Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green) (remote): Talofa lava Mr Speaker. First of all I'd like to start by thanking teachers out there that have been doing all that they can do to make sure that they support our tamariki. I'm just mindful that it's important that we support those that support our tamariki. I was just reflecting on a headline that popped up which said that teachers may be catching COVID-19 at a higher rate than other adults. Here's the thing right? If you're talking about attendance first of all you need to make sure that our teachers are attending as well. So making sure that they have all the support that they need to actually be able to do this really really important job should be at the forefront of all the different things that we are organising. I'm mindful that we face a possible second COVID-19 peak over winter. And at the same time as the open borders are bringing new viruses into communities communities need an expert-led plan to support children's access to education and protect children school staff and their families from COVID-19 and other winter respiratory infections. So it's important to really acknowledge the impact of COVID over the last couple of years. I do agree with previous speakers as well. What COVID-19 did was just put a limelight if you like over the problems that were already there. We already had an inequality crisis—it was already there—and COVID has just exacerbated that. That was already there as well. I think it's really really important and that's what I learnt over the process at the times that I managed to attend the select committee as well which was well chaired by Marja Lubeck. I'm not a permanent member of the select committee but I often visit and I do enjoy and like the deep reflections that many that have come from the education sector the members around the committee bring to this debate but also educational issues in particular. I think it's really important that we don't get lost and see the wood between the trees. It's important to not get lost in the weeds. It's important to step back and actually take a look at the whole forest. If I can extend this metaphor as well we've got to understand the part that education plays in the whole ecosystem of all of our social determinants which impact on whether tamariki can attend school or not. Because here's the thing right? If the tamariki the children who are hungry show up to lunch well that's an impact on the educational outcome. If they've got to take time off work because mum or dad or uncle or auntie or granddad or grandma or whoever's at home can't work and they've got to go take some shifts down at the supermarket that impacts upon their educational outcomes. If they can't call the school well then that impacts their educational outcomes. So we've got to look at all of that. I do acknowledge the comment in the report which said that the wider societal causes of non-attendance include housing affordability transience and poverty. Social causes of non-attendance cannot be solved by the education sector alone. So we've got to be mindful of that. But I think it's really important for us—to sort of pretend and throw our hands up in the air to say that this stuff is all difficult because there are certain things that we can do. We can commit to livable incomes for everybody. We can commit to warm housing. We can commit to making sure that most of people's wages aren't getting pulled off on to rentals or high mortgages and so on and so forth. We've got to create that foundation because the concern that I have—and I do take the point around the data; data must be strong. We must be able to analyse what the situation is. But then if we just pour on and devolve all of this responsibility to teachers all of this responsibility on to schools and not give them the resources not provide those wrap-around services and not to give those wrap-around services which should also be culturally appropriate as well then we are not doing our jobs properly. We've got to see this whole thing; take a step back and look at how education is impacted by all these other different factors. If I can just say because I don't have much time here it's really important that we commit to making sure that every child deserves a high-quality free accessible public education that gives them the best possible start in life. This is what we must commit to. We want all children to reach their full potential and to make sure that we take a step back and understand what those levers are and to deal with the poverty issues within some of our communities. If we commit to that and we see the links between housing income and health we will do the job that Aotearoa New Zealand has elected us to do. Thank you Mr Speaker.