Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT in opposition to this Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 3). I would like to first of all acknowledge what others have said: that there is something about this bill that seems unreal when you consider the challenges faced in New Zealand—secondary and area school teachers on strike today; 100000 kids regularly not attending attending less than 70 percent of the time; plummeting achievement; the debacle of Te Pūkenga which is almost like the new KiwiBuild. Labour produce a policy like this almost annually now. Then you get to the question of: well what is this legislation doing? What is it addressing? What is it hoping to achieve? The truth is: very little.You might think that the Labour Party or the Labour Government is not capable of doing much but they have actually managed to put together a detailed bill that does almost nothing. Let me just take you through what it actually does. It's mainly focused on defining the governance arrangements of three wānanga and specifically it says that those wānanga can be a Crown entity—a Crown entity wānanga that has all of the accountabilities that go with being a Crown entity—or it can convert to a non-Crown entity wānanga that is primarily accountable to iwi hapū and other Māori organisations while retaining some accountability to the Crown.Just for people following this along at home: what exactly is Labour and the Government trying to do here? What difference will it make? Well first of all we can be fairly sure that it's not going to solve the fundamental problems that New Zealanders have—too many kids who are not engaged not learning enough to be productive citizens and keep New Zealand's dream of being a First World country in an island paradise alive. It's fairly certain it won't do that but it might take us in the opposite direction because what they're saying is that a wānanga can either be a Crown entity wānanga or a nonCrown entity wānanga that is accountable to iwi or hapū. But in any case the money still comes from the taxpayer. So what they're really saying is that some wānanga will be accountable to the Crown who collects the taxes from all of the people up and down New Zealand and other wānanga that will get the same funding—well they will be accountable to some local hapū or iwi or other Māori organisation.That's a really interesting question you know: why would it be that there would be a different type of accountability mechanism but only for some iwi-led wānanga? Why is it that somehow every organisation shouldn't be able to have the same sort of governance? Why not a Pasifika; why not an Asian university? But actually why would we decide that somebody's race is the most important characteristic of the person? Why would people decide that race is the thing that differentiates people? Well it seems to be that this Government genuinely believes that the race of some people matters more than others' and there should be a different set of governance arrangements if you are a wānanga that can be accountable to iwi or hapū. But every other tertiary institution in New Zealand will be accountable to the Crown that collects the taxes as a Crown entity.Why does Labour think this is a good idea? Well because they believe that the Treaty of Waitangi was the first treaty in the world that actually brought people apart. For millennia people have been signing agreements and treaties to bring people together until this recent revisionist interpretation of the Treaty—that actually you should have a different set of political rights in New Zealand if you happen to be Māori but you have a different set of rights if you are non-Māori. This is the problem with New Zealand today. We have a Government that is obsessed with dividing people into tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti and that sadly—Rawiri Waititi: Point of order Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Point of order Rawiti—Rawiri Waititi: Rawiri Waititi—thank you. I don't see anything in that bill that talks about tangata whenua or tangata Tiriti—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Waititi the Chair will decide that. I'm watching this debate very carefully.Rawiri Waititi: Well make a decision Mr Speaker. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's close to disorderly—breaking up a member's speech. So please—to be clear—the Chair is well capable of making those decisions.DAVID SEYMOUR: Well thank you very much Mr Speaker. And isn't that interesting about Rawiri Waititi and his ability to learn and respect the tikanga because just five minutes ago—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Seymour don't comment on the Speaker. Carry on with your speech and ensure that it does remain relevant to the—Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Point of order e te Pīka. I'd just like to remind the House that there is a decorum of expectation on the members in this House on how they talk about their colleagues. It is not appropriate for the leader of ACT to be talking about the esteemed leader of Te Paati Māori like that. DEPUTY SPEAKER: No the Chair will make that decision and will be watching very carefully. I'll carry on and Mr Seymour can have one more minute back for those interjections.DAVID SEYMOUR: Well thank you very much Mr Speaker for that and I intend to use it and use it well. I just think that people watching need to reflect on the behaviour of these two Māori Party MPs in the last—Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Oh point of order. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Right the Chair will deal with this Mr Waititi. Mr Seymour you were doing well. Please stick with the bill and make sure that your comments are contextual within the bill in front of you. DAVID SEYMOUR: Well thank you Mr Speaker. This legislation is about dividing New Zealanders—different rules different governance structures. If it is the case that somehow having a non-Crown entity tertiary institution is a good idea then it should be applied to anybody who wants one. Why would there be an operating model that is only available to people based on one race? It is because of this wrongful interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi that it's something that divides people in half.It might be interesting to go further through the bill. The bill interestingly also while it reduces the accountability for some it actually increases the accountability to the Crown for those who are elected to their local school board by their community. If you follow the bill through it then goes on to say that if you are the Secretary of Education you will have greater powers to review and audit the membership of a board of trustees.So on the one hand we are changing the level of accountability to reduce it and say Well you don't have to be responsible to the Crown like everyone else. You could just be responsible to some local organisation. You still get taxpayer money but whatever." and on the other hand they're saying if you're a community that's actually elected your school board then you are subject to even more incursion and bureaucracy from the Ministry of Education because it gives the Secretary of Education additional power to do so.I'd like to mention something else about this bill: that it does not deal with any of the substantial issues. All of it is administrative. None of it will result in the outcome that people seek. Will it be possible as the old left—the left that I could actually believe in—used to try and make possible? Will it be possible that if you believe in social justice that there will be a kid in any town or country part of this nation who can go to a place in their community where a knowledgable adult will transfer valuable academic knowledge that will equip them to participate in modern society as part of a First World nation? Will it give them the skills to understand the world to be good citizens to earn a good income? Will anything in this legislation do anything like that at all? No it will not.And that is the great tragedy and it's something that people are noticing not just in New Zealand but around the world. They see that we used to have a deal that if you follow the rules go to school do your homework listen to your teacher get good grades turn those into skills that turn into qualifications that turn into jobs and ultimately a career—if you follow the deal you follow the law you be a good citizen and pay your taxes then things can work out OK. You end up owning a place of your own. You end up with the knowledge that allows you to participate in the world.People say that we used to have a deal. Where has that deal gone? Instead they find that they are confronted with a Government that brings up legislation like this that solves no obvious problem related to anything in anyone's life today but they are nevertheless being forced to pay for it. Then they look into the main substance of this bill and they find that not only is that administration largely trivial largely back office largely unhelpful to people's everyday lives but it actually is based in a divisive and incorrect interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi that tells us that actually there are two types of New Zealander the tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti and they should have different political rights. That is why so many people are so disillusioned with this Government and with Governments around the world. That is why this sort of legislation needs to be sent packing. It is—DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member's time is completed.DAVID SEYMOUR: Mr Speaker a point of order. You said that I could speak for an additional minute.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry I understood that the minute had been added on. OK I understood that the minute had actually been added on but I'm not correct. So you do have a further one minute now.DAVID SEYMOUR: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I was just winding up by saying that this bill should be sent packing. But in its place with a new Government not so far away will be legislation that is responsive that is practical that hears people's concerns and aspirations that treats every New Zealander as a human being born with the hope of one 5-millionth of the opportunity this great country has to offer—no more no less. Can I just finish off by saying that one thing that really matters is tikanga and when certain people can't learn or respect the tikanga of this House they lose the claim to criticise everybody else. Thank you Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That speaker did benefit from some confusion. He did actually get an extra 30 seconds which may actually be taken into account later on."