Power Simon: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Power Simon: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:22158] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I have sat on the Education and Science Committee for the last 12-15 months and I have to say that a number of the issues that have been raised so skilfully and diligently by the Hon Bill English—particularly in the last 12-15 months—reflect the most interesting trend in the education sector. I can recall standing in this Chamber during the reading of the legislation to pass the Tertiary Education Commission into life. At that time the Hon Steve Maharey told the House that the Tertiary Education Commission would be a light-handed strategic steering instrument. I do not know what that means. I spent 6 years at university and I do not have a clue what that means but that is Steve Maharey’s language. The point is that there is nothing light-handed about the Tertiary Education Commission and more to the point there is nothing strategic about it either. 
I ask the Minister in the chair the Hon Paul Swain to tell us the last time a new bureaucracy was set up in this country that was described by the Minister who created it as light-handed. The Tertiary Education Commission has an annual budget of approximately $42 million it employs 324 people and within the first 12 months of its life it had a massive restructuring to make its governance and management structure more relevant. The result of that restructuring was that the number of people working at the Tertiary Education Commission reduced by four. 
The governance structure which had an executive chairman—Dr Andy West—in place an executive deputy chairperson a commission a general manager and a deputy general manager was a structure that we told the Minister would not work. Andy West left within 2 years of the commission being formed. The structure was completely rejigged and good old Russell Marshall had to return from London to fix the mess that Steve Maharey had created by creating this particular commission which has gone nowhere. 
In the meantime singalong courses continued. We discovered in this Chamber on Tuesday that they are still on the website of various institutions. People are still enrolling and still doing those courses and the total cost at the end of this year will be over $9 million to the taxpayers of New Zealand. In the meantime pet homeopathy twilight golf and other courses have continued yet this Government has the nerve to tell the people of New Zealand that it is not wasting their tax dollars; that matters of surpluses in the vicinity of $7.4 billion are being well spent. 
Well I can tell the Minister that they are not. The bureaucracy in the education sector in this country has been exposed. Steve Maharey was shifted out of that particular portfolio and “Mr Fix-it” was brought in. We saw last week how that went. If the Government is relying on the Hon Trevor Mallard to fix this mess it will be waiting a long long time. What Trevor Mallard discovered was that the Te Wananga o Aotearoa was being fed hundreds of millions of dollars and was not performing. So when it recorded its troubles to the Minister what did the ministry do? It wrote a cheque for $20 million and told the wananga: “Here have some more and this will make it OK.” Trevor Mallard is delicately trying to say: “Well actually I wasn’t the Minister at the time.” Well actually as the Minister he controls the vote. As the Minister of Education he controls the vote for tertiary education. The responsibility for the mess in education lies squarely on the Minister’s shoulders. 
In the meantime while all this was going on at least four inquiries were being held into the National Certificate of Educational Achievement debacle. Students were getting scripts and marks for exams they did not sit and no marks for exams they did sit. No scholarships were awarded in some subjects; too many were awarded in others. These estimates had better fix the problem.