Awatere Huata Donna: General Debates 
Awatere Huata Donna: General Debates 
[Volume:619;Page:14817] 
DONNA AWATERE HUATA (Independent) 
: 
 What a performance we have had from Steve Maharey today. What an amazing performance it was by a man who when asked whether he would inquire into the $65 million of community funding that was not spent by Christchurch Polytechnic and Tairawhiti Polytechnic said that he would. I ask him why that inquiry has not been undertaken already. Why did he wait? The Minister has known— 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: Got any State cheques? 
DONNA AWATERE HUATA 
: Why does that member not listen? The Minister has known that in the last 6 months there has been an $80 million blowout in that community funding budget. How could he not have noticed that in 6 months the fund has gone? Why did the Minister not answer the question himself? How could it be that $80 million has gone missing in 6 months blowing out the budget and the Minister has not even noticed? 
Three polytechs were responsible for the spending of most of that $80 million. I ask the Minister why the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Tertiary Education Commission have just sat on their hands for the last year. What have they been doing? As the Minister himself said today he has noticed that the budget has been blowing out for 2 years and not just for the last 6 months. So what the heck has he done about it? [ 
Interruption 
] The member who commented from the side of the Chamber obviously missed the point: $1 billion of the tertiary education budget has blown out. Where did it go? Only now has the Minister said that he may do an inquiry into what happened to a small portion of the $65 million of community funding not spent by Christchurch Polytechnic and Tairawhiti Polytechnic. 
Yesterday the Tertiary Education Commission’s report was released. With breathtaking arrogance the Tertiary Education Commission undertook an inquiry into what had happened at Christchurch Polytechnic. The commission is the organisation that pressured Te Wananga o Aotearoa to cancel its contract with Carich 2 weeks before 2000 students were to enrol causing a $10 million blowout to Carich. Carich fell over after three audits had cleared it because the commission pressured Te Wananga o Aotearoa to cancel its contract. So one of the biggest providers which had passed all its audits then rolled over. The commission was then charged by the Minister to carry out an audit into Christchurch Polytechnic. What did it find? The commission’s report was a whitewash. The commission stated that nothing much went wrong and that all was well despite the fact that $15 million went to Christchurch Polytechnic and that of the 18502 students who were enrolled—and for whom the polytechnic received $738 per pupil—the inquiry could not find out whether 13298 students had completed a course or whether they even had a computer had turned one on had put a disk into one or had done anything. Of the 18502 students who were enrolled the commission could find only 5000 students who had actually gone online. Yet the commission stated that that was all right that nothing was amiss and that everything had been done properly. All that the commission has done is to exonerate itself when in fact it is the commission and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to whom the blame for the fiasco should be sheeted home. 
Yet the Minister stood up and with breathtaking arrogance said that all was well and that even though the programme has been going for 9 years it had begun to blow out only in the last 2 years. What has the Minister been doing in the last 6 months so as not to notice that the community funding budget went from $20 million to $100 million? He did not even notice that $80 million went missing. Only now has he said that he may have an inquiry into what happened to the other $65 million not spent by Christchurch Polytechnic and Tairawhiti Polytechnic. He has not initiated an inquiry into what happened at Tairawhiti Polytechnic. There was $21 million spent on radio programmes and we do not even know—as Bill English pointed out today—whether the students ever turned on their radio or whether a smattering of te reo Maori was learnt by any of the people who enrolled on those courses. Yet still to this day the Minister has not instigated an inquiry into that; the inquiry at Tairawhiti Polytechnic was done by the polytech itself. It identified 2000 students who had not fulfilled any of the requirements of the course. What about the other sixty-something thousand people who enrolled on that programme for which the polytechnic received money? We still do not know whether there was any responsibility or accountability back to the taxpayer. What a performance that was! 
How lucky Tairawhiti Polytechnic Christchurch Polytechnic and the Eastern Institute of Technology are that they are predominantly Pakeha-run institutions because if they were like Te Wananga o Aotearoa which has put up with at least 12 major audits in the last 2 years they would not have got off quite so lightly. Any time that Maori do anything—maybe it is to take a hip hop trip overseas—they get in trouble but in the case of Pakeha the verdict is that all is well.