King Colin: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Colin: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2011. Volume:675;Page:20847. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 For the purposes of discussing the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) and with an introductory comment that this Government is focused on access to top-quality tertiary education I think it is appropriate to focus on new Part 20 “New Zealand Qualifications Authority”. Although members on the other side are whining on about something unrelated to this legislation this bill is very important because it is the first occasion for many many years that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has been reviewed. Currently under this Government a lot of work is being undertaken and that is very appropriate because we would expect that a qualifications authority in any sovereign State has a highly robust and reputable structure.  
What we inherited from the lazy Labour Government was a New Zealand Qualifications Authority with over 6000 qualifications and there was confusion. There were so many so-called local qualifications which were just a code for printing more money. Effectively if an institution wanted to deliver a qualification and it wanted to access funding under the equivalent full-time students model it would basically take a national qualification tack on a number of different aspects of it that it would say were locally relevant register it and it would be put on to the qualifications framework.  
Under new Part 20 this bill takes us through the process of refining the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the functions of the authority. The New Zealand qualifications framework as I mentioned is being refined and at last from comments made by the Minister for Tertiary Education we see that there are some 2000 fewer qualifications on the qualifications framework at this time without creating any gaps in the framework. 
The approval process of qualifications is also under review. It is an in-depth review one that is very very important. It is part of the bill that probably did not attract a lot of submissions but it is really fundamental to the future qualifications authority and its direction. It is quite an in-depth study of the rules the fees how research is undertaken and the way in which the Minister interacts with the qualifications authority. Generally speaking the accountability of the chief executive the delegation of authorities and the membership of Government superannuation funds are all dealt with.  
We have an organisation called the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Every sovereign State has such an authority and it often raises the question of why we do not have an Australasian qualifications authority because that would possibly deepen the value and the respectability of those qualifications that people go for. When a person goes into a trade they really do expect to be able to have a robust qualification and there have been occasions like in the situation of Master Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers where that has not always been the case. This bill is very good and I commend it to the Committee.