Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17037. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka)to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by all of her decisions and statements as Minister of Education?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education):Yes in all the circumstances they were made.Chris Hipkins: Is she satisfied that she allowed sufficient time for Phillipstown School’s board of trustees to undertake meaningful consultation with its community on her proposal to merge the school with Woolston School following the court’s declaration that her original decision was unlawful; if so why?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Yes following the judgment made by Justice Fogarty who had said that the Crown had consulted in good faith but that there had been one inadvertent error in relation to property costings and that continued consultation on that particular element should be considered. I then wrote to Phillipstown School and Woolston School and suggested that we would continue consultation how and when we would do that and invited their feedback. On the basis of that we began continued consultation on 18 November. That concluded on 4 March. That was a further 10-week consultation process—absent the holiday period that occurred in the middle of that—during which time several boxes of information were provided to both Phillipstown School and Woolston School and there were officials available to answer their questions.Chris Hipkins: What alternative proposal to a merger with Woolston School did the Phillipstown School board suggest in its 6 March letter to her titled “Response to Minister on continuing consultation process”?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Over the course of the consultation there were a number of discussions with Phillipstown School and they included that no further action be taken for a 2-year period at the end of which time a review should occur. They included that the school just continue as is without any kind of merger and they made a number of suggestions around that.Dr Megan Woods: On what date did her official meet with the Phillipstown School board to address outstanding questions around property information and what follow-up actions did her official agree to as a consequence of this meeting?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Officials have been meeting with the Phillipstown School principal and board on several occasions since 18 November through to the conclusion of the consultation period—originally on 3 March but at the request of Phillipstown School on 4 March. I do not know which specific meeting the member is referring to or which specific follow-up action in the context of those numbers of meetings.Dr Megan Woods: I seek leave to table a letter from the Minister to Phillipstown School referring to her officials meeting on 28 February to address property information follow-up questions.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that particular letter from the Minister to the school. Is there any objection? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Dr Megan Woods: Does she consider that the 6 days between the 28 February meeting when the school board received further information regarding its property and her 6 March deadline was sufficient time for it to take independent expert advice on that information disseminate that information to parents and receive their feedback in order to make a meaningful submission on the proposal; if so why?Hon HEKIA PARATA: As I have already indicated when the decision was made to continue consultation I invited both boards to give me feedback on how they wanted that consultation to proceed. They were given 10 weeks from 18 November until 3 March. If the boards had questions to raise they had all of that period to do so.Chris Hipkins: Why after having her initial decision to merge Phillipstown School and Woolston School declared unlawful by the courts and after the community has loudly and clearly rejected that proposal does she intend to force this change on that local community ignoring all of its feedback?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I think it is really important here to recall that there are two schools involved in this process. Woolston School also consulted its community. It had a 91 percent response rate and it is keen for the merger to proceed. In the case of Phillipstown School there are those who do not. But on the basis that we have been focused on investing in better provision across the greater Christchurch network—and that has involved an investment of $1.37 billion into the community—it is for better provision not simply repair.