Calder Cam: Education Amendment Bill (No 2) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCalder Cam: Education Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16696. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr CAM CALDER (National):It is an enormous pleasure to take a brief call on this bill. The Education Amendment Bill (No 2) is another strand in this Government’s cable of initiatives to lift New Zealanders’ educational achievement. I personally have benefited hugely from our country’s education system. I went to Westown School in New Plymouth. I went to that paragon of virtue—Hon Maryan Street: Bastion of virtue.Dr CAM CALDER: —of a secondary school New Plymouth Boys’ High School. The Hon Maryan Street went to the sister school across the river New Plymouth Girls’ High School. I then went to Otago University and the highest compliment I can pay to Cambridge University where I did my medical degree was that it was as good as Otago University but in a different way. Why do I mention Otago University? It was there that I met a young man whose musical virtuosity left me absolutely in awe. I am talking about Tim Hazledine who was a young economics student. Tim went on to become a professor of economics in fact a member of the Auckland University council and a little bit of a comic I have to say. It was something he had not displayed as a student. He showed no sign of comic prowess. He was a brilliant musician and is still a brilliant musician. But the reason I think he has perhaps indulged in stand-up comedy is that he referred to Steven Joyce as an “old-fashioned socialist central planner at heart”. I do not know what the Opposition feels about that but I have a hard job equating the Steven Joyce that I know with that sobriquet.Why do I mention Tim? I mention Tim because I have a huge amount of respect for him. He is an economist and yet he finds the prospect of slightly reducing the number of people in a governance entity—to whit the new university councils—and having people on there with proven governance experience outrageous and remarkable. He says there is no need for it—there is absolutely no need for it. He does not give a skerrick of evidence as to why there is no need for it. So what evidence can we find to suggest that there may be need for it? Well it does not come much simpler than looking at a past experience where this happened in 2009 when the policies came in and were instituted in 2010 by the Tertiary Education Commission in the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics—the ITPs. What happened when the Government introduced a policy like this? We had the opportunity to hear from no less a person than Tim Fowler the chief executive of the Tertiary Education Commission who looked at what happened. What Mr Fowler told us was that with the reduction in numbers of the councils of the ITPs and with a requirement for skilled governance ability in fact the performance of these organisations improved.Are we surprised? We are not surprised. That was the commission’s impression and its summary after a number of visits to them. So what did it do? It went back twice since 2010 and it is going to do so again to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the changes. It has not just looked at the performance and found it to be much improved but it has also interviewed the new chairs the chief executives and the chief financial officers of these organisations. The feedback from those individuals who are actually on the bodies has been uniformly favourable. So there is evidence hard evidence that this model works.Before I close I will just address a few points that have been raised. As the Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment himself said this is about making council membership requirements more flexible by removing specific representative requirements. What can be bad about more freedom to make involve and create the make-up of your local council in your university? I cannot see a problem with that. That was one of the concerns raised by the Opposition. I could go on for ages but time is pressing. I look forward to further debate on this bill in future.