Hipkins Chris: Urgent Debates — Schools Canterbury—Proposed Closures and Mergers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hipkins Chris: Urgent Debates — Schools Canterbury—Proposed Closures and Mergers 
[Sitting date: 18 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5292. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to make a brief contribution to this debate on the announcement of the rearrangement of schools in Christchurch. Can I say on behalf of the Labour education team that we want to acknowledge the stress that the schools the teachers the principals the boards and the kids have been under since the earthquake. Regardless of where we stand on this particular announcement I am sure we can all agree that the schools have done an absolutely wonderful and commendable job— 
Sue Moroney 
: And early childhood education services. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: —I am going to come to the early childhood education services in a minute—of supporting kids through a really difficult couple of years that you know they have experienced down in Christchurch. As my colleague Sue Moroney has pointed out the early childhood centres have also done an absolutely wonderful job. I guess for those of us living outside of Christchurch it is difficult to comprehend in some respects the difficulty that schools would have with not knowing where parents are and not being able to contact parents. It is the same with early childhood services. They have done an absolutely wonderful job and I do want to acknowledge the contribution that they have made in that regard. 
I am concerned that this announcement goes a little bit further potentially than what some would have been expecting. I do not think that anyone would have expected that there would not be change required in Christchurch following the earthquakes. They have had a significant impact on the whole community and on the educational community as well. I think everybody expected that change was going to come and that it was going to be required. The extent of these changes however is larger than what people anticipated and I think that it creates a lot more anxiety for people when they hear the changes proposed in Christchurch being referred to as exemplars for the rest of the country. I think it would be very unfair on the people of Christchurch that they be used as guinea pigs for experimenting with different models of education at a time when they are already under significant strain. I am concerned that elements of what is being proposed by the Government certainly would suggest that that is the case. The Government appears to be using the cover of the earthquake to trial things that it cannot do elsewhere and I actually think that is very very unfair on the people of Christchurch—I think it is very unfair on the people of Christchurch. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: So rubbish. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: If the Government—and Gerry Brownlee says it is rubbish—wants to do things in Christchurch that it is not willing to do elsewhere it should be upfront and honest about it. It should actually say to the people of Christchurch “Hey look. We’re going to experiment with the future of the kids in Christchurch to see whether this actually works.” because that is effectively what the announcements it has made amount to. It is going to experiment on the children of Christchurch and I do not think that is the right thing to do. You know some change is required and I have acknowledged that some change is required but the Government could at least get the process around that right—it could at least make sure it gets the process around that right. 
When principals are saying that teachers in their schools were getting text messages saying that their school is being closed while they were still in the meeting being briefed about it and hearing about it and they were not actually in the schools and able to talk to the teachers concerned that suggests that the process was a complete botch-up—that suggests that the process was a complete botch-up. Giving people colour-coded name tags indicating whether their school was going to close or merge or be pushed out of existence is absolutely disgraceful. That is not the way people should be treated. The Government could have at least afforded some dignity to the process which clearly it did not in that regard. 
Giving people colour-coded name badges to indicate whether or not their school was going to be closed like naughty primary school kids is absolutely disgraceful. I am not surprised though. I am not surprised given the Minister who has been placed in charge of it. She cannot seem to manage to make any announcement without absolutely hashing it up although she seems to be better at backtracking than making announcements. So when she comes back to backtrack on all of these proposals I am sure she will probably get that a little bit better than her initial announcement and she might have learnt something from the process. Then maybe when the backtrack comes—the flip-flop comes—maybe she will finally get the process right around that because she certainly has not got the process right around this. 
Finally to conclude this is not an opportunity for the Government to inflict charter schools with unregistered teachers on the students of Christchurch who are already dealing with enough challenges without having the Government decide that it is going to trial its ideological charter schools experiment which has been proven to fail everywhere else around the world it has been tried. This is not an opportunity for the Government to experiment on the kids of Christchurch. It needs to go back to the drawing board and get a process right that is fair that is open and that is honest about what it is trying to achieve because it certainly has not been in this process.