Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): Look I am very pleased. Unfortunately you only get a certain number of calls in a committee stage and I think this is actually my last one but the good news is there are a lot of amendments and a lot of National MPs that want to speak on this bill.Firstly my first basic question to the Minister—and I mentioned it before and I was called a conspiracy theorist by Jamie Strange—is that the whole purpose of this bill that we have been told is to enable the profession to have independence. So my first question is for the Minister Chris Hipkins and that is: is it correct that he has taken papers through this Government that indicate that he wants to have a greater say over this entity therefore taking away its independence? So we've all been standing in this Parliament—in my view in a bit of a sham—pretending to be giving this entity back its independence but the Minister has taken through papers or briefings that indicate he wants to be able to direct this entity to do what is Government policy rather than independence of the profession. That's the first question that I would like the Minister to answer.The second point that I want to make is that I couldn't believe we heard this Minister utter the words around partnership schools and this bill and representation. He also made the comment that somehow us putting up Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) indicating that he could change representation was somehow backward-flipping on our position. The reality is we do not support this bill. We know the reviews that have previously happened—that indicated there were serious financial issues and that there were issues around process in terms of sex offenders and the teaching profession as to why we had the original Education Council. We don't support this bill going through but we are doing everything that we can as part of the democratic process to improve this bill and I take offence that we are being told that we shouldn't put these SOPs up.Now I can't believe that the Minister is criticising us around partnership schools when this is the Minister that has just admitted that for several months he failed to acknowledge via Crown Law that a Waitangi Tribunal claim exists which involves iwi leaders which is a major reason why we should not be debating the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand) Amendment Bill—and I'm glad that he has shifted that bill off the Order Paper so we're not debating it tomorrow morning. I would love the Minister in the context of that SOP to explain to this House how we could be potentially over the coming weeks railroading that bill through when there is a Waitangi Tribunal claim.The next thing the Minister did was reel through a range of SOPs and I want to deal with a couple of them. He did raise SOP 95. We do think it is right that as part of this new entity's business it does report back on the education governance leadership experience and skills and financial skills of this entity. We think that matters to New Zealanders. We're shifting away from a competency-based body. And actually the sum of the information around that entity and who has been responsible for major decisions affecting tens of thousands of teachers—it is important to report that.But as I said before one of the most important SOPs that we have put up—and it relates to my first point—is that we believe that if the Minister is true to the intent of this bill he will support our amendment that makes it absolutely clear that this entity is independent of the Government and cannot be directed on policy by the Minister. We want an answer in this committee because we think that the tens of thousands of teachers out there that thought that the Government was being nice and somehow giving them greater autonomy and independence need to know that in the background the Minister is pushing through a policy that enables him to direct the council to do what he wants from a Government perspective.Finally can I just make this point: as we have said before there are 19 reviews under way in education. Not only is this going to cost money—the rebranding of this council—not only is it against all of the reviews that have happened in the past not only is there representation around the council now but this is not the largest priority in education. We go throughout New Zealand and we meet different members of the community from teachers to principals and what they are saying to me is they are drowning in reviews. They are drowning in reviews yet the most important priority that the Minister has brought to this Parliament is the renaming of the Education Council.