Moroney Sue: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Moroney Sue: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:650] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I think that the New Zealand public did actually believe the National Party when it said during the election campaign that education was the most important thing. I think that a lot of parents and a lot of teachers thought that National meant it but already those people know National did not mean it. Let us look at the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill which we have in front of us. Honestly! Does it even make 3 pages? No. It is very very slim. That shows how much the National members care about education. But the issue is not even about the small number of pages in the bill; it is actually about daring to say this issue does not need proper discussion and we should not have a proper democratic process so that teachers parents and communities can have a say on what our education system should look like in the future. 
One of these two statements must be true: this bill is either meaningless because it does what is already in the National Administration Guidelines anyway—and why are we here on a Saturday wasting parliamentary time if it is meaningless—or dangerous. I am starting to subscribe to the second view now after listening to this debate. I was particularly interested in what Metiria Turei had to say about a hidden agenda. I was also interested in the discussion my own colleagues have had about a Trojan Horse and that is starting to ring more and more true. The reason I say that is that I watched very carefully what happened to the very good amendments that were put forward by the Hon Chris Carter in order to ensure there could be debate about and some public scrutiny of the national standards the Minister might decide to put in. What did the National members do with regard to those amendments? They shut them down straight away. That tells me that there must be a secret agenda. Why else would the National Party deny the public the opportunity to scrutinise national standards that come from the Minister? 
This Minister has said during the course of this debate that we will not end up with national testing. I ask the Minister in the chair Anne Tolley whether that is right. Oh she is not confirming that now. Already she will not confirm it but I thought I heard her say this legislation is not about national testing. There is no reaction—so it is about national testing. Is it about national testing or not? Suddenly I am unsure again and that concerns me even more because I thought I heard the Minister say the bill is not about national testing. She is not prepared to confirm that now but I thought I heard her say that before. 
We have also seen that Minister on video saying teachers would be exempt from the provisions of the 90-day probationary employment period bill. How did that end up? It ended up with that Minister voting against the very amendment that would have ensured teachers were excluded from the 90-day bill. So can we trust this Minister? Can we trust this Minister to have the ability to gazette national standards? Those may or may not be national testing; she will not confirm or deny that now. She seems to be taking the American stance yet again—neither confirm nor deny. We have heard that before from the Americans. Maybe the Government is completely going towards the American stance. 
Anne Tolley is neither confirming nor denying national testing at this stage but I am just looking at a  
Hansard 
 here from earlier on in the debate. My colleague Brendon Burns said in his speech that the bill introduces standardised testing and the Hon Anne Tolley said it does not. That is in  
Hansard 
. So which is the true statement there? The issue is really very clear. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: She does change her mind quite a lot. 
SUE MORONEY 
: She does. It is very very difficult to work out because now the Minister seems to have taken the American stance of neither confirming nor denying that so we are none the wiser. We have had a debate in the Committee stage; we obviously need to flush that issue out quite some more. We are certainly coming towards the final debate in the Committee stage of this bill and we have absolutely no clarity on whether or not the bill proposes national testing. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Too simple for her to understand. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Well Sandra Goudie seems to know the answer. But there does seem to be quite a lot of confusion on the Government benches because I also thought I heard the Minister say this legislation would not result in league tables being published. I thought I heard the Minister say that. I am not sure whether she still believes that but I thought she said that during the course of the debate. Allan Peachey said league tables should be published. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Did he? 
SUE MORONEY 
: Yes he said that very clearly before so which is the true story?