edithatogo/nz-hansard-corpus huggingface dataset:
SpeechANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā. It's always a privilege to stand and make a contribution and this time it's on the Resale Right for Visual Artists Bill. I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Carmel Sepuloni for bringing this matter to the House but I want to take it back—this bill. In 2008 the Hon Judith Tizard introduced a similar scheme; that's 15 years that these artists have missed out on royalties and a royalty is not a tax. The money belongs to the artists and the Minister has referred to the fact that a non-Government non-profit organisation would be authorised to manage and gather it with a small fee. So none of that is tax; it'll go back to the artist. And 80 countries around the world including the UK the EU nations and Australia already have this in place. I want to acknowledge that this is part of this hard-working Government. This is part of our free-trade agreement with the United Kingdom to have this in place by 2024. So I really want to acknowledge what has been said and what the intention of this bill is: the artist resale royalty right entitles visual artists to a share of the proceeds of their work. And on that note I commend this bill the Resale Right for Visual Artists Bill to the House. Mālō.
SpeechANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker I'm delighted to stand and take a call on the Resale Right for Visual Artists Bill. I just want to acknowledge the Minister for bringing this bill before the House. I think it's a real recognition to our artists and the way that they earn income so I want to acknowledge you Minister. I'm looking forward as the chair of the Social Services and Community Committee to working diligently—Terisa Ngobi: Great chair.ANGIE WARREN-CLARK: —thank you—across the House to get this piece of legislation into a good form and order. I want to acknowledge Simon O'Connor's comments. I think they were thoughtful. I thought they were useful. I certainly don't have the view that our hands have been tied. New Zealand entered into these free-trade agreements with our eyes wide open knowing what the consequences would be and I think this is a good consequence for our country. The rest of the world does it and I think that that is a good thing.The bill does a lot of things and I just wanted to make it really clear and to read off a list of what artwork is covered because there are a few sets of definitions in this bill which are really useful to tie back to the legislation. It establishes a 5 percent royalty and it establishes a scheme to do that and an agency which is a non-governmental organisation to collect this royalty. It enables some things like what happens if you're an artist and you have collaborated with other artists. It also talks about what happens if you die intestate and what happens to your estate and how for how long the lasts for.So final comments from me: the bill defines what artwork is. So that is limited copies or numbered editions and original visual artworks. This includes paintings; drawings; carvings; engravings; etchings; lithographs; woodcuts; prints including books of prints; photographs; sculptures; collages; models; crafts; ceramics; glassware; jewellery; textiles; weaving; metal ware; furniture; and finally computer-generated or electronically generated devices. As it also suggests it supports the artworks and cultural expression of Māori and Pacific peoples. I commend it to the House.
Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee
Prime Willow-JeanInstruction to Transport and Infrastructure CommitteeHon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Minister of Conservation) on behalf of the Minister of Transport: I move That the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill be reported to the House by 31 July 2023.A party vote was called for on the question That the motion be agreed to.Ayes 76New Zealand Labour 64; Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand 10; Te Paati Māori 2.Noes 44New Zealand National 34; ACT New Zealand 10.Motion agreed to.
SpeechPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Tēnā koe te Māngai o te Whare. Can I say that it's great having the last word on this bill. This legislation of course is welcome news for the Wellington region because we know that the current legislative framework has straitjacketed councils particularly regional councils into that private sector delivery model. And that really fails to provide the agility and responsiveness to ensure that we actually have a public service; the words public" and "service" being key here. And look we've heard a lot about bus drivers and despite issues and problems securing bus drivers all over New Zealand Wellingtonians are strong adherents to public transport. This is a city that used to have "big reds"; I like the colour red. But we used to run the buses ourselves—in-house by the city council—until legislation came in saying we couldn't do that. This bill enables us to have the best of the old world in the new world. And that means private operators will join with public operators in time; councils can bring the assets inhouse a bit like the rail fleet here in Wellington where actually those assets are owned by the regional council and then we've got some agility in terms of how to respond to service changes across the network. The bill also allows regional councils to say "Hey look if we want to do things differently in-house"—it gives the councils time to do that. So it will pave the way for that in-house operation. I think the last thing we need is for councils to emulate the failures that we've seen in the delivery of services by the private sector and we need to be upfront about that; the current operation doesn't work under this legislation. However this bill addresses that. We get the best of the private and public sectors working together for great bus network and bus transport services in Aotearoa. I commend this bill to the House."
