Awatere Huata Donna: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Awatere Huata Donna: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:620;Page:15752] 
12.  
DONNA AWATERE HUATA (Independent) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) 
: Is he confident that Maori participation in tertiary education will continue to rise as in the past 5 years; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)) 
: 
 I doubt whether it will be possible for participation to grow at such a phenomenal rate in the future. In the past 5 years the number of Maori involved in formal tertiary education rose by more than 175 percent to reach 20 percent of the adult Maori population—higher than for the population as a whole for which the figure is 13.4 percent. For participation to carry on rising like that would clearly not be a possibility. I note however that some other encouraging trends are coming through from Maori study—that is more people are doing degree and post-graduate study—and we are encouraged by the fact that the number of Maori enrolled at the degree level rose by 30 percent in the past 5 years compared with 16 percent for the population as a whole. 
Donna Awatere Huata 
: Can the Minister confirm that in the past 5 years the number of Maori participating in tertiary education doubled in the courses delivered by whare wananga; if so how long will he continue to cap their growth when they have achieved an outcome in 5 years that it took New Zealand schools 120 years to achieve especially since wananga can demonstrate that a much higher level of Maori students who begin on community or level 1 and 2 courses has gone to diploma and degree courses than any other kind of tertiary institution can? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can confirm that a good deal of that growth has come from the extraordinary efforts of the wananga but in negotiating a limit to the enrolments with them the point was made that that kind of extraordinary growth needs to be measured with quality. That is what they agreed with and that is what they are doing. 
Dave Hereora 
: Why do Maori students have to achieve the same standards of achievement as their fellow students in order to gain a qualification? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Of course Maori students have to achieve the same standards in order to pass the same courses. It is therefore unfortunate that earlier this year in I think an effort to gain political points the point was made by the Leader of the Opposition Dr Don Brash that Maori did not have to achieve the same standards. That was utterly wrong and I am yet to hear him apologise to those students. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why do tertiary institutions such as the wananga seem to be able to engage many Maori in learning when our secondary schools fail so miserably to do so? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: That is an excellent question. It is one that I think is answered by the way that wananga have gone about reaching into communities that other institutions were not prepared to reach into. For example I remember visiting the Huntly area prior to the wananga gearing up and finding about 75 students were involved in tertiary education. When I returned once they were in full swing I found that about 700 students had been engaged and that was simply because of the way that the wananga had reach into communities that had otherwise not been attended to. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Can the Minister confirm that he gave $500000 for Dr Pita Sharples to develop a curriculum for a Maori university in partnership with the Waipareira Trust but that the curriculum has not been developed; if so what steps is the Government taking to get the money back? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can confirm that a small grant was given to a group of people in the west Auckland area to have a look at a university. We have been unhappy with the progress of that and a long long time ago that money was stopped. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Now that the land purchased by the Waipareira Trust for that Maori university is being used for housing development and may be sold by mortgagee sale by the Waitakere City Council will he move to recover the $500000 given to Dr Pita Sharples the co-leader of the Maori Party for the university; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The amount of money mentioned by the member from my memory was never given to Dr Sharples. A smaller amount of money than that was made available for work that has been accounted for but as I said we have stopped providing that funding. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Can the Minister confirm that the money made available for curriculum development for the proposed tertiary institution is held in trust and requires the signature of a group including a judge before it can be released? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: That was an excellent question and I can confirm that. 
Hon Bill English 
: Given that the Minister was able to explain to us why he believes the wananga have succeeded in engaging many Maori in learning can he now explain to us why he believes our secondary schools still consistently fail to engage Maori students in learning? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I am afraid that as that falls outside my delegation I will have to rely on my professional background and I say so. I think if I can do a short treatise on that for the benefit of the member the argument broadly speaking is that the learning styles of Maori have not been well suited to mainstream education. The changes that are being made now in terms of Maori teachers in the classroom the use of Maori language the wananga coming on stream and different approaches to learning styles are the way to go in the future. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I wonder whether the Minister could clarify what the situation is as from my understanding of his answers yes Dr Pita Sharples has received some money and yes the money has been stopped. But in fact as a result of an excellent question we now know that there is some money in a trust so therefore how about telling the House exactly how much money is in the trust and why the Government stopped the funding; and can he remove any suggestion that in fact this Government is indirectly funding the Maori Party? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can tell the member to begin at the back of his question that there is no way that this Government is indirectly funding the Maori Party. I am afraid I have to say to the member that there have been times during this year when I have not been in the House for reasons that he knows about. This is one of them. I will have to get the facts and get back to him. 
Deborah Coddington 
: I seek leave to table three documents. The first is the submission from Dr Pita Sharples supported by John Tamihere Dover Samuels and David Cunliffe for a Maori university— 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Deborah Coddington 
: The second document is a 50-page business plan for which Dr Pita Sharples was paid $100000 for a Maori university— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Deborah Coddington 
: The third document is the advice from the ministry to the Minister confirming that he should supply $500000 for curriculum development and $100000 for the business plan. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.