Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): It's truly bizarre to stand up and follow that speech as if the last nine years never happened. I was on the forecourt of Parliament today listening to the teachers alongside members of this Government. For me if there was ever any evidence of the irresponsible nature of the last Government it was listening to those speeches today alongside listening to the stories of our nurses ahead of their strike talking about being stuck with people they were caring for for three hours experiencing assaults because there were not enough staff to come to their aid because of the nine years of neglect of that previous Government. Today to hear from the teachers that they are having to take second jobs and that they are going to food banks to feed their families because of the nine years of neglect of that Government puts you to shame not this side of the House.I want to acknowledge that this Government is listening and does understand and that is what we saw on the steps of Parliament today: that this Government has taken action in the Budget with 1500 more teachers increase in support for students with additional learning needs abolishing National Standards and offering to pay twice the average of the offers under the previous National Government. All of that comes from this side of the House so it makes no sense what I heard from Nicola Willis the previous speaker. But still despite that action the teachers are striking. It's not because they're greedy and it's not because everything is fixed yet; it's because they are exhausted and stressed and worried about the depth of the crisis within our education system and they are trying to prevent a further crisis.There's been a 40 percent drop in the number of people entering teaching in the last eight years—that is a crisis. They want us to value their work because they want the best for their students. They care. They do that. They buy resources. They work their weekends. They work 12-hour days because they care and they want that to be properly valued. And we may not be there yet—in the Greens we get to say that from our position of confidence and supply. We may not be there yet but I want to make sure that they know that this Government is listening and the Greens hear them and we thank them for their efforts to defend the integrity of our education system that was so profoundly undermined by the last Government to the point where a principal in Manurewa was struggling to find a teacher to look for staff to build the complement in their school. He finally found a brilliant young teacher who came to Auckland from Palmerston North who loves her job and loves her kids but she can't afford to live in Auckland on the teacher's income that she's getting. So they are pleading to us to this House to take more action.I recognise that in 1979 backbench MPs were paid the same as teachers now. We are roughly paid twice as much as teachers at the top of their pay scale—at the top of their pay scale. I've been a teacher so I know how out of whack that is. MPs' pays have been benchmarked against other people who are on top salaries so our pay goes up whereas so many people like teachers and nurses and social workers and bus drivers seem to have to convince us that they're worth a pay increase.Well I and the Green Party are listening to the teachers. We see this as an opportunity to transform our society and we really appreciate that it's so much better under this Government who are taking on the education system and addressing poverty family violence housing inequality and climate change. We are doing this; we're not just blaming teachers. But we also are listening to that call for transformation and the Green Party is happy to stand with the teachers for that society where we value the work that counts.