Rurawhe AdrianADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Tēnā koe e Te Heamana o Te Komiti o Te Whare. It is a pleasure to take a call to speak on this bill tonight. I want to speak about new section 75A inserted by clause 9 but first I want to reflect on the existing sections 75 and 76 because I think they are very relevant to this new section headed Appointment of principals". Section 75 of the Education Act outlines the functions and powers of the board of trustees and section 76 outlines the role of the principal. I remember as a member of the school board of trustees having to get my head around these two sections and how they impact on each other. That is why I raise them together in relation to this new section that is being proposed. One of the things that the principals are and it says here in the Act: "A school's principal is the board's chief executive …". It goes on to say that they "shall comply with the board's general policy directions;". My issue with having the new section here for a number of boards to be able to appoint the same principal is this: those two sections establish the function and relationship. The relationship is actually with one school and my problem with this new section is around the professional leadership of a particular school and how one person is able to do that in one school with one community. Quite often they are not only the professional leader of their school; they are one of the leaders of their community. My issue is how does that impact on that particular community say if you have—in my electorate which is 36000 square kilometres most of it rural and provincial how could one principal appointed by a number of boards within a rural area be the professional leader of each of those schools as well as a leader in their community as established under these two sections? That is my question. I do not believe that we have seen enough or heard enough as to why it is even necessary or how that will actually function in a way that enhances those particular communities. One of the things about schools in New Zealand is that they play a very important role. They are quite often the hub of any community. I am struggling to understand how in any particular community they would be able to function with a principal who is not always present. How is the relationship developed within each of those communities? There are high expectations on principals no matter where they are but can one imagine how difficult it might be for a principal to develop those one-on-one relationships with parents in two three or more communities? I have a problem with that. If one were to ask the parents of children at a number of schools in provincial and rural New Zealand whether they would like to share their principal with a number of other schools I think the answer would be no. As with other important positions in their community people like to have good relationships with the principals of their schools. Another issue that came up in this part of the bill is the opening hours of schools and the flexibility there—so the opening hours of schools the flexibility around all of that how that impacts again on communities and on families. In the second reading I mentioned what would be the impact on a family that is not very well off—the families living in poverty and working families who are living in poverty who have to rearrange their schedules because they have two or three children going to two or three different schools with different opening hours. And then there is everything else that families have to cope with whether or not they are living in poverty. I do not think that is the fundamental issue here. I have spoken to a number of families about this and they just do not support it. Sometimes I think with this part of the bill are we fixing something that really does not exist? So that is my other question on this. For this part that is all I want to comment on but I do hope to take other calls through this debate. Thank you."