Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): I love the intention of this bill as do so many of my colleagues on this side of the House. What I can't agree with is the execution and that is because it is not strategic as has already been traversed. From my perspective I'd just like to discuss within that the place of community when it comes to language and culture.I love the intention because it does foster social inclusion. We know that the world is shaped by language and that language is a gateway into other people's perspectives into their cultures and into their realities. From that perspective around social cohesion it is a really important thing to do. As has already been said there is a lot of evidence that learning a second language enhances the neuroplasticity of the brain—particularly so for children under the age of 12. I've seen graphs showing different parts of the brain being used when language learners learn under the age of 12 as opposed to over which gives us some insights into why young children pick up languages so easily and how that enhanced neuroplasticity can stay with them.I didn't sit on the Education and Workforce Committee but I do have an interest in this subject because I am actually Dutch. My first language was German; I didn't speak very much of it but I was brought up in Germany until a very young age probably two or three so my first few words were German. My Dutch mother tried to teach me Dutch and unfortunately we failed miserably as a team possibly because—Marja Lubeck: Talk to me Ingrid!INGRID LEARY: Ha ha! Unlike the member sitting behind me who's a wonderful Dutch speaker. But it did teach me the importance of language. As I grew older and I had my own Rotuman children I didn't want them to go through the same process of not understanding a language that was in their genealogy. So I tried very hard to get my two teenaged children Rotuman language lessons when they were younger and to the point where actually the Ministry of Education offered me funding to be able to set up a language-learning centre but when I discovered that I had to have certain sized windows and doorways and all sorts of rules it became too difficult. But it does show that I'm really committed to this. And because I couldn't teach them Rotuman what I did do was I put my children through bilingual education in te reo Māori and also I got a private tutor—I was very lucky to find somebody who lived nearby who spoke Mandarin. The reason I chose those two languages is because te reo is our first language; I consider it to be very important and I do think that it is important that our language strategy places te reo right at the centre along with English and also sign language. But secondly because Mandarin as was pointed out by one of the National speakers is emerging as a main language in New Zealand; there are many Mandarin speakers it is an important language. I felt that the Māori and Mandarin were at two different ends of the spectrum as far as different cultures different experiences and I wanted my children to have the breadth of that experience and understanding through that gateway of language.So really that is to preface my pointing out in the National Party differing view when the National Party says that the bill doesn't breach Te Tiriti it is saying Yes learning another language is important and New Zealand kids can learn any language they like as long as it is te reo."—te reo is not mutually exclusive from other languages and I do find that quite a cynical statement coming from a party that thinks on balance colonisation was better for Māori!In terms of strategy though we've talked about why the bill is not strategic and there are other things that have been discussed around capability and around resources. I thought I'd just reference the experience again with the Rotuman language because Rotuman is now one of the nine Pacific language weeks celebrated in New Zealand. We've been celebrating those since 2010 and this year was the second year for Rotuman. We saw people in the House wearing tēfui and in the Samoa Language Week that's just been ula fala. So we really do value that. But the community are the ones that made sure the integrity of the language was preserved and that was through two incredible women—Rosa Penjuali and Emma Caswell.So if we don't have the resourcing in schools and we don't have the teaching capability it is the communities who will suffer because they will not be able to keep the integrity of their language and the cultural integrity that goes with it. Communities must be part of a strategy and currently there is no strategy—we've heard the Minister say tonight there will be a strategy; that is a way forward—and that is why we cannot commend this bill to the House."