Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education)): Tēnā koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Well that was a waste of breath. The member Nikki Kaye may as well have not even started speaking. Let me tell you now that in 2008 I was first elected to Parliament and in 2009 the first thing that the National Government of the time did was implement national standards on the premise that this was going to be groundbreaking stuff that was going to lift achievement across the country. It was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. This made me laugh when they then implemented charter schools and did charter schools have to implement national standards? No way. Charter schools don't have to implement national standards and it makes you wonder why if national standards were so good were so successful their blue riband project charter schools didn't have to actually implement national standards.National standards—I remember standing in the House at the time saying this: when you set a bar and you say that every child has to reach that bar that national standard what happens to those children that don't actually meet that bar? They actually get demoralised. Then if you've got a whole classroom full of kids say 30 students in the class and their achievement levels are very very low but the teacher actually lifts them but still just can't quite get them over the bar is that teacher a successful teacher or not? They haven't met the national standards but they've lifted them significantly. Is that teacher successful or not? Hon Member: Not under national standards.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Not under national standards. Under national standards that teacher and that school are failing. However if the teacher is lucky enough to get a class where the children happen to be doing very well and it takes only a little adjustment to get over the national standard then that teacher is seen to be a successful teacher. That school's seen to be a successful school. The reality is I say that the teacher who has listed the low-level children and moved them a long way is a much better much more successful teacher than the teacher who just by dint of standing in front of—being lucky enough to have—a group of children in their class who just happen to be below the national standard—and they fall over the national standard not as a result of the teacher but in spite of the teacher. I say actually that the first teacher is the better teacher and that school is the better school. But that's not how this group over here sees it. I remember saying at the time that we would be much better off—if you've got to set a standard at all then you make sure you set a standard that measures the success of every individual child over the course of the school year. That would be a better standard. But unfortunately we had national standards as they are now. I forget how many tens of millions of dollars it cost to implement national standards but it was tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars. We actually had a system that we could have used that would have cost us nothing to implement and that is the curriculum levels. You could already measure where a child was performing against the curriculum levels and you could measure their progress against those curriculum levels. Now each curriculum level had three sub-levels and I was told by an adviser at the time that it's reasonable to expect a child to move two curriculum sub-levels over the course of a year and that that would be acceptable achievement. We could have had something decent but we didn't need to spend the tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars.Then we get to charter schools themselves—and the model is going. I remember in the election campaign and it's well documented that I said that I would resign if any of those schools—the two schools up in the Far North—were closed. Now I could say that as the member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau safe in the knowledge with my educational background that there were alternatives that would be able to be implemented because we can close the model but the schools don't have to close.Now here's the test. All those people over there who are saying I need to resign—David Seymour: You do.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: —and I'll take David Seymour there—if those schools' doors are open on day one of next year if those same teachers are teaching in that school if those same children are there wearing the same uniforms will that member resign? Will any of these members resign if the school is still operating albeit under a different model?Erica Stanford: What about the other charter schools in your electorate?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No it won't be a charter school. Will that member over there who's spouting off—will she resign? Yes or no? Put up or shut up. Put up or shut up. You don't have any moral mandate—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! [Interruption] Order! Do not bring the Speaker into the debate.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: My apologies Madam Assistant Speaker. But those people over there do not have any moral mandate to call for my resignation if they're not prepared to resign themselves if those schools—the doors are open the same teachers are there and the same children are sitting in front of them. They—silence now isn't there? Silence now. Erica Stanford: Go to Vanguard.David Seymour: Point of order Madam Speaker.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: So—oh Go to Vanguard."Erica Stanford: Why won't you? You've never been.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No I haven't been and why would I go to a school where I don't support the model? There you go.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! I apologise—point of order David Seymour.David Seymour: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I apologise for interrupting the member's speech but I just wanted him to know that if he's happy to yield some time I'll happily answer the question.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): That's not a valid point of order.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: OK so there's been—Hon David Bennett: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I'd just like to confirm that I heard the Minister say he would not go to a school that he did not like the model of. Is that true?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): That's not a valid point of order. Please sit down.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Look there are hundreds of schools across the Tai Tokerau and what the members over there forget is that when you are a Māori member of Parliament in an electorate seat not only do I have my electorate but in the Tai Tokerau there's 10 other electorates. If they think it's a hard job getting around the schools in their electorate well then they need to realise that it's actually 10 times harder for a member of Parliament in a Māori electorate.But they're asking why don't I go and visit Vanguard Military School? Look I've had my Associate Minister delegation since 5 December. Since 5 December there were about 10 school days towards the end of the year. Now anybody who has any knowledge of the education system knows it's not a good idea for some boffin from Wellington to go to a school at the end of the year because that's when you're having teacher-parent interviews that's when the teachers are doing reports and that's when the school production's on. Those people over there don't understand those pressures because they have never ever been in the education system. Now they're saying "Oh why haven't I gone to the three" or whatever number of fingers they're holding up. They forget that there are hundreds of schools in my electorate because it's 10 times the size of their electorate.Then there's been all the misinformation. There's the scaremongering there's the misinformation and there's members going around and ringing up saying "The sky's going to fall in if these schools close." Look there's nothing to stop those same schools delivering what they are delivering now. It's just a different model and that's really what they're scared about. They're scared that these schools are going to be successful despite the fact that they won't be called charter schools. That's what they're scared of. They're scared of our success.Now we need to look at what the difference is. Oh no—actually no sorry. I'm just going to go through some of the propaganda that's been promulgated in the media and supported by these guys. I see in today's paper that the Villa Education Trust school was complaining about "Davis' visits to another charter school." Sorry; since I've been the Associate Minister I haven't visited any other charter schools. So that's fallacy number one. Then it says that "Davis had been in negotiations with"—I haven't been in negotiations. All I did was when they rang me up talk them through the information that the excellent Minister of Education has proactively released. I talked them through it and as soon as you talk them through that information then all their concerns sort of dim down and die away because they're actually getting the facts.But of course they want to make out like there's some big conspiracy—that there's favouritism amongst the charter schools. Well actually I've reached out to the Villa Education Trust and I got in touch with their academic manager last night and I said "Look give your boss"—whatever his name is—"my phone number. He can ring my office." but no there's been no contact. Although I asked him to give my office a ring there's been no contact. Now I think that that person is again scared that they can be successful without the charter school model. That's what their real fear is. That's what their real fear is. They're buying into the misinformation and the scaremongering of the members opposite and then they are coming up themselves—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. His time has expired."