Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker and thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill. There was a brief moment a little bit earlier this afternoon when people weren't sure whether I was actually in the House. I am here but I may need a cushion just so that I can be seen from time to time. I do suffer from small man syndrome but that's OK.It's great to be here and great to take a call on this bill. I would like to just refute a couple of the points made by the previous speaker from the Green Party. She made a very astute point which was that once we pass this legislation it won't just be a rosy road straight away. And I would like to just remind the speaker that that is dead right. There isn't going to be a rosy road for the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics of New Zealand sector and vocational education and training in New Zealand under these changes and the advice that the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) have been very clear to us about has been that this will cost taxpayers $200 million to $400 million for the cost of these reforms—to make these changes—and that there will be an additional $50 million per year needing to be put into the sector just to make these changes work. So no there won't be a rosy road and in fact it's going to cost an enormous amount of taxpayers' money to make this work.Secondly we've been told by the TEC that there is a high risk that there will be thousands fewer traineeships thousands fewer apprenticeships and that this will see basically a slowing down of the progress which has been made in increasing apprenticeship numbers and increasing traineeship numbers across New Zealand as our economy was going so well under the previous Government. I would also like to remind the members on the other side that when they talk about the financial state of the polytech sector they should actually look at the Government's financial state. They inherited surpluses as far as the eye could see and now we see that they've even managed to put the Government into deficit and they also should take a look at the district health board sector as well while we're talking about financial troubles.So what does this bill do? This bill consolidates all polytechs into one under a mega polytechnic. It uses our apprenticeships and traineeships to prop up the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST) and it grabs millions and millions of dollars from our communities to basically prop up this new machine: $12 million from Ara $4.4 million will be stolen from the Southern Institute of Technology $6.5 million stolen from Toi Ohomai $3.6 million stolen from Northland. Millions of dollars and that doesn't even go to the community assets which have been paid for donated by generous people in the community or paid for by ratepayers such as what's happened in Nelson—Chlöe Swarbrick: They can be ring-fenced.SIMEON BROWN: —for the local polytech. These communities—and I hear people on the other side. I hear Chlöe Swarbrick on the other side saying they're going to be ring-fenced. Well what's the threshold of what's going to be ring-fenced and how are we going to guarantee that this money will actually stay in those communities? I can see this money being sucked up and being used elsewhere around New Zealand and I can see that as the NZIST gets in those commitments those promises which have been made will be forgotten. That is unfortunately what I think will happen under these reforms. As I said earlier the advice we've received has made it very clear that the cost will increase and the results will be less than what we see now. So what we see is that we're going to see fewer apprenticeships for a higher amount of money.Lastly in conclusion what is the National Party going to be doing if we're elected in September this year? We will return polytechnic assets taken by Labour and give them back to their communities and we will return apprenticeships back to industry. National supports apprenticeships and regional polytechnics. We will fight for their voice and their autonomy against these ideological education reforms. And if we are successful this year we will return to regions the assets the Government has taken. We'll give them back their autonomy. That's what we'll do if we're elected back to Government and we can't wait to get that done from 20 September. Thank you Madam Speaker.