Peachey Allan: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Peachey Allan: Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:13171] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Part 1 of the Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill. Right at the very outset I want to make the point that the Education and Science Committee really faced a massive challenge in working its way through this proposed legislation. I think the select committee was very very fortunate on two counts one being the quality of the advice and the guidance—and I have to say the forbearance and the patience—that the officials brought to the task. It could not have been easy for them either. But finally we got through it. 
The second acknowledgment I want to give in addressing Part 1 is to the leadership provided by National’s own tertiary education spokesperson Dr Paul Hutchison. He brought a detached thoughtful and reflective approach to the debate—not helped I have to say by some of the members opposite—and this brought a bit more common sense and structure to what were when the bill was first presented to the committee some pretty loose untidy assertions on the part of the Minister. 
Life is interesting. It has a way of going round in circles and I think that Part 1 clearly demonstrates that. The bill is trying to clean up a mess that was initially created by the Minister responsible for the Tertiary Education Commission at the time a Mr Maharey. He left tertiary education more unsettled and more confused than he found it and that is what tends to happen with the left in New Zealand politics. So they put in Dr Cullen the man who had already lost control of financial policy and the man who—it is increasingly obvious—does not know what to do about for example taxation and they told him to get in there and fix tertiary education. This bill is the result. 
If we look through Part 1 we realise just how bereft of sound original thinking this Government is. What is in the minds of the members opposite that makes them think that the best way to get quality is to create massive bureaucracies? What was wrong with the New Zealand university system when a couple of people sat around a table in the old Department of Education? Now we are talking about—is it 380 people? 
Colin King 
: 340. 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: I must get it right. I would not want to be accused of exaggeration. That is a hugely increased number of people. Why is this bill making it so expensive to administer the tertiary education system? 
One of the other problems we get is that left-wing Governments bring with them a sort of massive crashing club in their approach to issues they are trying to deal with and nothing illustrates that better than the tertiary education issue. When I look at Part 1 I have two thoughts. Firstly where is the trust? Why does this Government not understand that one gets the best results from high-trust models? 
Jill Pettis 
: Is this the National Party’s policy on tertiary education? 
ALLAN PEACHEY 
: Goodness gracious me is that the defeated member for Whanganui? I think it might be. Well the people of Wanganui decided they had no interest in her views and I certainly have no interest in her views on tertiary education reform. As I was saying this is not a high-trust model. I looked at the vice-chancellors and the chancellors who came and presented very well before the committee and I could not help but reflect that when they were asked the question: “Is this legislation so seriously flawed that it should be dumped and we should start again?” their body language was interesting.