Luxton JoJO LUXTON (Labour): I'm really really excited to stand here and take a call in support of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill because what this piece of legislation will do is it will deliver a unified and cohesive regional education system. But what is even more exciting about this piece of legislation is that it is going to improve things so much more for the students. I want to tell you a bit of a story about that but I'll come to that a bit later on. First of all I just want to bring up a couple of things that the previous speaker Simeon Brown mentioned. He said that National had a clear plan. Marja Lubeck: Yeah what is it?JO LUXTON: Exactly—what is it? We didn't hear what their plan would be. They're only just keen to stand there and take the mickey out of what I think is a great piece of legislation. He also said that we're going to be shutting down all the polytechnics so I'm a little confused by that. Is the member saying that all polytechs are going to be shut and that the students will have to go to one place or—he didn't quite explain himself. But anyway I don't want to waste any of my time talking about that previous member.What I want to talk about is that what we've got is a Minister—and I've said this about other Ministers in this Government—that's really prepared to make the hard decisions and hard decisions have to be made in order to promote progress which is what this piece of legislation is going to do. The amount of times I've had conversations with employers who've come out and said You know we get people that come out of polytechs universities"—wherever they mean—"but they actually don't have the skills that we require for their job. They're not coming out with the skills that we need." And then we're also hearing that from students and I just want to read a bit of a story a bit of an email that was sent to me if Madam Speaker will indulge me and allow me to read this. I'm not going to mention names and I'm not going to mention places where this student studied but "I did two diplomas in arts and media specialising in digital design and photography at [X campus] that would lead to a final year of a degree in motion design at another campus in another town only to discover that my qualifications were outdated and that I needed to be taught a more specialised but deeper selection of skills. So I managed to complete the degree—oh but I had no choice I had to repeat level 6 at [X place] before doing the final year of its degree." So just think about that young person who was led to believe they would have the right skills and knowledge needed to continue their study at a different place only to find out that what they had been studying was outdated and no good. They therefore had to repeat. "I managed to complete the degree after two years at [X place] and was assured that I had the right skill set and knowledge to get employment in the film and television industries especially in the careers that I wanted to do only to be rejected every time I applied for jobs in that sector. So I wanted to continue upskilling with my technical skills and got accepted into doing graduate study and film after being led in that direction only to discover that I still didn't have the right skills and knowledge that is expected both in the course of study and the film and the television industries."So he goes on to tell me a bit more about what happened but actually this young man has spent five years studying and actually gained nothing yet because every time he's studied and then moved perhaps to a different place of study there has been no continuity for him from where he started to where he finished. So the system is absolutely broken and what this piece of legislation will mean is that nobody else will have to go through this type of situation. This young man he's not even going to be eligible for student allowance because his entitlement will have run out because he's been studying for too long. How is that possibly fair? How is it possibly enabling him to make a contribution to society in the career—his chosen career; his passion—when he can't even finish his study because every time he goes to upskill or change nothing is going to work because there is no continuity in that?And we just heard them talk before about regional skills and how they're going to be cut in the regions but actually there's going to be regional skill leadership groups. They're going to work across the regions identify local skills and yes they're going to ensure that education will meet those regional needs."