SpeechEDUCATION (STRENGTHENING SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN PRIMARY AND INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon NIKKI KAYE (Deputy Leader—National): I move That the Education (Strengthening Second Language Learning in Primary and Intermediate Schools) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.It is a huge privilege to stand in this House tonight to be speaking on a piece of legislation that in my view has a number of people that have contributed to get it to this point. I want to acknowledge people across the House on this piece of legislation because what I know is that while we have managed to get this legislation to the House there are members of Parliament from different political parties that have fought hard over the years to support greater second language learning in schools. I want to put on the record tonight my thanks to people like Steve Maharey who has contributed in terms of my thinking around this legislation; and Sir Don McKinnon who has done a huge amount in terms of Asian languages in New Zealand. I want to acknowledge people like Jeff Johnstone who were involved in the development of this bill.The main reason that I believe in this piece of legislation but also in this policy is fourfold. The first is that we are a country that is multicultural. We have huge diversity in New Zealand and particularly in a city like Auckland we have a huge number of people that have come to New Zealand to make it their home and a lot of them want to have the ability to be able to speak to their grandparents to their parents and they need access to the particular language that will enable them to do that—whether that is Hindi whether that is Mandarin whether that is Korean languages. And the reality is that it's not just about that; it is about the cultural connection. It is also about the future of our nation. It's about recognising that we're a small nation that has traded with the rest of the world and the reality is the more young people in New Zealand who have access to those second languages it will mean that there will be businesses and trade opportunities in the future that we've never had.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Sorry to interrupt the member. You're required to—Hon NIKKI KAYE: I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider this bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Excellent thank you.Hon NIKKI KAYE: Thank you. The reality is as well that there is a very important other aspect of this bill. It is around recognising that there are many young people in New Zealand that don't have access to Te Reo and we want to ensure that we have that universal access in New Zealand. So what the bill does is mean that the Crown must fund this access in schools in New Zealand. That's very very significant for our nation and it's very important for the future of the language. There is a fiscal commitment that comes with that but I've talked to a number of iwi and Māori leaders about the importance of ensuring that every young person in New Zealand can get access to learn Te Reo.The other part of this is that we have also in the bill provided universal access to New Zealand Sign Language and I do acknowledge that this Government has provided some funding in this area. But what we also know which is the other benefit of this bill is that languages are very important not just for cultural competency not just to enable Te Reo to survive in New Zealand but also there is huge cognitive benefit from young people learning a second language. There's a lot of research in this area about the fact that we will be a smarter nation if we have more young people learning second languages. So what the bill does is it enables a system to exist whereby schools will choose priority languages to be taught. What we know is that the difference between the priority languages that might be requested in schools in South Auckland might be very different to other parts of Hamilton where potentially there will be another mix of languages. But what we're very clear on is that there will be universal access to Te Reo under this bill.The other thing that we need to understand and respect—and this is what is very unusual for a country like ours—is that New Zealand is one of the most diverse countries in the world in parts of our country. There are 160 different languages spoken and what we know is that in many other education systems in many other countries in the world there is huge access to languages and so we are out of step and that's why I acknowledge people like Steve Maharey and Sir Don McKinnon who have really pushed this for a long period of time.I also want to acknowledge at this point what I think is also the other benefit of this. It is what I would call social cohesion and we had a very good report recently by Sir Peter Gluckman and others from the Informed Futures group which really puts up an argument I think about the fact that we need to continue to work hard to have social cohesion. So we're not only going to get cultural competency we're not only going to get business and trade links in the future we're not only going to be a smarter nation but we're going to potentially have greater social cohesion as a result of this bill.I do want to acknowledge as I said before that there is a fiscal commitment. We've estimated that it's probably $40 million per year. We don't underestimate the challenge that it will take to implement this bill. We do understand that there will need to be different resourcing and a different plan for each of the different languages. There's a very big difference between how we would implement the delivery of additional Hindi in schools to potentially Mandarin to potentially Pasifika languages to strengthening all of the good work that's happening in Te Reo and we do understand that there will be a different set of resources that may be required. We also need to make the point that what is really important is that while we may have language assistants we do invest in our teaching workforce. It's very important that the quality of language provision is there. We know there are some amazing language teachers in New Zealand but we know that there's going to be a whole training component of this.The other important point that I would make about the bill is that we are focused on the country having a national language policy which is incredibly important to ensure that our language infrastructure and ecosystem is not just about schools; there's an important role that we need to have in investing in languages in the community. That means respecting and supporting leaders in this area.And I think the other thing that I want to acknowledge in this House around the first reading of this bill is that I don't believe this bill is perfect. I do believe—and I've had discussions with other members across the House and I want to acknowledge the Green Party the Labour Party and New Zealand First; we may not agree on every aspect of this bill and there is a chance at select committee to improve it—that we have this once-in-a-generation opportunity to finally massively strengthen the opportunity for people to understand know their heritage but also to have those cognitive benefits.So this is one of the great things that I'm proud of in my career—I acknowledge Marama Davidson; I acknowledge Chlöe Swarbrick; I acknowledge Chris Hipkins for the huge generosity and time that he's given me; and others across the House on this legislation to get it to this point because as I understand it we're going to have multiple political parties supporting it to select committee. So I really want to make that point which is that there will need to be a whole conversation as to how we implement this. There will need to be a whole conversation as to how we choose priority languages. There will be a whole debate in select committee about the strengthening of Te Reo via this bill in my view. But I don't believe that this bill is necessarily perfect and that's why I want to work collaboratively with all members of the House and the conversations that I have had with other political parties have been that now is the time.We are a diverse nation we're a nation that looks out to the world. We have this huge opportunity with this piece of legislation—and the right funding and support—to work with all of those people that have fought hard for this across the House to ensure that every young person has the ability to learn a second language. Many of them will learn multiple languages and I think that debate about the fact that there may be a year where it's multilingual where there may be the basics of multiple languages that young people learn—that it's not just about that second language; it could be several languages—is a really important debate to have at select committee.So I want to finish by again acknowledging that this is a big day in New Zealand's history that there have been multiple people from Steve Maharey to Sir Don McKinnon who have had huge vision around second language learning and that I'm very proud to have this bill. And I want to acknowledge all of the people that have been involved in this bill to bring it to the House and then finally again to acknowledge the huge generosity of spirit but also collaboration that has come from members of Parliament across this House to bring this important Education (Strengthening Second Language Learning in Primary and Intermediate Schools) Amendment Bill to the House. Thank you.