Tinetti JanHon JAN TINETTI (Labour): Madam Speaker can I start by offering my congratulations to you. As someone who hails from the West Coast it is wonderful to see a fellow West Coaster in that chair so congratulations Madam Speaker and I wish you all the best in it. And can I also say congratulations especially to all the new members in this House—and what you bring to this place. It is something I was thinking about listening to the speeches today but also in the swearing-in yesterday—of my time six years ago and what a very special time that is. And so I just want to reiterate my congratulations to you and I look forward to working with you over the next term of Parliament. That's where unfortunately I have to sort of take a little bit of a diversion now because listening to that Speech from the Throne today; devoid of vision—Hon Simon Watts: Tell us about education!Hon JAN TINETTI: Just wait I am going to talk about education and I will happily talk about education and the smoke and mirrors that we are seeing coming from the current Government at this point in time because what we heard about today was a turning back of the clock. New Zealand is going backwards under this Government and will go backwards and not forwards. Do you know I actually had a time before when I was listening to some of the speeches that I thought Do the Government realise they're in Government now or are they still thinking they're in Opposition?"—because their speeches were more about us and more about Labour than what they're going to do and that is what I have heard all day: I have heard only about us repealing and going backwards. I haven't heard anything about going forwards whatsoever. And I've heard a whole reinvention of history where facts have been slightly put out there and maybe not quite as the reality is—nothing about the proud record of this Government. So let me remind you Madam Speaker of just a few things that have come through from the previous Government. In jobs: more Kiwis in work than ever before. All of the wonderful things happening in health: things like three million free prescriptions; the increase in Pharmac's funding by 51 percent. Child poverty: 77000 fewer children in poverty than when we took office. Climate change: emissions have fallen over the last three consecutive years. And let's talk about education. Let's talk about early childhood because have we heard much about early childhood from the current Government? No we haven't. The previous Government strengthened curriculum in early childhood. We strengthened oral language provision because we know that that's where it starts: it starts with early childhood. It isn't about saying "Learning and education starts at age five or six" it starts well before that—in fact it starts at birth and some say prior to that. We put an early learning action plan in place—something that the previous National Government had got rid of. We worked towards pay parity and because of the absolute complexity around that we committed to a funding review—I've heard nothing about that in this Government's plans. In fact as I say I've heard nothing or very little about early childhood.Let's move to the schooling. We put in an evidence- and research-based strategy developed by experts on literacy communication and mathematics because we know that it takes time to turn around the results that we have been seeing declining over decades. We made certain that we had the experts there to bring in that evidence-based and research strategy and implementation had well started. I heard the Minister saying just recently that "We need to make certain that teachers know what they are teaching." Well guess what! That's exactly what the refresh of the curriculum has been doing so teachers know what to teach and when but that Government does not deal with facts at all.We have put in place—or had put in place ready to be released—the common-practice model which has the core teacher requirements. I challenge that to be released now. That work is right there ready to go. Teachers are crying out for it it is already there. But what have I heard from the Government? They are bringing in one hour of teaching of reading writing and mathematics every day. Nothing about professional development for teachers—to increase the professional development so they know what they're teaching when they're teaching it how to teach and how to be better teachers—nothing about that. We'll just say "Oh we're going to bring in one hour of teaching of reading writing and mathematics every day." and even the sector are finding that confusing. Does it mean integration; does it not mean integration? I've even heard that the Minister has been saying "Well most schools do teach an hour a day of reading writing and mathematics; it's just the odd few that don't." So what's the problem that we're trying to solve here?The banning of cellphones which schools have been able to do forever—Hon Grant Robertson: They don't trust schools.Hon JAN TINETTI: They're obviously not trusting of schools. But when I do ask schools around the country—if there are schools that haven't banned cellphones—"Why don't you?" they reply "Oh because there is a bit of a digital divide there and cellphones are a way that we're able to breach that." So why is nothing being done about that? We're just going to put a whole ban on cellphones in that time. I think the real smoke and mirrors are the one hour of teaching reading writing and mathematics and the banning of cellphones to take the real focus away from what really is insidious and has been hidden in the documents so far that we have seen: the assessment the measuring progress along the learning journey. Well guess what! That sounds like national standards mark two and how well did that work out for the Government last time? What a failure for our kids and they are still feeling the outfall from that even today. Those young people that started under National's standards had the worst start in education that any young person could ever have and that's what this Government wants to bring back. It's the smoke and mirrors around charter schools an attack on public education—we will create this system over here and fund that but let's not put the resourcing over here into the majority of young people who are in the public system.But what I'm really concerned about is that—and here is sort of the irony that can happen sometimes—the statement that has been made in both coalition agreements and in the Speech from the Throne today to refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology including the removal and replacement of the relationships and sexuality guidelines. Well first of all what are charter schools if they are not ideology? That's exactly what charter schools are—exactly; they are exactly ideology. Secondly I would ask what is ideology in the relationships and sexuality guidelines? I challenge anybody to show me the ideology. My thoughts are that they are going to say that it is "gender diversity." Go tell that to our community who are seeing themselves represented—but saw themselves represented in the 2015 guidelines that were released under the then National Government. The 2020 guidelines brought a bigger focus on to consent not gender diversity—gender diversity was already there. And I can remember speaking to the Hon Nikki Kaye in about 2018 and her talking of pride of bringing those guidelines into the education curriculum. But here we've had this flip-flop already coming through and saying that we're going to make sure that they're age-appropriate. Well the Government need to go through and make certain that they read those before they make such rash statements because they are only harming communities who are already under threat and in a minority in this country. And it just beggars beyond belief that those statements have been made. People are getting upset about what isn't in there rather than what is but what I want to finish with is what has not been mentioned by this Government: I said early childhood education I'm going to say learning support Māori education Pacific education—where are they in this Government's plan? They are being let down."