Fox Marama: Education Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Education Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:858. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Although we do not resile from our support for increased Māori representation to reflect that at least one member of the wānanga or university council will have Māori representation as a result of the Education and Science Committee’s feedback we duly believe that there are many other areas that will have greater detrimental effect on the rangatiratanga of tauira and staff. That is where I finished off last night and that is where I would like to continue today.Essentially what we are saying is we are not supporting this bill at this stage because there are a number of concerns that we have. Submitters told us that the changes in the new Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand represent a lack of respect for the profession of teaching. Their call to Parliament was that at least five council members should be teachers registered under new section 353 inserted by clause 38 who hold a practising certificate. Teachers were also of the view that the professionalism of teaching was undermined by the clauses that seek to replace a code of ethics with a code of conduct as another move away from the high-trust model required to maintain an aspirational profession. The Māori Party is very concerned by these responses. In all other respects we have been pleased by the confidence and commitment Minister Parata has provided to the teaching profession by means of the Investing in Educational Success initiative. A couple of weeks ago the Minister announced a fund to invest in teachers’ ideas to undertake practical research test the ideas and share successful strategies with others. We would really want to see that same commitment and faith in teachers being represented in the new Teachers Council.We are aware that the new proposed education council is being treated with some scepticism because all of the appointments to the council are being made by the Minister of Education. The question submitters have put to us is how we can encourage the potential of a participatory democracy when others are kept out of the appointment process. This was the view that was loudly expressed in the context of the wānanga and university councils with the concerns around the lack of a guarantee of student or staff representation. It was the impact of that legislation to undermine university governance that came across particularly strongly in the select committee process. Submitters consistently defended the legal definition of universities as “the critic and conscience of society”. It was their deeply held view that the tertiary institutions as strongholds of academic freedom were being undermined by the clauses that give appointment powers to the Minister and remove all powers based on badly drafted unclear criteria. Put another way this means that people who disagree with the Government can potentially be removed and this is quite simply Draconian.It is really important in the Māori Party that we support the initiatives to advance the application of knowledge but we cannot wilfully ignore the submissions of close to 1000 New Zealanders. That is why we are opposing this second reading.