Pettis Jill: Education (Establishment of Universities) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Pettis Jill: Education (Establishment of Universities) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:620;Page:16206] 
JILL PETTIS (Labour—Whanganui) 
: 
 It has been interesting listening to the contributions this afternoon and I remind Opposition members that Unitec first applied for redesignation in 1996. I am sure that some of those members over there will remember that in 1996 National was in Government. So if it felt so passionate and strongly about the issue at that time it could have been expedited and I think perhaps it is a little bit of a case of crying when one is safe. 
The Vice-Chancellors Committee obviously commented on this and we accept that it has a view on this issue. It does represent the country’s universities and its view is that the distinctive characteristics of universities needed to be maintained to protect established standards and New Zealand’s reputation as a provider of university education of international standing. The committee went on to state that this country needs a greater level of investment in existing universities and not more universities. I acknowledged at the beginning that that was the view of the Vice-Chancellors Committee. However I do have to concur that ongoing investment in existing universities is a good thing. As a clarification I also point out that under the process proposed in the bill the Minister could decide whether another university would or would not be in the interests of the nation and the tertiary education system as a whole. That is one of the key parts of the legislation in that we do have to look at the national interest rather than just sectional interests. 
I was particularly “amused” with the comments of Mr Franks from the ACT party when he referred to competition. I remind those Opposition parties that since we have been in Government we have spent a great deal of time cleaning up the mess left by National when market forces rather than educational service delivery and quality of education were the prevailing focus in education and that mess will take a long time to repair. We are grateful for the sterling work that is being carried out by many educators at many levels in New Zealand. 
Those competitive market forces did not deliver in every instance the quality of education that we need in this growing nation of ours. This Government is focused on quality rather than market forces and it is quite scary to hear the mantra being repeated by ACT and National about what they would like to reintroduce into education if heaven forbid they ever got the chance. 
I would encourage them to visit our educational institutions right from early childhood rather than being closeted in some self-constructed ivory tower where they have clearly lost touch with what is really happening out there. We in this Labour Government visit schools as often as we possibly can. In fact I suggest that most of us would be in a school at least once a week. We see and hear the comments that are made by parents about what market forces did to their school and the vast majority of them do not want to return to that at all. This bill is focused on quality rather than quantity and that is what is incredibly important for the future of this country.