Upston Louise: Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Upston Louise: Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:665;Page:13019] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 It is good to be able to speak on any education bill in the House but unfortunately the Government will not be supporting the Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill which is the member’s bill of Sir Roger Douglas. I will address some of the previous comments. There have not been many times in my lifetime—actually it is a first today—when a member of the Green Party has referred to the National side of the House as being communist which I took quite personally and found quite staggering. ACT on the other hand is saying that this National Government is to the left of the Australian Labor Party. Again I found that to be a staggering comment. I will say that I enjoy my time on the Education and Science Committee with the Hon Sir Roger Douglas. I enjoy his debate and the things that he brings to the committee. On this particular one though National priorities are not the same as ACT priorities. Some parts of the bill could possibly have some merit at some point in time but we want to focus on different priorities in education—ones that are clearly around lifting achievement. 
The proposal of this bill is to allow boards of trustees to have the responsibility for teachers’ pay. In effect that is really about the return to bulk funding. I ask whether there is a real problem. If I look to my own constituents not one single person has raised bulk funding as an issue. If it was an issue I am sure that it would have been raised on more than one occasion because I quite proudly go around my electorate saying that education is my top priority. I am sorry to say to Sir Roger that not one person has said that bulk funding is top of their list in terms of making changes in education. 
Let us talk about boards of trustees. I have met with many boards of trustees over the last 20 months and I will tell the House what they talk about. They talk about achievement. Some of them talk about teacher training and how to make good teachers great and great teachers excellent. They talk about infrastructure the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband the New Zealand curriculum and well-rounded students. They do not talk about a return to bulk funding. So I take my steer from what my constituents tell me and bulk funding is not one of them. 
Obviously National wants to give children the best start in life and give them the opportunities they need to survive. 
Sue Moroney 
: You’ve cut the funding for early childhood education. 
LOUISE UPSTON 
: The list member Ms Moroney talks about early childhood education. Clearly this is a Government committed to making more early childhood education available to more young people through an increase in the Budget. This Government has committed $12 billion into education which is more than ever before. We are supporting our schools and supporting our teachers. We want to say that bulk funding is not something that this Government is focused on. It is not a priority. I can understand that that member might like to bring it to this House but we will not go there. 
I will talk about one reason why the Government is not focused on bulk funding. Recently I have been in discussions with a State Representative Christine Scanlan of the Colorado House of Representatives who has just put through Senate Bill 191 which has brought in performance pay for teachers. No she was not a Republican; she was and is a Democrat. She introduced performance pay for teachers and—goodness—what a battle she fought. That is not a battle we are focused on. 
We are focused on lifting achievement which is why we are focused on getting more participation in early childhood education more students and getting plain English reporting to parents. If I think about my own child’s recent school report and my interview with his teacher I know that I have great information with which to partner my son and his teacher in improving his education. That is what parents want. Teachers want to do well in their schools principals want to get on with school leadership and not one board of trustees that I have talked to lately wants anything to do with bulk funding. Thank you.