Education and Training Amendment Bill

Members, we come now to the Education and Training Amendment Bill. We move first to Part 1. This is the debate on clauses 4 to 13. Those are the substantive amendments to this bill. The question is that Part 1 stand part.

I’ll keep my contribution to this one very, very brief. This is a largely technical bill that deals with a variety of issues in the Education and Training Act. I think the fact that the select committee reported it back without amendment, in a unanimous recommendation that it be passed, I think, signifies that it’s not particularly controversial. So I’m certainly happy to have any discussions or debates with members about it.

This legislation—I suppose there are a couple of points I wanted to make, and a couple of questions for the Minister. So what we have here is a sort of a mop-up bill. Every now and again the Government brings in a piece of legislation to fix a few little problems in the legislation and when we run through them—and most of them are reasonably uncontroversial, so I’m sure the people of New Zealand will be relieved to know that we are going to clarify that former teachers are not automatically enabled to use physical restraint in schools, but they first must be approved to use physical restraint at school by the school that employs them. And that, I’m sure, is a relief to a lot of people. And these are the sorts of tidy-ups that are brought through in legislation in this way.

The fundamental question I have is given that he’s gone to all the trouble to bring in legislation, why couldn’t he have done something a little more useful with the opportunity that he had to deal with, say, for example, the truancy crisis that we have in this country right here, right now, where on an average day across the country only three out of five kids are attending school regularly? There are many schools and schools that I’ve been to, schools that I’ve visited, where the regular attendance is only 15 percent—15 percent, not 50, not 90, but 15 percent. So, you know, we’ve got real, real issues in our education system, the most dramatic element of which is the fact that the kids just aren’t turning up on a regular basis.

There are legislative elements to that, and I could go on at great length about a lot of them. I’m mindful of the fact that this is a very busy Minister who’s got a lot of problems on his plate and he needs to get on with it. But we’re left here with legislation that is being brought through, fixing a few things, tweaking the odd thing, and a real missed opportunity by this Government to actually do some useful stuff that would have made a bit of difference and helped give the kids that we have in this country the opportunity that education provides. And you’re never going to—

CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Can I just invite the member to speak to issues that are contained within this bill.

Yes.

CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Thank you.

I’m very happy to do that, Madam Chair, but I suppose I was talking about the opportunity cost and the sense of, yes, they’ve done this, but why didn’t they do that.

CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Can I invite the member to speak to matters that are contained in the bill.

Quite right.

💬 Hon Willie Jackson: Sit down, Goldie.

I’m not going to take the invitation from the Hon Willie Jackson to sit down, because I have more to say. The question that I had for the Minister is: in clause 4, an amendment has been made saying that, “The Minister and the Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti may, for the purpose of providing equitable outcomes for … students, jointly issue a statement”. And I suppose the question I have is that I would like the Minister to explain exactly what he means by “equitable outcomes for students”.

💬 Hon Willie Jackson: What do you think? What do you reckon?

Well, it will be interesting to hear, because I think most people can understand the concept of equitable opportunities for all New Zealanders to get a good education and to learn, and we recognise the immense diversity within humanity: different people’s priorities, different people’s enthusiasm, things that they value, things that they don’t, different attitudes and different abilities, and they do lead to different outcomes. I’m just curious to hear from the Minister exactly what he means by “equitable outcomes for students”. And then maybe we can ask a bit more about how he plans to achieve that.

Madam Chair, thank you. I would like to ask the Minister a question relating to clauses 5 to 7, which relate to the use of physical restraint at registered schools, including by teachers. The amendment stated that—it clarifies that only persons holding a teaching position can use physical restraint, in accordance with the provisions. I would surmise that in many instances, the person that might well be dealing with a student that might need to be physically restrained would be teachers’ aides. And so can the Minister tell us whether that actually then excludes teacher’s aides? Is it only including teachers, and so what will occur for teachers’ aides, who are most likely to be the ones dealing with, perhaps, students that might need that restraint?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would refer, perhaps, the member to clause 7, which talks about authorised staff members at the registered schools. So, if a teacher-aide is an authorised staff member, then the guidance around physical restraint would apply to them. The issue that we’re dealing with here is a replacement of just the word “teachers” with “persons holding a teaching position,”. It means that the person has to be the teacher within that school. If a parent, for example, who happened to be a teacher was visiting the school, it would not be appropriate for them to be using physical restraint. So it is simply just a question of clarity around to whom the provisions should apply.

Part 1 agreed to.

Part 2 Other amendments