Shirley Ken: Urgent Debates — Te Wananga o Aotearoa—Dissolution of Council 
Shirley Ken: Urgent Debates — Te Wananga o Aotearoa—Dissolution of Council 
[Volume:625;Page:20371] 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY (ACT) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance 
. The issue is the Government’s decision yesterday to move procedures towards the dissolution of Te Wananga o Aotearoa’s council and the appointment of a commissioner and the decision to approve a short-term loan of $20 million of taxpayers’ money to meet an immediate cash-flow requirement. 
The Prime Minister in her interviewed comments associated with this spending of a further $20 million of taxpayers’ money was quoted as saying that she resents the payment of that $20 million. Well those are hollow words. I put it to the House that what she actually resents is being caught out and being exposed for the inadequacy of this Government’s tertiary education policies. 
If we go back in history—and we do not have to go back too far; we have only to go back to the start of this Government’s tenure—we learn very quickly that the wananga monster was created by this Labour Government. It created the monster. Back in earlier years there was actually an application for a Treaty of Waitangi settlement from Rongo Wetere the chief executive of Te Wananga o Aotearoa. The previous National Government declined that. Rongo Wetere was saying essentially that based on equivalent full-time students he should enjoy the same rate of funding for low-quality mass courses as universities. He was saying that to run a course in twilight golf or hip hop incurs the same cost per student as a chemistry or physics course at Auckland University Otago University or wherever else. 
The National Government to its credit said that that was nonsense. It dismissed the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendation. Michael Bassett who served as a member of the tribunal at the time said that it was one of the most foolish applications to have come before the tribunal and that he was stunned that the tribunal recommended it be approved. 
I might add that initially the incoming Labour Government also declined to approve funding for the wananga at that rate. Then what happened? Do members remember the state of the nation address when everything was to be about closing the gaps? Everything was to be about closing the gaps and just throwing money at things Maori irrespective of quality or targeting. That is what we can trace this back to. At that point the Labour Government changed its mind and said that it would meet Rongo Wetere’s request—it would give him almost unlimited funding on an equivalent full-time student basis; he would get funding at that rate for as many people as he wanted to enrol in those courses. 
Look at the figures! Can members guess what the budget for Te Wananga o Aotearoa was in 2000? How much do members reckon it was? [ 
Interruption 
] No it was $5 million in 2000. How much do members reckon that had grown to by last year the 2004 calendar year? The answer is $239 million of taxpayers’ money. That is the thick end of a quarter of a billion dollars. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: What happened to the money? 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: That is a very good question. Under this Labour Government there was no scrutiny. I have been told by people in the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Tertiary Education Commission that whenever they raised questions they were told that the direction had come from on high—from the Labour Cabinet—just to keep throwing money at the wananga and not to scrutinise the course content or look at the outcomes. The Government was not interested in outcomes—just in shovelling over the money. That is what the Labour Government did. 
The Government claimed that it did not know. Do members remember when the ACT party exposed this story in February this year? The Government members said: “Horror shock! We’ve got to do something.” But Bill English just made the point in question time that the Government actually had Mr McNally its own appointee to whom it has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to be its stooge and mouthpiece at the wananga. It was getting regular reports from him. In fact when I broke this story in February an internal email from Mr McNally was the damning point that exposed the culture of extravagance. 
The Labour Ministers knew about it. [ 
Interruption 
] Mr Maharey of course. He was the real culprit. We know about Minister Mallard’s shortcomings. We all know those. But who was the Minister who oversaw this all through last year? It was Minister Steve “Smarmy” Maharey and he did it— 
Jill Pettis 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. All members are honourable members and the Minister’s name is the Hon Steve Maharey. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member knows that he must refer to members— 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: I withdraw the reference to “smarmy”. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member knows quite well when he is called on a point of order to withdraw or to withdraw and apologise. He does not repeat the message. 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: I withdraw and apologise. The point is that as the whole House knows the Hon Steve Maharey was the Minister dishing out that money. He was receiving the reports from his own stooge Mr McNally about the wananga. 
And who else did the Government have there? Obviously it was getting concerned—it set up an audit and review committee at the wananga. And who did it put on that committee? It appointed Shane Jones—who is way up on Labour’s list its new star. So was he not telling the Government either perhaps? I think that he probably was. The Government knew all about it. And what did it do? It did nothing. It tried to hide what was happening. It tried to disguise it. 
Actually one cannot say that the Government did nothing because—knowing that things were so bad—it kept shovelling the money out. It kept dishing out the taxpayers’ money. 
Stephen Franks 
: Buying Tainui loyalty. 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: Buying Tainui loyalty—and is that not the issue? We know that this particular fiefdom Te Wananga o Aotearoa is actually immersed in the chieftainship of Tainui. One has only to look at the governing council. Is it not obvious what the Labour Government was doing? It was getting concerned about the emerging Maori Party—and so it should—and it thought that it had better shore up Tainui at least. I do not think that that has worked for the Government because Tainui are now so angry that they were led along by the Labour Government which signed a deed of settlement back in 2001 and promised them money. And now Minister Mallard is saying that he will give them another $20 million loan! 
