Faafoi Kris: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:675;Page:21100] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Taloha ni Mr Chair and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on clause 10 of the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill. I like my colleague David Shearer want to focus on the amendment— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Name-dropper! 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Tau Henare—how is that for name-dropping! I would like to focus on the amendment put forward by Grant Robertson—yet another name we have dropped—that will see a new clause 10 put into this bill to ensure a review of the voluntary student membership legislation after 5 years. 
I would like to support some earlier contributions that were made by Te Ururoa Flavell from the Maori Party around his concerns for Maori students with the passing of this bill. I also say that I have some serious concerns around the effects of this bill on Pacific Island students. I know that both Maori and Pacific Island students have heavily relied on the students association at the polytech in my electorate Whitireia Community Polytechnic. I know that it has had a chequered past in the last couple of years with its finances. I know that Don Campbell the chief executive may be watching and I know that he holds a different ideological position from me and that he is a supporter of the voluntary student membership bill. I think that this move by the Government in particular by ACT which is seen to be the tail wagging the dog in this instance will have serious adverse effects on both Pacific and Maori students at Whitireia Community Polytechnic. 
The 5-year review will look at how this bill which may become law very soon will have an effect on student services and I am very concerned about the effect it will have on what the students associations provide for their students such as the cultural aspects pastoral care academic support and sporting support. After 5 years the big question that will be asked is what has happened. We do not have to look too far to find out what the experience will be. As David Shearer pointed out in his contribution since voluntary student membership was passed in Australia in 2005 in subsequent years we have seen some serious degradation in the services for students at their tertiary institutions. Essentially the associations have collapsed and the services available to students have drastically reduced. In many cases a user-pays system has been introduced at the tertiary institutions across the Tasman. At the moment that can have only a negative effect for Maori and Pacific Island students who are struggling as it is just to get into tertiary education. If they are forced to pay even more for the services that are being provided under the current regime that will have a seriously negative effect on the tertiary experience of many Maori and Pacific Island students. As we have seen across the Tasman this has disadvantaged a lot of those students who come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. 
Unfortunately a lot of tertiary institutions have had to take on some of the functions the services and the assets that previously have been provided by students associations and operated by students associations. In effect although the ACT Party said that this bill will make things much easier for students that it would give them choice that it would give them freedom and that it is about democracy it will actually put the burden of the services and any assets that have fallen on those students associations fairly and squarely on the institutions. That means that taxpayers will be burdened with more costs in the long run. As we have said tertiary institutions across the Tasman have taken on more of this burden and this has resulted in many unpopular decisions being made such as elite sports teams being funded at the expense of social sports teams. There has been a noticeably large price increase in campus services and again that will be a disadvantage for many lower socio-economic groups of students. 
There has been an increase in the price of campus services and an increase in the number of campus services activities being outsourced to private sector firms. In the past we have had the student spirit behind making sure a lot of these services are provided to students at a pretty reasonable rate a pretty cheap rate but we will now find the private sector coming in and saying that it can provide that service at a profit. Of course that comes at a price. 
We have also noticed that across the Tasman a thousand jobs were lost in the student services area. There is one instance that I am concerned about—