Robertson Grant: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Robertson Grant: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:16853] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I do not know whether I can say it is a pleasure to take a call on this particular bill and this particular clause but I certainly am happy to do so. We are debating clause 2 which is the commencement clause. It was amended by the Education and Science Committee so I think it is good to debate at some length whether the amendment would be a good idea. 
The select committee’s amendment was that the Act come into force on 1 January 2012. The reason the select committee made that amendment was that most of the members of the committee were concerned that students associations and institutions would need time to prepare for a change such as this one. As we are now are in 2011 and the select committee decided in 2010 that the commencement date should be 1 January 2012 I think there are good grounds for supporting the amendment on the Table in my name. My amendment omits the words “1 January 2010” and substitutes the words “1 January 2013”. 
Everybody is well aware that on this side of the Chamber we oppose this bill in principle because we believe that it will in effect destroy students associations. That is the evidence we have from Australia and I have not seen anything brought before the House that tells us that it would be any different in New Zealand. We believe that students associations play a critical role in the health and well-being of students and in their academic progress and we believe that this bill should not proceed. But as we are in the position of looking at a commencement clause we need to give the affected associations time to adjust to the change. 
As I said in 2010 it was thought that the commencement date could be 1 January 2012. We are now in 2011 and I believe we need to look at moving the commencement date further out to 1 January 2013. I know from talking to students associations at their conferences over the summer break that they are already—certainly from the university end—beginning to talk to institutions about what they would do if this bill were to pass. Those discussions will take time. Those discussions will be difficult. One of the criticisms this side of the Chamber has of this bill is that it puts in the hands of the institutions what services students will get. 
When we were campaigning against this change in the 1990s we used to have posters that asked whether people wanted the vice-chancellor to choose the music for orientation. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Probably not. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: No and in the case of some vice-chancellors I know I would not want them to do that although Steve Maharey would be the exception. He is a man with impeccable music taste. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: What? 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: It is—it is very good. The point is that students associations will no longer have control of the services that are provided. Students lose control and the institutions will decide whether there are services via the agreements they might have with associations or whatever they provide themselves. I do not believe that a commencement date of 1 January 2012 is sufficient for the necessary discussions and negotiations over this matter to take place. I think it needs to be extended out to 1 January 2013. 
Should the Committee not wish to take up my suggestion of 1 January 2013 as the commencement date there are a number of other dates through the period of December and perhaps even further back than that. If the member in charge of this bill the Hon Heather Roy is serious when she says she does not want to destroy students associations then she should at least look at how this legislation could be phased in to enable those students associations to have some kind of ability to get ready to prepare themselves and to perhaps make agreements with institutions. 
On that point I say that the big concern we have on this side of the Chamber is not so much about university students associations. Although they will have the problem of no longer being able to have students control student affairs most of them are large enough that I am sure the institutions will contract for services with them. But that will not happen in polytechs. That will not happen in most of the polytechs around New Zealand. Those polytech students associations will not survive and I do not believe they will be contracted for services. So they need even more time to prepare themselves for this bill and they need a commencement date that is far further on than 1 January 2012. 
Polytech students are transitory by nature; they usually come in for only 1 or 2-year courses and sometimes for courses that are a lot shorter. The infrastructure of the students associations is not built up in the way that it is inside university students associations. They of all people need a longer period of time for the institutions and the students associations—where they are still going on polytech campuses—to come up with a plan that means student services are still provided. At this stage we cannot guarantee that.