Katene Rahui: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Katene Rahui: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9829. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 When I spoke to the second reading of the Education Amendment Bill I raised a number of points. I have been listening tonight to see whether anybody picks up on those points and I am hoping that the Minister of Education will rise to take a call about them. 
First of all I want to talk about the good points of the bill. I like its focus on the safety of our children; that is something we need to be aware of at all times. Of course in other legislation the safety of children is paramount. So I support the provisions on police vetting. I think we should always ensure that people who deal with children are safe to be with them. It is very important that our children are safe with teachers and contractors—anybody who is working with our children—and that we have no worries about people our children are with. 
I like the provisions on the registration of teachers. We will be able to match those up so that we can ensure that the teachers of our children know what they are talking about can teach correctly and will not be going off on tangents or giving them incorrect information. Those points I support very much. 
One thing I see as missing from this bill is cultural safety. I miss anything in the bill that points teachers to training in programmes such as Te Kotahitanga so that children are able to grow up safe in their cultural identity. I want to talk about a few examples that I am aware of. Although they are historical examples they are still happening today and that is a real pity. I think about the example my aunts told me of what happened when they were at school and being taught history. My aunts grew up in Te Tau Ihu in the Nelson-Marlborough area. They were taught the history of the Wairau massacre. They were told that Maori heathens—savages—blatantly broke the law by massacring settlers. The teacher was very well aware that she was talking about my aunties’ great-grandparents at that stage. My aunties grew up having been taught by this teacher that their great-grandparents were dirty savages and heathens who massacred innocent settlers. It took them years to learn for themselves that that was not what had happened. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Unlearn. 
RAHUI KATENE 
: Yes. Those things are still happening today. I think we need to look at our history curriculum and at the ability of teachers to teach our children their true identity. 
Another example I will bring up is again from one of my aunt’s experiences. She is a teacher and has a lot of experience and expertise in teaching but she found that one of her daughters was struggling at school. When she went to talk to the teacher she was spoken to by that teacher as though she was ignorant and had no concept at all of what a teacher is supposed to teach children. She walked out of that meeting feeling totally inadequate as a parent and as a teacher. I think that is something we need to be training our teachers in. It is a matter of safety for children as well as for their parents. I hope the Minister in the chair will take a call to talk to us about cultural identity and cultural safety and how those issues can be taught in our schools. 
Also missing from this bill and something that we should look at is the issue of a school’s awareness of how children are doing at home. Are they coming to school not having had breakfast?