Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Chair for the opportunity to speak to new Part 9 in Schedule 1 of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill. I am speaking on behalf of the Auckland region. I believe that the Auckland region is a very different region compared to other regions in our country so the polytechnics that are in the Auckland region should not be put under the same umbrella as the Minister of Education is proposing through this legislation.I'm based in Auckland. I'm based in Mt Roskill and of course I travel around not just in Auckland but outside of Auckland too and I have seen there are clear differences between Auckland and other regions. The demographics are different. We know that Auckland makes up a significant part of our population and out of that population a big proportion is made up of people that have come from other countries and have settled here but they call New Zealand their home. So when people come from other countries they bring different skills different educational backgrounds and based on those skills and educational backgrounds they start up their businesses and then they are looking for local skills skilled people that are available locally to fill up those jobs that they create through the creation of their business. So these polytechnics are mainly seen to be providing for that skill gap that exists in different regions. I fear that the proposal that the Minister has put through this legislation will fail that industry that is looking for that local skill local skilled people to fill up those gaps that are created by them creating more and more jobs. So it's actually a good thing when businesses have more and more vacancies coming up but they should be able to fill up those vacancies by seeing that our youth or other people—those who go through refresher courses through polytechnics—are able to fill up those positions.In Auckland as I said demographics are different. It's made up of a lot of migrant people. They bring new ideas and we should actually support them to bring those ideas and to establish those ideas into businesses. So for people that go through polytechnics what they are looking for is some courses or diplomas that will prepare them to fulfil the requirements that they have to fill up those vacancies that come up. For people to expect those people to move from one region to the other region to attain those skills that is something that is not going to be practical because it can be quite expensive when somebody is doing a diploma or a short course expecting that person to move from one region to the other region if the centralised approach doesn't work for their region. Moreover for businesses to rely on people coming from other regions to be employed in their business is also not a practical idea. So it's really important that localism is maintained especially in the Auckland region.So I would like the Minister to actually take a call and tell us how the Minister is going to address this issue of Auckland being such a different region compared to other regions when it comes to the requirement of skilled people and also the training requirements that exist for our young people and also people—those who want to go to refresher courses to take up newer jobs or just to grow themselves in their existing jobs. This legislation brings a centralised approach and that is my concern. Auckland I believe should not be part of that centralised approach. There should be a special approach for Auckland. We know some polytechnics are suffering; some polytechnics are doing really well. We don't want to see those polytechnics struggling even more because of this centralised approach because if they will not be able to provide for that skill gap that exists in Auckland they will not be getting new people coming and joining courses in those polytechnics. So this will result in my view in a bigger failure for polytechnics so this needs to be definitely looked at seriously looked at and I will look forward to the Minister's response to this concern that I have raised. The other issue I would like to raise is that we know that polytechnics rely on not just local students they also rely on students coming from overseas as international students. We have heard this again and again that so many polytechnics are suffering because there are students that are enrolled in these polytechnics but are not able to come to New Zealand because they are not getting that immigration clearance that they should be in a timely manner. That's why so many polytechnics are suffering. I think the Minister needs to take that into consideration as well because these polytechnics ultimately will need students. As we have seen the purpose of this sector is to provide for the local skills gaps that come up from time to time and if our polytechnics are not able to get people to train them to take up those positions then this will be a complete failure. We do not want to see failure after failure in the education sector. The polytechnic sector is important as we have heard just now from my other colleagues from this side from North to South and they have a different stance.