Mahuta Nanaia: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mahuta Nanaia: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5907. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 Not only is this Government in disarray many of its Ministers have lost their way. We had Bill English lead off the debate for the Government. One minute he is saying that “shares plus” is not a goer; today he is saying “Well it could be an option.” The real question for New Zealanders is whether New Zealanders want assets sold. No they do not. Gerry Brownlee was the next speaker. He proposes that it is important to consult with Cantabrians around the reorganisation and renewal of Christchurch but what does he do? Drag the chain on residential zoning and close Christchurch schools. What is the question for Cantabrians? Do they want schools closed in Christchurch? No they do not. Then we had Jo Goodhew. She is the Minister of Women’s Affairs for those of you who do not know who voted against paid parental leave. But the real question for women throughout New Zealand is whether they want a Government that will not support the extension of paid parental leave. No they do not. This Government is steering a train wreck to disaster and leading the country in a direction that will not benefit the great majority of New Zealanders. 
But I specifically want to focus on two other Ministers because they are guiding the most important portfolio that will support the future generation of our country and they are Minister Parata and Minister Foss. We need to be thinking about the way in which their actions are critically affecting a number of children and the direction of education and impacting on teachers throughout the country. Their performance has been an absolute shambles—bungle after bungle after bungle. The education portfolio is in a mess. First we had larger class sizes being proposed in favour of teacher quality. Now that is off the table—both larger class sizes and now teacher quality. We had also the idea of putting ropey national standards on the database even though the Minister acknowledged the fact and the Prime Minister supported it that this data was ropey. It is all “It is OK let us put it on the database it should work itself out.” And then we got league tables—league tables with a very inaccurate and skewed picture of what was happening the good work that was happening within our schools. There was a consultation document down in Christchurch saying to that community “We want to engage with you. We are concerned about the renewal and opportunities for people in Christchurch. Give us your feedback. We will take on board what you say.” What do they do? Steamroll their way through reforms sweeping reforms that will see closures of schools and mergers that are not supported by the community. In fact the community is throwing its hands up in despair and saying “What is the data that led you to think that these sweeping reforms will be good for our kids and good for our community?”. That is not proper consultation and it is shameful. 
I want to come back to something that Jo Goodhew raised actually. She said that on the minds of many New Zealanders—what they are really worried about—is their take-home pay. Well I would have to agree with that. So the question to that Government is what it is doing with regards to teachers’ take-home pay. What is it doing to fix Novopay the teachers’ pay system— 
Hon Craig Foss 
: It’s gone up under National. 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA 
: Oh it is the first word today in the House from Associate Minister of Education Foss who is overseeing that particular process. It is not doing well at all. Four years it has taken from the time that the business case was lodged before the Minister approved and the $25 million paid to develop a database that is not working. Minister you should fix it. It is absolute rubbish to say in this House that it is fixed because even today after the fourth cycle of the Novopay pay round members in this House—I suspect some of your own members—are raising concerns about the fact that Novopay is a mess and it is not being fixed. 
Let us look at some of the issues. Waiting times for pay staff to report the types of deficiencies in the system are over an hour—unbelievable. It is over an hour to wait for someone to get on the other end of the phone to then say: “We can’t help you go on to the website and report.” What else have we heard? We have heard that the data input system is inadequate to be able to properly account for the work that teachers are doing to be able to be paid the correct amount. Teachers deserve to be paid the correct amount for the time that they have spent within schools. 
Grant Robertson 
: The fourth pay cycle. 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA 
: Yes this is the fourth pay cycle. Reliever teachers in particular are feeling the brunt of a pay system that is not working. It is simply not good enough for them now after the fourth pay cycle to be saying that they have not been paid arrears for three pay cycles ago which is when the system switchover was happening.