Xu-Nan LawrenceDr LAWRENCE XU-NAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. I too echo the previous speaker the Hon Jan Tinetti's sentiment that the shortened time frame for the select committee on such an important bill which has future implications is something that should be quite concerning for all people. When we are looking at select committee timing we are looking at usually six months to collect the information to do the due diligence of consultation. So we should theoretically not be looking at reporting back to the House on 5 September but pushing it out to December which I understand may come with challenges on some of the Associate Minister's own goals in terms of when certain elements of this bill should be set up.But I would just like to speak on the rationale on why having a full select committee process and a full duration of the select committee process is really vital for this particular bill. First of all we mentioned already that this amendment bill comes in three different and seemingly unrelated parts. In the first part we talked about it in terms of the attendance element of it. You know there will be people who would like to consult and who would like to feed into this bill who may need some time to fully flesh out and understand the implications but also what additional work there would be when the Secretary for Education is given the authority to collect some of this attendance data. I think this particular element might be the smallest element of the three that we are looking at but still there will be people who would like to provide some feedback on this and that may require time to generate some of the data.Now the previous speaker the Hon Jan Tinetti has already talked about this in terms of the network approval element. When we get attendance this is tied into the Associate Minister of Education's announcement of the attendance action plan which is for schools particularly for public and for State schools.The second part when we're looking at network approval looks at the completely different elements of our educational system which is around early childhood education. Again when we're looking at something like this the network approval process has only been in place for a month and we have already read in the regulatory impact statement about the limited time. Consistently over and over again when we're looking at the regulatory impact statement we see the limited time that the ministry and adviser had to consult and put something together. As a result it is absolutely crucial that we will be given sufficient time to consult on the network element particularly in terms of the network approval when we're looking at what the impact would be on community-based early childhood education (ECE) providers and what the impact will be on private for-profit ECE providers. What will be the impact it has in relation to the FamilyBoost that the Government has announced that gives compensation or rebate to parents? With a lot of these we are looking at multiple elements and multiple stakeholders that potentially would like to feed into this particular element of the network approval. Hence the absolutely vital element of having that full select committee process and not just simply having the report back on 5 September.When we're looking at having the report back on 5 September I also just want to sort of lay out what some of that could potentially look like as well. It looks like there will be a submission process for possibly the July period and then there will be hearings etc. during the August period so that we are able to report back. So in fact when we're looking at the process itself of a select committee it actually doesn't give sufficient time for people to provide that feedback and for the select committee itself to be able to hear from the relevant and broad-ranging stakeholders that is required for something like education.The impact of education is a slow burn in Aotearoa. If we don't do something well if we're not being meticulous about it it will have a long-term impact. So again this is why it is so important. The Government has already mentioned that they like the democratic process. They want to have a decentralised process but at the same time we're seeing that it's not giving sufficient time for the public to fully express their democratic right as is the right of people of Aotearoa to be able to feed into something like this.The third element of the bill is around charter schools and this is probably the most crucial and the most time-consuming element of this particular bill. When we are looking at the impact it will have first of all if we are just looking at the conversion element that the Associate Minister has announced—this is State schools converting to charter schools which also again does not engage with or is apart from what he says over here in the bill. It is apart from State-integrated schools distance schools kura kaupapa Māori specialist schools and designated character schools. So when we're only looking at consultation from public schools we're looking at feedback from agencies we're looking at feedback from schools and within that school we're looking at feedback from teachers we're looking at feedback from support staff we're looking at feedback from students and we're looking at how schools are going to have sufficient time to consult with their communities with their local communities. This is something that the Associate Minister has himself mentioned: this consulting is about allowing communities to have their voice back and have their level of autonomy and consulting with the boards of the schools. So that is just from the school component which may take up a lot of time; you also have the community element. The Hon Jan Tinetti has already mentioned the kind of consultation that will be required with whānau hapū and iwi from a Māori perspective. This is something we must acknowledge: that the current education system has let our Māori rangatahi and students down in many regards. So it is really important that we have the time to be able to engage with them and for these hapū and iwi to be able to engage and have the wānanga have that kōrero themselves to be able to sensitively tease out exactly what they would like to feed in as part of this process.Another element of this looking more at engaging with communities is our rural communities not just simply our regional communities but our rural communities who also feel that they are being let down by the system. So it's really important that they get given sufficient time to be able to have their say as well.Grant McCallum: I just did!Dr LAWRENCE XU-NAN: Of course finally the last part of this puzzle—and you know as you can see that other members who are also incredibly passionate about rural communities may also encourage their communities to make submissions. They would also then know how long it takes for rural communities to pull something together. The last component of this is how the students are able to pull something together. We're looking at not just students but also student collectives. The student voice is incredibly important when we're looking at anything that is related to education. For far too long our system has negated or has neglected the voice of the students. So in this case how are we going to consult with the relevant students in conjunction with their parents in conjunction with their teachers and in conjunction with their schools? This is going to be really really important. And when we are looking at all of these obviously we are also looking at how we are able to do these sorts of consultations potentially with students or potentially with families whose English may not be their first language. How are we going to be able to consult with those families and with those communities in a really sensitive and articulate and measured way so that they know exactly what it means for their children and for their families? This is something that would affect every person in Aotearoa because every person in Aotearoa goes through the education system.We absolutely need to have that level of scrutiny and that level of insight from across the board from all aspects from all facets of our community of Aotearoa when we're looking at this particular bill.So I would highly highly encourage and endorse the delay of this reporting to the six-month select committee stage.