Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Associate Minister of Education): Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure for me to rise and fully support the Education Amendment Bill (No 2). I'd like to begin by thanking the Minister of Education for all of his work in ensuring that this work is done. The Ministry of Education as well has done quite a lot of work behind the scenes and I'd like to thank the Education and Workforce Committee who have sat through and have had a considered approach to looking at our education system. The bill before us the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) deals in part with the health and well-being of our students. On that note I'd like to acknowledge that today is World Asthma Day the first Tuesday in May. Also that a lot of our schools many of our schools play a role in supporting and ensuring that our students are safe and that those who need asthma medication those who need Ventolin inhalers that their inhalers are up to date. So I commend and I thank all of those schools. The Minister of Education in his speech covered in detail—outlined the importance of the measures that the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) proposes to do and how it will strengthen our education system. Just in response to the former Minister of Education the Hon Nikki Kaye one of the things that she stated was that in the previous Government there was a focus on learners. We in this Government are also focused on ensuring that the learners are at the centre. She also discussed how she's been out there talked with lots of people had very many many consultations across the country. The education conversation Kōrero Mātauranga was also a process where the Ministry of Education and us on this side of the House connected with everyday folks. We connected with young people as young as five some of them. I myself actually hosted 34 fono with Pacific folks as well as ethnic communities. I went right across the country traversing to ensure that we get their views. One of the things that we're proposing is that we ensure that the key Education Council—the decisions that they are making are made in the context of Government policy. So as we finalise Government policy we do ensure that we also hear from the public. One of the things that came through loud and clear from these consultations—and I've got to say with the online survey that the Ministry of Education also had this is probably one of the largest collaboration of people's input into the education system over 50000. I can say from the conversations that I heard directly from our people right across Aotearoa that they were saying things like We need to address and ensure that our students when they go to school that they are safe that they are safe culturally". They were saying things to us along the lines of that they feel they are addressed in a racially biased way; that our schooling system should also address and have a focus on ensuring that racism at all levels is addressed. Just earlier on tonight across the hall there was a multicultural event for New Zealand. We had three students—they all presented on their experience of racism in schools. These are our own high school students. This Education Amendment Bill (No 2) says that we need to ensure that our students are safe in school. Yes we need to ensure that the private schools provide a safe place for our students. What is currently proposed means that private schools are indeed safe and that if our students are experiencing emotional harm if our students are experiencing physical harm—currently the legislation right now does not allow or give the power to the Secretary for Education to be able to ensure that that it is actually enforced. As the select committee heard the presentations from folks that came through to the select committee—of the seven oral submissions that were received on this bill five were in favour of ensuring that the new registration criterion for private schools actually addressed this moving forward. Only two were in opposition to this so not everyone agreed on how we move forward in this area. But I think we all agree in this House that our students when they attend school—be they private schools or State sector schools or State integrated schools—they need to be safe. The current provisions of the Education Act 1989 do not allow the Secretary for Education to consider student safety when considering private school registration applications so the proposals in this amendment bill will ensure that this is addressed moving forward.If I could just go back to the discussion in terms of ensuring that our students feel safe emotionally as well we know that in Aotearoa New Zealand we have one of the highest rates of suicide which is not something that any of us are proud of. There are many initiatives that are in schools; many of our schools have school nurses many have counsellors but some of our students don't even seek out that assistance. Ensuring that our students feel emotionally safe is definitely something we should address.Repealing the provisions for communities of online learning: one of the things that came through in the select committee process is the fact that when this particular legislation and policy from the previous Government came through a lot of our folks actually did not have much of a say on communities of online learning before it was brought in as a policy. The Education (Update) Amendment Act 2017—it created this regime of online learning which includes distance learning and yes in the future we will need a whole lot more provision of online learning and distance learning but this legislation will ensure that the kind of learning that our students actually have in schools is something that all learners can actually access. I'll give you an example: over in South Auckland online learning is something that is encouraged yes. But so many of our students in South Auckland they don't even have access to the internet at home let alone have a tablet that they can actually work from. So online learning for some of our students is but a distant dream.So as we look through and ensure that the system of education that we have is for the future I also just want to remind us all that the education system we have right now was brought in under a Labour Government; 30 years ago under a Labour Government we brought in Tomorrow's Schools. The question is is it still fit for purpose? The answer to that is yes for some of our students because we do have an education system that is one of the best in the world which is fantastic but for some of our learners Māori and Pacific students in particular the educational outcomes for Māori and Pacific students are ones that we—especially when we look forward into who will make up the majority of our learners in schools it will be Māori young students it'll be Pacific as well as ethnic communities; they will make up about 50 percent of all of our learners. So it is important that we ensure the education system is one that is fit for purpose for everyone not just for some of our learners and I commend this bill to the House."