Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Kia ora Madam Speaker. The Greens will be joining the peace that has broken out across the House today to support this non-controversial technical bill. I did note the comments from the Minister that this bill won't set the House on fire which is good especially on a Thursday afternoon when we're all just about to head home. There is a well-known Māori whakataukī that goes: ko te manu e kai ana te miro nōna te ngahere. Ko te manu e kai ana te mātauranga nōna te ao. The bird that partakes of the berry their domain is the forest. But the bird that partakes of knowledge their domain is the world. And of course with a well-resourced educational pathway from early childhood through to secondary and onwards to tertiary education that bird is more likely to have more opportunities and access to a wider diversity of berries—or pathways to other nutritious nuggets of knowledge if berries are not your thing. I'm personally a berry person so that analogy works for me but what I'm saying here is that education creates opportunities and that it is important that our education system should give everyone the best possible start on a lifelong journey that happens inside and outside the classrooms.We will be supporting this bill because it makes a number of relatively small and minor changes to the primary Act but I do hope that means that this will give this Government time to deal with some of the bigger issues. Just after lunchtime I managed to look outside of the ivory tower down to the Parliament lawns and I wandered down because I saw a whole lot of students down there with their desks out—they were having a teach-in. I do want to acknowledge the Hutt Valley High School students who were parked up on the Parliament lawn with their desks and schoolwork for a teach-in. They were here to highlight the issues and protest about the toxic mould which was discovered in a block of classrooms at their school. So let's get these small technical things out of the way so you can deal with the real big issues like infrastructure in schools. Having young people engaged in politics and advocacy for and on behalf of their communities is a great thing and a great way to broaden one's educational pathways and it further acknowledges that schools are at the heart of community wellbeing. So good luck to those students and I hope the Minister gets a bit of a move on and gets that high school sorted out.Other issues that have been front of mind at least for me are the pay parity issues within the early childhood education sector and in associated workplaces and an urgent shortage of teachers. We know that early childhood teachers do an incredibly important job but their pay lags significantly behind kindergarten and primary teachers with the same skills qualifications and responsibilities—so let's get that sorted. But back to this bill. It will make a number of relatively small and minor changes which add clarity and may have been overlooked in the creation of the primary legislation the Education and Training Act 2020 enacted last year such as provisions which ensure workers who do not quite meet the definition of a children's worker in the Children's Act can still be safely checked under that Act and that all other early childhood centre or school employees meet police vetting requirements in the principal Act; and ensuring that interventions in State schools by the Secretary for Education mirrors the corresponding provisions in the Education Act 1989. This will ensure the types of interventions the secretary makes are only those provided for under the Act. It also includes provisions which mean teachers are not automatically enabled to use physical restraint in new schools they start teaching at but must have the prior approval of the school that employs them. Regulation-making powers relating to early childhood service licences are clarified and agencies to which ministerial statements of expectations might apply are specified. The ban on tertiary education charging trainees a compulsory student service fee is extended by one year.With greater Government and community support everyone can reach their potential so they can fully participate in society. Together we can make the necessary changes so that all children thrive. Let's get this down the road so we can focus on the big issues. I commend this bill to the House.