Hutchison Paul: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:13191] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairperson for the opportunity to speak on the very important title and purpose clauses. As National has said many times this bill was supposed to be about reforming the tertiary education system in New Zealand. It was supposed to be about introducing quality relevance and value for money. But the very opposite is happening as we see the burgeoning bureaucracy and complexity that have thrived before our eyes through the evolution of this bill. 
I think the title should be something like “The Labour Government (Let’s Reform the Tertiary System Again) Bill” because the last reforms were so bad. We have been through the evolution of that. We know that 2-yearly over the last 7 years there has been a reform in the system whereby a billion dollars which should have gone into tertiary education was misspent and wasted. Perhaps the title should be “The Labour Government (Let’s Add More Bureaucracy to the Tertiary System) Bill” because the Government likes complexity. 
But the really important and poignant title would be “The Labour Government (Let’s Trample Over Academic Freedom and Autonomy) Bill”. It was indeed poignant earlier when we heard Maryan Street say the word “commissariat”. It just slipped off her tongue. That reminds us of the central control that is taking place in institutions right around New Zealand. As just one example I note that the Southern Institute of Technology has had 2500 equivalent full-time students ripped from it because it was performing so well. This is not quality and value for money; this is punishing quality and instead controlling it—just like a commissariat does. 
It is important to go back to the Education Act 1989. Part 14 of that Act talks about the establishment and disestablishment of tertiary education. Section 160 “Object” states: “The object of the provisions of this Act relating to institutions is to give them as much independence and freedom to make academic operational and management decisions as is consistent with the nature of the services they provide the efficient use of national resources the national interest and the demands of accountability.” So it was quite extraordinary when the Vice-Chancellors Committee came to the table at the Education and Science Committee and told the committee that this was one of the most damaging situations they have ever seen. They said: “It should be noted that none of the world’s leading universities are subject to the degree of control proposed in this Bill” and that “in no other western democracy has a state sought this degree of control over a university’s teaching and research or claimed either ownership of or an ownership interest in universities.” They also said: “Nowhere else in the world is bureaucratic control of universities seen as the route to educational excellence.” 
That has to be a damning indictment on this Labour Government. But the victory is that the select committee process did indeed see the Labour Government—in fact Dr Cullen—dragged screaming and agreeing to a qualification being put into the purpose clause to say that academic freedom and autonomy would be retained. Thank goodness for the select committee process and thank goodness for the National Party! 
As I said before this was a demonstration of just how arrogant and tired this Labour Government has become over the last 9 years and how lacking of insight it has become. It is quite ironic that in the context of the Electoral Finance Amendment Bill the Government is squashing democracy and at the same time through the Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill it is trying to quash academic freedom.