11. Question No. 11—EducationERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 11—Education11. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by all her statements and actions?Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): In the context in which they were given yes.Erica Stanford: On what date did the Minister first possess any knowledge or awareness that the term 3 attendance data could be released on the same day as the Government's truancy announcement on 21 February?Hon JAN TINETTI: Mr Speaker I'm in a little bit of a difficult position here and I'm going to seek your guidance on this because this is actually currently before the Privileges Committee to which they haven't had the report come back to the House. So I'm not certain what I can say in this House or not.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Speaking to that point Standing Order 243(1) goes to the question of confidentiality of select committee proceedings and the Privileges Committee is subject to these Standing Orders: The proceedings of a select committee or subcommittee other than during the hearing of evidence are not open to the public and remain strictly confidential". Now we've had an hour before the committee where the Minister gave evidence in public in front of the committee in front of thousands of people watching around the country and it'll be on the 6 o'clock news tonight. I can't see how that could possibly meet the terms of the confidentiality Standing Orders.SPEAKER: I'm going to allow that question.Hon JAN TINETTI: Can the member repeat the question please.Erica Stanford: On what date did the Minister first possess any knowledge or awareness that the term 3 attendance data could be released on the same day as the Government's truancy announcement on 21 February?Hon JAN TINETTI: I would have to say that from my recollection I didn't have that knowledge until the data was actually released. That was on 23 February I believe—I haven't got that information in front of me but I'm willing to correct that if I have got that wrong.Erica Stanford: Why did she definitively tell The AM Show on 21 February that "term 3 data is going to be released today by the Ministry of Education" if she had no certainty the attendance data would be released that day?Hon JAN TINETTI: That was in the heat of a media interview. I genuinely had no knowledge of when that data was going to be released.Erica Stanford: Why in a later interview on Breakfast on the same—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Sorry can you just start the question again? I couldn't hear.Erica Stanford: Why is it on the same day after the AM Show she stated on the Breakfast show that the data would be released that day or the following day?Hon JAN TINETTI: Same reason—exactly the same reason. I genuinely had no knowledge of when that data would be released. I was being interviewed by the media at that particular time. As I said in the committee this morning I actually had a hope that the data would be released at some point.Erica Stanford: Is the Minister making a habit of saying things that she suspects or doesn't know is true and then standing by them?Hon JAN TINETTI: No.Erica Stanford: Why when the Minister read emails on 5 April showing the Minister's office had input into the delaying of the attendance data didn't the Minister at that point immediately correct her answer when the House sat the next day?Hon JAN TINETTI: As I said in the select committee this morning that was when I started to have some questions around that. I wanted to talk about that with my staff at the time but then we were going to rise for the recess. At that point in time I didn't have the opportunity over the recess—I was on a ministerial trip to Ottawa and Washington. I was going to come back and have that conversation with my staff on 1 May and then other events happened such as a letter from yourself."