Moroney Sue: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Moroney Sue: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 August 2011. Volume:674;Page:20579. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to support the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) and to say at the outset that Labour supports this bill because what it does is in the main sensible. Certainly the 102 percent increase in student levies from universities and polytechnics over the course of 2009 and 2010 is of great concern to Labour. It also shows the Government that there is a squeeze on tertiary education funding. I hope the Minister does understand that this has been the reaction of tertiary institutions to the underfunding that has happened right across the education system but which in this instance is clearly visible in what is happening to the tertiary education system. 
The attempt by the institutions to significantly increase student levies has been their response to the squeeze on funding that has come from the Government in the area of tertiary education. So although this is one aspect of what needs to occur in order to safeguard dramatic increases for students in the levies being imposed on them by tertiary institutions I hope the Government is under no illusion that this will solve the problem. The problem of course is that institutions were starting to use and to increase the student levy to pay for things that previously have been paid for by Government funding. That is the fundamental problem here and I hope the Government is under no illusion that by passing this bill it has fixed the problem; it has not. 
I guess in supporting this bill I want to point out that Labour has a concern about another bill that is proceeding through this Parliament at the same time which we think causes great concern. If we combine the two we can see that students will be the people who miss out. The bill I am referring to is the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill although— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is not part of this debate. Remember this is a second reading speech and the member can concentrate only on the purpose and contents of the bill. The member must come back to this debate. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: There is no point of order. I have ruled. This debate is on the bill’s second reading. It is not a first reading debate. The member must concentrate on the second reading of the bill as reported back. 
SUE MORONEY 
: What I want to raise— 
Todd McClay 
: The problem is the member hasn’t read the bill. 
SUE MORONEY 
: The member over there who seems to be the brightest spark that National can come up with may be a bit confused. When bills work in tandem they have an impact on students in that regard. Here is what the Government is doing. On the one hand the Government is saying to tertiary institutions that they cannot increase the levy for students. But on the other hand it is trying to diminish the role of student unions in their institutions so that they can no longer provide the services on those same campuses—if that is the plural of campus. 
What is happening is that the Government is putting itself in a position with this legislation and another piece of legislation whereby the combined effect will be that student services will suffer. If those services are no longer being provided by student unions because they are collapsing under the weight of other legislation put through by this Government and the university chooses to pick up those services this legislation gives the Minister the right to come along and stop the institution from asking for a contribution from students towards providing those services. The net result will be that those services will not continue to be provided for students. 
So I think it is important that the Government understands the impact of not only this bill but also its combined effect with another bill it is supporting at the moment. Yet Labour is prepared to support this bill because by itself it makes sense—by itself it makes sense. In combination with another bill that Labour will not support and does not support it puts student services at risk and that will put student education at risk academic achievement at risk the future productivity of this country at risk and all of the things that go with that. 
I will not take up too much more time on this bill because as I said Labour supports it. The bill supports greater transparency and accountability in the setting of student levies. They did increase hugely in 2010 under this Government. Please understand that it was not just by pure accident that that happened; it happened because of the funding squeeze that came on to the tertiary sector. The bill also establishes a new Crown agency in charge of export education and it introduces stricter requirements for the registration of private training establishments in order to stamp out growing qualification fraud in this sector and we wish to support that. 
I look forward to seeing the Supplementary Order Papers that the Minister for Tertiary Education referred to in his speech when we come to the Committee stage because as a member of the select committee the issues he raised with regard to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority were not issues that were put before the select committee for our deliberation. So I look forward to seeing the content of those Supplementary Order Papers when we reach the Committee stage so that we may make a decision on whether to support those as well. Labour supports this bill.