Lees-Galloway Iain: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:669;Page:15987] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 The title of this bill is Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill. It is probably one of the more misleading titles that I have seen on a bill and there are a number of alternatives that we could put up. 
It just occurred to me that the first time I met the Minister in the chair— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: She’s not a Minister any more. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: Sorry the former Minister the current member in the chair. The first time we met was at Massey University’s clubs day an event organised by the students association. I was a candidate for the Labour Party and Heather Roy was an MP. That event was organised by a students association that was completely aware of what its funding was going to be for that year so it could organise and plan fantastic events like that clubs day which was extremely well attended. 
Hon Heather Roy 
: The hula hoop! 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: We hula hooped together; that is absolutely correct. 
Speaking about alternative titles for this bill I think the most obvious one is the “Education (Ignore Tertiary Students) Amendment Bill” not least because of the submissions that came to the Education and Science Committee—close to 5000 submissions came to the select committee and 98 percent of them were opposed to this bill—and also because the genesis of the bill is absolutely undetectable. It is impossible to know where the bill came from. Where were all the petitions? Where were the protests? Where were the letters to all members of Parliament begging us to change the legislation because students were so put down by the current legislation by the status quo? They were not there. The bill is not responding to something that students have asked for and it is not responding to something that students need. Therefore the title of the bill should be the “Education (Ignore Tertiary Students) Amendment Bill” because there is no need for the bill—no need. 
In fact the evidence tells us that students are very very satisfied with the status quo. Auckland University students had a referendum and they changed to voluntary membership of the students association. That seems to be going OK for them; they are quite happy. Waikato University students had a referendum and they changed to voluntary membership. That did not work for them very well. They had a referendum again they went back to compulsory membership and it seems to be working for them quite well. Massey University students had a referendum and the students there overwhelmingly voted in favour of a universal students association. Interestingly the extramural students overwhelmingly voted in favour. One might think superficially that they would get the least out of being members of a students association but they saw the value to them of their students association being universal. There is no call for this bill. This bill should be called the “Education (Ignore Tertiary Students) Amendment Bill”. 
Another very appropriate name for this bill would be the “Education (Increased Student Fees) Amendment Bill”. It is as simple as that really. It is obvious. It was explained to the select committee and we have heard it from thousands of students and from students associations across the country. The only students association we have not heard it from is the made-up one that seems to exist only in Heather Roy’s email in-box; that email originated from her own email system I should imagine. The real students associations and the real students are telling us that this bill will increase fees. The tertiary institutes themselves are telling us that this bill will increase fees. They will have to step in they will have to take over the student services and they simply will not be able to do that at the rate that the students associations are currently able to do. The students associations are able to rely on voluntary labour; they are able to rely on a whole range of things that enable them to keep their costs down. The universities and the polytechnics will not be able to do the same thing. Therefore the actual practical outcome of this bill will be an increase in student fees. 
But the bill goes one step further than that because the other thing it does is silence the student voice particularly the student voice on university and polytechnic councils. That student voice is listened to very carefully by those councils and it is a force to keep student fees down because when the councils are setting those fees they have to listen to those students. They have to listen to students who come from a representative body who are trained in being good advocates for their members and who are able to advocate to those councils that they keep the fees within a reasonable limit. This bill will gut those student services and will completely silence that student voice. That is another reason we will see student fees going up and up.