8. Question No. 8—EducationHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 8—Education8. Hon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of Education: Does he stand by his involvement in collective bargaining and the offer made to primary principals?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): Absolutely and I do want to acknowledge and welcome the vote taken by primary school teachers who have resoundingly voted in favour of their settlement. Primary school teachers and principals told us that to retain and attract people into the profession to stabilise the workforce they needed to restore pay parity for the teachers that was lost in recent years. We listened to them on that and we acted and around 30000 primary teachers will now benefit from significant pay increases with maximum base salary increases rising to $90000 by July 2021. I am disappointed that primary principals have rejected the substantial offer that was made to them but the Ministry of Education remains available to meet with the New Zealand Educational Institute to discuss how the offer for primary principals could be repackaged to better meet their needs.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does he take some responsibility for the rejected settlement by 1900 primary principals given he took the unusual step of directly negotiating with the unions?Hon Grant Robertson: I'm pretty sure you called for that.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm pretty sure the member called for that but I also do take responsibility—Hon Simon Bridges: Now he's giving you answers as well.SPEAKER: Order! He's not.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I do take responsibility for the settlement of the primary school collective agreement and I do take responsibility for the fact that we have yet to reach a settlement with the primary school principals. As the Minister of Education of course that is my job to take responsibility for those things. I would however note that the deal that the primary school principals rejected was recommended to them and endorsed by their union.Hon Nikki Kaye: Given his comments around pay parity for teachers does he commit to pay parity for principals?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I have no problem with the concept of pay parity. I do note that was not something that was claimed by primary school principals when these negotiations started and the offer that they have rejected was recommended to them by their union.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is this the second time that pay parity has been given to the teachers in question in this country and what happened in between times?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes for primary school teachers this restores the pay parity that they were first given in the early 2000s after a long campaign and—SPEAKER: No. Late 1990s I think.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Sorry—the late 1990s. It restores the pay parity that was lost and it was most notably lost nearly four years ago now under the last agreement reached under the National Government.Hon Nikki Kaye: Is he absolutely ruling out an increase to the envelope for primary teachers and principals and why should educators believe him when the last time he said there was no more money he magicked up $271 million?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: We don't need to increase the envelope for the primary school teachers because that settlement has now been reached and it has been ratified and endorsed by their members. We won't be putting more money into the primary principals' agreement. We agreed to fund pay parity after extensive talks with the unions both primary and secondary on the basis that any extra money we were putting in was for a full and final settlement.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does he agree with Ross Intermediate School principal Wayne Jenkins who said There's little been presented to address the issues and concerns that face New Zealand principals every day. As an experienced principal in a large school I feel let down by the offer." and did he let down the primary principals of New Zealand?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think that the principal concerned—his own union would disagree with him because the union recommended and endorsed the offer when they presented it to their members."