SpeechLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's my pleasure to talk in the general debate this afternoon. I listened to the last speaker Greg O'Connor and his comments about this being a very progressive Government. But I wish to ask those members on that side to just pause for a minute because what members on the other side are talking about is a perception that you on the other side have. I want to talk specifically today about something I have deep concern about that I've spoken to members on the other side of the House about and that is the reforms that are going on in the vocational sector of New Zealand.I specifically bring to the House's attention and to members in my community who are listening those reforms and what that will do to the polytechnic sector in New Zealand particularly the good ones. One of the best in New Zealand is my very own the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) a top performer. I'm very proud of the institution in Hawke's Bay and if the Hon Stuart Nash had been here I would have assumed he would be as well. The 2018 annual report said that EIT had 4794 full-time students 10335 people in education—a lift of a thousand people from the year before. So the number of people at EIT from 2017 to 2018 went up by a thousand. There are 138 programmes delivered by the Eastern Institute of Technology. It has a balance sheet with $152 million on it it has no debt and it has $28 million of cash or short-term reserves. It has 600 staff. It has had two very significant and highly respected CEOs and a number of very significant boards and chairs.In particular and I want members on the other side to understand this the land that EIT is on was gifted by Arnaud and Margaret Hetley to the people of Hawke's Bay for a tertiary institution of some form. It was a university at the start. It was gifted to the people of Hawke's Bay. Two days before the opening of the Hawke's Bay Community College the sole survivor Margaret Hetley died and that land has remained with the people of Hawke's Bay since. So these changes are significant for my polytechnic and my community. It is one of the best in New Zealand. It has no debt. It has growing student numbers and actually it should be left alone.In the business case that's put up as an example—and I give you an example of these changes—there is $130 million worth of savings proposed under this reform in accounting marketing and back-office. There are 200 of those types of roles at the Eastern Institute of Technology. Some of those roles will disappear in this rationalisation. People will lose their jobs. It is estimated that up to a thousand people in back-office roles will lose their jobs across New Zealand from these reforms.It's also important to understand some of the very courageous and unique things that EIT has done: a partnership to build our regional sports stadium a new campus in Hastings and a partnership to build a sport and wellness centre at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park. Does anybody seriously think that some centralised model based in Wellington is going to have that degree of flexibility? I am violently opposed to these changes and I want to say to members of the House that what I think is occurring here is very akin to the district health board (DHB) model. You put everything together it's controlled by the Ministry of Health—in this case it will be controlled by a different entity; not the Ministry of Health but the equivalent—and you will have a few regional boards that will have some say. I ask members on the other side to consider the DHB model because that hasn't been that successful either. In the last financial year it ran at a $500 million deficit and people right across New Zealand are complaining about their level of service. The same thing will happen to the polytech sector.