English Bill: State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
English Bill: State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10630] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
: 
 The National Party will be opposing the bill. That is not just because Trevor Mallard put it up although that is a good reason. The reason I say that is because this bill is more bully-boy tactics. This legislation should be a warning to people who think that Trevor Mallard does not like them or what they do. If he does not like them he will take up the time of the House in passing legislation that will give him a bigger stick to beat them with and that is what this bill is about. In this case it happens that I share some of his views about the Post Primary Teachers Association but not all of them and I certainly do not share enough of those views to support this legislation. 
This bill would be more correctly called “Last Year’s Strike Revenge Bill” because that Minister was put on the political rack by the secondary teachers by the Post Primary Teachers Association itself and by his own colleagues. He had eroded the traditionally close relationship between Labour and the Post Primary Teachers Association so much that even in the face of an election it would not settle. That damaged Trevor Mallard’s credibility permanently. Every night on television parents saw teachers and children marching. They saw anger and bitterness and the escalation of those feelings whenever he went into the room to negotiate. 
This year he has decided to get all the sticks lined up for next year and here it is. The State Services Commissioner will now have all the usual rights duties and powers of an employer for the purpose of or in relation to collective agreement negotiations. I congratulate the Minister on at least being upfront. He does not hide behind bureaucratic terminology. The explanatory note states: “This includes the power to discontinue the pay of striking Board employees and to suspend or lock out Board employees …”. That is pretty straight up. I congratulate the Minister—he did not mince his words. Everyone knows how big the stick will be. I want to tell the Minister that it is already having the effect that one would expect. Post Primary Teachers Association union meetings are reflecting at least the same level of bitterness as the last time. In the very short time I have been the education spokesman—about 3 weeks—I have been amazed that in the staffrooms of New Zealand the National Party spokesman is more respected less hated and more welcome than the Minister of Education. This legislation will only make the gap grow. 
The real problem is that Trevor Mallard might be putting the bill through so that he can beat the teachers with a big stick—and beat them a lot harder than last time—but the Labour Government as a whole sees it as a logical move back to centralised control of our education system. The normal rights and duties of an employer are to hire and fire. It will not be very long before the Government decides that not only are boards incapable of making judgments about whether to pay their teachers they are also not very capable of making judgments about which ones to hire. That is worse than the bad old days of the Education Board. It will be back to the States Services Commissioner. 
I have no doubt at all that within the term of this Government there will be another State Sector Amendment Bill appropriating more powers to the State Services Commission over our schools and the teachers in them. I know that because I know that the Post Primary Teachers Association will again give Mr Mallard a run for his money in the next industrial round. It will humiliate him again because this bill will not make much difference. If Mr Mallard is going to go out there beating his chest with this kind of legislation he had better have the political will to follow through. I can just see the eminently flexible Ms Helen Clark sitting in her Cabinet meetings saying: “Trevor I know you said you’d lock them out if they went on strike but I lost two points in the last poll and the Opposition spokesman on education is running rampant. Trevor I just want you to back off.” This legislation feels good now but by the middle of next year the Labour Party will wish it had never passed it—just as its members will wish they had never thought of school network reviews. 
I have some advice for the Minister: why does he not get an assessment from that psychologist at the Ministry of Education who said that our children were being damaged. The children I saw were orderly forthright and articulate but I can see that the Minister is clearly under psychological stress. He shouts he abuses people he puts them down at public meetings and he threatens to walk out if they disagree with him. If I were the Minister I would spend less time worrying about technical redundancies in school mergers and closures and more time looking after his own psychological welfare. The pressure is only just beginning. Parents are starting to realise as I have told them that he is just a bully. No one is holding a gun to people’s heads it is not inevitable and their successful school of 250 does not have to be closed. The next time Trevor Mallard turns up people do not feel quite so fearful. 
There will be some issues that the select committee will have to deal with but here is the beauty of creative spin. This bill gives the Minister the power to lock out teachers and stop paying them because boards kept paying them when they were on strike. Members should look at clause 6 “Amendment to section 65A of Education Act 1989”. It provides that during the course of a strike or lockout the school is deemed to be open for instruction. When the Government locks teachers out the school is open. If any other employer locks out employees the workplace is locked out—there is no one working there. But in the newspeak of this Government when teachers are locked out there are no children and teachers are not getting any pay but the school is deemed to be open. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: That’s exactly what the member did. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Minister should get up and tell us why that is the case. If that is already the case then why is the Minister going to pass this legislation? It must be different or he would not be passing this legislation at all so I look forward to the scrap. This is a case of both pistols being drawn at sixty paces on the left—the Post Primary Teachers Association versus Trevor Mallard. 
Simon Power 
: It’s going to be nasty. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: It is going to be nasty because there is one of him and there are thousands of them. Their average pay is already over $60000 so they will not have all the public backing they would expect. In fact the information for the Government Superannuation scheme tells us that the average secondary teacher’s pay is $65000 so they cannot expect everyone to be behind them. But nor can Trevor Mallard because as parents we know that this legislation signals that he is in for a last stand with the Post Primary Teachers Association this time. If he thought he was in a better position he would not need these powers. 
That will be the sideshow but the big game is the continued move back to a centralised bureaucratic education system where the Minister apparently is the model of all standards and decision-making capabilities. He is the model he is widely acknowledged as such in the country and this is all about him making decisions for our children.