SpeechTERISA NGOBI (Labour—Ōtaki): Meitaki maata Mr Speaker. Like my colleague Rachel Brooking—sorry Rachel Boyack—I am also on the Transport and Infrastructure Committee and am also looking forward to this bill coming through the House because it is—Rachel Brooking: Rachel Brooking likes the bill too.TERISA NGOBI: I know. Rachel Brooking just said she likes the bill too. Because not only is this a great piece of legislation this is great for our bus drivers for our train drivers and for our staff that work in the public transport space. This bill ensures good working conditions and of course improvement in pay—who doesn't want that? In the Ōtaki electorate which is also part of the rural and provincial Aotearoa New Zealand like Mr Doocey was talking about earlier we have regular trains that go from Waikanae through to Wellington. We also have buses from Ōtaki through to Wellington as well. This week I had the privilege of spending some time with the Ōtaki-famous Barbara who has been driving school buses for about two decades now in the Ōtaki electorate. Barbara loves her job as a bus driver and Barbara loves to make sure that she gets our tamariki to and from kura—our kids to and from school—safely. But Barbara also knows that there's different pays different conditions out there in certain bus companies. So we want to make sure that we keep amazing bus drivers like Barbara especially in our rural and regional towns like the Ōtaki electorate. I know it's getting harder especially in this competitive market and so that is what this bill does. The Sustainable Public Transport Framework—one of its priorities includes the fair and equitable treatment of employees. The Capital Connection also runs through the Ōtaki electorate from Levin through to Wellington only Monday to Friday only once and is always full of commuters going to and from mahi or work. However it has struggled due to staff as well. Again this bill focuses on employment conditions and pay and if we get that right we will encourage people back into the public transport sector. And that can again be considered a great career pathway for people. Hopefully—just a plug—we will someday see regular train services right through to Wellington and maybe beyond to Palmerston North. The Sustainable Public Transport Framework also focuses on mode shift and improved environment and health outcomes. And while I absolutely support the benefits to the environment and reducing emissions I also know that some of our whānau out there don't have a car or if they do have a car they find it really difficult to run it. At the moment with public transport especially with this Government's half-price public transport it is an affordable option for those whānau. So it's critical to make sure we get this right. Look I know essentially at the moment we have so many things in this bill that I could talk about and especially the mode options the reduction in emissions and looking after our employees but I don't have enough time. This is a great piece of legislation and I commend it to the House.
Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill. As a member of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee I'm looking forward to hearing submissions and considering this bill.Previous speakers have tried to say tonight that there isn't a problem. But we can see across the country there's definitely a problem with how our public transport system runs and a lot of that comes back to the heart of the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM).One of the issues with the PTOM is that it focuses on contracting out and encouraging companies to bid at the lowest possible price. What that does is it drives down wages within the sector and—lo and behold—we have an issue with bus companies finding enough drivers. And gee I wonder why. Could it perhaps be that the wages are low due to the contracting out model? That is one of the things that this bill addresses and it is overdue and about time that we are doing it.The previous speaker Sam Uffindell made some comments around flexibility and around enabling choice. If you actually read the bill you'll see that the bill enables regional councils to operate public transport services in-house or to continue to outsource the operation of services. It's got a choice.The other really good part of this bill—just coming from Nelson where we have unitary authorities so we don't have separate regional and territorial authorities—is that it will establish a requirement for greater collaboration. One of the really good things that has happened in my electorate in the last couple of years—thanks to the Government putting a lot more investment into public transport—is that we now have a joint public transport plan between Nelson and Tasman. We're going to get buses into those smaller places which there is demand for. I've been talking to people who live in small towns who are telling me they want public transport. We're going to have an entire fleet of electric buses. The buses will be far more frequent at a reasonable price and the public are really looking forward to that service coming on board in the middle of this year.It has been enabled because our two councils which are unitary authorities have been able to work together with investment from Government. We're going to have a fantastic service with decent wages for those drivers. So this bill will actually help other councils do exactly what we've done in Nelson. I commend it to the House.
