SpeechDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): It's a pleasure to rise and take a contribution at the third and final reading of this Education and Training Bill. I just want to start out by saying that one thing I always try to apply to any legislation that I've been debating in this House is the application of a simple question which is: does a law address a defined problem? And for us to answer that question you've got to dive deeper and ask: what is the problem and then is the legislation that we're considering the appropriate solution to that problem? Now I applied that same methodology to the Tomorrow's Schools review and I was actually startled by the lack of a definition of a problem and the solutions that were provided weren't solutions to any problem at all. And I must say that I wasn't the only one. Most principals most board of trustee members most parents I spoke to and consulted with over the Tomorrow's Schools task force review report had the same conclusion: what is the problem this report is trying to solve?I just want to reflect on some of the feedback that I've had from my area of Northcote from the sector because those are the problems that I'm getting about our education system. The first is the bureaucracy of the ministry: the sense that in any problem that schools or teachers are having they're coming up against a brick wall between themselves and the ministry in getting progress. The second is around the lack of adequate resources whether it's teachers or school classrooms. The third is around support for our most vulnerable: not only people with complex needs but also students with high needs as well. The fourth is around preparing our kids for success in the modern world and the fifth is really around the ability of schools to handle the political football. The biggest feedback I actually got on the Tomorrow's Schools review was schools hated being treated like political footballs. Whether it's a National Government pulling them in one way or a Labour Government pulling them in another way they hated the extremes of the political spectrum and they wanted us to actually take politics and ideology out of our schools to address some problems.Now what I see from the bill that we've been talking about is that it doesn't address any issues that I've just outlined for you today. It is a bill that quite frankly is searching for a problem and it only reinforces the view from our education sector and from our parents out there that this law is all about ideology. It's all about ideology and not about good policy: the ideology of centralisation the belief that Government knows best for you and your child rather than the school; the ideology of removing power from local communities and the sense that actually local communities don't know what's best for their kids; a sense of removing accountability. My colleague Erica Stanford mentioned the lack of accountability now under this new bill for school boards and the accountability they have for students' academic achievement. So this bill really doesn't provide much in the way of improving student outcomes and addressing some of the deep-seated challenges that are facing the sector.I was actually quite optimistic. I was thinking the Tomorrow's Schools review would address some of these challenges. But then I saw the recommendations—centralised hubs removing power from boards of trustees phasing out intermediate schools and even things like fixing the tenure of principals in our schools—and I thought what are the problems that they're actually trying to solve? All we have today is a watered-down version of that Tomorrow's Schools review in the form of the Education and Training Bill. And again as I said it's the same ideology that is prevalent in this Government of centralisation of stripping power away from local communities and schools and saying Governments know better for you and your child than you and the communities." So we absolutely oppose the ideology that is prevalent in and seeping through each and every part of this legislation.I want to also talk about the lack of due process that's gone into this bill. Only three months at the select committee I believe but also—Simeon Brown: Six months but three months in lockdown.DAN BIDOIS: Sorry?Simeon Brown: You're right.DAN BIDOIS: Yeah. It's the three-month select committee process but also it's the fact that we have had dumped on us at the last moment a Supplementary Order Paper of hundreds of pages that we on this side of the House haven't had time to read and digest. And again all that does for the sector for the boards of trustees for the parents for the teachers is reinforce this notion that it is ideologically driven and we oppose those changes. So I'm proud to stand and oppose this legislation as somebody who I must say the education sector absolutely failed. I stand here proud as a school dropout and also a Harvard graduate and it's no thanks to our school system that I got there. I think some of the deep-seated challenges are absolutely missing from this legislation and I'm proud to oppose this bill in the House today.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call; I call Priyanca Radhakrishnan."