Rurawhe AdrianADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Kia ora anō e Te Māngai o Te Whare. I was looking forward to speaking on the Education Legislation Bill. In particular I want to start off with charter schools. I want to start there because charter schools have been an absolute failure for the education system in New Zealand and I will point out to you exactly why. Charter schools are based on a philosophy around the privatisation and commercialisation of our education system. It has no place in New Zealand I believe. Here are some statistics: in 2014 it cost $7.345 million to educate—for 1 year—619 students. If we were to use that kind of funding for every State school in New Zealand we would expect a lot more achievement than what the charter schools were achieving in 2014. That model which I am really worried about—I will go back to my favourite quote from the submissions to express my point around why I believe it is taking incremental steps towards privatisation or allowing for the privatisation of our education system. The New Zealand Principals' Federation said: On the surface they might be described as a collection of ill-conceived baseless changes which lack any intelligent rationale. They might otherwise be described as changes without openly expressed rationale yet intended to enable further expansion of certain policies and direction." I absolutely agree with that and I will make this point: not only have they been a failure—this bill allows charter schools to be operated by tertiary institutes. That is not core business for those tertiary organisations. Why would you allow a tertiary organisation to run a primary school or a secondary school as a charter school? Another point I want to make is that charter schools are allowed to make a profit—make a profit even though they are trusts—and we were told that they were going to be in partnership with organisations. Well the organisations did not actually step up—not the organisations that were originally talked about when charter schools first came into law. But who has put up their hands? It is trusts and others. But they are still able to operate on a surplus and use those funds the way that they want to. We think that is unfair. It is unfair to all of the schools in my electorate—in every electorate—whose funding in this year's Budget is effectively being reduced. I go back to my other point: if they were funded at the same level that charter schools are funded at we would have a whole lot of very happy schools out there but they are not. So that tells me there is a huge inequity in the way education is funded in New Zealand. I want to talk about principals running multiple schools. Principals are the professional leaders of their schools for their staff and for their school community. They are often the leaders within their communities as well. If they have the burden of having to run multiple schools I wonder how they can effectively be not only the professional leaders of their schools but also have the valued relationships that every principal should have in their community. For example it is a requirement that they have a relationship with their Māori community—with iwi. If they are running three or four schools and they have got a number of iwi that they need to be consulting with then I would say that that relationship is going to be watered down. In fact I would go so far as to say that that relationship is going to end up—that the principal in their management of those schools will end up making generic decisions across all of the schools that they manage. That is not necessarily a good thing. It might be good for one or two schools but you can almost guarantee that it will not be good for all of the schools. So I have got concerns about that. I have got concerns about how parents have to manage looking after their children if they have children who are going to different schools—primary intermediate and secondary. That has been pointed out and this House has still not had I believe an adequate answer on how that will be managed. I have heard and I will acknowledge the statements that members opposite have made that it is dependent upon consultation. Can I tell the House that consultation with members of my constituency is very difficult and if you are having to run three schools and consult effectively with people enrolled on the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate then I would say to you that the consultation by that one principal will have to involve a whole lot of doorknocking. We know from experience that the consultation that is run in schools and in other organisations is not always effective in reaching key stakeholders in those schools. I believe that because of that decisions will be made by those who are engaged and not by those who are not engaged and I have a concern about that. The new teacher position the trainee teachers—and I support the statements that my colleague Jenny Salesa has made about parents having options. We heard in the speeches from members opposite that it is all about parents having options. Well really? Do you think parents will truly choose a trainee teacher over a registered qualified teacher? I think that when trainee teachers are sent into schools they ought to be closely monitored as they are now. That is an acceptable programme of training within schools and I acknowledge that. But self-charge with no overview and perhaps with a principal who has multiple schools that they are looking after—I am not sure about that. Actually I am sure about that—it will not work. Can I finish on the part of this bill—it is made up of a number of other parts that have been amended and I want in particular to speak to the Ngārimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships fund. That is a part of the bill that I do support. Unfortunately because of all the other things that I do not agree with we will not be voting for this bill but I did want to acknowledge the Minister for the work on this particular part of the legislation and to acknowledge the whānau of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu and the legacy that he and the 28th Māori Battalion have had in the education of young people in New Zealand by providing scholarships so that they can get a very good education. Nō reira e mihi ana a'au ki tōna whānau tēnā tātou. [Therefore I pay a tribute to his family. Acknowledgments to us collectively.]"