Rurawhe AdrianSORAYA PEKE-MASON (Labour): I stand to take a short call on the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill. The electorate where I live and where I'm based goes from Porirua through to Tokoroa covering the rohe of Te Tai Hauāuru and Rangitīkei. We've had our fair share of public transport woes over many years. Many people rely on public transport. Many people have no choice but to use public transport whether it be bus ferry or whatever. So it pleases me to see the replacement of the Public Transport Operating Model with the Sustainable Public Transport Framework. In particular what stands out is the thoughtfulness towards the workers and users of public transport—improving conditions of employees retention of the work force and job security. What also stands out is the responsiveness to changing demographics travel behaviour and support of innovation.The bill provides flexibility for the sector to determine the best way to give effect to the new priorities. It addresses the systematic issues in the sector and improves regulation of public transport systems. I want to acknowledge the challenges of our communities over the years and the hard work of former Feilding councillor Councillor Humphrey other councillors and community groups who have advocated for change for their communities for years. This bill allows councils to operate public transport services inhouse. They know the needs of their communities. What we've got now does not serve the public.I'm delighted that a key element of this important bill is to lay the foundation to achieve emissions reductions. I commend the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill to the House. Kia ora.SPEAKER: This is a split call.
White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour): Well that was pretty difficult to listen to if you live in Auckland where our transport system is really broken. We don't have buses and we don't have ferries because the old model was ideologically driven and it threw away common sense Mr Doocey because what we had was a system that said that people like the council couldn't own the buses or the ferries. And because they couldn't own them and they had to contract them out—i.e. give taxpayers' money away to private enterprises—we had a system that was absolutely run down.We have that system today Mr Doocey. And I'd like to take you to meet the drivers of those buses because I represented those drivers when they were on conditions that involved split shifts. It means they come in from South Auckland and they come in and they sit in the depot. In the middle of the day they are on no pay and they sit there in the middle of the day with no pay. And then they start again.That system doesn't work and it doesn't attract New Zealand workers in a time of high unemployment. What I hear from the Opposition is Well you're actually ruining it by not allowing us to bring in workers who are willing to work in the worst possible conditions." That's not the solution either Mr Doocey.The solution in this situation is that we forget about ideology and we get a bit of common sense and we make sure our conditions for our bus drivers are good enough; and we relieve our councils from the obligations they're under to actually contract out that work and we allow them to own the fleets of buses and ferries so they can actually build up an infrastructure and they can make the call. And that's not centralisation: that's actually local power and that's actually an important part of the solution here. I commend this bill to the House."
Halbert ShananLAND TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT (REGULATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed.SHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to take a call on a very important piece of legislation the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill which sets out a new sustainable public transport framework. This framework gives regional councils more flexibility. It gives them more planning funding and procurement of public transport and it does so by allowing public transport authorities like the regional councils to operate public transport services in-house.The current framework of course which of course is the PTOM model—Public Transport Operating Model—does not help deliver the best bus or ferry services or public transport services for that matter which we desperately need in places like Tāmakimakau-rau / Auckland and across New Zealand. This bill heralds a new approach and namely it supports on-demand public transport services. It allows councils to own and operate services in-house. It improves the pay and working conditions of people like our bus drivers. It delivers routes and services that reflect local community needs and it incentivises most importantly the decarbonisation of our fleets.Prioritising fair and equitable treatment of employees and mode shift are important things to do for our Government. Some transport operators have had perverse incentives to squeeze worker conditions limit pay and opportunities all of which has limited the potential of our public transport system in this country. Improving the conditions of employees will make it easier to recruit to retain our workforce allowing frequent and reliable services and we have recently seen the first fair pay agreement come into force something that members on this side of the House felt was very important.Public transport is a lifeline that connects people to work to their local schools to recreation and to their friends and whānau and it won't surprise members—it's something I'm very very proud of of course—that my home electorate of Northcote has the third-highest use of public transport and buses to get to work at 14.7 percent against the New Zealand average of 4.2 percent. So something I'm very proud of in this piece of legislation is getting on with what we need to do as a fairer public transport system for Aucklanders for New Zealand and ensuring that we are meeting our climate change obligations.So without further ado and as the chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee I'm looking forward to this piece of legislation coming through to our select committee. I commend this bill to the House.
