Martin Tracey: Education Amendment Bill (No 2) — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Education Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1031. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (Deputy Leader—NZ First):Kia ora Mr Chair. Can I just pick up around the problem I had when I last spoke. It is in clause 38 in Part 1 and in the Minister of Education’s Supplementary Order Paper 21 which wants to delete new section 353(2) from Part 1. This is around the removal of natural justice. It is around the removal of natural justice with regard to the registration of teachers. I believe—and the Minister in the chair the Hon Nathan Guy might like to confirm this—that the answer the Minister of Education might possibly give me is that this is a duplication of natural justice in other parts of the bill.If I could just speak to that natural justice is mentioned in new section 176D in clause 9 which has to do with the governance of tertiary institutions—so nothing to do with the registration of teachers. It is also mentioned again in new section 398(7) in clause 38 which is around disciplinary functions. However what we are talking about is the removal of new section 353(2) which is directly around teacher registration. It is important that this be repeated in this area around teacher registration because there are two parts particularly that the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand must satisfy itself with regard to the registration of any applicant. These are very subjective. New section 353(1)(a) is that they be of good character and (b) is that they are fit to teach. Those provisions are very subjective. They are not based on qualifications. They are not based on any other measure but a subjective measure. Therefore in our view it is important that natural justice applies and can be seen to apply when those subjective conversations are taking place.We again request the Minister to either outline clearly why she feels the need to remove natural justice from this particular section of the bill or remove it from her Supplementary Order Paper—remove it from her Supplementary Order Paper. In our view it is necessary when it comes to the registration of teachers and the subjective nature of the Teachers Council when it decides whether to allow a person after their training and so on to be registered. So that is the first thing that I hope the Minister will address.I want to address another part of the bill. There are two other things that I need to address while I have the opportunity. The first one is that the Minister has actually spoken in the Chamber before and talked about—well she has never really spoken; she has kind of shouted across the Chamber really. When we the Opposition have raised the difficulty we have with the changes to the education—Paul Foster-Bell: Shouted back.TRACEY MARTIN: Hey we all shout from time to time Mr Foster-Bell—mind you not you not often. When we have raised concerns about the changes to the Teachers Council so that it is down to only nine members from 11 members and the removal of democracy from teachers where they could elect their own members of this council the Minister has shouted across the House like I do now—like I do now. I am not sure whether the Minister actually understands that right now there are 11 people who are elected or appointed to the Teachers Council. One is nominated from each of the following: the New Zealand Educational Institute the Post Primary Teachers Association and the New Zealand School Trustees Association. The Minister appoints four and then registered teachers elect—elect—the other four members. Not only is there now a minimising of the council—there seems to be a thing of shrinkage over on the Government benches; it seems to enjoy shrinkage—and a shrinkage of the number of members here but there is definitely a removal of democracy. It is not as it is now. This is definitely a concern that should be addressed. It is no different than Mr Finlayson deciding that strategic planning is not necessary because that requires some form of democracy etc. when he is talking about the arts and culture portfolio that he used to have.Lastly we come back down to the change of the name for the new professional body. If we go to the revised departmental report the reason that they have given for the change of name is: “The name of the new professional body differentiates it from the current NZTC. It reflects the need for a shared emphasis on teaching and leadership across the entire system from ECE through to secondary-tertiary transition”—