Mahuta NanaiaHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister for Māori Development): Thank you Madam Chairperson Tolley. I've been waiting all night to take a call on this great bill and I want to offer a contribution on Supplementary Order Paper 15 in the name of the Minister of Education as it relates to the Education (Tertiary Education and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I think there's a lot of context sitting around the amendment so I'd be interested in the Minister's clarification or insight as to what led to the particular amendment but I am certainly pleased to see it. For a long time wānanga have argued about and contested whether or not they can use the protected term of university" as it relates to the provision of education within their particular institutions. If we think about the wānanga there are really three key wānanga that this term could relate to: Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi Te Wānanga o Raukawa and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. In particular I much suspect that the amendment will specifically relate to Te Wānanga o Raukawa and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi because both of those institutions offer postgraduate and graduate degrees. Much of the debate previously around whether or not they could use the term "university" is because I think there's been some confusion over the type of offering of tertiary education—graduate and postgraduate degrees—and the way in which study takes place at the wānanga. If I am right to suppose that the context for the amendment better allows for the way in which they deliver the style of graduate and postgraduate education at their institutions and that's the reason for the amendment then I am really pleased that that will be taken into consideration in terms of their funding mechanism. The other reason is that people who have insight into those institutions will know that in fact if you undertake a graduate or postgraduate degree at those institutions they do hold wānanga for a period of a week over a duration of a two- to three-year period in which you not only study but you also use quite a bit of time to prepare for the equivalent of a thesis. They also host a range of opportunities to have one-on-one specialist time with the equivalent of a supervisor. The point of difference really is not only in the delivery of the programme and the access that you have to specialist supervisors or leaders of learning in your graduate programme but it's also in the fact that many of these degrees are actually done in Te Reo Māori. Now if you're going to a normal institution like the University of Waikato—I'm sure not many people will know that if you actually do your thesis in Te Reo Māori the institution gets a higher rate of funding for that. So there is a campaign amongst some institutions to actually attract students who will not only do their degree—postgraduate study in education for example—but you will get a higher dollar if you write it in Māori because of all the extra resources that a tertiary institution a university will have to attract in order to provide the competence and the skill to be able to assess and supervise in that way. Now if this particular amendment helps better lift the quality and support the quality of teaching within an institution that leads to a thesis in Te Reo Māori then I think we're all better advantaged for it. But it's more than that as well because it provides for the perspective or world view of Māori knowledge systems to be integrated within their chosen course of study. I think again I've made a lot of broad assumptions around the context for an amendment like this and the context for this type of amendment is also in the ability for wānanga to use a protected term "university". If I'm somewhat on the right track I'd love an explanation from the Minister but I know that this clause alone will be appreciated by those wānanga that are contributing quite a bit in the postgraduate space. Why is that important? Because many private organisations and companies are seeking skill and expertise from people who have mātauranga Māori at the core of their study."