9. Question No. 9—Education (Partnership Schools)LAURA TRASK (ACT) to the Associate Minister of Education (Partnership Schools)Question No. 9—Education (Partnership Schools)LAURA TRASK (ACT): My question is to the Associate Minister of Education—SPEAKER: Yeah look I don't know what's going on with the mikes but you might need to just lean into it a little bit. The sound is pretty low today.LAURA TRASK: Is that better?SPEAKER: Yeah it is.9. LAURA TRASK (ACT) to the Associate Minister of Education (Partnership Schools): What recent announcements has he made regarding school attendance?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Associate Minister of Education (Partnership Schools)): New Zealand's shocking student attendance at schools is an absolute priority for this Government. The target that we've set 80 percent of students present more than 90 percent of the time is ambitious; it's a full 7.2 percentage points higher than has been achieved at any time in the last decade. Attendance is a complex issue and it's critical to use improved data and analysis to understand the reasons people don't attend so that we can target the interventions effectively. Almost two months to the day since I received the education portfolio delegation I was proud to stand with the Prime Minister as part of this coalition Government and release an attendance action plan at the—I have to say—wonderful Cardinal McKeefry School here in Wellington this morning.Laura Trask: What actions will the Government be taking to improve student attendance?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: First of all we're going to see a lot more data. This Government's view is that we should tell the people and trust the people rather than try and obscure the facts from them. We'll be rolling out a communications plan to improve awareness of the importance of attendance from term 2 this year onwards. We'll also be updating the public health guidance to help schools and parents decide if a student is well enough to attend—Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Oh they don't trust the parents eh? Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: —and we'll be clarifying the expectations around attendance to school boards. I've just heard from Willow-Jean Prime the member for Northland that somehow we don't trust the parents—this from a member who was in a Government that propagandised and blasted New Zealanders and didn't trust them even to go outside for weeks at a time. That is not a member who should be heckling about trust.SPEAKER: Yeah sometimes interjections so clearly heard will result in that kind of response.Laura Trask: How will this Government improve reporting and attendance data?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Well through a number of medium-term initiatives throughout the rest of this year and next—from the start of next year we'll be mandating daily attendance data to be reported by all schools and again reported—Hon Willow-Jean Prime: And a fun new back office for that?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: —to the people because we tell the people and we trust the people. Now Willow-Jean Prime has just said Oh you must need more back office for that." Well let me help Willow-Jean Prime: actually the Ministry of Education has been upgrading its ITsoftware so that the student management systems from the school can automatically push the data each day. This is an object lesson for the Labour Party. You see we're actually going to able to do more with less money using innovation and technology. Anyway as I was saying we'll also be developing a traffic light system to set out the requirements and expectations for students and parents at each level of attendance. We'll be making attendance a strategic priority for school boards so they have clear expectations but we will also be sharing best practice from schools that are effective in order that they don't have additional burden but rather better information about how to get kids to school.SPEAKER: That will do.Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Mr Speaker I could go on—SPEAKER: Yeah you could but you're not going to.Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: —but needless to say we've got quite a lot of policy to get kids back to school.Laura Trask: Supplementary?SPEAKER: Yeah we might just end that question right there. Thank you very much.Hon David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. It would seem a terrible thing to penalise a hard-working member like Laura Trask for the heckling of Willow-Jean Prime and my response to it.SPEAKER: No that's not for her; it's for what was an excessively long argument that strayed well away from the point that was originally being asked. That's quite a reasonable decision on my part."