Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): I'm happy to take a call to respond to some of the issues that have been raised by the members opposite. There is a relatively consistent theme running through them—around regional autonomy regionalisation regional skill needs—and so I'll address those issues as a group but first a little bit of context.It is important to note that the polytech sector has been struggling for some time. This is not a new problem; this is a problem that has developed over many many years. We're at the point now where 13 of the 16 polytechs around the country are currently running a deficit. So they are in financial difficulty. Many members have spoken about the cash reserves that X polytech here or there has accumulated. Many of them are blowing through those cash reserves pretty damned quickly at the moment and if the situation is allowed to continue they won't be debating the cash reserves because there won't be any left because those polytechs are eating into the reserves that they have accumulated because of the situation they find themselves in. Enrolments have been in decline for quite some time now. If anything they've plateaued under this Government but they were in decline for several years prior to that and that's in the context of businesses crying out for skilled labour and decrying the fact that we are not training people up appropriately to do the jobs that they have on offer.So why are we doing these reforms? To provide more nationally consistent qualifications. Dr Reti made the observation in his contribution: why shouldn't NorthTec determine what skills someone working in the forestry sector needs? Well actually we want the forestry sector—the forestry industry—to be specifying what the skills are that they want and we want them to have the reassurance that regardless of where around the country people are trained with those skills they're going to be getting a nationally consistent product because if you're working in forestry in Northland or you're working in forestry in Rotorua or in Gisborne or in Nelson actually the forestry companies want to know that you've been trained to a high standard that meets their needs. So these reforms are about making sure that the training available throughout the country is consistent. It's not going to result in a reduction in training around the country—in fact quite the opposite; it's designed to ensure there is more training around the country—but it's actually putting industry and businesses and employers into the driving seat of determining what their skill needs are and making sure that the standards that are set are the ones that meet their needs.With regard to ring-fenced assets the Government has been very clear that our cash reserves that have been accumulated by Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) will be ring-fenced for spending in the region that has accumulated those. That is the policy decision of the Government. That's recorded in the Cabinet papers and in the Cabinet minute. That is very clear.Parmjeet Parmar raised concerns about international students and the Government stopping international students starting their enrolments. I can only assume that she was talking about the travel restrictions put in place as a result of the novel coronavirus. That is something that the Opposition themselves have called for. So if that was the point she was making I'm not entirely sure exactly what her line of argument was with regards to that.Simeon Brown I think raised the concern about the Minister being responsible for appointing all of the polytech council members. Actually in fact that was a decision made by the last National Government to change the make-up of the polytech council so that the Minister was the person responsible for appointing them. He also raised concern about the lack of democracy in staff and student representation. In fact I'd point out to him that under the last Government staff and student representatives were removed altogether from the governance of the polytech sector and we're putting it back into place and I make no apology for that. I think that's in fact very important.The members opposite have constantly talked about their local polytechs and have said it's all working very well. In fact it isn't. If it was their polytechs wouldn't be in deficit; their polytechs wouldn't be cutting courses and laying off staff as they are now. The biggest risk we face here is actually the risk of no action at all. If the Government did not do something in fact many of these polytechs would continue to drift to next to nothing. We put $100 million into the polytech sector in bailouts in our first year because that's not something—Jonathan Young: In Auckland—in Auckland.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No it's not just in Auckland actually. It's not just in Auckland. The member's local polytech Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki is one of those that's in the high risk" category in terms of ITPs.They have some financial challenges themselves and the local community I think is well aware of the difficulties that the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki faces. So I think members should be quite careful in arguing that we shouldn't do anything when in fact what's that likely to result in is a decline in the level of training that's available all the way around the country. The other arguments put forward by members are all a variance on the same theme and I think I've already addressed those."