Wall Louisa: Education Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Education Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 04 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10691. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Kia ora. Thank you very much for this opportunity to talk about what is titled the Education Amendment Bill but for me is actually the “Anti - Public Education Amendment Bill”. This bill is gutting community involvement in education. It is gutting parents’ involvement in their children’s learning. I want to say from living in a community like Manurewa that my principals and my teachers are incredibly dedicated and hard-working people as Cam Calder knows. They are dedicated and hard-working people. So what is the biggest challenge in communities like Manurewa? As Cam will know it is not that our principals and our schools do not have the best interests of our children at heart. The reality is that we have two cohorts of children living in Manurewa—and my colleague Sue Moroney touched on this. We have children who come from stable families. They are able to go to school day in and day out. They may not have an early childhood education experience but what we know from Jane Milner and Redoubt North Primary School is that if they can have our kids who are on average 18 months to 2 years behind as 5-year-olds for up to 3 to 4 years those kids can catch up. Our children are clever. They just live in circumstances beyond their control that mean that it is hard for them to go to school.So we have a cohort of children who are stable kids and who come from families living in homes as part of the community. They can go to school and they can succeed. The other cohort of children is called unstable children. They come from homes from which some are enrolled in nine schools in 1 year. So what does the Government want to say? The Government’s solution in terms of charter schools does not address the underlying issues. The underlying issues are that families do not have access to affordable housing. That is the primary issue. Transience is a huge issue in communities like mine. The solution that this bill proposes is actually incredibly flawed and it is also scientifically corrupt. It is an incredibly dishonest piece of legislation. But at the heart of this legislation you are actually eroding parents’ rights to be on boards of trustees and to be part of solutions to ensure that their children are getting the best education.I am proud to say that of my 29 schools eight have had Education Review Office reports that say that they do not have to be visited for 5 years. Why is that relevant to this debate? It is relevant to this debate because what it says is that my schools—the schools that Cam Calder visits—are run by principals and boards of trustees who are doing a fantastic job for our children. I want to acknowledge the work that our teachers are doing and that whānau who work in Manurewa are doing to better our children and their education. But the reality is that they cannot control the social determinants of those children. They cannot control the fact that the children do not have a home. They cannot control the fact that some of the parents in my community are in low-paid work.Mike Sabin: What on earth has that got to do with this bill?LOUISA WALL: This bill is about charter schools and partnership schools being incredibly flawed and corrupt. Did you not hear me earlier? The solution that this Government is proposing is pathetic and it is not going to achieve anything for communities in my electorate.I want to conclude by agreeing with my colleague Sue Moroney about the Māori Party. It is only because of the Māori Party that this bill will be passed. It has tools within the current Education Act—sections 155 and 156—forkura kaupapa Māori to be designated as special character schools. We do not need charter schools and partnership schools in New Zealand and we will repeal this legislation as a priority. Thank you.