Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour—Rangitata): Madam Speaker thank you very much. I'm pleased to rise and take a call on the Education and Training (Freedom of Expression) Amendment Bill. Can I acknowledge the MP James McDowall and congratulate him on having his bill drawn from the ballot. I will unfortunately not be able to support it this evening.We only had to turn our television on a few days ago and see the terrible shooting in America in what appeared to be a racially motivated hate crime—Simeon Brown: What's that got to do with the bill?JO LUXTON: Well if you'll listen up Mr Brown I will tell you what it has to do with it. Just listen up—less talking perhaps more listening.A young person who was radicalised and emboldened by what happened here in New Zealand at the mosque attacks in Christchurch a few years ago—actions based on hate for someone of a different race or religion. People are being exposed to so much particularly at the moment. There is so much misinformation and disinformation out there and we've seen it first-hand out here on our front lawn. Our place the people's place was desecrated while people had a platform to spread their mis- and disinformation where they spoke about freedom and freedom of speech; they also spoke about hate.Simeon Brown: They weren't at a university. Last time I saw this wasn't a university.JO LUXTON: Now as a mother of three children it is innate for me to want to protect them. Mr Brown you said you wanted to know what it was about. You need to listen instead of hooha-ing across the House. I want my children to go out and explore the world. I want them to attend university and other learning institutions. But I want to know they are as safe as possible while they do so. I can't tag along to uni with them so as parents we put a lot of trust in those places—that they will do all that they can to keep our children safe and that means minimising the risk of mental harm minimising the risk of physical harm which they are obliged to do under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. This proposed piece of legislation takes that away. How could I in all good conscience agree to a bill that potentially increases the risk of harm not only to my children but to young people all around New Zealand?Yes it is important that people have freedom of speech. Yes it is important that people have different points of view. But it is not OK when people want to talk about hateful things to spread misinformation to spread disinformation. So it should absolutely be the right of the tertiary education institutions to maintain their autonomy and to be able to disallow speakers faculty members students and visitors from preventing hateful and even possibly extremist speech.This bill even suggests that the tertiary education institution should be penalised and have funding withdrawn revoked or suspended if they fail to comply with the requirements to protect freedom of speech. On this side of the House we have a Government that wants to ensure that Aotearoa New Zealand is a safe place where people feel safe where they feel valued and where people are exposed to the richness of different cultures different religions different opinions and views that are contrary to their own but without the risk of harm.Simon O'Connor: Oh for goodness sake.JO LUXTON: Yes. Just keep on listening Mr O'Connor. You may just learn something. There is no way that we should take away the rights of tertiary institutions to make their own choice about who speaks on campus. There is no way that we should introduce punitive measures and remove funding. Funding that is removed or withheld is funding that is taken away from the very people attending the tertiary institutions—in effect penalising the students.So in summary I don't support a bill that likely increases the risk of exposing harm people to harm hateful or extremist speech. I don't support a bill that wants to financially penalise tertiary education institutions for not exposing people to harmful hate speech and in turn penalising the students by withholding or removing funding. I do not commend this bill to the House.