English Bill: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
English Bill: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:13214] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I think this bill should be called the “Worst Example of Government Reform Bill” because as my colleague has pointed out this bill is one more stupid attempt to achieve the impossible vision of one of the previous Ministers which was I think that of Mr Steve Maharey. We are now 8 years on since Labour promised to reform the tertiary education system and its main achievement under the title of “Education Tertiary Reforms” has been to try to reform the legislation it put in before. For instance this bill abolishes charters and profiles. I can remember the Minister for Tertiary Education telling everyone how vital it was that we had charters and profiles on whose development millions of dollars were spent only to have them junked. 
There is a stack of documents—I think it is about this high; others would estimate it is that high—that are full of sociological gobbledegook about how the Minister can sit in his office and govern the educational aspirations of New Zealanders in the tertiary education system. It does not matter how often bureaucrats set out to write pages and pages stitching together contradictory objectives in pursuit of utopia; they keep failing and this bill will fail. 
It turns out now that 29-year-olds with PhDs who are called investment managers have a total stranglehold over the direction of the tertiary education system in New Zealand. I tell the Minister that I think the 20-year-olds who are spending tens of thousands of dollars getting their education should have more say than one of their peers who happens to land an overpaid job in the Tertiary Education Commission. I looked at the purpose clause clause 3 which states the purpose of the Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill and there is no mention of students—none. One would think we are running a whole system with no people in it. The bill is about organisations plans stakeholders and bureaucrats. They do use up about half the resources but not all of them. There are still these people called students I say to the Minister and this bill should be called the “Fulfilling the Aspirations of Young New Zealanders Bill”. It should be but it cannot be because they are not mentioned in the bill. 
I have asked some of those 19-year-olds whether they have read the statement of tertiary education priorities. 
Moana Mackey 
: Since when did the National Party talk to students? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well that is the problem—the sheer arrogance of Labour believing that it knows what 19-year-olds want. I asked one just yesterday actually: “Have you read the statement of tertiary education priorities and are you aware of the stakeholder consultation plan?”. I got a vigorous response in language that I will not repeat here but it was essentially: “I haven’t read them. I’m not going to. I don’t care who wrote it and it makes no difference to me anyway.” 
So the people who are meant to be complying with all the nonsense in this bill do not know about it and even if they did they would say it was rubbish. They do not care what it is and they will do what they like. This bill should be called the “Total Waste of Time Tertiary Reforms Bill”. As my colleague Mr Hutchison has pointed out many times the people who designed it are all going. Steve Maharey Michael Cullen Janice Shiner and Russell Marshall will all be gone—all gone—when this bill comes into effect. There is no accountability. They do not have to follow through but they do have to answer to the public for this. They have spent $400 million thinking about it. This little skinny bill here is the product of $400 million of analysis over 8 years and nothing sums up better the total incompetence of this Government.