Teaching Council should have banned Fisher in 2015, report finds

Education Minister Erica Stanford says there is a "rotten culture inside the Teaching Council that needs changing" after a 127-page independent report found the council should have struck teacher Timothy Fisher off a decade before his conviction for child sex offences. RNZ

Barrister Katherine Anderson KC, a senior lawyer asked to lead the inquiry, released the report on Tuesday, 13 October. The minister's Beehive page lists it as a 13 October 2026 release titled 'Damning report shows Teaching Council failed to protect children'. The page describes it as an independent regulatory review. It followed the 2025 Debbie Francis review of the council. Beehive

Anderson found there were grounds to strike Fisher off — to remove him from the teacher register so he could not teach — as early as 2015. Stanford ordered the KC-led probe into child safety failures at the council.

Fisher worked at 12 public and private schools since becoming a teacher in 2011, according to the report. He moved from school to school without a practising certificate, like a licence a driver must hold to drive legally. Teaching without a practising certificate is a criminal offence.

His 2002 indecency convictions were hidden by clean slate legislation, a law that keeps some older convictions off criminal records, the report says. He voluntarily disclosed them to the council in 2015. The council did not strike him off.

He kept teaching despite a police "red stamp" warning that he should not have unsupervised access to children. The warning did not stop him.

Fisher was later convicted of indecency and sex offences against children, most of them under 12 years old. He was jailed for four years and five months after pleading guilty to charges including indecently assaulting nine students. He also pleaded guilty to making over 200 objectionable recordings.

Stanford said she had long had "grave concerns" about the council. The Francis review in 2025 had exposed what the Beehive listing describes as a deeply concerning culture within the council.

Chief Victims Advisor Ruth Money said "heads should roll" over the failings in the Fisher case. Her office will work with the council on implementing safeguarding reforms — practical changes to better protect children — the minister said.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell has previously said the public should be told if a school knowingly hired an admitted sex offender. The Spinoff

The broader context here for people who work with the council is accountability and regulatory control. Two reviews in two years have now used the same language about culture. A minister saying publicly that the culture is rotten leaves the council with little room to manage reform on its own terms. In my view, the pressure now sits on registration practice, monitoring of practising certificates, and how police warnings are acted on.

Looking at what this means for the Beehive, the test is implementation. Stanford has tied herself to the Anderson findings and to the safeguarding work with Money's office. For council leadership, for schools that employed Fisher, and for officials advising on any legislative or governance change, the questions are direct. Who knew what in 2015, why a voluntary disclosure and a police warning did not end his teaching, and what changes that result.