Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2011. Volume:675;Page:20917. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Education Amendment Bill (No 4) 
In Committee 
Debate resumed. 
Part 1Amendments to Education Act 1989  ( 
continued 
)  
The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 269 in the name of the Hon Steven Joyce to Part 1 be agreed to. 
Amendments agreed to. 
A party vote was called for on the question  
That Part 1 as amended be agreed to. 
Ayes 116 
New Zealand National 57; New Zealand Labour 42; Green Party 9; ACT New Zealand 5; Progressive 1; United Future 1; Independent: Carter C. 
Noes 3 
Maori Party 3. 
Part 1 as amended agreed to. 
Part 2Transitional arrangements and amendments to other enactments  
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 I stand to speak to Part 2. 
Paul Quinn 
: Get with the programme. 
CARMEL SEPULONI 
: Mr Quinn is telling me to get with the programme; I think Mr Quinn should look in the mirror. I am speaking to Part 2 of the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). Part 2 is about transitional arrangements and amendments to other enactments. Basically when we look at the bill overall—then I will go into more detail just to put it into context—we know that the bill seeks to amend the Education Act. It includes provisions concerned with three broad policy areas. The bill strengthens the regulation of the tertiary education system by improving and modernising the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s legal arrangements. That is the intention. It facilitates the expansion of international education in New Zealand by establishing Education New Zealand as a Crown agency and it safeguards the quality and reputation of the New Zealand education system by updating and strengthening the New Zealand Qualification Authority’s compliance and enforcement regime.  
We know from some of the things that have occurred in recent times in respect of some of the qualifications offered that some international students have had unfortunate experiences here. They have come here expecting a standard of education or to go into courses that are made up of particular aspects or concentrated on particular areas but there have been issues there. So we support the establishment of this Crown agency to ensure that the quality of our New Zealand education system is upheld. We on this side of the Chamber appreciate—in fact I am sure all of us do as parliamentarians—the importance of the international student market and the fact that it is something that many of our institutions and schools are looking to expand into. We see the Crown agency as an important agency in respect of ensuring that we not only safeguard the quality of the international student market but also grow that market. We see it as something that will increase transparency and accountability in the tertiary education system with regard to compulsory student services fees student loans and student allowances.  
The compulsory student services fees section of this legislation is something that we have discussed in detail. When we look at Part 2 and we look at the transitional arrangements we see that it is fairly straightforward. There is very little that we can comment on. The amendments to the enactments are a necessary component of any legislation like this in terms of outlining what enactments will be amended. As I have said we support wholeheartedly the Crown agency and what that means for our international student market. I will leave it at that. I am sure that members on our side of the Chamber have calls and points that they wish to make. Thank you very much. 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I will take a short call on Part 2 “Transitional arrangements and amendments to other enactments”. The transitional arrangements particularly when we come to the student levy are particularly important. As we know there is another bill going through this Parliament in relation to students associations which has been referred to on numerous occasions. The transitional arrangements in the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) will very much need to keep in consideration that legislation which brings massive changes to students associations at the beginning of next year. The reason that this is important and the reason it needs to be provided for under transitional arrangements—Mr Quinn has his translation earpiece in but I am actually speaking in English; I do not know whether it is breaking down the debate into simpler language for him. I was not aware that service was provided here at Parliament but that is good to know.  
The reason that the transitional arrangements need to take into account the early implementation of the voluntary student membership legislation is that as we discussed in Part 1 numerous parts of this legislation relate to transparency around the setting of the student levy—Mr Quinn is listening to his iPad; that is why he has his earpiece in; he just did not want to purchase his own earphones—and the transparency around any increases in that levy why they might be needed and what that levy can be used for. As we know given the reductions in funding for our tertiary institutions under this Government institutions have been using some of the student levy to pay for staffing costs not to pay for what the levy was originally intended to pay for. In that respect the transitional provisions in this bill should take into account the fact that there will not be the organisations to consult that Part 1 has legislated for.  
Part 1 is quite clear that there must be consultation around those aspects of the student levy that I referred to. The student body itself needs to be part of that process. The student body itself needs to be consulted around that levy. We saw at Canterbury University I think it was that the levy shot up 600 percent in one year; 600 percent. Well obviously that is unacceptable and obviously that is part of the reason why this legislation is being brought in. It gives the Minister the power to cap that levy.  
I come back to the important part of the transitional arrangements which is the requirement to consult students. The question was asked and it was not answered—who will they consult once students associations have been destroyed by another bill currently going through this Parliament? How will that consultation be carried out? Because at the moment it is actually very clear-cut. The reason why this relates so closely to the transitional arrangements is that that legislation which we are told the Government will make sure is passed before the election—even though the Government promised they would not support it and promised that it would not be passed—will come into force at the beginning of next year right in the middle of the transitional arrangements period.  
The bill as it stands says the consultation will take place and the transparency needs to occur and that is quite clear at the moment. At the moment we have democratically elected students associations. If someone wants to consult the student body of Victoria University the student body of Auckland University or the student body of Waikato University—whose students association membership went voluntary and then came back to being compulsory—it is quite clear what that body is. But if this voluntary student membership legislation goes through it will not be clear. In fact it could be very unclear who exactly is meant to be consulted under the transitional provisions in this legislation. For our provincial polytechnics and private training establishments it will be even less clear. Although some of the big universities might hold out for a bit longer with their students associations just because of the critical mass they have our provincial polytechnics such as Tairawhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne where I live will certainly be saying goodbye to their students associations.  
