SpeechHon TRACEY MARTIN (Associate Minister of Education): Kia ora. Thank you Madam Speaker. So I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak in support of the Education and Training Bill. If I can just go back to the start of this Government one of the requirements of the coalition Government was actually to hold a conversation with New Zealand to set in place a 30-year vision for education. It was to establish what New Zealanders thought success looked like for their children. It criss-crossed New Zealand; it had hundreds thousands of participants. It was a conversation that was required by New Zealand First of their coalition partner because we had made a commitment to repeal national standards to repeal charter schools and to repeal COOLs or communities of online learning all of which were unnecessary but were put in place by the previous Government.They were unnecessary because the Education Act 1989 already had the flexibility inside of it for those things to exist. Strangely enough we have seen that very fact. So since the disestablishment of charter schools what we have seen is those that were charter schools have become schools of special character". It was always the argument that New Zealand First put forward that the special character provisions in the Education Act 1989 could be widened so that more than one special character could remain. I would argue that Hohepa in the Hawke's Bay should be able to take advantage of that broadening of special character recognition so that they too can become a State-integrated school.We also believed that national standards were not good for children. I remember having conversations with the Rt Hon Bill English during negotiations where he acknowledged that and recognised that and recognised that actually a success was bigger than just a line in the sand. New Zealand resonated with that when we had that 30-year nationwide conversation. COVID has proven that communities of online learning can exist under the current Education Act.So this piece of legislation builds upon what was that coalition requirement and starts to set into place and connect from early childhood compulsory sector tertiary and moving on through into lifelong learning. One of the things that is the reality of New Zealand's future in a COVID environment—because we're not post-COVID yet—is that many New Zealanders are going to need to take up fresh learning whether it be micro-credentialing whether it be using the vocational pathways to recognise their current skill set and how that skill set can be transferred into another opportunity to gain income.So this piece of legislation starts to cement in some of those changes. There are three particular areas. First of all after years on boards of trustees and knowing also as the Associate Minister of Education with responsibility around bullying anti-bullying with discrimination racism and so on and so forth inside our schools and for learning support I can do nothing more but welcome the dispute resolution panels that have been set into place here.Again I want to acknowledge Catherine Delahunty as it comes out of the dyslexia dyspraxia and autism spectrum—an inquiry that was initiated by Catherine Delahunty and supported by Chris Hipkins and myself and the current Leader of the Opposition. At that time it was the disability community that came and said "We need another mechanism by which to take our concerns when our children are stood down or excluded or expelled from school—we need another body earlier than the Ombudsman because the Ombudsman takes too long." And the Ombudsman himself came in front of the select committee and said "My workload is such and my office is such that they are right. They need something else closer to the ground closer to community and that is more a mediating body that is able to rebuild a relationship between the school the student and their family."But one of the things we are seeing is more and more behavioural issues among our children and they are younger and younger and younger from three-year-olds and four-year-olds who are being put out of early childhood education to six- seven- and eight-year-olds that are so aggressive and so violent and so unable to moderate their own behaviour that they are being excluded at that age from schools. So not only is it that there is a disputes panel being put into place through this piece of legislation but other work that this Government is doing to try and pilot like the Managed Moves in Napier and other ways to assist families and children to be able to learn the art of self-moderation that we know will help them for the rest of their lives when they are in situations of anxiety or stress where they can learn to take a breath and take a moment and manage what is happening with them. But the vision of the dispute resolution panels as articulated through that inquiry is that parents and schools will be able to come together and through a mediation body rather than an adversarial situation find the best solution for the student.I want to go to the physical restraint clause. This was not the clause I would have preferred. I actually put forward a different wording for Supplementary Order Paper 544 that was built around non-violent crisis intervention and my belief that every teacher as they once were should be trained in non-violent crisis intervention. That is not just for the children who are on the autism spectrum or those that have been referred to often during the debate on this document; it is also for those children that their behaviours come not from a disability not from a neurodiversity but from a circumstance inside their life. We have not empowered our teaching staff with the skills they need to manage before something becomes a crisis. I remember going to Canada for example and how the classrooms there had lowered their lighting and put up fairy lights and there was a tepee in the corner that was available for any student that needed it not a student stigmatised because they may have a neurodiversity and at times during the day they needed to separate themselves and make themselves safe.So I would have preferred a wider definition that would have required the Ministry of Education to step in immediately and train not only the teachers in the classroom but initiate inside initial teacher training non-violent crisis intervention as a norm for every teacher. However we're in a coalition Government and this is better than what it was. What was put into place by the National Government was unworkable in the real world.One of the things that became unworkable was—and I'm going to draw on another parallel. In the context of family violence we recognised that children are victims of family violence if they are inside a home where there are things being smashed things are being thrown and things are being screamed. But apparently under the previous legislation before this change that wasn't the situation. No other child was being traumatised if they were in a classroom where another child was throwing things smashing things and screaming things. Those two things cannot be true at the same time. So the previous legislation was unworkable for real life. It didn't help students it didn't deliver for the disability community and it certainly didn't deliver for the teaching profession who are attempting to educate every single one of their students at the level and with the resources that allow them to be their best. So it is with great joy that we're able to finally change—perhaps not as much as I would have liked to—and make a practical change to what has been an unworkable situation inside our schools around physical restraint. I hope that the teaching profession will get the support that they need from the Ministry of Education. I know the Minister himself is adamant that they will. So that's something that we will need to keep our eye on.Finally however the last thing I would want to say is around the workforce development councils. The workforce development councils are based on the Ōtorohanga model. It's part of the conversation that New Zealand First brought to the table. It's about knowing what local communities need: where are the opportunities for employment? Are there the appropriate education opportunities for the young people or those in their 30s 40s and 50s to be able to gain that education gain that training and be able to find employment in their area regardless of where they are in New Zealand? We commend the bill to the House."