Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Associate Minister of Education): Thank you so much Madam Chair for this opportunity. I'd like to acknowledge Jan Tinetti for working on this bill and bringing it to the House. I'd also like to acknowledge and thank the Education and Workforce Committee for hearing all of the submissions that have been put through.I would like to talk about new section 4A in clause 4 where it states that the Minister must consult with national bodies representing the interests of Pacific education organisations;". My question to the member in the chair Jan Tinetti is: as you're consulting with these Pacific organisations would you also consider organisations who are Pacific serving Pacific children and Pacific students who may not be members of a national body? For instance we have had quite a few thousand Samoans Tongans and other ethnic groups who have moved to regional areas in Aotearoa recently in the last one to five years or so. They are providing some educational services but they are as far as I know—we have been out there both myself and the honourable Minister for Pacific Peoples consulting in these areas in the last few months and we have not found all of them to be members of national bodies. So as you are finalising this bill that is my question to you the member in the chair: could we ensure that we are going to be inclusive of those Pacific organisations? I like many members who have spoken on this bill before me would like to commend you as well as all of those who have made submissions including the Children's Commissioner who stated that it is so important to ensure that we consult with and listen to our children. You know one of the things that I was actually quite surprised by as I went consulting on education actually with Pacific as well as ethnic communities was that parents actually brought their children. I was quite surprised not only that we had children as young as four and five—some as young as 10—come and actually give us what their opinions are of education right now as they experience it but also that they were brave enough at the end of these consultations to get up in front of in some cases a few hundred of us and tell us exactly what they would like to see in the education system today. Also one of the questions was: what would you like to do if you were the boss of education? How would you ensure that the education system you experience when you go to school is an education fit for you as a child? I tell you some of those conversations that we heard from these children were just breathtaking. We heard from an 11-year-old child in Porirua who told us exactly what it would be like if she was the Minister. Another child who was 10 told us exactly what she would like to do if she was the Secretary for Education. So hearing from the voices of our children is absolutely important. I know that you Madam Chair being a teacher and having been a principal for so many years know exactly what I'm talking about because children are very honest and they do give you their honest opinion about things. I would like to quote one of the things that the Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft said at the hearing. He said "Hearing from and incorporating the views of children and young people deliver better and more robust decisions. We support the intention to create a more equitable system that supports children to develop to their full potential and that ensures our children and young people deliver better and more robust decisions." Other submitters were really in agreement with Judge Becroft.Another group that I'm so glad to see that the Minister must consult with is national bodies with a particular role in respect of the character of designated character schools. We know that we have hundreds and hundreds of designated character schools right throughout Aotearoa so it is absolutely important that we hear from them—that we hear from them directly what it is that they provide what it is that they would like the Minister of Education to address as we firm up and finalise the National Education and Learning Priorities moving forward. Thank you so much for this opportunity."