11. Question No. 11—EducationCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 11—Education11. CHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central) to the Minister of Education: Will the Government lead tripartite conversations between this country's universities the Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education Union to break the impasse on wages and resultant strike action; if not why not?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm certainly aware of the level of stress that so many New Zealanders are operating under—including our valued tertiary education workforce—given the ongoing impacts of global inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic. The universities themselves are not supportive of a tripartite meeting. As I have said to the Tertiary Education Union I don't consider it would be either effective or constructive for me to try and convene a tripartite meeting where the employer party was an unwilling participant.Chlöe Swarbrick: Can the Minister identify the most precarious academic workers in our universities and what their typical pay and conditions are?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I am not the employer of those staff; that is a matter for the institutions themselves.Chlöe Swarbrick: I seek leave to table the precarious academic work report by New Zealand Union of Students' Associations Tertiary Education Action Group Aotearoa and Tertiary Education Union.SPEAKER: Is that available publicly?Chlöe Swarbrick: It's very hard to find; I just attempted to google it. SPEAKER: I think the fact that something's hard to find doesn't make it not public. Chlöe Swarbrick: May I seek leave to table it for the sake of—SPEAKER: Well if you know it's public then no. Chlöe Swarbrick: Supplementary then. Has the Minister sought any advice on changes to the funding model for our tertiary education sector?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The main complaint that I've heard from most tertiary education organisations isn't about the funding mechanism but about the quantity of funding that they would like to have. That of course is a matter for Budget processes. We have changed the funding mechanism for vocational education and we are certainly open to having conversations with other parts of the tertiary sector—including the universities—about what a different funding model in the future might look like. Chlöe Swarbrick: Will the Minister then step in to help resolve issues at Auckland University of Technology or is he comfortable with the proposed 250 job losses and the closure of its early childhood centre?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In answer to the second part of the question: that's not a matter for me to have a view on. Tertiary education organisations—universities in particular—are guaranteed by law their institutional autonomy. Chlöe Swarbrick: Does the Minister agree with the statement of 2001 Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association president Chris Hipkins who said We've had enough of broken promises by politicians. It's time for the Labour Government to put their money where their mouth was before the election. Ministers the buck stops here and 400000 students are standing by."SPEAKER: In so far as the Minister is responsible.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Well what an insightful contribution that was! Time has moved on."