Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. OMG! That was an interesting speech wasn't it? Well I found that contribution by the Hon Tracey Martin to be quite interesting—Hon Member: Insufferable.SIMEON BROWN: Yeah potentially a bit insufferable but I would never say anything like that to the Hon Tracey Martin because I do quite like her for the chocolate fish she gave me last year and I still do remember that. But let me just rebut a couple of the points that she mentioned there. She talked about the Teaching Council—Dr Duncan Webb: It's like giving candy to a baby.SIMEON BROWN: Yes I've got a baby thank you so much Duncan. That's very much appreciated Duncan Webb. Thank you very much. That's very kind of you.She mentioned the fact that she was very interested in what the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) said because apparently they opposed the Government's bill. Yes they do oppose it and I've got a copy of the submission here. I'm happy to table it. Actually it should be available to the Minister to read. It says that in the build-up to the introduction of the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill the Government went to great lengths to point out that it wanted to retain the Teaching Council as an independent body. And guess what? The unions bought that message. And now the PPTA has turned up and said the PPTA believes that the changing of the Act thus requiring the council to have regard to Government policy actually undermines the Teaching Council's independent status.So I would encourage the member to actually go and read the PPTA's submission because what this bill does is it does undermine the status of the Teaching Council the status which they as a Government said they wanted to make sure was independent. And this bill undermines that.Look I'd like to also just quickly touch on the new criterion for private schools to include physical and emotional well-being in their criteria for registration. And we heard again Tracey Martin talk about the fact that you know this is about ensuring that our private schools are kept safe. Well I'd encourage the Minister to go in and visit some of the private schools and ask the question: are they actually not safe already? Hon Tracey Martin: You don't know because there's no criteria.SIMEON BROWN: I go and visit Saint Kentigern College in my electorate which is just right beside my electorate office—so I do know. It is a very safe school and there is no evidence—there is no evidence—to show that this will have any impact at all to improve the emotional and physical well-being of our students at our private schools.Yes of course we want our schools to be emotionally and physically safe but including this as a registration criterion will have no impact. I challenge the member over there to actually look at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research survey which showed that there is significant bullying in our schools up and down New Zealand and actually to look inside our State schools and not to say this is the only solution to improving emotional and physical well-being in our schools.The National Party does oppose this piece of legislation. It's ideologically driven by this Government. We oppose it. Thank you.