Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Associate Minister of Education): I stand here proud to be part of this Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. The previous speaker Dr Shane Reti stated that they are fighting for the polytechnics for our learners and that they are apparently going to be a voice for the unions—they are going to be a better voice than the Tertiary Education Union apparently. Let me be clear: if we had continued down National's approach of doing nothing—doing absolutely nothing—we would have risked losing the polytechnics altogether some of them. We would have risked that. Over the past two years this coalition Government has actually put through $100 million because of the non-response from the last National Government. If they had continued being in Government tinkering around the edges not actually listening to the polytechnic sector that is exactly where it would've ended.Just in 2017 alone this Government put in $53 million because this is the amount of money that we needed to ensure that our sector basically survives. It is indeed laughable that we are in this current debate and we have the previous Government—if I'm to speak just about building and construction there is a mismatch between the numbers of skilled people that we need and the numbers of skilled people that the last National Government left us with. We came in; the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment was pretty clear about the numbers of skilled people in building and construction that we needed: at least 30000 people. What did the last Government do to ensure that that was addressed? Not enough because if they had we wouldn't have ended up with such a huge mismatch in skills.This is one of the reasons—one of many reasons—why we are reforming vocational education to ensure not only that our polytechnics survive but that they are actually really strong. For the previous speaker to say that apparently the regions will no longer have a voice—absolutely untrue. Instead of spreading misinformation the National Party needs to front up with what their plan is. What is their plan to save the sector that so badly needed to be addressed over nine long years? I am really proud to be working with the Minister of Education the Hon Chris Hipkins who is indeed doing a lot—a whole lot—to ensure that we fix the education sector.Can I just go through some of the things that we're doing in terms of fixing this educational sector which the Hon Chris Hipkins is leading. He has a plan to ensure that we build up our schooling and education system. There is actually a split in the vocational education system but one of the pieces of misinformation that the previous speaker is also spreading—if I can quote from the bill itself the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill it states in clause 33 of Schedule 1 Transfer of employees" and I quote "(1) On and after the commencement date every employee of an existing polytechnic becomes an employee (a transferred employee) of the polytechnic's corresponding NZIST subsidiary on the same terms and conditions that applied to the person immediately before they became an employee of the corresponding NZIST subsidiary."As I said the spreading of misinformation is not at all helpful—because that is all it is: misinformation. It is all set out in the legislation. All of the employees currently will be transferred on the existing terms and conditions. It is not one where all of these employees as the previous speaker said are apparently going to lose their employment.There are so many challenges that we are facing but let me address four of the challenges that this legislation will be addressing in terms of the current system. Challenge one: the skills shortages across so many of the sectors. There are persistent and widespread skills shortages across so many industries. Building and construction is just one. Health is another. When we look at mental health workers yes we've come through with a plan—$1.9 billion we're investing in mental health—but it will take some time to train up the mental health workers that we need because we were left with so much need in this space by the previous Government.The second challenge which I spoke about just earlier on is the split in the vocational education system. We currently have two vocational education systems. Industry training organisations—ITOs—support on-the-job training and providers including polytechnics deliver off-the-job training. We have a type of funding that we would ensure in having—making sure that we have a national system. We're making sure that we create a unified system with a single regulatory framework which is what we're introducing in this legislation.Challenge number three: there is a lack of industry input and this is something that I hear especially when I go out and talk to so many in the building and construction sector. They tell us that some of the skilled people that come through from the off-the-job training are not actually skilled enough with the kinds of skills that they need. They would like—employers that is—to have more input and this new system would ensure that they absolutely have more input. We are putting the industry in charge through the workforce development councils to ensure that they have a say and to ensure that there is a better match of the skills that our employers and our industry need.One of the things that we did in Opposition is we did a lot of work on what's called the Future of Work. What that particular work told us was that there is automation; there are so many things that are coming through that we need to address. Having a unified system would ensure that we deliver to those who are already in work that need better learning that need better skills—that they are actually trained. So it's not just about the young people who are not yet in polytechnics or within our ITOs this is also about ensuring that we provide training for those who are currently in work but need re-skilling. One of the things that we also did was we went out and we spoke with people out there in the community; if I'm to refer to some of the meetings that we held out in South Auckland where we actually asked our leaders who are Pacific to give us their ideas on what it is that we need in the new improved system to ensure that our Pacific learners actually get to better-skilled jobs. So that was one of the questions we posed: what does success look like and what does success feel like for our Pacific learners? The messages that were coming through from our leaders from our students and from our trainers—some of them worked in all of the systems some worked in ITOs some worked in polytechnics. We also had student leaders there. They spoke of how they wanted to be involved they wanted to have a say in the new system. They also spoke of the different journeys that many of them took—that they didn't just leave high school and go directly to a polytechnic or go directly to training with an ITO. Many of them actually went through a different journey and they also wanted that to be addressed in the new system. Many of them also spoke—whether they were trainers or learners within the system—about how they did not feel included in the current system that we had. They wanted their customs their culture and they wanted themselves—when they attended our polytechnics our ITOs—to actually feel part of the system. Many of our learners spoke about how they want their culture their language and their traditions to be better connected with and they want them to be respected in their learning institutions. We have done quite a lot of work and I would like to of course acknowledge our Minister of Education and all of the work that he has done because this is actually challenging—to come through and to be landed with not only all of the training needs that we need for Pacific for Māori for our ethnic community students and actually to stand up not to just tinker around the edges but to say "Yes I will address it." actually takes a lot of courage. Thank you Mr Speaker."