Chadwick Steve: Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Chadwick Steve: Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:659;Page:8531] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 It is great to have an opportunity to speak on the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill. I was absolutely aghast at the end of a day’s debate 2 weeks ago when the Maori Party supported both the Government’s legislation on the emissions trading scheme and the second reading of this bill. When we went home to Rotorua and the rohe of Waiariki people said they were aghast that that support had been the Maori Party’s response to this education bill. I am pleased to hear Te Ururoa Flavell putting forward an amendment that addresses or re-addresses the issue of Maori representation on polytechnic councils. I am pleased to see that amendment because I wondered whether the Maori Party had seriously lost its way 2 weeks ago and had rolled over and had its belly tickled just a little too much. 
This is a very sad day with this bill going through its Committee stage today. It reminds me very much of the days that Chris Hipkins talked about of Max Bradford and the green paper and white paper on tertiary education. Members may remember back to when I won the Rotorua electorate from Max Bradford when one of the largest community concerns was about the future direction of the then National Government regarding the future of polytechs. The previous Labour Government spent 9 years investing in a Skills Strategy that was critically important to the unemployed in our region and the wider region which included Taupo Murupara Rotorua and Whakatane. We worked with industry and union representatives on what we expected to see in educational institutions like our polytech in Waiariki the Waiariki Institute of Technology which was hard-won for us in Rotorua. With this bill the Minister is single-handedly wielding ministerial power to take away that community voice. I think this is a sad day for the communities of Rotorua and other regions of New Zealand. 
I am also very aware because I have been lobbied and informed on this matter that the Minister’s office called for the Waiariki Institute of Technology’s submission on the bill. In that submission the institute proposed another model in terms of Maori representation on polytechs. That has not been listened to. It was great and we were all very heartened that the Minister had called for that submission but we expected to see changes made to the bill. 
The situation is quite the opposite to what the Minister said in her “second reading” speech. Our institute is not in deficit. It has turned itself round to match the skills needs of the community in our wider region and it has done so within budget. It is seen as a great leader. The people involved will be hugely insulted at the comments of the Minister in the chair the Hon Anne Tolley today that the previous Government let down the young people of our region. They did not feel let down. They took to second-chance education with great relish because that is what they were inspired to undertake by the previous Government. 
I will mention here the sort of representation that we saw from the Maori and student representatives on the polytech council. I was very close to this issue because I met the chief executive officer of the institute every 3 months as well as the polytech council. We had problems with the management of different faculties. One of them was the early childhood education faculty and we had real concerns about its robustness as we trained those who would go into the early childhood education sector. Do members know that it was the Maori and student representatives who brought that issue to the council table and who had the council face the issue and turn that faculty around? And the council did. Without those voices that would not have happened. As well we heard from the student representative that the student health centre would close down and also that there was no access around the faculty for students with a disability. Do members think that ministerially appointed representatives to the councils of regional polytechs will bother about student health about access to the campus and back to where these students have to stay or about the safety of students when they are leaving faculties late at night? No. Those issues came squarely from the student representative and that representation has now been taken away by this cruel Government.