Street Maryan: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Street Maryan: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
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Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I want to talk about the Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill and to focus on what we are voting on tonight. I want to draw to the attention of the public that amongst the things we are voting on are a $13 million cut per annum to adult and community education; cuts to university funding; scuttling the tertiary scholarships; shutting down Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships; shutting down the Skill Enhancement programme which directly affects Maori providers including the Kokiri Training Centre in Dunedin; and shutting down the funds for the Pathfinders programme which is funding for young people particularly Maori people. It is called the Nga Kaiarataki scheme; the Pathfinders scheme. In this document—for the benefit of the Minister of Education Anne Tolley—is a whole series of testimonials from schools in her electorate that are protesting against the cuts to education and the Pathfinders provision in the first instance. There are cuts to polytechnic funding. It is the end of professional development programmes for teachers. These are the things we are voting on tonight. Those cuts need to be known to the public and the public need to be aware that this is the kind of bill that is in front of us tonight. 
I shall take one of those issues and talk about adult and community education. The cuts to that area are particularly fierce. The adult and community education sector delivered as we so often know it through high schools and night classes and the community organisations they support are at extreme risk. In fact when there has been an 80 percent cut in funding to high schools it is entirely apparent to everybody except this Minister that adult and community education classes will have to stop. The people who attend those adult and community education classes are generally those who are not in a position to self-fund as the Minister thinks is possible. It may be possible on her salary but she is not like many of the people in for example the area where I live in Nelson where 76 percent of income earners earn less than $40000. So they have not benefited from a tax cut and they are not able to provide funding for adult and community education classes. 
I draw to the Minister’s attention because she seems to be unaware of it just what the purpose of adult and community education is. There have been five strategic priorities three of which will go down the gurgler when this vote is passed tonight. The purposes are targeting learners whose initial learning was unsuccessful raising the foundation learning of literacy and numeracy skills encouraging lifelong learning strengthening communities and strengthening social cohesion. 
When we look at the bang for the buck that communities get and that the Government gets as a return on investment for every dollar invested in adult and community education classes we see that the Minister is flying in the face of the evidence that demonstrates that that dollar is well spent. Every single dollar of Government money that is put into adult and community education classes at the very least returns $16 to $22—we are talking estimates tonight. Any Government dollar that is put into adult and community education returns at a minimum from $16 to $22. If the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ additional factors are put in—that is accounting for volunteer hours and private contribution—that return escalates hugely to somewhere between $54 and $72. But the most critical point about the cuts is that thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders are going to be denied the opportunity to have locally delivered accessible affordable post-compulsory education opportunities. And that is a crime. That is a crime against the communities that are out there. Hundreds upon hundreds of people are attending meetings around this country that National MPs are too afraid to attend. National MPs are too afraid to attend them. 
In Dunedin there was no National MP; in Canterbury there were two National MPs. Two National MPs turned up in Christchurch to their credit. They were booed and jeered and hissed and it was probably their first experience of that. I hope they learn from it. But clearly it is not making any difference. There was no National MP at a meeting in Porirua no National MP at a meeting in Newlands no National MP out here on the steps of Parliament no National MP in Auckland and no National MP—except for one—in Hamilton. They are running for cover on that. 
First of all the Minister said that she was digging her toes in and that the cuts would not be reconsidered. A report in the  
Otago Daily Times  
on 10 August stated “Cuts will not be reconsidered” but by Wednesday 19 August out of Canterbury she began to change her story and said that it was out of her hands and that the education cuts were not her decision. She said that again to Community Learning Association through Schools representatives—that is representatives of the group that covers the adult and community education coordinators. Well if the education Minister has washed her hands of them she has now compelled all of the people in adult and community education to write to the Prime Minister. I am sure he is appreciating the heavy mailbag he is getting these days. So now the Community Learning Association through Schools over Maryke Fordyce’s name is writing to the Prime Minister and asking him to change his mind to alter this cut to adult and community education. What is the recent evidence of that group’s likelihood of success? We have from this Government developing as a theme “We will not listen. We will not listen.” 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: We know best. 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: “We know best. I am sorry if those cuts offend the community but we know best.” We have people who will testify to the value and the worth of adult and community education delivered through organisations and high schools. In the Auckland region the adult and community education money goes to 160 community organisations around the Auckland area. It puts some $700000 into those communities at a grassroots level that allows people to build up their confidence to engage in formal education again that allows people to upskill when they have been out of the workforce for a long time and that allows people to develop their literacy and numeracy skills— 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: And scarf tie-dying—it is a whole heap of rubbish. 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: Even through Moroccan cooking I say to Mrs Tolley—even through Moroccan cooking—because if one cannot read and one cannot count one cannot cook! This kind of affront to adult and community education is going to come back and haunt this Government and that is a promise. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The time for this debate has concluded. The question is that the amendment in the name of the Hon Phil Goff be agreed to.