7. Question No. 7—EducationHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 7—Education7. Hon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of Education: Has the Government made a decision to rule out an increase in the pay offer for secondary or primary school teachers in the current collective bargaining negotiations?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): The Ministry of Education is continuing to negotiate with the NZEI and the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) and as the former Minister I'm sure is aware it would be inappropriate to comment on the ministry's bargaining mandate.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does he agree with the Ministry of Education's decision to refuse to provide the financial breakdown of offers despite NZEI and PPTA asking for this information on behalf of their 40000 teachers?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I reject the assertion in the question. That information is published on the Ministry of Education's website.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does he agree with the decision by this Government to spend $191 million of surplus funds on diplomats such as New Zealand's embassy in Stockholm rather than additional teacher pay?Rt Hon Winston Peters: How narrow and stupid is that?SPEAKER: Order! Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: Ridiculous.SPEAKER: Order! Those decisions are not those for this Minister.Jamie Strange: Does he still consider that the current offer to NZEI was a good offer and if so why?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes I do. The current offer to NZEI the primary school teachers would result in a $7043 increase to the top step which is the step that most primary school teachers are on. To put that into contrast the last three agreements put together resulted in an increase to the top step of $6969—less than the amount that's being offered in one agreement.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does he accept that the additional funds through collective bargaining to resolve teacher shortages given the Ministry of Education numbers alone indicate that over the coming years there could be a shortage of more than 4000 teachers?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The shortage that we inherited is very concerning and it is an indictment on the track record of the previous Government that they cut funding for teacher-supply initiates and that is the mess that we are cleaning up. With regard to the current teaching workforce actually retention rates are exceptionally high. The issue is that we haven't been training enough teachers because there was a 40 percent reduction in the number of teachers being trained under the previous Government.Hon Nikki Kaye: Mr Speaker supplementary question.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Mr Speaker supplementary question.SPEAKER: Nikki Kaye.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Call her.Hon Nikki Kaye: With inflation out today at 1.9 percent what does he say to the secondary school teachers who've been offered 2 percent given $5.5 billion surpluses and are being told by the Prime Minister No more cash."?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Pay is not the only issue that teachers are negotiating about; they're also negotiating about working conditions. In fact the 2 percent is only for some of the secondary teachers. There is a range of percentage increases and the 2 percent in the middle doesn't take into account the fact that many of those teachers will move on the salary band as well.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Supplementary question.SPEAKER: The Rt Hon Winston Peters. I want to assure the member that he is noticeable and I do see him.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Well yes but it goes that way and this way and it goes on seniority. I don't want to push the point.SPEAKER: No no no. It goes on who I call—Rt Hon Winston Peters: No not quite. No sir it goes on precedent.SPEAKER: I assure the member that the Standing Orders and Speakers' rulings are very clear: the decision who to take for supplementaries is mine and mine alone. This time I call him.Rt Hon Winston Peters: For a teacher to enter the teaching force in 2019 when would that teacher have had to enter the teaching training college to get skilled and qualified and how many short were we back in 2016?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There was a 40 percent reduction over the last decade in the number of people entering and completing initial teacher education. It is at least one year of specific teacher training to become a registered teacher. For some it is up to three years of training depending on the qualification that they are doing.Hon Nikki Kaye: Can he confirm he's been advised of planned rolling strikes in November for primary school teachers and the potential of other strikes for secondary early next year and at what point will he take any responsibility for no settlement?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In answer to the first part of the question: no because the NZEI are balloting their members and they cannot notify us until the ballot has been conducted. Generally that's the way of things in a democratic system—you wait for the outcome before you notify people of the result. With regard to the secondary teachers—the secondary teachers have been very clear in their commitment to negotiating with the Government and that industrial action would be a last resort. So with regard to accepting responsibility for the problem I do accept responsibility for cleaning up the mess that I inherited from that previous Minister and her Government."