Wong Pansy: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2639] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 The only excitement in this Committee stage of the debate is being provided by the proposed amendments. Any political parties that fail to support the amendments proposed by the Hon Bill English and Allan Peachey to measure the performance of students are failing parents and failing our children. I want those political parties to listen and to reflect very carefully. Our children are our future and I say an education amendment bill should endorse amendments that put in place provisions to assist parents to know the potential of students and keep abreast of the progress of their children. 
The late Rt Hon David Lange the visionary Labour Prime Minister gave New Zealand Tomorrow’s Schools. He knew that parents and children are the people who really matter and that the educational standards of schools should be tailored to meet the needs of parents and children. But this Labour regime has turned the late Rt Hon David Lange’s vision of Tomorrow’s Schools into “Yesterday’s Schools”. It has taken the initiative from parents and from assisting children and given it back to the bureaucracy. It is saying that Wellington the Ministers and the bureaucrats know what is best for parents and children. 
I challenge political parties like United Future the Greens the Maori Party and New Zealand First to explain to their constituents when they go back to them why they have failed to support amendments to make sure taxpayers’ money is put into education and into schools to help our children. It is not to give jobs to bureaucrats or to enable bureaucrats to continue to demand compliance costs and tie up our teachers in filling out forms. Their job is to help our children—our future generation—to get the best possible education and to know their progress. So I cannot see how those political parties can face their supporters and say they will not support these important amendments. They are the only amendments to inspire me to come down to the Chamber and take a call to say that I am excited about our education system. Because the Tomorrow’s Schools scheme was started by the inspirational late Rt Hon David Lange I challenge the Labour Party to honour its previous leader by saying it understands as he understood that parents are important and that they want the best education for their children. 
I have another question for the Minister in the chair the Hon Steve Maharey apart from the major one: when did we exempt education amendment bills from the requirement that compliance cost statements be furnished? I want the Minister to take a call and tell us when Labour declared that compliance cost statements did not have to accompany an education amendment bill. I want to know by how much this bill will increase the compliance costs met by schools but that is a lesser point compared with the lack of acceptance of the amendments so correctly and rightly proposed by the Hon Bill English and my colleague Allan Peachey. I do not think that anybody can challenge the statements made by Allan Peachey who does not just talk the talk. He is actually a successful and an accomplished principal who knows what is best for students and who has come to Parliament with a single purpose: to inspire politicians to put forward amendments and champion bills that ensure our children get the best possible education. I think the Minister owes it to us to explain why he would not even reflect on those very worthwhile amendments.