Points of Order — Urgent Debate Declined—Hon Stuart Nash Removal as Minister
Luxon Christopher; Rurawhe AdrianDEBATELeave Declined—Hon Stuart Nash Removal as MinisterCHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition): Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave for the business of the House to be suspended so that a debate can take place on the dismissal by the Prime Minister of the Hon Stuart Nash as a Minister and for the time for the debate—moved by me—to be in accordance with that of a debate in a matter of urgent public importance as set out in Appendix A of the Standing Orders.SPEAKER: Leave has been sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is objection.
Visitors — Wales—Senedd Cymru
Rurawhe AdrianVISITORSWales—Senedd CymruSPEAKER: Tēnā rā tātou katoa. The House is resumed. Members I am sure you would all wish to welcome James Evans member of the Senedd Cymru the Welsh Parliament who is present in the gallery.
Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill — First Reading
Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee
SpeechInstruction to Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade CommitteeHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Immigration): I move That the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill be reported to the House by 31 July 2023.Motion agreed to.
SpeechSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you so much Mr Speaker. I rise this afternoon to speak on the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill with pleasure.I am myself an immigrant. I came here in 2004 with my family. Like so many people I chose New Zealand for its beauty for work-life balance but fundamentally as a great place to bring up my two children—then aged four and eight.I had a lot of hoops to pass through but in no way was my experience comparable to that of my Green Party colleague Golriz Ghahraman and the experiences that her family had coming to New Zealand as refugees. For that reason this process is going to be extremely important; the select committee process is going to be important to ensure that we are upholding the rights of some of our most vulnerable people. I've heard Opposition members today speak of pregnant people and ensuring that we make sure that they are catered for adequately.There are just three simple changes in this bill: providing the District Court with more time to consider an application for mass arrival; warrant a commitment clarifying that it's a responsibility of members of a mass arrival group to apply for entry permission and a visa; and changing the definition of passenger" in the Act to remove any possibility that members of a mass arrival group could be deemed to hold entry permission and a visa upon arrival to New Zealand. With that I commend this bill to select committee and to the House."
SpeechTERISA NGOBI (Labour—Ōtaki): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. This bill is about Aotearoa New Zealand's preparedness. While we haven't yet experienced a mass arrival this Government is forward-thinking with this bill and is preparing for any potential mass arrival.This includes supporting Immigration New Zealand with the tools it needs to prepare to respond appropriately to any potential mass arrivals. It's also about doing that in a way that upholds the human rights of the migrants—the vulnerable migrants—that are involved in this.I worked with refugees and migrants in the UK. The stories that they told me were very very extremely devastating and heartbreaking but one thing was very clear and this is the desperation that they had for their safety and the safety of the people they love: their children their parents their brothers and sisters their husbands and wives.And so while there is a process of entry into Aotearoa New Zealand those who do not use this process should not be denied their human rights. While not part of this bill there is another piece of work that this Government is working on that is related to this bill and that is the development of a community management approach that will assist in limiting the detainment of asylum seekers and those who are on mass arrival while their claims are being processed which is a good thing. This is a good bill and I commend this bill to the House.
McLellan TraceyDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula): Thank you Mr Speaker. I will just take a short call today on this Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill and note that it is obviously at its first reading and will be sent to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee who will do a really good job at scrutinising this and eliciting feedback and some input from the public. But at its essence the bill was essentially making three key changes and those three key changes are about achieving the best balance between what's within the best interest of New Zealand and more importantly—and it's worth emphasising—what's also in the best interest of those people who are coming here and sometimes being smuggled here in perilous situations. Those three key changes revolve around changing the definition of passenger" which we've heard other people speak to today. The bill seeks to clarify and make it explicit that it's the responsibility of the person coming in through that mass arrival or through that group to actually apply for that entry and that permission. It also provides the District Court as we've heard members talk about previously with a little bit more time to consider the application and the mass arrival warrant of commitment. I also think it's worth mentioning that separate from this legislation the Government is progressing work to develop that community management approach to assist what will be limiting the detainment of asylum seekers whilst their claims are being processed including those who actually arrive in that mass arrival and that was part of the Victoria Casey review. So we're very pleased to be able to progress that work and commend this bill to the House."
SpeechGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Mr Speaker. As I begin this morning I do want to acknowledge the Green Party member Golriz Ghahraman for her contribution to the House. This is legislation obviously that we are considering this morning but in listening to her address definitely it's something that's real something that is actually reality for people and so I acknowledge Golriz Ghahraman's contribution and life story—and her family being able to be here.Now in reflecting on this piece of legislation the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill I've been looking a little bit at the numbers and the statistics and I'm really saddened to see in the past 30 years how quickly it's changed in terms of those who are seeking asylum in parts of the world. And I look at the statistics back in 1991 when there were very very few people if any in this position who were refugees in other spaces—but in terms of those seeking asylum which rose from near zero in 1991 to in 2021 it being around 4.6 million asylum seekers around the world.I would hope that we would live in an age in a time when these measures are not necessary but they are at this time. I would dream of living in a world—I guess sometimes I am trying to be the optimist—where regimes would be in a place where people would feel safe included and secure in their own homes but that is just not what it is in the world we live in.So this is a piece of legislation I'd like to take us to select committee to consider and to open up to the wider public to have their contribution on it. So I won't delay it any longer and I commend this bill to the House.
Rurawhe AdrianDAN ROSEWARNE (Labour): Kia ora Mr Speaker. It's my privilege to speak on the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill for its first reading in the House.This bill makes some technical changes to the Immigration Act to better prepare Immigration New Zealand for a possible mass arrival event. A mass arrival event is when 30 people without authorisation enter New Zealand and arrive on board one or more craft at the same time. This bill enables Immigration New Zealand to prepare for a mass arrival event with an established framework that can guarantee and respect the human rights of those who arrive.This bill will make three key changes to the Immigration Act to make sure the legislation works as intended. It will provide the District Court with more time to consider an application for a mass arrival warrant of commitment; where the decision was supposed to take around 96 hours before the judge will now have at least seven days to make a decision giving more consideration to each case and allow time to organise legal representation for the affected migrants.The bill will also ensure that the members of a mass arrival group will have to apply for entry permission and a visa. Because they arrived illegally they will not be processed through the normal visa applications. This requirement will make sure that immigration officers can conduct processing interviews and other appropriate checks for any arrivals to New Zealand.The last change made by the bill is that it changes the definition of passenger" in the Act to make sure that they cannot avoid immigration checks and remove any possibility that members of a mass arrival group could be deemed to hold entry permission and a visa upon arrival in New Zealand. There have been examples of where a lack of clarity in this definition has led to some difficult situations for immigration authorities. This small change will solve this issue and guarantee that Immigration New Zealand has an appropriate framework in place to deal with mass arrival events. I commend the bill to the House.SPEAKER: I understand this is a split call.Golriz Ghahraman: Uh—I don't think so.SPEAKER: No sorry. I had the incorrect information. Sorry about that. I call Golriz Ghahraman."
SpeechDr EMILY HENDERSON (Labour—Whangārei): Kia ora e te Māngai o te Whare. I rise to take a short call on the Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill. For those just keying in to Parliament TV this morning what this bill is about is preparation for the possibility that at some point we might face a situation where we're going to get a mass arrival of refugees—a bit like the way that the Tampa picked up a sinking ship of refugees off the coast of Australia and delivered them to Australia. We know that there are people who do see New Zealand as a desirable destination and why would they not? But we need to prepare for that because at present the likelihood is if we had 300 400 500 refugees turn up in a tanker off the coast of Auckland or Whangārei then we would not have the resources or the legislation in place to deal with them.So what we're going to do is: first we're going to cover a loophole that might suggest that such people turning up in their tanker having been rescued are going to have an automatic visa because at the moment if you turn up as a passenger on a ship you do have an automatic several-week visa. It is assumed that you're legit. If you are not legit then we need to make it very clear in the definition of passenger" that that doesn't apply to you. So that's change number one—it's fairly straightforward.Change number two is that we're going to clarify—and it's strange that this was not clarified before perhaps—that it is on the person turning up to make their visa application not on anyone else. If we don't have a legal obligation on them to do it then it is very hard for immigration officials to follow them up and hold them to account and start to put them through the process. There is a grey area there; we're going to clear that one up.The third one is—and this comes down to the situation where there are huge numbers of people turning up—96 hours is all that an immigration official currently has to get a warrant of committal should they need it which is to detain a refugee that they consider is perhaps a flight risk or a danger to themselves or others. They only have 96 hours at present to get that through. If you've got 500 people on the dock in Whangārei then that is going to be far too short a time to process them all in time for them to get the legal advice they need. We're putting that out to seven days.As Mr Wood said this is a situation we need to prepare for so in the virtual emergency of 500 people on the dock at Whangārei we would have processes in place. I commend it to the House."
