12. Tertiary Education—Vocational EducationJO LUXTON (Labour) to the Minister of EducationTertiary Education—Vocational Education12. JO LUXTON (Labour) to the Minister of Education: What concerns does he have about the future provision of vocational education in New Zealand's regions?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): The latest forecasts suggest that without significant change the institutes of technology and polytechnic sector will see 50 percent of their institutions in deficit by 2020 and 80 percent in deficit by 2022. There is an appetite for change to modernise and grow the sector and make it fit for purpose for learners in the 21st century and this Government is committed to not only preserving foundation and vocational education in our regions and cities we also want to see the range of opportunities expanded.Jo Luxton: What changes has he announced today that highlight the Government's commitment to a more collaborative approach to tertiary education?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Today I announced that the Government is scrapping the widely disliked process of competitive funding for training at levels 1 to 4 on the qualifications framework which forced tertiary education providers to bid against each other for a dwindling share of funding and created needless instability within the sector. Scrapping this useless process gives providers greater funding certainty allows them to properly plan and develop programmes and most importantly allows them to focus on what they should be focused on which is getting outcomes for students.Jo Luxton: How is this Government's approach to the vocational education sector different from past approaches?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: This Government will collaborate with those in the sector to deliver a future-focused and robust vocational education system. Previous inaction and the lack of forward planning have left some polytechnics in serious financial difficulty. We will not be taking the approach of allowing these public institutions to fall over as was the previous approach.Erica Stanford: Does the Minister have concerns about those vulnerable young people who are looking forward to vocational learning and gaining new skills but have had this educational opportunity torn away from them as he carries out the union wish list by closing charter schools? [The Speaker stands]Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The trouble with that is if you allow the question to be completed and prevent a Minister from answering you allow the assertion to go unanswered.SPEAKER: And that is a problem. But another problem I have is if I allow clearly out of order questions to continue—the member is a new member and I will give her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't know what she was doing because otherwise she would have been disorderly and in a lot of trouble.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. SPEAKER: We're not doing a relitigation now are we?Hon Gerry Brownlee: No. We're not relitigating at all. It would be helpful though—I mean you've given a lot of instruction in the last couple of weeks to Ministers about answering questions. It would be interesting to know the bit of that question that was particularly out of order. Was it the intonation and the excitement at the end of it that was part of the fury that some people in New Zealand are experiencing over that particular issue or was it talking about the issue itself or the allegation that the Minister was doing exactly what the Minister's doing?SPEAKER: Right. We are now moving on to Government orders of the day No. 1.