Mackey Moana: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Mackey Moana: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13688] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am very happy to take a call on the third reading of the Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill. I say to the National Party that it cannot have it both ways. I say to the member Colin King that the certificate he held up can stay firmly where it currently is which is with the National Party. National uncapped the numbers and left us with the mess that we are now having to clean up. 
I say to National members that year after year Labour members have been criticised by them in question time in this House for the kinds of courses being provided by an unregulated tertiary sector with a “bums on seats” model that did not work and that promoted low-quality low-cost courses. They said that the people who went on those courses assumed they were going on quality courses but they were not. Now we have this complete about-face from National members who are apparently saying they did not mean any of that that they quite like the old system and that they oppose this one because it means more State control. 
I ask National members whether they will repeal this legislation if they become the Government. There is silence. I ask whether they have any policy in this area. No. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: You’re speaking. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: They say that it is my turn to speak now. Well I say to them that they have made a number of speeches tonight and Colin King for example did not mention it at all. Again I say to National members that it is very very easy to criticise. It is far easier to do that than to come up with a plan for the tertiary education sector that ensures that the institutions have more secure funding that they can plan for the longer term and that they can react far more quickly to the needs of their community and the needs of the regional local and national economies. This bill does that. 
I was a member of the Education and Science Committee that heard the submissions. I ask National members where all the outraged opposition to this bill was when it came to the submissions. Where was it? It was not there. A number of very good points were raised during the submission process particularly by the universities and we took them on board and we made amendments to the bill. Certainly most of the submissions were on the issue of academic freedom and the select committee took them very seriously. But this bill had a surprisingly small number of submissions on it given the incredible scope of what it is doing and how significant it is and I believe that that was because the sector it wants more long-term security. It was ironic that for all that the universities were going on about not wanting the Minister to be involved a number of the universities that came along to the committee said that they wanted to keep the charters which are signed off by the Minister. They did not want to get rid of them—and of course they can keep them if they want. But they wanted to put in the bill that all the tertiary institutions should have to have these charters. 
Just before I sit down I want to raise one other point which is the issue that many members have talked about tonight—that is the decision made by Auckland University to restrict entry to its courses. Going by some of the speeches I have heard tonight it would seem that there are no restricted courses in New Zealand at all. I would love it if anyone who wanted to go to university to become a doctor and who could pass all the relevant standards in order to become a doctor was able to do so but as we know our universities that provide medical schools work within a budget and what this Government will be saying is that here is the budget. Let us be clear: since 2006 we have not been restricting numbers. There has been a 19 percent increase since 2006—$1.2 billion—in the money going into this sector. 
John Hayes 
: Foreign students. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Mr Hayes who is sitting way up the back of the Chamber—he is not sitting down here with all his colleagues—says it is all going on students. Well students are actually a very important part of the tertiary education sector. That reminds me of another point I wanted to make which is that not only has the Labour-led Government invested in the tertiary sector from industry training—which Mr Colin King was talking about—through to universities but also it has made university more affordable for students made paying off student loans more affordable and at the same time it has increased access to student allowances. This Government cannot be accused of restricting access to universities. 
I say to the provincial tertiary institutions and to our private training establishments around the country that they should step up to the challenge that Auckland University has put out there. It has said that it may not want to provide certain courses any more. Well we have some very good tertiary institutions around the country that could step up and provide those courses to students and those students would not have to move away from home which they always have had to do in the past. I think one of the worst things about our tertiary sector was that 10 years ago university was considered to be the only area worth going to. If one wanted any sort of future one went to university even if university was not necessarily the best provider of what one wanted to study. 
This bill also says that we value our polytechnics we value our institutes of technology and we value our private training establishments. We are saying that where there is a need that should be delivered within the tertiary sector then it should be delivered. Again I say to the provincial polytechnics and the private training establishments that they should step up. Auckland University has said that it may be at near capacity and it may not want to have unrestricted access to all its courses any more. Well that is an opportunity for other tertiary institutions to step up and say that they are willing to offer those courses and maybe students and their families would be saved a little money because the students would not have to move to Auckland Wellington Christchurch or Dunedin in order to study those courses. 
I believe that this bill is a very good bill. I am disappointed that the National Party is not supporting it given how much those members have gone on about the unregulated access to money in the tertiary sector over the last 5 or 6 years.