English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:634;Page:5993] 
6.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Which schools employed those teachers whose cases were published in the  
Herald on Sunday 
 article on 22 October 2006 drawn from New Zealand Teachers Council decisions? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Full information about the 13 cases reported in the  
Herald on Sunday 
 is available on the Teachers Council website along with a summary of council decisions. The Privacy Act 1993 prevents me from making available details that would identify the particular individuals concerned. However I met with the Teachers Council this morning and I have been assured that the council closely monitors the terms of any conditions attached to an individual allowed to remain registered as a teacher. It is not legally possible for the Minister to overturn decisions made by the council; nor is it possible for the Minister to direct actions of the council in relation to a particular individual. However for these particular cases the chairperson of the Teachers Council has undertaken to review the files and reassure me that in all cases conditions put in place have been followed to the letter. In addition I have invited the chairperson of the council to provide me with any recommendations on any further improvements that can be made to current arrangements as soon as possible. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister believe that parents should know whether their child is in the care of a teacher who abused his 15-year-old niece for 2 years or a teacher who played strip poker with female students and let them drink alcohol on a ski trip or a teacher who imported Ecstasy? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As the member knows I am deeply concerned by these reports and I met with the Teachers Council this morning. I hope that parents will understand that the Teachers Council itself is at pains to point out that as a professional body there is no way that it would return anyone to the classroom who should not be there; it monitors closely any decisions that it makes; and as a professional body its members are the people to oversee this practice. As a Minister I am not able to interfere with those decisions and they cannot of course be changed by the council once made. But parents should take reassurance from the fact that the chairperson of the council has today yet again reiterated the robustness of the current arrangements. 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: What is the history of the process for teacher registration? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Under the National Government in the 1990s the registration of teachers was voluntary until 1997. Although registration became mandatory in 1997 there was no professional body for teachers and no requirement for police vetting of teachers before they were employed in schools. When Labour took office in 1999 we immediately began to work on establishing professional standards for all teachers. Changes to the Education Act in 2001 required police vetting for all personnel in schools and early childhood centres. The Act also established the Teachers Council which is the professional body of teachers. The body includes professional teachers principals leading educational professionals and of course parents. It includes two independent disciplinary bodies: a complaints committee and a disciplinary tribunal with powers either to deregister teachers or impose conditions on their ongoing registration. In 2004 new rules came into effect enabling the council to consider complaints of serious misconduct at any time rather than waiting until the expiry of the current registration. I believe that the arrangements now in place can give us confidence in the professionalism of the Teachers Council. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Will the Minister assure the House that the report he claims he is to receive from the Teachers Council into its decisions and monitoring surrounding these cases will be made publicly available in order to allow the public to decide whether it can have confidence in the teaching profession’s watchdog; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The report I received was of course the verbal report of the Teachers Council and its chief executive. As I have said I have invited them to consider whether any further improvements can be made to what as I have outlined are now quite robust arrangements. If they do that I am more than happy to make them available. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister take his role as an advocate for parents seriously and if so does he believe that it is acceptable to parents that their children may be in the care—without them knowing—of a teacher who has been found to have abused his 15-year-old niece another teacher who played strip poker with female students on a ski trip another one who imported Ecstasy another one who was caught beating his wife and was convicted for it and others with violent and drink-driving convictions? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes to the first question and of course not to the second. That is why the Labour Government in 1999 changed the impossibly loose approach that was taken by Mr English’s Government in the 1990s when basically anybody could have been in the classroom at any time. I have said today that the improvements over the last 7 years have left us in a position where the Teachers Council is able to give us reassurance that it is a professional body overseeing a proper and robust process. I have also said that I have invited that council to report to me as quickly as it possibly can on any further improvements I can take because of course— I say to Mr English—it is offensive to suggest anything else. I take it absolutely as my role to ensure that young people are in a safe environment when they learn as do the Teachers Council the Post Primary Teachers Association the New Zealand Educational Institute and Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why does the Minister not follow the suggestion made by Mr Brian Donnelly and make public a report from the Teachers Council on these cases so that those of us who have children in classrooms with these teachers can make a judgment on the professional standards rather than leaving it to the Minister and his union mates to decide in the Beehive? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I welcome the member’s concern. I understand that he is a parent and has children in class at the present time and therefore like all parents he will want to be reassured in this matter. As I said to Mr Donnelly in answer to his question when the Teachers Council prepares its report with recommendations of where we might or might not go further in this matter I am more than happy to make that available. But right now I say to that member that unlike the time when he was in Government we have moved hugely in the last 6 years to ensure that we have a proper environment where registered teachers are properly registered. He might like to contemplate why he did not do that himself for the children of the 1990s. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister believe that the behaviour that has been now outlined publicly and set out in detail on the Teachers Council website reflects the professional standards of the vast majority of teachers; and if he does not believe it reflects those professional standards what does he intend to do about raising the standard of Teachers Council decisions? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Of course this does not reflect on the 80000 teachers who are currently in our workforce from early childhood centres through to secondary schools. As to what we are doing about raising performance as I said the member might like to contemplate the vacant space that existed in the 1990s under his Government and compare it with what we are doing today which is lifting the professional standards by the invention of a Teachers Council that is writing professional standards and overseeing the development of a professional body. This is unlike himself when he left children in the classroom in the 1990s without these protections. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Can I ask the Minister whether at the same time as the protections were removed for children in the early 1990s they were put in place for animals; vets were registered while teachers were deregistered? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Further to the inquiry about the history of this matter it was one of the major points made by many people in the 1990s that the National Government protected animals but did not protect children. The Labour Government protects children. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister going to continue to protect teachers who have abused students in their care who have imported drugs and who have drink-driving convictions or is he going to expose these people to the principals who employ them and the parents whose children are in their classrooms; which is it? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Once again a good question from someone who is a parent as well as a politician in the House. As he knows under the Privacy Act I personally cannot reveal the individual circumstances behind each of the cases that are on the website. However as I explained to the member earlier— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Come on out with it—which one of your mates are you protecting? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: —if the member at the back would just like to listen—one of the things that the Teachers Council does is to attach conditions to each of these decisions which require the reporting back of principals about those conditions. My understanding is that that is exactly what goes on. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: If I could just remind members when they are asking and answering questions that they keep them succinct and also that they avoid making any unnecessary comment in them.