Sepuloni Carmel: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Sepuloni Carmel: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17941] 
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 I will start by saying that I have spent some time working in the tertiary sector. I spent about 5½ years working at the University of Auckland and 2 years working at a private training establishment. I trained as a primary school teacher and I do have an appreciation of good education policy and can differentiate between the two. 
Labour supports the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). We agree that it makes some necessary changes to the tertiary education sector. Mr Peachey unlike as usual is not entirely wrong. However we have some reservations. Before I get into those reservations as I have worked in the tertiary education sector I want to thank the previous Labour Government for the funding and the resourcing it put into the tertiary sector and for the difference that it made to communities like the Maori and Pacific communities in terms of participation in and completion of higher-level tertiary qualifications. I thank the Labour Government for its understanding of the fact that having a highly skilled population was all part of a successful economy. I thank the Labour Government for being in touch with communities in terms of the value that Labour placed on tertiary education and ensuring that communities had access to quality tertiary education. 
From there I want to talk a little about what this bill does well—the good things in the bill. Labour supports the creation of a new Crown agency to cover export education. We believe that it is a vital part of our economy and that it needs to be properly managed and fostered. We perceive the private training industry as an important part of the tertiary sector and we want to protect their reputation and the subsequent reputation of the wider tertiary sector. In saying that cases of qualification selling and falsifying results do harm to both. It harms students and it harms the sector. Therefore the introduction of stricter rules around the registration of private training establishments is welcomed by Labour. 
Tonight in this House the public and the other members will hear a great deal about Labour’s view that the bill’s ability to regulate student levies will be undermined by the voluntary students association membership legislation which will subsequently undermine the student voice. This House has been told by my colleague David Shearer that huge levy rises last year were the result of the National Government’s squeeze on tertiary funding which is forcing institutions to lay off staff or pass the buck to students. We hope that the National Government and the general public have listened to the concerns that David Shearer raised and that my colleagues will also raise when they get to their feet. 
I want to discuss the creation of a new Crown agency to cover export education. As I said it is a vital part of our economy and we support the creation of a new Crown agency to cover export education. However although on the one hand the National Government is working towards increasing the overseas market for our tertiary education sector on the other hand the Minister for Tertiary Education is saying publicly that we must dampen down the demand for tertiary education by New Zealanders or by our domestic market. I find it strange that the National Government would be all about encouraging international students to participate in our tertiary sector when it cannot even do the same for students in New Zealand. I think the general public would be concerned that the National Government wants to open up tertiary education to the international market but not to the domestic market. We are wondering whether the National Government’s grand plan is that we run a tertiary education system that largely caters for overseas interests rather than our own. It kind of sits alongside that whole “sell off State assets” subject as well. Tertiary education in New Zealand should be about New Zealanders and should be about first and foremost making sure that people in New Zealand have access to high-level high-quality tertiary education but the Government wants to sell it off overseas. It is exactly the same as what is happening with our State assets. 
When we hear the Minister for Tertiary Education say that we must dampen down the demand for tertiary education in New Zealand we need to keep in mind that youth joblessness is remaining extremely high. The latest OECD figures show that one in every five young Kiwis is now out of work. When we look at the statistics for Maori and Pacific Islanders since that Government came into office an unacceptably high number of Maori and Pacific students are not only not in employment but also not engaged in any education. Yet we have a Minister for Tertiary Education who would say publicly that we need to dampen down the demand for tertiary education in New Zealand. 
We have seen the National Government do things like slash funding to Adult and Community Education and night schools by a massive 80 percent that led to a trebling in fees and hundreds of courses being shut down. We should keep in mind that for many people Adult and Community Education is often their first step back into the education system. 
Steven Joyce has done little to increase the number of places in universities and polytechs. By refusing to adequately lift the cap on numbers thousands of students are being turned away from study each year. Last year Steven Joyce cut $55 million from industry training funding which could have provided places for an extra 55000 trainees who would have been able to fill the looming skills shortage. Not only have the decisions made by the Minister for Tertiary Education made us question how valuable the National Government thinks tertiary education is for the everyday Kiwi in New Zealand but we have even seen changes in our social development policy that sit alongside that theory in respect of an under-appreciation of the importance of high-level tertiary education for New Zealanders. 
We have seen cuts in the training incentive allowance that take away the opportunity for sole parents to have access to tertiary education which would not only benefit them but also their children. We have seen welfare reforms whereby from memory sole parents would be encouraged to go back and study up to level 3 but not to level 4 and beyond because for some reason or another that would not be of any benefit to them. 
It is time that the Government looked at the solutions used in Australia—for instance investing heavily in skills training and tertiary education—to help young people into long-term work. Instead this Government does nothing but deliver more cuts to the very programmes we need. Yet as I said with the expansion of international education and to safeguard the quality and reputation of the New Zealand education system Labour supports the promotion of our quality education to the international student market but we do not like it being done at the expense of ensuring that our domestic student market has access to quality tertiary education and promoting access to quality tertiary education to that market. 
If this Government does not get its act together in respect of providing those opportunities we will see a very abysmal future for New Zealand down the track. If our young people do not have access to quality tertiary education then what hope do we have of a strong economy in this country in the future? Thank you.