Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): Look at the outset of my speech on this piece of legislation I do want to take a moment to acknowledge this incredible week for New Zealand and actually some women MPs in this House from both sides. I want to acknowledge the Hon Hekia Parata I want to acknowledge Dame Jenny Shipley and I want to acknowledge the Rt Hon Helen Clark. We are very fortunate as a country to have had some outstanding female politicians. This is a week to acknowledge them and more so than ever in our education system. So I want to start with that theme. If we actually think about why this bill is incredibly important we can take a moment to acknowledge that in our education system there are huge numbers of incredible women delivering extraordinary things for young people and probably none better than many of our teachers out there. That is why this body is actually so important. It represents more than 50000 people who are in the workforce in terms of teachers but also the many principals out there and the support staff that work so hard every single week in our schools. So when National previously made these changes they were not out of a whim. We were not interested in getting rid of democracy.Actually we took on board very significant amounts of advice through the workforce advisory report. It was on the back of really serious issues around sex offending and the way that our system might vet those people coming through into the profession. There was a huge amount of work done in that Education Workforce Advisory Group report and then there were reports to Ministers. It was years of work. What it basically said was that when it comes to those hundreds of thousands of children in our schools when it comes to the millions of parents out there that engage with our schools and when it comes to the tens of thousands of teachers we cannot afford to have a body making so many important decisions around registration qualifications and leadership that may possibly be vested. We must have a skills and competency - based model. Now we took into account at the time that we would have that as the main policy driver that there would be independence that there would be significant amounts of funding and that we would have cost efficiencies in the way that that entity was run and with the stroke of a pen and some legislation going through Parliament it is our strong view on this side of the House that we are seeing the reversal of major changes to this entity that will lead to potentially not the best decisions in our education system. That's why we've fought it. That's why we've opposed it. We believe we are doing the right thing in trying to ensure that people understand that the best-possible entity is one with a skills and competency - based model and that's why we fought so hard. We do know and we've heard throughout the course of this bill—these are some facts for you—that this entity will cost more than $700000. That is 30000 teacher-aide hours. This entity will go from nine to 13 members and again we have not seen the arguments as to why that should occur. But more importantly what is extraordinary is that this House has gone through months of select committee processes we've been in this House debating this bill and we've had lectures from the other side about the importance of these changes in terms of the membership to ensure the independence of the profession and to ensure that that profession has an adequate voice. Again what happened last week? Minister Hipkins as I said—as I warned members would happen—has put forward a bill in Parliament that is hypocritical. It is. The whole purpose of that bill is to say that the Minister can then direct this council—which is supposed to be independent—on its functions. So what I would say to the tens of thousands of teachers out there and the principals that are listening is to listen up. He may have argued that this entity was going to be independent and more of a voice for you and somehow that that would lead to better educational outcomes but you need to look at the piece of legislation that is coming. The members in this House cannot consider this piece of legislation without considering that legislation which in my view not only means we're going to see greater cost. It means we're going to see a larger entity but it means that the independence of the profession is severely compromised with the legislation that is coming on board. I think the other thing that I do want to acknowledge in this House is exactly what we are talking about. If we are really serious about lifting our education system—and I've just been through about an hour of conversation about governance and the difference that a great principal will make in terms of a school—then we have to get our leadership right. Again I want to acknowledge all of the incredible principals out there that are working long hours. As I say to many chief executives that I meet when I meet some of our best principals in New Zealand they would give them a run for their money. They are dealing with often very complex situations and major social issues they're running major financial organisations and again they deserve in my view to have the best-possible entity setting out the rules of the profession that is actually going to lift our education system and we have not got that. We're reversing to a model that will see again vested interests. I want to acknowledge I think it was Nicola Willis in this House who made the very eloquent point that it's one thing to put up an entity and argue for a representative model but the reality is the turnout is really low. I think it's 13 percent in terms of recent elections. So we've not only got an entity that is shifting from being independent in terms of the profession to one that will be controlled by the Minister and we've got an entity that's going to cost more but we've also got an entity that has been argued to be somehow more valid on the case of representation but the turnout for some of these elections is around 13 percent. So we on this side of the House feel very strongly that there is no greater cog in the wheel of our education system than probably something like this entity of the Education Council. The rules that it sets around qualification registration the discussions of policy around what the requirements are for someone to come into the teaching profession and the way that we foster leadership in terms of principals will make one of the greatest differences in our education system.We are sad. We are sad that we are moving to a system that was rejected by multiple reports. We are sad that we are moving to a system that will take away front-line funds from the teaching profession—$700000 of that. We are sad that we are moving to a profession where it will be run by a larger entity. We are sad that we are moving to a profession that is going to have a ministerial direction that will see the profession less independent. Ultimately we are sad for those incredible teachers out there that deserve the best-possible entity working on education policy. We are sad for those parents out there that deserve the best-possible teachers in our classrooms. We are sad for those principals out there that are working long hours and want the best-possible leadership policies whether that is mentoring or whether that is the way that they deal with teachers in terms of their professional development.I do want to finish with this: not only did the last National Government give this entity full independence which is being taken away by this Government in the next piece of legislation; the other thing that the previous Government did was it said We are prepared to put up $200 million worth of professional development funds and give that back to the profession." At this point in time we are unclear as to what exactly is happening to the professional development funding. The message that I have for the tens of thousands of teachers out there is: you do deserve the best. You deserve the best in terms of this entity. You deserve the ability to have greater say over your destiny. [Interruption] ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! I'm sorry to interrupt the member. The constant barracking from this side of the House is not appropriate.Hon NIKKI KAYE: So you deserve the best. You deserve to have an independent entity that has the heart of our education system at its forefront. It deserves to have the funding and the power and the independence to be able to do that. We are sad in this House that we are seeing the reversal of major changes to an entity like this because children and parents and teachers deserve better."