Tinetti JanJAN TINETTI (Labour): Thank you Mr Chair. I'm delighted to take— Greg O'Connor: A real teacher. JAN TINETTI: —a call in the appropriation debate on education and I do Mr O'Connor consider it a great privilege to have been an educator for as long as I was which was close to 30 years. However I find it interesting following Nikki Kaye the previous speaker who was talking about the lack of workforce planning of this particular Government because it was in 2016 when I appeared before the select committee that talked about education at that time where I begged the then Government to put in a workforce plan around teacher supply. I said that we were heading for a major shortage and we were right at the beginning of it. It's amazing how we have a lack of memory about that at this particular time. This Government has inherited huge issues around workforce planning but hey we're not going to let that get us down because we're doing something about it. It's interesting that in the Ministry of Education review they actually even said when they appeared before us—and I quote them from their 2017-18 annual review—The shortage is partly a result of unusually high roll growth that wasn't planned for." and a lack of clear guidelines about how many teachers needed to be trained each year from the previous Government. But we will do something and we are doing something about it and the previous speaker did talk about the announcements last week that will fund additional teacher-training places. That is really important but not only that: we're also looking at the supply of beginning teachers and are supporting them into their first jobs. That is critically important and the one area that I want to talk about particularly is the voluntary bonding scheme expansion. That is a critical area that is vital to getting teachers into hard-to-staff schools. Also a number of teachers have actually come through my school which was a decile 1 school and was eligible for the voluntary bonding scheme as it currently exists to get that particular grant that was afforded to them. Over five years that is a total of $17500 per teacher. That is a significant amount of remuneration for working in those hard-to-staff schools. That is something that we are expanding along with those additional teacher-training places. I just want to go back to that. Under that previous Government initial teacher education enrolments plummeted—not only dropped but plummeted—by 40 percent. That is why we must now address that and do something to actually bring that right and that is exactly what that— Hon Nikki Kaye: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave for the member to table the workforce development strategy that's been in train for 18 months under that Government. CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Two things. It's a really serious matter to interrupt a member. Every member has a right to be heard. If that seeking of leave was actually in order in the first place which it isn't—and then to interrupt someone during a speech is not correct and I would expect the member to know that. JAN TINETTI: Thank you Mr Chair. Moving on from there another issue that we have heard here this afternoon was about the removal of national standards. One reason why this Government has actually taken that step is to start to remove the administrative burden and compliance that has been placed upon our teaching workforce which has led towards the complete burnout of our teaching workforce. The first thing that we could do was to actually remove those national standards overnight. It was something really embraced by our sector—absolutely loved by our sector— Hon Tim Macindoe: Not by the parents. JAN TINETTI: —and something that I am absolutely pleased about as an ex-principal to actually say that that made a real difference to our teachers in the classrooms. It's something I'm still getting thanked about and I did hear from the other side someone saying that it wasn't welcomed by our parents. Well I'd have to say that that is something that I would beg to differ with because I've heard parents say that they're actually getting a clearer view of where their children are at now and a better understanding of what their children are actually learning. They're actually having real conversations with the teachers of their children which is something pretty exciting to be happening when you're seeing the parents engaging so much in those classrooms. The other last area that I briefly wanted to talk about—and we've heard it from two previous speakers there—is our fees-free announcement. The ministry said in their annual review that they consider the policy to be successful in terms of improving affordability and decreasing student debt. There is clear information showing that students are taking out less debt which has got to be good for our economy. But what I did ask during that review was that I hoped that we would be looking at qualitative data as well because I personally know young people that have considered university and who are attending university for the first time—first-time students in their families. I think that's great for this country and I think it's particularly good for those young people that they are able to go there now because they've got those fees free."