But hang on—let us go to the back page of the deed of settlement signed by this Labour Government in 2001. It outlines a schedule for a $40 million payment. That payment was part of accepting the treaty claim that the previous Government had initially refused and said was a load of nonsense—as it was—but that this Government under its “closing the gaps” policy said was the vehicle and that it would sign. Not only did the Government give the wananga the equivalent full-time student funding—which as we know amounted to $239 million of taxpayers’ money last year alone—but on top of that it gave the institution $40 million in loans. 
I have here the loan schedule. On 7 November 2001 $25 million was handed out. Another $15 million was to be given but the Government actually withheld it. The Government signed a deed of settlement and then withheld the money. How honourable is that? Even if one thinks a deed of settlement is nuts and disagrees with it—as I do and as I think this side of the House does—one honours it after one has signed it. But Minister Mallard and others have been withholding that money. I put it to members that the $20 million the Government is giving to the wananga now will really just be payment of the $15 million that was promised— 
Stephen Franks 
: Plus five! 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
:—plus $5 million—back in 2001. 
I have a wonderful cartoon here from a month or so back drawn by Tremain who is a great cartoonist. For those who have not seen it I will walk them through it. Minister Mallard is at the rostrum—a big public rostrum with a microphone—and the caption states: “If the wananga has been ripping off taxpayers we will endeavour to get the money paid back”. 
The little bubble to the side states: “Yeah right!”. There are two little pigs down the bottom and they are saying: “And we’re prepared to take off”. 
So I think that that $20 million loan will be written off. Who else thinks that the Government will write off the money? Members should put their hands up. The Government will certainly be writing that money off. It is gone—“outski”! 
I hope that Minister Mallard will take a call in this debate. I hope that he will explain this situation to the House. I put it to him that surely it is time that he exposed his predecessor Minister Maharey who members may recall is the same Minister who got us into so much trouble with the community education grants. Everything that Minister Maharey touches turns to custard. Of course he is the champion of this Labour Government’s third way. He is the Government’s think tank in a single person! He is its visionary and everything he touches turns to custard. 
Again the ACT party exposed just yesterday that the Community Employment Group which ran the hip-hop tour and blew that incredible amount of money did one final thing before it went out of existence—it organised a big bash for itself at Rotorua. It ran up $32000 worth of debts on airplane tickets hotel accommodation meals and all the rest of it. That was its departing gesture to the taxpayers of this country. Who was responsible for that? 
Stephen Franks 
: Christine Rankin. 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: No it was not Christine Rankin it was Minister Steve Maharey. 
The “Gumboot Minister” Mr Mallard has now been brought in to try to clean up the mess at the wananga. He is doing his best but as we all know that is not good enough. In many respects he is just digging a deeper hole. 
I do not want to see the wananga close. I want it to provide quality courses that are targeted at what is a desperate need in this country—to address the failures of our education system for those who have slipped through the net of the compulsory sector and who lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. The failure of our State education system is a scandal. But who believes that a State wananga is the answer to that? I certainly do not believe that. But that is where we are heading because this Government will end up with a State wananga. 
Sure there were serious shortcomings with the Rongo Wetere fiefdom at Te Awamutu but what the wananga actually did using taxpayers’ money was destroy private tertiary education providers in this country. It has destroyed them up and down this country. No one can compete with the State. When those providers were providing the best courses they could in a competitive environment and providing innovation in the tertiary sector the wananga came in with bucket loads of taxpayers’ money offering free courses. 
Anyone who knows the Auckland market knows that schools teaching English as a second language schools have been closed one after the other and that Te Wananga o Aotearoa has taken them over. It has sacked those good teachers and put in second-rate teachers and has trebled the class sizes. It has destroyed what was a very valuable provision by the private sector to tertiary education. We know of the Labour Government’s philosophical hatred of private providers in tertiary education. In a way it has used the wananga firstly to destroy those providers—by unfair competition using taxpayers’ money—and now it will use that bad example as an excuse to close them down. That is a dreadful outcome. 
In conclusion I make the point that I have no confidence in the Auditor-General’s inquiry. That is principally because the terms of reference specifically exclude any examination of the integrity of the enrolments and any examination of the course content. Surely that is the basic problem. No one was examining the quality—the outputs—of those courses so we had a proliferation of very low-quality courses and no one was taking responsibility to ensure that the outcomes were to a standard that we should expect. Coupled with that the wananga was driven by a “bums on seats” philosophy. People were being enrolled while waiting in queues for a hamburger as we know—that was happening all around the country on a massive scale. This Government has failed. The wananga monster is its creation.