Lee DeniseEDUCATION (TEACHING COUNCIL OF AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND) AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteeDebate resumed.Part 1 Amendments to principal Act (continued)DENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Te Kaiwhakahaere kei te whakamana au Te Reo Māori mō te kaupapa i tēnei wā.[Mr Chairman I wish to honour our current focus on Māori language.]I wish to speak to Supplementary Order Paper 100 in my name. It seeks to amend schedule 2 new clause 1 of schedule 21 and insert after subclause 4(b)(v) a new paragraph (vi) and the wording is: understanding of the partnership principles between the Crown and proprietors of State integrated schools."For those who were here before the dinner break they'll recall that I made reference to a very thorough and a very well-thought-through and reasoned submission by the peak bodies that represent State integrated schools and specifically the Catholic integrated schools. I posed a question to the Minister back then about how their valid concerns will be addressed given that they've been very reasonable in not requiring or asking for a specific council position but wanting to make sure that the Minister would have specific regard to their connections or their understanding or their principles—the partnership—between the proprietors of State integrated schools and the Crown. It's with great pleasure that my Supplementary Order Paper is precisely the Supplementary Order Paper—well they didn't phrase it like that but as an amendment—that they would like to see inserted. So what I've done is take some of their wording and insert it and make it into a Supplementary Order Paper in my name.What it does is ensure that when appointing a member to the Teaching Council of Aotearoa the Minister can have regard to the candidate's knowledge and experience relating to State integrated schools specifically and how this will contribute to the collective skills experience and knowledge making up the overall composition of the council. If you look at some of the undergirding documentation going back to 1975 and under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act you'll see that there is quite an understanding between the Crown and State integrated schools around necessary actions that arise out of the principles of this documentation specific rules specific actions knowledge of principles and legal requirements under which State integrated schools operate. It's actually quite complex and incredibly important that at least one member on the council can lay claim to specific knowledge for State integrated schools. We can't guarantee under the legislation that we're debating here tonight that council members will have this knowledge. So that's what the Supplementary Order Paper seeks to do. The amendment seeks to make sure that the Minister has regard to understanding the partnership principles between the Crown and proprietors of State integrated schools.One particular point that he made—the submitter that was representing the schools was Mr Paul Ferris and he did very well in presenting to us on the committee—when he referred to 11 percent of all New Zealand students who are in State integrated schools in New Zealand—that's quite a high number; 360 schools to be precise—was that if one person doesn't understand the partnership principles that are in place between the Crown and the proprietors of State integrated schools then in fact you wouldn't be having regard to the foundation documents. He did present us with one and that's the memorandum of understanding dating back to—no I can't see a date. But it covers areas such as funding for consequential property costs updating of the legislative framework which is an interesting point in itself and specialised teacher training—all areas that need regard."