Foster-Bell PaulPAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): E Te Mana Whakawā Tuarua tēnā koe. I am speaking against the Charter Schools (Application of Official Information and Ombudsmen Acts) Bill for several reasons. First I just want to reflect on the fact that—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Can I ask the member to resume his seat and I will get him to start again. Ms Delahunty and Mr Seymour can you quieten your discussion down or sit next to each other but—[Interruption] Well I was going to suggest you go outside but that could cause all sorts of problems. We will start Mr Foster-Bell's speech again.PAUL FOSTER-BELL: Well sir I do not know whether you were inviting them to have a fight or what. But look in restarting my speech I want to reflect on what Metiria Turei the previous speaker was talking about because it strikes me that it was a rehearsal of the ideological arguments against charters schools per se rather than a discussion around the application of the Official Information Act (OIA) and Ombudsmen Act to charter schools. This is obviously an area that we take some interest in on the Government Administration Committee where I usually sit. We dealt with the Official Information Act in so far as it applies to the parliamentary under-secretaries bill that came through this House recently and which the Government did support through so that Mr Seymour the only current parliamentary under-secretary of State is now subject to the Official Information Act. I pointed out at the time that Mr Seymour discussed at quite some length what proactive steps he takes to make available information that is of interest to the public particularly in the range of portfolios. He has some wonderful portfolios—the most tremendous portfolios. He has got small business. He is obviously the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Education. So this bill I would argue is unnecessary. Mr Seymour in so far as he has parliamentary responsibility for charter schools is subject to the Official Information Act. But I think it would create something of an unfortunate precedent to make what are non-State institutions subject to the Official Information Act and the Ombudsmen Act. The Ministry of Education does collect significant data from charter schools—or as we prefer to call them partnership schools—and this information is of course subject to the OIA and the actions of the Ministry of Education are subject to review by the Ombudsman. The member who spoke previously did touch at length on the issue of bullying harassment and those issues in schools and this is something I personally feel very passionate about. It is not only in the private the independent and the State-integrated education systems where bullying exists. It is also unfortunately and tragically throughout our public education system. There are many schools that are wonderful examples of good practice in this area but there are public schools sadly that we can point to where bullying of children for all sorts of reasons be it their religious background their ethnic background or their sexuality is pervasive. This is something I feel very strongly on and I do not think the application of the Official Information Act or the Ombudsmen Act to a charter school will help a single child in that area. If I did I would be crossing the floor and I would be voting for this bill. The kinds of measures that will help those children who are subject to that kind of bullying are directions and encouragement and prioritisation by the Education Review Office to add homophobic bullying or bullying in the widest possible sense to the list of items that it reviews when it goes into schools. Currently it looks at the safety of buildings and it looks at educational attainment achieved by students. It looks at many other things and I would be very much in favour of the Education Review Office taking a greater level of interest in or giving a higher priority to homophobic bullying in particular but bullying more widely. But I think this bill as has been proposed does not actually do anything to contribute to the greater safety of our students in schools and let us face it under the current excellent and outstanding Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata our schools are being well run and being better run all the time. This has been reflected in the Programme for International Student Assessment results that we have seen—Tracey Martin: Not a teacher involved.PAUL FOSTER-BELL: —where New Zealand has climbed up the international league tables. Mrs Martin may be unable to comprehend the league tables that we have recently seen. But this bill as far as I see it does nothing to improve the quality of education enjoyed by New Zealand children which has gone up under the John Key - led Government and under the leadership of the Hon Hekia Parata who will probably be remembered as one of the finest if not the finest Ministers of Education that this country has ever seen. The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!PAUL FOSTER-BELL: You may have picked up a theme here Mr Assistant Speaker. This is a bill that I see as an ideological knee-jerk reaction to charter schools—emphasis on the jerk" when it comes to "knee-jerk". I think it is something that this House should reject as unnecessary and something that does nothing for the quality of education in New Zealand."