Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I'm absolutely thrilled to stand and take a call on the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill. What we have before us here in this bill is a sign that this Government is prepared to listen—that this Government is prepared to listen to those most affected. This Government recognises that it is time to raise the status of the teaching profession in line with all other professionals such as lawyers and doctors and allow them to determine how their profession is led.This bill seeks to change the name composition and appointment of all members to the Education Council. It seeks to rename the Education Council to Teaching Council which to me immediately gives mana—and rightly so—to teachers in Aotearoa. The purpose of the Teaching Council is to ensure that we have safe and high-quality leadership teaching and learning happening for our tamariki in all levels of education—early childhood primary secondary and senior secondary schooling. At the moment the council is made up of nine members all appointed by the Minister of Education. Now compare that with other professions such as the nursing profession. Their council members are elected by nurses themselves. Teachers I have spoken to have described the time when it was changed to allow the Minister to appoint all members of the council as a real slap in the face. It basically told them they were not capable of managing their own council. This bill recognises teachers as professionals and the fact that teachers have an understanding of what is happening at the chalkface.When I spoke with Sarah Davis a secondary school principal at Timaru Girls' High School she told me that she had been infuriated by the fact that the current Education Council had been appointed without members of the teaching profession having any say. This is a body of which there is no choice but to be a member if a teacher wishes to maintain their registration and this body has significant influence in the sector. Her concerns are also around the fact that these people are making decisions around the profession without necessarily having any real knowledge of the profession at all. Sarah believes that this bill will allow the teachers to have an opportunity to have a greater say in things and it will provide a voice within the relevant teaching sector. The council used to have teaching representation on it and it makes no sense as to why it changed to the model we have today. In her view this bill is long overdue and is on track and exactly how it should be.This bill restores democracy to and is a big step towards restoring trust and confidence in the profession. New Zealanders place a high value on democracy. We have the opportunity to vote and elect a party or parties to represent us in Government but teachers don't have that opportunity and that is simply wrong. This bill means something more for the sector that I have been strongly involved in and have been in for over 20 years now: early childhood. The fact that there will be representation of an early childhood teacher and a leader from early childhood finally—finally—acknowledges early childhood teachers and the fundamental role they play in educating our young tamariki and it shows that early childhood teachers are seen as professionals in their own right. It acknowledges the importance of quality in the early childhood sector rather than the emphasis placed on quantity by the previous Government who clearly don't value early childhood teachers or the sector as we saw when they froze funding for several years.This is one of the first and vital steps that show this Government sees early childhood teachers as professionals. One of the next steps will be the return of the 100 percent funding to centres who have 100 percent qualified staff. It is only fair and it is only right that early childhood teachers are seen as teaching professionals. For too long I believe early childhood teachers have been undervalued almost seen as the poor cousin to primary school teachers. Many of my early childhood teachers have struggled with the way they are perceived and morale at times can be very low. I couldn't honestly say how many times I have been called a glorified babysitter or chief nappy changer or heard Gee I wish I had a job where I could sit around and do nothing but play all day." How derogatory are comments like that?I studied hard for three years to gain a qualification and be a professional early childhood education teacher and it is heartbreaking to have comments like that thrown in your face when we work so hard to educate our tamariki. So to have the opportunity to elect their own representatives to the Teaching Council early childhood teachers are valued as the professionals they are. I commend this bill to the House."