Harawira Hone: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHarawira Hone: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18556. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HONE HARAWIRA (Mana—Te Tai Tokerau):Kia ora Mr Chairman. The Education and Science Committee’s report on the Tertiary Education Commission made an important point about how the Tertiary Education Commission is having to cope with ongoing cuts to tertiary sector funding rather than manage a stronger budget for the sector. The sector is crying out for support at a time when we have record numbers of young people leaving for Australia record numbers of unemployed young people and a refusal by the Government to properly fund tertiary education for those still living here in Aotearoa.That is why it is important that in considering this report on the Tertiary Education Commission we also consider the research that tells us how the lack of access to tertiary education defines the future for many of our young people. It is research that tells us that high fees stop many from thinking that they can aspire to a tertiary education from even bothering to enrol and from signing on for longer and more costly degree-length courses even though they know that that is the pathway to better employment opportunities. It is research that tells us that many crippled by student debt leave as soon as they graduate to escape a life of indebtedness or drop out early because of the heavy financial commitments of tertiary study. Sadly enough it is research that tells us what most of us already know but many of us refuse to acknowledge and that is that these problems are ever more complex and far more damaging for Māori Pasifika and for those who grow up in communities where poverty is the norm.That is why it is important that we say that if we want New Zealand to become a genuine player in world affairs then instead of trying to bribe our way on to the United Nations Security Council and instead of throwing even more money at Team New Zealand after already blowing $90 million on two failed campaigns to date and instead of constantly cutting funds to what was once a leading international tertiary sector perhaps we should be overhauling our whole education system and rebuilding it based on a full commitment to free education. That would show our young people that we want them to grow here to learn here to live here to work here and to invest here and that we are happy to invest in them because we know that an investment in them is an investment in us all.Of course we know that education is a public right and something that should be paid for from the public purse and that Aotearoa is a better nation with an educated population. We know that student debt is a huge deterrent to people taking up tertiary study and a massive burden in a low-wage economy like ours. We know that we need to be tapping into the nation’s intelligence to become innovators rather than mere consumers for the world’s multinationals and that without a culture of free education we shall become nothing more than the zombies of the world—the dull and dimwitted slaves to a rich powerful and ever greedier elite. That is why we need to increase access to our tertiary institutions to convince parents that their children can get into those places and to get our young people to believe that tertiary education really is available to everyone regardless of the colour of their wallets.That is why one of Mana’s very first policies is free education a position also promoted by our partners in the Internet Party and a position based on our absolute belief that our young people are worth every cent of our investment. That is why we say this. Drop the decision to shut down student associations and let them continue to be voices for change campaigners for student rights and advocates for freethinking. Dump the plan to remove students staff and community members from tertiary governance bodies and let them continue to be the voices of their communities. Write off student debt as the first step in our investment in our own future provide a proper living student allowance for all tertiary students scrap tertiary fees and challenge ourselves to create a world that we want for all of our young people not just those who can afford it. Yes we know that this approach will cost us but in the final analysis Mana still says yes and absolutely yes because we absolutely believe that our young people will be worth every single cent. Kia ora tātou.