Awatere Huata Donna: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Awatere Huata Donna: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:615;Page:11209] 
3.  
DONNA AWATERE HUATA (Independent) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) 
: What support is available for private training establishments that get into financial strife? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)) 
: 
 With a touch of irony I answer that private training establishments are private commercial organisations from which the Government purchases training. While education agencies monitor the performance of private training organisations the Government’s concern in relation to troubled private training organisations is the welfare of their students. Education agencies seek support for affected students from other tertiary education providers allowing the students to continue their studies with as little interruption as possible. 
Donna Awatere Huata 
: Is the Minister aware that it was in fact his ministry’s pressure on Te Wananga o Aotearoa to cancel a $10 million contract with Carich computers and its withholding of a $800000 repayment that caused Carich’s financial crisis; if so why could he not have written a letter agreeing to continue funding it knowing that that would have secured that organisation’s refinancing and future and knowing that Carich had a 2003 clean-sweep audit on all nine sites? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No I was not aware of that because it is not true. I could not write a letter because the organisation could not provide a standard data return that guaranteed that I knew how many students it had. 
Donna Awatere Huata 
: Supplementary— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No there is no further supplementary question to the member. I call Dr Ashraf Choudhary. 
Donna Awatere Huata 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to ask a further supplementary question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought. Is there any objection? There is not. I will hear the member’s supplementary question after I have heard Dr Ashraf Choudhary because questions do alternate. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Why does the Government not provide financial support for private training establishments in financial strife? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Private training establishments are not Crown entities; they are private commercial organisations funded to complement the provision of public-funded tertiary education institutions. However the Government must manage Crown risk by monitoring the actions undertaken by those agencies. The Government has policy and actions in place to place support around students from private training establishments when they collapse—for example the student fee indemnification policy and the student placement plan. 
Donna Awatere Huata 
: How does the Minister justify a $5 million loan to Northland Polytechnic one of the poorest-performing tertiary providers when a 1c letter to Carich could have avoided the collapse of a provider that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has said was in the top 10 percent; how can he justify that when a 1c letter could have avoided 400 jobs being lost and several thousand students being caused unnecessary upheaval in their lives? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That question was long. The Minister may comment briefly. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: If the member has a source of 1c letters I would really like to get access to that. In the case of Carich I can easily say that it was not able to provide something as basic—after three shots at it—as a standard data return telling us how many students it had.