Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): Thank you Madam Chair. There are issues here of the integrity of our parliamentary and democratic process and there are also issues of the public interest that means this Parliament should support the very good amendments that have been put forward by Shane Reti.The first of those that my colleague Mr Reti has made is that the Government has no political mandate for this change. You're looking at an institution in my own area 115 years old that has over 400 staff that has 4000 students and not a single Labour member had the courage to tell those people that if Labour was the Government we would lose our independent polytechnic. I contrast that with the approach that was taken by John Key and the previous National Government. We had the challenge—and it was a big controversy—over the mixed-ownership model. What we said was that we would put it to the people that we would not proceed with the mixed ownership—big change with Air New Zealand and the power companies—until the people had the right to have a say. So I'm saying: why is it that members on the Labour benches are not prepared to support the amendments that will let New Zealanders have a say on such a fundamental reform to some of our most important public institutions? And then I want to put this question: the coalition agreement has this to say: the coalition Government is committed to relocating Government functions to the regions. Is that what we're doing with this bill I say to my friends across the Chamber in New Zealand First? Are we relocating functions to the regions? No we're not. We're taking off every one of the regions and centralising the control of our polytechs. This is exactly the opposite of what New Zealand First said—and not just what New Zealand First said but what Labour said in the coalition agreement. I say this is morally repugnant for the Government to be legislating exactly against what it said it would do in relocating functions to the regions. And then I say this: if we want to make sure we're making decisions in the public interest imagine the disruption for the sector that we go through this huge reform and then there's a change of Government in September—and that will be for the public to decide—and then we have to undo it all. How does that serve the public interest? National is absolutely committed that if we are the Government the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) will be an independent institution controlled by the people of Nelson rather than what Mr Little wants—and it's not surprising Mr Little has never won a provincial seat and has been rejected time and time again by voters because he does not understand the interests and the locality importance of local interests. The last point I would make is to the Minister in the chair the Hon Chris Hipkins. I was disappointed that with flights being delayed I was not able to participate in the earlier debate. It was fascinating for me that I sat on the plane next to a guy who's in the scaffolding industry and from the moment we sat on the runway in Nelson he spent over half an hour telling me how awful these reforms were how bad they were for the scaffolding industry that we have seen a decline in the number of people in that very practical industry of apprentices as a consequence of this reform and that is repeated over and over again by industries all over New Zealand. And that's why I say to this Parliament support Shane Reti's amendment; let the public decide. There's a very clear choice. Members on this side of the House say that regions should be able to have their own locally controlled polytechnic and they shouldn't be taken over by some massive Government department. The last point I have to make is this: my local polytechnic met with me earlier this year. You know what their big worry was? This reform is resulting in the loss already of a significant number of NMIT's best staff. And my chief executive expressed very real concern about that.Hon Andrew Little: Oh your chief executive? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Quite the opposite—the chief executive of the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology and many others are saying if you're worried about the loss of staff let's put it to the country. A very clear choice on a policy of which Mr Little and his colleagues never had the courage to tell the electorate: that they would be robbing regional New Zealand of control of their local polytechnics and that's why this reform should not come into effect until the public have had a say through the ballot box.