Lees-Galloway Iain: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:16866] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 Like my colleague Mr Hipkins I am also a former students association president. Unlike Mr Hipkins I did not have my own copy of the Education Act under my bed. Obviously I was not working hard enough. But I have managed to get my hands on a copy of the Act and I will argue two points really. One point is that this bill is contrary to the principal Act which the bill amends. It is contrary to the provisions relating to tertiary education in section 159AAA. Also if we look at section 229B of the principal Act—the Act that is being amended as noted in clause 3—which relates to initiating change relating to compulsory membership of students associations this bill is actually unnecessary. 
The objectives of provisions relating to tertiary education are that we develop a tertiary education system that contributes to the development of cultural and intellectual life in New Zealand and responds to the needs of learners stakeholders and the nation in order to foster a skilled knowledgable population over time. It will come as no surprise that I want to focus on the area of responding to the needs of learners and stakeholders because that is actually what the students associations allow universities polytechnics wananga or private training establishments to do. 
Students associations offer a voice for the students and they also offer a single point of contact for the tertiary institution to ensure that it is responding to the needs of learners and stakeholders—those particular stakeholders. By undermining students associations—and let us be honest that is what this bill actually does because if we did not want to undermine students associations then the Government would have agreed to our amendments on the commencement date so that is clearly the goal—and making it more difficult for them to operate this bill is contrary to that requirement that the institutions are able to respond to the needs of learners and stakeholders. If we have no organisation that represents those students then we have no way of the university actually being able to understand the views of all those stakeholders. There are thousands of students at most universities and there is no way that the university will want to waste time trying to survey those students to get an idea whether it is responding to their needs. It needs the students association to be the conduit for that point of view. 
In that way I think this bill is quite contrary to that particular part of the principal Act. But I think the main point is that this bill is completely unnecessary. If we look at section 229B which relates to initiating change relating to compulsory membership of students associations it states: “(1) The students of an institution at which membership of a students association is compulsory may request the council to conduct a vote of all students at the institution on whether membership of the students association should continue to be compulsory.” If it turns out that the result of that referendum is that most of the students at the university want membership of the students association to be voluntary then it goes voluntary—the job is done. There is absolutely no need for this bill whatsoever. Indeed the contrary proposal is true. If there is no students association at a tertiary institute or at least if there is no compulsory one and the students request a referendum on that question and more that 50 percent of the students want to introduce a compulsory students association then that can happen too. It can happen only if there is a petition with 10 percent of the student vote. 
That is actually far more legitimate than what we have right now. This bill has come about only because a tiny tiny very narrow section of the student population—that is ACT on Campus—has lobbied the member in the chair the Hon Heather Roy and managed to get her to push this legislation through. There were no petitions from 1 percent 2 percent 5 percent 10 percent or 20 percent of students in tertiary education. There was no call for this. It is currently stated in legislation without any need for change at all that any changes to the status of students associations can be initiated only if there is—