Faafoi Kris: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20312] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 I will spend most of my time talking about an amendment to clause 8 that I have tabled but first it would be remiss of me not to touch on a few topics that Mr Henare spoke on just before I rose to my feet. Mr Henare says this is about choice. Well the students at both private tertiary establishments and mainstream establishments have a choice right now. If 10 percent of them are so fed up with the advocacy support and advice they are receiving from their students association they can mobilise and move to disestablish their students association by way of a referendum. But are they lining up? Are they lining up just like Mr Henare said? No they are not. Not even the ACT Party could get 10 percent of the student membership from any of the private tertiary establishments polytechnics or universities around New Zealand to get off their butts and mobilise against their students association. 
Mr Henare said if it was that good people would be lining up. If it was that bad people would be lining up too I tell Mr Henare. People would be lining up against their student membership. Do we see that at private tertiary establishments? Do we see that at our polytechs and at our universities? No we do not because on the whole these student bodies are doing a good job of supporting those students who need help from their students association which offer very important advocacy support services for student membership. 
We are debating clause 8 of the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill. Clause 8 amends section 236A of the primary legislation by omitting “ and including any students association membership fees”. The amendment I have put on the Table seeks to amend clause 8 by adding to that: “and including students association membership fees that may have been paid by a student in whole or by way of instalments”. 
John Hayes 
: Boring! 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Oh that member might find it boring but he will wake up. Maybe it is because the member just woke up that he finds it boring. Some students associations do have the ability for members to pay by instalments. I guess that is a real bonus for some of the students who are at those institutions because of the way that the cost of living is going up at the moment. Students at the moment are feeling the pinch just like hundreds of thousands of other Kiwis. They would welcome the fact that they could pay their students association fees by instalment. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Why aren’t they marching in the streets then? 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Why are they not marching in the streets? That is a very good question that the member puts out there. They are not in opposition to students associations so why are they not marching in the streets? Why is this bill even here? Why is this even here; it is not even a problem for the majority of tertiary students so why is this bill before the Committee? It is pure ideology to the member in the chair Heather Roy. It is pure ideology. It is the tail wagging the dog; the ACT Party has power over National. I am sure a lot of the members on that side of the Chamber who have had some association with or some experience within students associations will be opposed to this bill but in this case ACT is the tail wagging the dog. 
I will come back to my amendment which will be voted on when we get to the end of clause 8. Those students who are struggling to make ends meet will now not have information made available to them by the private tertiary establishment about whether they can join a students association because clause 8 takes away the onus of the private training establishment to inform its students that they can join or be a member of the students association. I believe that is a tragedy for those students who really want choice and who want to have the assistance of a students association whether it be cultural whether it be educational or whether it be through services such as I mentioned before when an establishment has an early childhood education centre on its premises. 
Those students who are struggling to make ends meet at these private training establishments who might be looking at paying their fees on an instalment basis and who now will not be getting this information from the private training establishment really are relying on the advocacy and the services that students associations supply. I think in its whole this legislation will be detrimental to those students at the 300-plus private tertiary establishments that will be affected by both clause 6 and clause 8.