Lees-Galloway Iain: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6825] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 What a stunning argument from this incompetent and incapable Government. National members in desperation to find a good reason why they are propping up another ACT initiative—there are not so many Maori Party initiatives going through but there are plenty of ACT Party initiatives—and to find a way to link themselves to that party have found one quote from Clayton Cosgrove that is completely out of context. Clayton Cosgrove was talking about shonky real estate agents. Clayton Cosgrove was talking about loan sharks. Clayton Cosgrove was talking about rip-off merchants. He was not talking about students and students associations. That is the most tenuous link I have yet seen in this term of Parliament. And why? It was so that National members—desperately—could find a way to suck up one more time to the ACT Party the “3 Percent Party”— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: 2 percent. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: —and dropping. National with all its numbers just seems to want to bend over backwards at any single opportunity to please the ACT Party. 
The previous speaker Allan Peachey said that he was going to seek out the answer to why students are the only group who are denied freedom of association. Clearly that member is not listening to students because they have a better question than that. Why are students the only group in society who are denied access to a universal allowance if they are out of work? That is a far better question that the Government ought to be addressing rather than this one. Nevertheless it has been given the opportunity to bend over backwards for the ACT Party and so it will. 
I would like to talk about what the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill actually means in practical terms—what it will mean on the ground for students. It will mean a massive increase in costs for students because the universities will want to maintain the services that the students associations offer. They will still want to run orientation events and other events. Universities will still want a student newspaper they will want radio stations and they will want advocacy to be available to students. They will want representation. Universities appreciate the fact that there is an organisation out there that provides representation for students when they have a grievance with the university. There will be some problems of independence if the universities have to offer a service in order for students to advocate against them. That will get tricky but they will want it. 
Here is the problem. Students associations live and die on hours and hours of voluntary time being provided. They also live and die on having dedicated people who take paid employment with students associations but they take it for a pittance. The universities will not be able to offer that; they will have to pay people properly. They will have to provide those services and it will cost them an awful lot more. Who will pay for that? It will be the students. In fact we have already seen on several occasions that universities looking for ways to increase the student component of their fees have gone after the student services component because it does not fall under the fee maxima policy. This will put more and more pressure on universities and provide more opportunities for universities to whack up those fees. Who will pay? It will be the students. The students will lose out as a result of this legislation passing. 
What is more when those services are provided by the students association whether or not the students take them up they have an opportunity to have a say in what the fee is. They have a far greater opportunity to say how they want their students association to spend this money to say what fee they expect to pay and what they want the students association to do. Students do not have anything like that opportunity when dealing with the university. In fact the opportunity will become less and less as Mrs Tolley attacks the councils and gets rid of student representation. We have already seen it happen with the polytechs and the universities are next. It means that students will have less and less of a voice and less and less of a say on how their money is spent. This is bad news for students. The Government is not listening to them; it is spending all its time bending over backwards for the ACT Party. It is the students and young people in this country who will pay for that policy. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Can I remind people in the gallery that their role is passive. They cannot participate and they cannot clap.