Turner Judy: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Turner Judy: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to take a brief call in support of the second reading of the Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill. United Future does not enjoy representation on the Education and Science Committee. However we have tried to keep up with what has been happening and we have been appreciative of some materials supplied by the select committee staff regarding summaries of some of the submissions that have been made on the bill. Certainly the thing that occurred to me as I was perusing those this afternoon was the fact that generally most submitters seemed to support the reforms that this bill introduces although they did take the opportunity to signal some issues of concern. They were important issues and I think that the select committee needs to be commended for the way it has been very responsive to those concerns and for the amendments that it has sent back to the House. 
The concern that I picked up on in particular was the fear that this legislation would result in some loss of academic freedom for universities and that the amount of control that the Tertiary Education Commission would impose on them would be too restrictive. I note that one of the recommendations of the committee is an amendment to clause 3 to make it explicit that the new functions conferred on the responsible Minister and the Tertiary Education Commission are to be exercised in accordance with the principal Act which makes provision for the preservation of academic freedom and institutional autonomy. I think it is a very wise move on the committee’s part to clarify that matter in particular. 
I think it is good that we have a single tertiary education strategy document now that sets out the Government’s long-term strategy and also shorter-term priorities. The thing that most interested me when I met with some key stakeholders during the passage of this bill through the select committee process was that they talked about the fact that they were thrilled that they could now develop much longer-term plans thereby developing courses and a future for their institution. 
 I am glad to see that the Government has insisted that the plans include clear evidence that institutions have consulted with key stakeholders. I note that the member from the Maori Party has just mentioned its concerns about the lack of specific reference to who those key stakeholders are. I think we will need to monitor that issue over time. I heard the Hon Brian Donnelly talk about the fact that there were reasons why the committee did not want to get too specific about that and I think we will need to see how that plays itself out over time. We could come to a place where we recognise that people who should be considered to be key stakeholders are not being consulted enough and that courses are not being aligned enough with the needs of those sectors. That is something United Future would see as an issue for ongoing monitoring beyond the implementation of this legislation. 
We are very happy to see there is also a greater requirement for organisations to collaborate more closely with the Tertiary Education Commission itself in the development of their plans. I have advocated to the Minister on a number of occasions on behalf of private tertiary providers when there was a bit of a logjam with the commission. They were waiting to get their documents approved for the new round of funding and there were some timing issues that were sensitive for them in terms of their business plans and that was unhelpful to them. I think the fact that the commission will now be more proactively involved at the beginning as those organisations develop their plans means that that logjam should be stopped and at the end of the day that consideration of and approval for courses and funding should be more streamlined. 
United Future is very pleased to see this bill come before the House and is happy to support the second reading.