Delahunty Catherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16334. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) to theAssociate Minister of Education: Did the communities in Christchurch Auckland and Queenstown where four schools are to be built using a public-private partnership (PPP) model ask the Government for private sector management of their school buildings?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) on behalf of theAssociate Minister of Education: The member is getting ahead of herself. The Ministry of Education simply put out a request for expressions of interest and no contracts have been signed. If the expressions of interest do not result in the best value being delivered the schools will be built via the traditional Ministry of Education procurement process.Catherine Delahunty: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I did not ask about the expressions of interest process in the business sector. I asked whether the communities such as the Christchurch one—Aranui for example—had been consulted.Mr SPEAKER: I think the member is making a very fair point. Does the Minister require the question to be repeated because I do not think the question has been addressed. [Interruption] Can the member please repeat the question?Catherine Delahunty: Certainly Mr Speaker. Did the communities in Christchurch Auckland and Queenstown where four schools are to be built using a public-private partnership model ask the Government for private sector management of their school buildings?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No I am not aware that they have necessarily made that request although I would point out that nearly all management of school facilities has some form of private sector involvement so I am not sure that the matter would have necessarily come up.Catherine Delahunty: Were all stakeholder groups directly involved with education in those communities including the Aranui Community Leadership Group notified before yesterday’s announcement that tenders would be sought from businesses wanting to manage their school buildings?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I cannot answer that question directly but again I would say that a simple fact of the situation is that most schools have a form of private sector involvement in the management of their facilities. It would not come as a surprise. We generally do not have armies of Government builders—although we might if Labour and the Greens got in—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The question has been answered at the start.Catherine Delahunty: Will she rule out allowing international companies to run or manage parts of the New Zealand public school system through a public-private partnership?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No and I would not see why the Associate Minister would. The whole purpose of this is to try to reduce the cost and deliver savings over traditional procurement by the ministry. It is rumoured to be between 2 percent and 8 percent. We will know that through the process. That allows us extra money to spend on the actual education. If the member is saying that it is more important not to have certain types of companies involved than to get a good school facility built and to have more money for education well good on her.Catherine Delahunty: How many other schools have been identified for possible selection as potential public-private partnerships as suggested in the Cabinet paper released yesterday and does that mean she will consider existing schools and buildings for private management?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I am not aware of any specific cases in that respect although I am not sure that it would be a shock horror or probe to suggest that we are always looking at ways in which we can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the management of school facilities which is very expensive and we would prefer to have more money to spend on education than on the maintenance of buildings. If we find better ways of doing that I cannot see there is a problem with it.