Roberts AngelaANGELA ROBERTS (Labour): Kia ora Mr Speaker. It is a very humbling experience to be standing here as the last speaker on the third reading of this bill. We have a really complex education system. It's big and it's complicated and I just want to pick up three examples of how despite that complexity we can pay attention and we can find ways to make changes that are important. Some of them are really small but they are significant and those changes will impact not just on individual lives but the entire system and our entire nation.So a small but significant change that hasn't been mentioned at all today is the restoration of the status of kura kaupapa Māori. It seems small but it is significant and I think a really fine example of the next steps that need to happen to make progress.The second change that I want to reflect on is the enabling of school boards—the support and guidance to encourage them to think a bit differently about how diversity and bringing that voice to a governance level can really help them as school boards are trying really really hard to meet the challenges in their schools to hear the students that are unheard to see them to look after our most vulnerable and to ensure that they flourish. There's nothing to be afraid of when you have a piece of legislation that enables you to be courageous and helps you along on that journey.The third change is something that we have heard mostly about today and the reason so many wonderful people are up in the gallery and that is around our wānanga and I acknowledge you for being here today and for all that you represent. We have heard about the 183 years we've heard about the recent five and we've heard very very clearly that today is the next step the conclusion but the next step in your journey.I just want to reflect: I'm not a lawyer. I come at this as an educator as a person who's been on a board of trustees as a mama and I reflect on the precedent that's actually been set today. Maybe I've been in the classroom too long and I'm too much of an optimist and a Pollyanna but I see this piece of legislation as being incredibly precedent-setting. This legislation has created space in this really sort of tightly constrained Westminster model that we operate under. The collaboration has given those involved over the last few years the courage to say You know what? Let's just put some placeholders in there and allow the mahi to continue." I think that's really exciting to be able to see that space so you don't have to kind of ram in mātauranga Māori or Te Ao Māori but actually let's just create a bit of space for that understanding to go and to flourish. It's given confidence.My understanding is that another precedent is that it's the first time that we will have an Order in Council that is both in te reo and in English. I applaud you and thank you for the confidence that brought us to that point.I was running to precinct and it was absolutely hosing down and I had to come around a bus or two as I crossed the road—slightly disorganised didn't have a brolly—but I did reflect on the people who were getting off the bus: they were organised; they had brollies. They also were making sure that everybody who got off the bus got off safely and didn't slip over—they looked after each other—and they also had big smiles on their faces. There was one woman I stopped and she said "Yeah it's raining but it's not windy." And I just want to acknowledge and reflect that it's that resilience the ability to collaborate and bring everybody with you and that optimism that makes me so excited.This legislation is enabling; it is powerful and uplifting. And as a Pākehā educator I know the influence that you will have not just on your learners but my learners—I teach the kids of the freezing workers and I know that for them to have choice and to be valued is something that I'm really really grateful for. I wish you all the best for the next steps—I'm excited. And it is with those thoughts that I commend this bill to the House."