Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to take a call on the Education Amendment Bill. As Parliament debates this piece of legislation I think it's important to reflect on what this piece of legislation does. On this side of the Chamber the National Party will be progressing a number of Supplementary Order Papers covering a range of the issues in this bill to try to ensure that we at least protect some of the provisions in the Education Act which are essential to our young people and to the future of our country.What this bill does and what it seeks to do is it removes the national standards removes the partnership school model changes the council membership of our tertiary education councils and polytechs and a range of other things. But I think the thing which Parliament will be incredibly interested in and the public are certainly very interested in it is the way in which this bill is being used to remove the partnership school model. The sad reality is that the Minister who's sitting in the chair now Chris Hipkins has already done everything he can to undermine—before Parliament has even voted on this legislation before it has even become law he's already gone and closed these schools down. He's already ensured that this model is taken away from being able to be used. He's ensured that the schools have had to go through a process where those schools are being closed down and they have not had the opportunity for proper and good consultation throughout.I think that's clear by the way that we on the Education and Workforce Committee part-way through the select committee process had to take Supplementary Order Papers put forward by the Minister of Education to try and fix this legislation to ensure that the shifting of these schools from partnership school models to other models would be able to be done with at least semi-satisfactory mechanisms. I can tell the Minister that even the provisions that are in this piece of legislation are still not satisfactory and we on this side of the Chamber will be putting forward a number of Supplementary Order Papers to try to address some of the inequities which he is putting into our legislation putting into law.I think the saddest thing about all this is that while we are in this committee debating this legislation—and we'll be talking about different clauses throughout the evening and into tomorrow—we look at these clauses and yes they're words on paper but this legislation is going to make a dramatic impact on some of the children in our most disadvantaged communities. These are children who have failed year after year in education for a variety of reasons and partnership schools were the only thing which said that they're good enough that they're smart enough and that they're able to succeed and have the opportunity to get an education in this country and be able to succeed as New Zealanders with the same opportunities that we have had—and this Government is getting rid of it. This Government is getting rid of that model.There's only one reason why they're getting rid—well there are two reasons why. One reason is because they know best. This Government knows best! This Government thinks they have all the answers to all the problems and that anyone else who might have a solution is wrong. Well that is a completely flawed ideology to run our education system with a completely flawed education system that this Minister is trying to envision for New Zealand. These schools have had a dramatic effect on these young people's lives a dramatic impact. The results speak for themselves but are being ignored by the Minister of Education. So I ask the Minister of Education to talk about the results that these schools are having the positive impact that they're having on the lives of the individuals and the positive impact that they're having on the communities which they are in and to tell the committee whether he's actually gone during this consultation period and visited one of these schools and whether the Prime Minister has visited one of these schools to try and really understand.The second reason is because this legislation is being requested by the unions. This is a Government which is doing this and closing the partnership school model because the unions want to have control throughout our education sector. They don't like the fact that in some instances in some schools there may be a slightly different way of running the schools where actually those schools might be able to choose registered teachers to work for them who are able to be paid slightly differently from what the unionised contract might be. They are closing this down so that the unions have complete and utter control over our education sector. That is the second reason why this Government is wanting to close down this model. Firstly they think they know best and secondly they want the unions—their union mates—to have control over the education sector.The reality is that these schools have been making a positive difference have been making an incredible difference in our community and that is why we will be standing beside these schools standing beside these young people standing beside their families and standing beside their future and saying that actually these young people know what is best for them. These young people know what they want from their future and they know where they want to go. These families and these communities know and have aspirations for the young people and want to see them succeed and will be doing everything that they can but this Government is taking away those opportunities.So we'll be putting forward a range of Supplementary Order Papers in this debate to amend parts of this bill. One of the Supplementary Order Papers that I am putting forward Supplementary Order Paper 119 is to amend clause 2 which is the commencement date. That's part of the debate. There's another clause that we'll be doing in regards to the establishment board of trustees for new State schools being opened to replace a closing partnership school kura hourua. It will be made up of the board and of the corresponding and closing partnership schools. So we'll be addressing some of the inequities that this Government has put in place because the reality is that when the Prime Minister stood up in the House she said that there will be essentially three things in regards to these schools when they're closed: that she won't close the schools if they teach the New Zealand Curriculum if they employ registered teachers and if they also have results. Well these schools met all of the three criteria that our Prime Minister told the House they should have but the Minister and the Government have decided to close them down without proper and due consultation.So I challenge the Minister to get up and explain to the committee and explain to these schools and explain to the children and young people who attend these schools the consultation process that has gone through and tell us why he thinks it has been adequate and tell us why he's had to put Supplementary Order Papers through to the select committee to fix up this bill part-way through and to explain to the committee whether he thinks those Supplementary Order Papers actually adequately address the issues which have been raised with him by the partnership schools. We sat on the select committee and the schools were given limited time to respond to those Supplementary Order Papers. They were given very limited time to be able to actually have their say and speak to them and the result in what they said was they weren't happy. So I ask the Minister to actually explain how those provisions are actually going to address the issues which they have raised in the select committee process because they had very limited time to be able to respond and this is a significant issue. These are significant issues because as I have said they address the future of our young people the future of our children and our young people and the opportunities that they have for their future.So we have a number of Supplementary Order Papers that we'll be progressing. There are also other issues that I'll be focusing on in regards to the polytech and university councils and the numbers of representatives. Essentially this bill is trying to weaken our institutions by ensuring that there are going to be elected members and it's going back to what we've had in the past. It's going to weaken the governance by not requiring those people to actually have the governance skills that everyone else around the table is going to have so we're going to have some Supplementary Order Papers to address that as well.