Dyson Ruth: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 25 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2579. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills)to the Minister of Education: What further advice if any did she receive that led to her decision to consult on the closing of Redcliffs School following the advice she received from geotechnical experts in September last year that “with the mitigation measures in place the risk from rockfall is considered to be no higher on the school grounds than on any site remote from the Port Hills”?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education):I have made no decision. I have initiated consultation on a proposal. My proposal is based on all the reports I have received. Families want assurances of safety and certainty not just now but into the future. Although the modelling and risk mitigations propose measures of safety they also predict further rockfalls from the cliffs’ ongoing degradation. Periodic removal of the students may be required to ensure that the school grounds remain safe. I am concerned that families cannot be given assurance that this will be a safe school site over time.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Reckless Labour.Hon Ruth Dyson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at the interjection from Minister Brownlee and ask that you require him to withdraw and apologise.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member has taken offence. I ask the Hon Gerry Brownlee to withdraw that remark.Hon Gerry Brownlee: For the offence I withdraw the remark. But it is reckless—Mr SPEAKER: Order! No no—that is where we get into trouble Mr Brownlee. If I ask any member to withdraw they do so without any further comment.Hon Ruth Dyson: Why has she cited safety and uncertainty as the primary driver of her proposal to close Redcliffs School when the MWH Beca and GNS reports all say that a simple and cost-effective bund at the back of the school property would provide a level of safety that is significantly greater than what is required to live in the surrounding houses?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I cited safety over time and in the primary response to the question I indicated that although the engineers have certainly said that they could make mitigations to make the school site safe they have also said that there will be further rockfalls that periodically the bund may not be able to maintain the capacity it has and will need to be repaired and that during those reassessments it is likely that the students will need to be removed from the school site.Hon Ruth Dyson: What specialist advice if any did she receive that led her to say that the reassessment clearing and repairing of the bund if damaged in a possible future cliff collapse could take 2 years?Hon HEKIA PARATA: What led me to say that was reading the reports that had been provided. What led me to say that there was a need for this consultation to occur was because of my ongoing concern for the safety of students on that site and for undisrupted provision of good quality education not only now but into the future. May I repeat that I have made no decision. I have initiated consultation on a proposal.Hon Ruth Dyson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My last supplementary was very specific: what specialist advice did she receive—Mr SPEAKER: No it was not. The question was what specific advice if any led the Minister to say that. The Minister obviously just moved to the second part and told the House what led her to say the comments that the member quoted in her question.Hon Ruth Dyson: What advice has she got for the thousands of Sumner Clifton and Redcliffs residents who drive along the main road every day who are at greater risk from the potential rockfall than the pupils and staff of Redcliffs School if they went home?Hon HEKIA PARATA: The advice that I have taken into account relates to the school grounds and as Minister of Education that is my primary responsibility and that is the one that I am discharging.Hon Ruth Dyson: If the Redcliffs community demonstrates through the consultation period overwhelming support for their school to come home will she support that school returning?Hon HEKIA PARATA: The consultation period provides not only for the specific Redcliffs School community but for anyone else to make a submission. I will consider every submission that is put forward to me during that process.