Turei Metiria: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6826] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is opposed to the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill and we regret that this House has to deal with such extremism all over again. We left the 20th century behind some time ago and it does not seem to me that we should reintroduce the 1980s back into 21st century legislation especially when that legislation attacks if I may say so the students of the 21st century who are supposed to lead us into the future. I guess it is not a surprise that we have to deal with this kind of extremist viewpoint from the ACT Party but it is disappointing that ACT has not learnt any of the lessons of the past. 
We certainly agree with students associations and students who say one of the major impacts of this bill will be a reduction in the services that the associations provide for students. That will affect key social and welfare services clubs and sports activity and other services such as advocacy for greater transport accessibility for students and for housing. In the area where I live in Dunedin and in other parts of the country there are serious issues for students with disabilities for example who wish to access accessible housing and their students associations the collective organisations to which they voluntarily belong are key organisations in terms of helping to support those students. Those kinds of services will be lost if this bill is allowed to proceed. 
I will make only a small contribution this afternoon but I say another key area of loss for students—who are paying through the nose for their fees working while they study and doing an incredible job of trying to keep themselves afloat while they educate themselves for the benefit of the public as a whole—will be in the access they now have to strong advocacy on the issues that they face. That is not just advocacy in terms of a voice in the university councils and in the tertiary institutions but political advocacy as well. Many students who are part of students associations or collective organisations do not necessarily have a vote. Some of them are quite young yet through their students associations they have access to a political voice and advocacy that they would not otherwise get. Here in Parliament we make decisions that affect students’ lives their employment the kinds of jobs that they may be able to access and the education that they may be able to access yet we would restrict their ability to have a voice and a say in exactly those decisions that affect them. One of the Green Party’s key principles is that of participatory democracy the principle that people who are affected by decisions should be part of the decision-making process and this bill attempts to strip that away from students. 
Serious issues have been raised about the impact of this bill on Maori students and their ability to continue to have an advocacy voice and have support services provided through their collective associations. This is particularly important at a time when this Government is attacking the tertiary sector by massively reducing its funding. Polytech councils for example are now under attack and universities I am sure will be soon to follow. With a reduction in the community voices on those councils those voices and particularly Maori voices are being lost. Maori voices are being lost from the decision-making processes around tertiary education and this bill is another attack on exactly that—on the right of Maori to have a say. Of course we already know that the National Government does not like it when Maori have a voice. We have already seen it remove that voice in the legislation on Auckland governance when it stripped Maori of the ability to have a political voice in the Auckland super-city. Now the Government is doing exactly the same thing for Maori students those who will be leading our community in the future. 
This bill breaches even its own principles of choice and freedom. It strikes me that the ACT Party believes that when people do not vote for the Government they can then somehow throw off the responsibilities of their citizenship because it is not their fault that we have a particular Government. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: It’s a libertarian view. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: This is the extremist libertarian view. We know that kind of example is ridiculous because the principle behind it is ridiculous. Students are entitled under the current law to choose how they organise themselves and this bill will strip from them their right to choose and their freedom to associate in the way that they think is the most appropriate. This bill constrains their choices and freedoms; it does not support them. This bill is classic 1980s dinosaurian thinking which this Parliament and this country can well do without.