Hutchison Paul: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:13169] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 This bill is very important because undoubtedly tertiary education is vital for the country in every way. It is important in terms of the economy in terms of future productivity—something that has been lacking under the Labour Government over the last 7 or 8 years—and in terms of citizenship. 
Part 1 is the machinery of the bill and the Minister described it as bringing in a new era of high trust and of low compliance. He said it is about quality relevance and value for money. Sadly the very opposite seems to have occurred. In fact he talks about streamlining yet we have already heard from right around the country as the 13 investment managers and the 13 stakeholder engagement managers spread themselves out that more and more hurdles are occurring. In fact I heard from one of the tertiary education institutes just recently that an investment manager said to it: “Look if you don’t play ball we won’t sign off the plan with you.” Is that is an indication of the high trust? No it is centrally controlled threats and that is totally the opposite of the ethos that Dr Cullen started with when he began to plan for this bill. 
I do want to say that the select committee members worked extremely well together. This bill was so bad when it was first introduced that it needed a whole lot of work. I also want to commend the officials for their wonderful report. It was beautifully set out. The bill is a very complex bill but they set out their report magnificently and clearly and described the various contentious areas that are encompassed particularly in Part 1. These areas relate to charters procedural fairness treatment of sensitive information and the adult community education amendments. Of course the most controversial area—where we will go back to the purpose clause—is the issue of academic freedom and institutional autonomy which the Labour Government has tried so hard to trample over. 
Nevertheless we are talking about Part 1 today and I hope that the Government is appreciative that I have tried to help it all I can. Even though National is opposing this bill we have brought in a very well-thought-out Supplementary Order Paper to try to see whether the Government can see some sense as to the error of its ways. Undoubtedly it is important to have high trust in the tertiary education system and it is extremely important to diminish the bureaucracy that has built up so logarithmically over the last 7 years under Labour. From a department within the education department of 16 or 17 people there is now a steaming group of 340 in the Tertiary Education Commission— 
Anne Tolley 
: How many? 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: There are 340 staff and just recently appointed as fast as the commission can get them are those extra 13 investment managers and 13 stakeholder engagement managers I was talking about earlier on who appear to be very variable in their ability to engage or invest. I have heard from some institutions that many of those managers are not very comfortable in dealing with financial investment and when organisations are as complex as the tertiary education institutes it is hugely important to have highly competent people. In fact the OECD in its report this year said that one of the things about the tertiary education system in New Zealand is its complexity and this bill adds even more to its complexity.