Mallard Trevor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mallard Trevor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8035. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10.  
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Was she correctly reported this morning as indicating flaws in her proposed national standards are being addressed; if so what is the process she is using to address those flaws? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 The member must be suffering from a bit of jet lag. No. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Mr Speaker are you going to deal with that or not? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am on my feet. We can see what happens when members are disorderly. I say to the Minister that that response was totally out of order and it led to disorder. That will not be tolerated. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Is there one published expert or academic who agrees with her view on national standards rather than with the views of Thrupp Crooks Flockton and Hattie who have today written an open letter to her; if so who is that academic or expert? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: Several academics have expressed support at various stages in the process. Several have been involved in their development. 
Colin King 
: What sector involvement was there in the development of the national standards? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: Over 4000 principals teachers literacy and numeracy advisers and other professionals attended meetings. There were 1176 written responses from the sector of which 490 came from groups representing in total 4557 people. The education sector was also involved in an independent expert panel which helped to develop the standards and in the national standards reference group which provided feedback on the draft standards. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: If she disagrees with Thrupp Crooks Flockton and Hattie New Zealand’s four leading assessment academics who have written to her stating inter alia that full implementation of the intended national standards system over the next 3 years is unlikely to be successful will not achieve intended goals and is likely to lead to dangerous side effects why are they wrong? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I said this morning that the academics’ concerns are being addressed. For instance the Ministry of Education is working on how schools can report on children’s progress and achievement in relation to the New Zealand curriculum. Professor John Hattie himself is participating in this work. I say to that member that parents want this proposal and they want national standards— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I always get concerned when Ministers start with “I say to that member” because it invariably means they are no longer answering the question. The Minister answered the question and that is sufficient. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I hate to disagree with the ruling you have just made as to whether the Minister has sufficiently answered the question but I do not think she actually got to the question about the specifics of why she disagrees with those four experts. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister did point out that she did not disagree totally with the experts and that in fact one of the experts was involved in working on the scheme to address issues that were of concern. I believe that that was a perfectly fair answer to the question. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Was her reading of this picture book to a group of secondary school teachers designed to be evidence of her ability to meet literacy standards and was she describing her position with the line about rats having a better life or was she telling teachers that the final line “You have to be happy with a lot less.” applies to them? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I suggest that that member reads the book. It is a great read. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Interjections that are nasty are not helpful at all. I ask the House to just take a deep breath.