has more resources they will have more access to physical activity. [ 
Interruption 
] I am sorry that the member cannot hear. It is because Mr English cannot stop shouting. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does he agree that closing schools and forcing children to travel by car or bus to school directly undermines the Government’s flagship  
Healthy Eating – Healthy Action 
 strategy which is to increase physical activity especially amongst 5 to 17-year-olds and to reduce obesity and why on earth is the Government pursuing a policy that directly undermines one of its core health strategies? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No and it is not. 
Mark Peck 
: Would the Minister have any advice for Mr Donald who went to Invercargill promising to keep all schools open while advocating the closure of the smelter? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The advice would be that Mr Donald should not promise things that if he were in Government he would not be able to deliver in relation to schools. I think that he should advocate on behalf of jobs in an area like Invercargill rather than try to destroy them.