Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. It is quite interesting really listening to Catherine Delahunty and Tracey Martin's contributions—the National members are slowly sinking in their seats and not really providing a response at all. We got these limp excuses: The whip told me not to speak for very long." I have got a message for those members who have had an education from the contributions in this debate—they have been educated by the two previous female speakers we have heard—and that is that they may not think that many people are watching the parliamentary broadcast or sitting in the Chamber tonight watching this Education Legislation Bill pass through. Maybe they think that people are not focusing on the legislative process of the House but do you know what? When a parent next year—an election year—goes to their school and asks "Where is the principal?" and the secretary says "Well they are managing the other school across the road." then they are going to start to take notice and wonder what this Government is doing to our education system which is so important to New Zealanders. When they turn up to a school and find that it is being run by some tertiary education institute—some polytech from out of town—then they are going to ask their local National MP or write to the National education Minister whoever that is: "What are you doing to education which is so important to me as a New Zealander?". So although maybe not many people are watching now they should be paying attention because this is bad legislation. It is bad legislation that the Green Party will be opposing. I rise to speak with two hats on and the first one is that of a father who has got two kids in the State education system who thinks that their teachers and principals do a wonderful job. They have got enough on their plate now running one school—focusing on the kids in the one school—let alone trying to manage multiple schools. As a father I support the idea of flexible hours for schools. As someone who cares about urban transport cleaning up our cities and reducing congestion I like the idea that we can have flexibility. But we have flexibility when it comes to school hours at the moment. As a parent I do not want to turn up as a result of this legislation—and I do not think that any other parent in this country does—and find that the hours of the school day have been radically changed. That is when people are going to pay attention to education which is so important to New Zealanders. The second hat of course is that of the tertiary education spokesperson for the Green Party. I want to see our tertiary education providers focus on providing high-quality affordable accessible tertiary education not focusing on running charter schools for profit. We have enough pressures in that sector already—because of the reducing quantum of funding from the Government because of all the other requirements we have seen—to be worrying about running charter schools for profit. We should be shutting down the charter schools that have been running for profit not trying to get other entities involved. I stand by the Labour Party and the Green Party minority view on this legislation in its second reading which shows that this is in fact an admission of failure by the Government on its controversial charter schools project. Just lastly as someone who was once a student the idea that this Government is removing the 2 months' consultation requirement for the changing of fees is I think egregious. I think it is just another example of how this Government treats consultations with sham affection. We have seen so many consultations on so many different areas being treated with disrespect by Government Ministers such as Jonathan Coleman that we should not be producing in Government legislation the idea that students the people who are actually paying the fees should be consulted. Once again we see bad legislation passing through a bad process as we have heard from previous speakers. I believe that New Zealanders even though they may not be listening to this debate will be caring about the state of their education system. They will be asking questions of all those National members: why the school hours are radically changing; why the principal is off managing another school; why there is a tertiary education provider running some of our schools for profit. These are the things New Zealanders care about. These are the questions that will be asked. We will be able to say on the Green Party benches that we were proud to oppose the bill. We were proud to stand up for high-quality education at the primary and tertiary levels."