Voting — Correction—Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill
McKee NicoleVOTINGCorrection—Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment BillNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I seek leave to change a vote that the ACT Party just did on the last bill. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Leave is sought for that purpose. Are there any objections? There are no objections.NICOLE McKEE: Thank you Madam Speaker. In the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill the last two votes that were taken—the one to support the bill and the one for the referral to the select committee—I had incorrectly supported with 10 votes from ACT and need to change that with 9 votes from ACT for both of those. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The Clerk will amend the votes for those two. Thank you Nicole McKee.
Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill — First Reading
Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee
Edmonds Barbara; Salesa JennyInstruction to Education and Workforce CommitteeHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Minister of Internal Affairs): I move That the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill be reported back to the House by 31 July 2023.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those of that opinion will say Aye—Hon Michael Woodhouse: Point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I would have to get to the end of this before I come to you for the point of order.Hon Michael Woodhouse: It's relevant to the process. My understanding is that under the Standing Orders the Minister moving this motion which is a debatable motion has to explain to the House why it's necessary for the shortened report-back. We didn't get that.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The advice I have is that it's not a debatable motion because it's four months. So if it was a shortened time period it would be debatable.A party vote was called for on the question That the motion be agreed to.Ayes 85New Zealand Labour 64; Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand 10; ACT New Zealand 9; Te Paati Māori 2.Noes 34New Zealand National 34.Motion agreed to.The result corrected after originally being announced as Ayes 86 Noes 34.
SpeechANNA LORCK (Labour—Tukituki): Thank you Madam Speaker. I come from the region of Hawke's Bay where we have a thriving Pasifika community. Out in Havelock North and Flaxmere and Hastings and Mahora and all those places we have Pasifika children thriving and striving. And when you want to talk—like the National Party—about not being able to achieve things this bill gives greater opportunity to our Pasifika people and our Pasifika students so that they can as part of Aotearoa Pasifika people have access to grants and support to enable them to have a lifetime of education opportunities. That's what puts people on the road to success and why Hawke's Bay has such huge opportunities for Pasifika people in our region. I commend everything we can do to enable thriving education opportunities for Aotearoa Pasifika people. I commend this bill to the House.
SpeechMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to follow the previous speaker Rawiri Waititi on a call on this bill the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill. Now these sorts of bills are used commonly to improve regulatory systems making sure that we have effective efficient and aligned with best regulatory practice legislation. That is what the bill does. But we also heard from the previous speaker that it's about much more than words; it's also about protecting whakapapa and the mana of the 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial. So that is what this bill does. It will also make amendments to the Pacific Education Foundation Act 1972 to ensure that Pacific learners and their families are better protected. It will do so by changing and making amendments to the current definition of Pacific peoples" which is too narrow and doesn't really capture the diversity of Aotearoa-based Pacific peoples. My colleague Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki spoke very passionately about that already previously. So updating the purpose the make-up and the constitution of the Pacific Education Foundation Board will enable it to function more effectively and to provide advice to the Minister and Ministry of Education and other educational agencies. There are also amendments in this particular bill with regards to the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016 and that is about the police-vets for non-teaching and unregistered employees in childcare centres such as mall and gym creches and that needs to be done before the employees actually start work. It will also require employees to consider the police-vet once it is received to assess any potential risk to the safety of children. So this bill does a multitude of things predominantly updating and improving our education regulatory system making these changes to ensure we uphold Ngārimu VC and the 28th Maori Battalion—its legacy its mana—and that it supports the work of the Pacific Education Foundation. I commend it to the House. Thank you Madam Speaker."
Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 3) — Instruction to Committee
SpeechANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā. Always an honour and a privilege to contribute in this House particularly in this case the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill. I can't go without responding to that last speaker. There's actually three lines I got from there: he said the word simple" and he said the word "the right way". Actually his whole speech the member David Seymour—it is only the right way according to him. So the points I want to take from this bill: it is a bill updating and modernising our education regulatory system to make meaningful changes and to that it upholds the mana and the legacy of Ngārimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion and supports the work of the Pacific Education Foundation. The Budget 2022 priorities have five objectives. One of those objectives talks about Māori and Pacific peoples—lifting Māori and Pacific people's opportunities for incomes and skills. In terms of where it talks about Pacific people in this bill it actually defines who Pacific peoples are. And I can take that from the education Minister's speech it tells everybody and makes it really clear that the definition of Pacific people as "Aotearoa Pacific person" refers to an indigenous Pacific cultural heritage. What that clarifies is that it brings them the mātauranga the importance of indigenous knowledge that contributes; adding value to this nation. Pacific people are here and we are here to stay—and before we can do any of that we need to recognise the mana of tangata whenua in this country. This omnibus bill recognises that and I commend this bill to the House. Mālō."
SpeechJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of the Green Party to support this bill at its first reading. It is minor and makes minor and technical changes and I think the tone of the debate probably reflects that. It's not the most exciting piece of legislation but these small changes can make a difference and so are worthy.So in effect it makes changes to four particular areas. One when there is the requirement for safety checks for children's workers it's ensuring that it's an additional reference for the Kiwi Access Card as an acceptable form of ID to reflect the change of the name of that card—hardly earth-shattering but probably important our legislation is up to date. And it makes an amendment to the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations to ensure that police-vets for non-teaching and unregistered employees in childcare centres such as malls and gyms and gym crèches are obtained before the employee starts work. That feels actually a little more significant than the previous point and important and something we support.It also makes two small changes around the Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Act to modify the function of the board to recognise it as the successor of the 28th Māori Battalion Association … for the purposes of authorising the use of words and emblems relating to the … Māori Battalion and the Association under the Flags Emblems and Names Protection Act 1981" and creates a new national Māori representative position on the Ngārimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Board and that that position would be for a person of Māori descent who has served or is currently serving in the Defence Force seems incredibly sensible to me.And then finally amendments to the Pacific Education Foundation Act 1972 to enable that foundation to better support Māori learners by updating the definition of "Pacific person" and the purpose and makeup and the constitution of the foundation's board to enable it to function more effectively and "recognise the unique relationship the Crown has with the New Zealand Realm countries … through the Treaty of Friendship with Samoa".So it's hard to see how anybody could have any issue with these things but I suspect in the detail there's always value in the select committee hearing from people who are embedded in these foundations and scholarships and vetting processes that they may have some wording change or some issues that we haven't thought of. So I encourage people with those perspectives and knowledges to participate in that process. Very happy to support."
SpeechANGELA ROBERTS (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm even more pleased now to rise and take a call on the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill and it's really interesting to hear the people grappling with the concept of something being technical and that that necessarily means it's minor or insignificant. I think this is a really good example of something that is technical but it isn't minor—it is significant—and so it is right that we spend some time on it. I think something that is demonstrated by these technical amendments is that it's a really really good example of how complex our education system is and that the way that we lift achievement for our students is by attending by looking at the evidence and by really working with the profession with teachers with whānau and with students to come up with solutions. The only way we lift achievement is by building capability and confidence not by imposing compliance. So the purpose of this bill is to make sure that there are fewer distractions because we are attending to those technical changes that are required. It'll be really great to see this bill come to the Education and Workforce Committee because we know that there is a really important place for the profession—for boards for teachers for principals and for students—to come and make sure that we work through the practicalities of how these will play out in the schools. So it is because of that that I'm really pleased to be recommending this bill to the House.
SpeechSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak on the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill at its first reading which has been handed to the rather excellent Education and Workforce Committee. It's an interesting criticism isn't it to hear Opposition widely criticising a bill for not doing what it's not intended to do. It's not intended to do a whole load of things. It's not looking at carbon emissions it's not looking at the amount of hot air generated from the Opposition benches. But what it does do is something really important. I'm going to just talk for a very short amount of time about police vetting because this bill will ensure that police vets for non-teaching and unregistered employees at childcare centres like malls and gym crèches—that they're obtained before the employee begins work.Now it's taking roughly 20 working days at the moment for police-vets to be completed. I understand from the website that they're achieving that goal about 99 percent of the time so it's pretty good going. But I think we all agree—I hope we all agree—how important it is that police-vets are completed before our most vulnerable citizens such as children are exposed to potential harm. So we do need to make sure that those police-vets are actually completed before day one of employment and that's one of the things that this bill is intending to achieve. It also is intended to enable that the information contained in the police-vet itself is considered to assess whether the person is a risk to the safety of children if they're going to be carrying out work during normal opening hours.This is a small part of the bill. The bill itself as the Opposition have said is not large. It does something very important indeed and for that reason I commend it to the House.
Tinetti JanInstruction to Education and Workforce CommitteeHon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): I move That the Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 3) be reported to the House by 31 July 2023.Motion agreed to.
White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour): Thank you. It's my job as the last speaker in this debate to bring this debate back to the bill before us rather than the distractions and perhaps some of the dog-whistling that's been going on in this debate.First of all I want to focus on something small in the bill which I do not think is trivial at all and that is the actual dealing with people who are coming into a school as contractors as workers—they're working with children directly or they're working during school hours—and checking them to make sure that they have not committed some of the offences that are in Schedule 2. Those are not trivial offences; they're very serious offences. They're things like sexual abuse. They're things like kidnapping. We don't want people in those schools even for two minutes before they're checked.This is a very important part of the job and I did hear speakers from the other side suggest that this was something that was impractical to do. While it is tempting to trust the person coming into the school—and actually it is human nature to do so—this is a situation where we cannot afford that kind of error. This bill is not trivial because it will remedy that and it will make it mandatory for people to check and make sure that that doesn't happen. It will keep our children safe. That's an incredibly important part of this.I want to talk about a big-picture issue here and I'm only going to take a minute more. One of the bigger-picture issues here is equity. There's a difference between equity and equality and they're both really important: one treats people the same; the other looks at the person and gives them what they need. One of the things that's in this bill is an attempt to do that with our Māori community who have been utterly under-achieving in our system for years and years. We can't do the same thing over and over again because it is failing our children and we need to change things up.And this changes things up consistently with our obligations under the Treaty and our own concept—and I don't actually care myself whether it's historical or now. Right now my concept my commitment is to a partnership and this piece of legislation uses that model of partnership and uses the model of self-determination to make sure that education changes for the better.Those are two important things that are in this bill; they are not trivial. They don't solve all our education problems but they are important and they're before this House in urgency for that reason. I commend this bill to the House.
Utikere TangiTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise in support of this bill because for the first time in law what will be in place is a focus on the special characteristics the special dimensions that identify wānanga as a collective unit in this country but also identifying what they offer as something distinctly different to other tertiary institutes around Aotearoa New Zealand as well.I want to just spend my brief contribution focusing on the changes that this bill will provide for school boards around the country because it is important that those who are in governance roles and responsibilities in kura around the motu are appropriate individuals to effectively provide that governance lens in leadership around our communities.I'm sure that I join with many others in this House who have spent a number of years as a member of a board of trustees—myself as a staff trustee and as a parent trustee and the chair of a board for close to 15 years. And so ensuring that those who are occupying those seats around the board table are members of our community who are appropriate is something that is particularly pleasing to see.I'm delighted that this bill will also at first reading provide an opportunity for the Secretary for Education to undertake an audit to ensure that new eligibility criteria applies to all board members who are in those governance roles making decisions for our tamariki. This is in response to concerns that have been raised by community members over quite some time and it's a bill that delivers on that. I commend this bill to the House.