Awatere Huata Donna: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Awatere Huata Donna: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:619;Page:14975] 
DONNA AWATERE HUATA (Independent) 
: 
 If any evidence was needed that this Minister of Education has no idea what he is doing then it has to be the gobsmacking events that have unfolded at Cambridge High School. The report has come out and for a whitewash it is brilliant. The report stated that there was no formal policy rationale or goals that there was no programme of learning and that no trained teacher was available. It stated that there was no formal process for identifying students for achievement recovery and that quality assurance of the assessment was negligible. 
How many times have we been in this House and heard that Minister of Education defend the New Zealand Qualifications Authority defend himself defend all the abominations that have happened with the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and deny that any of these things were coming to pass? Anyone could have predicted that the events that have unfolded at Cambridge High School would have unfolded given that we have had no assurances in reality that it had that moderation system set up. Anyone would think that if any school had a 100 percent pass rate given the normal bell curve of intelligence and of achievement that one will find in any school someone would be alerted that something was going wrong in a particular school. But no. 
Who was the very first person to roll up to Cambridge High School on hearing that it had a 100 percent pass rate? It was none other than the Minister of Education himself. What was he thinking and what was the New Zealand Qualifications Authority doing for the 2 years that it was crawling all over Cambridge High School not noticing that there were as it says no formal policy rationale or goals and that there was no programme of learning? What was the authority thinking? What was it looking for if it could not identify the kinds of unusual and extreme credit-cramming processes that were in place at Cambridge High School? Who has defended the whole NCEA system ever since the Minister forced New Zealand students to be guinea pigs in an unprecedented untested exam system that has been rejected by everyone overseas—a system that we have had to put up with year in and year out for the past 3 to 4 years? 
When it was pointed out in 2000 that moderation as the Minister had designed it would not work who was it who denied it categorically? It was the Minister of Education himself. Who when it was pointed out to him that the NCEA would dumb down education denied it categorically? When it was pointed out to him on not one but several occasions by several speakers in this House that both teachers and students would be tempted to cheat under the moderation system as it had been designed who was it who denied it categorically? It was the Minister of Education himself. So I find it quite amazing when I hear the Hon Bill English comment about NCEA—because I was listening for the magic words from that former leader of the National Party. The magic words to me were this: NCEA will be scrapped by the National Party. Those are the magic words that I and thousands of other parents want to hear. We want to hear that the NCEA will be thrown into the dustbin where all stupid policies that cut down our tall poppies should be thrown. They should be dumped in that dustbin as soon as possible. Where are those magic words? What is the National Party going to do about it? The people of New Zealand must be thinking that Labour will do nothing about it obviously but what is National going to do about it? Those magic words were somehow missing from the Hon Bill English’s speech. Given the words that Bill English has spoken today I ask where the National Party was when my National Certificate of Educational Achievement Moratorium Bill came out in 2002. Where was it? 
Katherine Rich 
: It was those people. 
DONNA AWATERE HUATA 
: No no. Never mind those people I say to Katherine Rich. It was the National Party and New Zealand First that voted against the only opportunity that this Parliament had to stop level 3 from being implemented. It was the only opportunity of stopping our gold-plated bursary exam from being scrapped. Where were National and New Zealand First? They were nowhere to be found. Those members have a blinking cheek to stand up in this House as members of both parties have today and accuse Labour of not doing a good job. All I want to say to Ms Rich is that National members had an opportunity to do something about it in 2002 and they did nothing. The NCEA should be scrapped as soon as possible.