Davis Kelvin: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:661;Page:9578] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
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Te mea tuatahi maku e tautoko ana i nga mihi ki tera o nga mate kua ’hakahuatia e te Ropu Kakariki mo tera o nga tohunga o te ao matauranga. Na reira tautoko ana i nga whakaaro mo taua rangatira. 
[ 
The first thing for me to do is to endorse the tributes made by the Green Party about one of the experts in the field of education who has passed away. So I support the sentiments expressed about that noble person 
.] 
Labour supports the Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill’s referral to the Government Administration Committee. As stated in the explanatory note the bill amends the Christ’s College (Canterbury) Act 1910 to “remove difficulties in administering property vested in the College where the intended purpose or purposes for which the property was given to or vested in the College have by the passage of time become redundant uncertain as to application impractical to implement or the property generates income that is inadequate or in excess of the amount necessary for those purposes.” In other words it is tidying up little parcels of land so that the college has the flexibility to do what it wants with that land in terms of supporting the education for the boys of the college. 
However this is not the only flexibility that Christ’s College will receive under this Government. Like all private schools Christ’s College has the flexibility to either implement national standards or not implement national standards as it deems fit. It is a flexibility that is not granted to State schools in the country and we have to ask why it is that State schools are not granted the flexibility to implement or not implement national standards. I would like to know how many private schools in New Zealand will implement national standards. I would say that the answer is zero or a number very close to zero. That is because private schools know that there is no evidence and no research to back national standards. In fact every time we ask the Government to provide the body of research and evidence that supports the implementation of national standards we get no answer. I suggest that the National Government either front up with that body of research and evidence or be quiet about it. Unless schools can see that there is a body of research and evidence to back up the implementation of national standards the policy will not win any favour. 
I was surprised to hear Louise Upston in the House last night talking about a decile 1 kura kaupapa Maori school in her area. She said the kids there are very very successful and they are doing really well. Then she kicked an own goal by saying that the school is not implementing national standards yet. I was blown away that she would be so naive as to stand up and talk about a school that is highly successful is full of Maoris and is decile 1 even though the school is not yet implementing national standards because it does not have to for 12 months. That tells me that national standards are not actually necessary because schools are doing really well without them. I wonder whether Louise Upston will stand up and apologise to that school if when it has national standards are imposed on it its achievement goes down. Will she apologise to that kura kaupapa Maori in her electorate for forcing this one-size-fits-all approach—national standards—on it? 
There is no principal or teacher in New Zealand who is opposed to high standards or opposed to giving parents the information that they—