Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (National): Tēnā koutou e Te Whare i tēnei wiki Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori.[Good evening to the House in this special week Māori Language Week.]I rise to speak very conscious of the contribution from the Minister Chris Hipkins earlier who—while I'm sure—wasn't seeking to trifle with the Chair did suggest that any discussion of these consequential amendments were somehow beyond the remit of this committee this evening. What I'd like to put to the Minister is that if he thinks it is not a priority to debate the changing of the name of this institution throughout our legislation throughout our statute book then why is it that he has prioritised this name change? Why is it that he has decided that of all the matters this committee could spend its time on in order to advance the interests of New Zealand's children and ensure that our education system performs better he has decided that legislation that changes the name of the Education Council to the Teaching Council should be prioritised?For those of you listening at home I want to take you through what these consequential amendments mean. What the consequential amendments require is that a number of other Acts must be amended to have the name of the Education Council removed and have the name Teaching Council" put in place. Those Acts include the Ombudsmen Act 1975 the Privacy Act 1993 and the State Sector Act 1988. Then beyond those statutes which the good men and women of the Clerk's Office and others will go through and change accordingly we then have to have amendments to legislative instruments. So we need to have amendments to the Education Council Rules. This is but one of the many examples of bits of paper that over the next few weeks and months will be ripped up put in the shredder. Where's Chlöe Swarbrick when we need her with her concern for waste? They'll be ripped up they'll be put in the shredder they'll be thrown away and instead a new rule book will be created. What will be the difference between the old rule book the Education Council Rules as created through the legislative instruments and the new Teaching Council Rules? Oh! Well it will be the name change. So it really does draw attention to how this bill uses the priority of this House that these are the sorts of changes that we are now required to pass in a bill this evening. Not only does this amendment to the legislative instrument take place in terms of the name on the front of the book but then throughout the book we have to go to rule 11 rule 12 rule 35 and rule 37 and we have to change the name.What we are asked to believe by the Minister in the chair is that by making this change we will somehow advance and value New Zealand's teachers. I say to this committee that that is an absolutely patronising argument: to say that somehow the men and women who are teaching New Zealand's children who are giving their best every day and who were striking out the front of Parliament just some weeks ago—and who knows might be again soon—what will make them feel better what will make them feel valued is if we rip up the rule book and we put a new name on the front and if we make some consequential amendments to the Ombudsmen Act the Privacy Act and the State Sector Act to change the reference to the "Education Council" to the "Teaching Council".I would suggest to the members of this committee that that is the sort of thing that gets you the label of being virtue signallers and not being concerned with substantive matters that New Zealanders want advanced because actually when you talk to people about what they want progressed in education—when you talk to parents about what it is they want for their children—they don't say "Look I'm really concerned about the name of the Education Council." In fact I have been to dozens of early childhood education centres—Hon Nikki Kaye: Has anyone raised it?NICOLA WILLIS: No. Ms Kaye asks whether anyone raised the name of the teachers council. Well I have spoken to dozens and dozens of early childhood educators in particular and not one of them has said to me "You know the thing that's really burning on my mind the thing that I really think would change things is if there were consequential amendments made to the Ombudsmen Act so that when it refers to the Education Council it's changed and it's called the Teaching Council."This may seem like a trivial argument and I would not use the time of this House on a trivial argument if it weren't for the Minister requiring me to do so by placing this legislation in front of us and claiming that this is the thing that we should be prioritising. I would say to him that he'd better sort out more than the name of the Education Council if he wants to advance New Zealand's teachers."