Beaumont Carol: Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Beaumont Carol: Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:659;Page:8527] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 I am gravely concerned about the passage of this legislation. I believe that the provisions of this bill will undermine the quality of tertiary education in our country and in particular it will continue a very negative trend of this Government; that is a failure to invest in skills and a failure to understand that we need to upskill our workforce so that we can become a more productive and successful economy. The reason I believe that is that the representation on the polytechnic councils is being severely limited is being controlled by the Minister and is being required to act like some sort of commercial board of directors. That is just not appropriate for an institution like a polytechnic which is a public organisation a public institution with multiple educational and social objectives. That includes ensuring that the needs of the local community are being met in terms of learning and skill development. It also means that the needs of the industry within that area or sector of the economy it is providing learning for are also being met. The provisions of this bill undermine that. 
There is no explanation being given as to why this legislation is necessary. Indeed it worries me that the Minister is deliberately targeting the polytech sector for reasons that I think many New Zealanders will be very very fearful of. Handing more power to that Minister to control what are important tertiary institutions important parts of our community is something that will worry a lot of New Zealanders. Frankly this is one of the worst-performing Ministers in this Government. She has trampled all over the sector since she has been there and she has basically ensured that our education system will go backwards. 
Reducing the number of representatives on the councils to eight four of whom are appointed by the Minister and four of whom may include some sort of stakeholder or community representation is just a joke. What is the problem with the existing polytech system? There has been representation provided for staff for students for unions for employers and for the community at large. That is appropriate and our polytechs have done a good job. They could do a great deal more. That is one of the points I really want to emphasise. This Government has missed a very real opportunity. We have skill needs in this country; there is no doubt about that. A lot of work has been done under the previous Government to try to pull together a skills strategy a skills plan that has the agreement of unions employers the Industry Training Federation the tertiary education sector generally and the Government as a whole because we know there is a skills deficit in this country. All of us in this Chamber could probably agree with that. 
If we want to really change things to provide people with real opportunity then we should be putting a great deal more resource into the polytech sector. We should make sure that the polytech sector has the kind of governance that will reflect the needs of for example local workplaces. That is why having union and employer representatives is so important. I will focus on that for the moment. Those are the people who have an idea of what the particular needs are in their workplace. They know what the pre-employment training needs of workers going into industry are and know what their ongoing upskilling needs are. It is the employers and it is the workers in our workplaces who know those things. It is not accountants necessarily and it is not the people whom the Minister might appoint who will be her yes-people. It is the people actually doing the job. I know that that is something members on the other side of the Chamber have a real problem with. In fact I am surprised: I think this is the first time I have ever said the word “union” and not had a rabid barrage across the Chamber. I do not know what is going on here! 
The reality is that workers and their unions have a vital interest in the services of our polytech sector. It is an opportunity provided for them to upskill as I have said. Why would we be undermining our polytechnics? Why would we be giving this Minister more control? What is she planning? I am really concerned that she will run our polytechs down ensuring that they cannot do the job properly and then say they are a failure and they have to be got rid of in some way or privatised.