Under Part l who will the Minister consult? This should be part of the transitional provisions of this legislation. We cannot simply pass legislation in a vacuum. We certainly cannot pretend that the voluntary student membership legislation will not have an impact on this bill. It appears to me that the Government has ignored it. The Government is pretending that voluntary student membership will not go through. The question that was asked in Part 1 which was not answered is: who will be consulted? Who will be the representatives of the students associations that Part 1 says will be consulted? This should be in the transitional provisions in Part 2. I look forward to a response from the Minister. 
JO GOODHEW (Junior Whip—National) 
: 
 I move  
That the question be now put 
. 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I think it is important that we make sure that the debate in the Committee stage covers the bases of the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). In the earlier debate on Part 1 there were a number of questions raised by members on this side of the Chamber about the scope particularly around the student services levy section. As we move to the transitional provisions of the bill about how this bill will come into force and how it will work in relation to a range of different entities obviously I do not feel that a sufficient contribution has been made by the Minister for Tertiary Education on Part 1 on how some elements of this process will work. In particular I am concerned—well “concerned” is not the right word; I think it is a good thing that there is a cap on the student services levy because it has clearly gone out of control—that as we transition to this new arrangement the Minister now has an extraordinary range of powers. Mr Joyce is not so much “Daddy Cool” as “Daddy State” which is what he reaches in this clause. He gets to give a series of directions to an institution listing the categories of student services—basically the broad areas of student services that an institution can provide—and then if he is not satisfied with where the institution ends up in terms of those broad categories of student services he can move to directing the types of services that are provided by the institution. As we move to finalise the arrangements in Part 2 for how the bill will come into force I say that the Minister has not described to us exactly how he would do that what sort of judgments he would make about a sufficient range of student services and a sufficient range of costs for student services and most particularly as was raised in earlier stages whom the Minister will consult with.  
Clause 227A(1)(c) “requires the institution or institutions to establish adequate arrangements for decisions to be made jointly or in consultation with the students enrolled at the institution or their representatives on all or any of the following matters:” and that includes the types of services that are available and the amounts students will pay for them. Whom will the Minister consult with? As we move to bring this bill into force we have another bill in the House that would wipe out the representatives as mentioned in clause 227A(1)(c) because those representatives would be from students associations which will cease to exist within this bill. I am aware that we are discussing Part 2 and the transitional provisions but it does matter as to how this bill comes into force. How will the Minister be able to enact this legislation if there is no students association for him to consult with? This is the problem we have on this side of the Chamber with the bill in general. Although it is a laudable goal to limit the growth in costs of student services levies there is a squeeze on institutions in terms of their overall funding and that has led to the rise in student services levies. There is now a squeeze from the other direction in terms of students associations which provide a range of services going out of action. On the top of that students are now expected to be somehow consulted without their representative organisation being there. It is a laudable goal in this bill but I really do not think the Minister has adequately answered the questions earlier about how it would actually happen or how he would play the role of “Daddy State” for the institutions when it comes to deciding what student services they can offer. I just make that point as we discuss the transitional arrangements about how this bill will come into force. I feel there are some risks ahead for institutions and unless this Government is prepared to front up fund tertiary institutions properly and support students associations it will be very difficult to bring this bill into force. 
A party vote was called for on the question  
That Part 2 be agreed to. 
Ayes 116 
New Zealand National 57; New Zealand Labour 42; Green Party 9; ACT New Zealand 5; Progressive 1; United Future 1; Independent: Carter C. 
Noes 3 
Maori Party 3. 
Part 2 agreed to. 
Clause 1  agreed to.  
Clause 2  agreed to.  
Clause 3  agreed to.  
Bill reported with amendment. 
Report adopted. 
Third Reading 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Immigration) 
 on behalf of the Minister for Tertiary Education: I move  
That the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) be now read a third time 
. I thank members for the work that they have done on the bill. Their amendments have enhanced a good bill. Improving skills is a key part of the Government’s agenda for lifting New Zealand’s economic growth. We spend over $4 billion per annum on tertiary education and this includes student support. That is about 1.6 percent of GDP which is high relative to the OECD average of 1.2 percent. Given our substantial investment we must continually look at ways to improve outcomes for students and ensure that taxpayers are getting value for money.  
The changes in this bill will result in a higher-performing system and will provide the foundations for a significant boost to our international education sector. First this bill provides for the regulation of compulsory student services fees at tertiary institutions. This will ensure that students get a say in how these fees are charged and what they are used for. There has been growing concern over the rapid rise in the amount of compulsory student services fees charged by individual tertiary education institutions in recent years. I am not convinced that there has been a commensurate rise in the quality of these services.  
The bill allows the Minister to issue directions on the categories of services that compulsory student services fees can be used for and how these fees are reported as well as ensuring that students are closely involved in the decision-making processes related to these compulsory fees. The changes in the bill will lead to a significant improvement in accountability and transparency for students and the Government.  
Secondly the bill enhances our international education sector. International education contributes more than $2 billion in total to our economy each year and supports 32000 jobs. The bill will facilitate the expansion of international education by establishing the new Crown agency Education New Zealand—a single agency solely focused on international education that will provide a sharper focus better coordination and better value for money in terms of both marketing and representation abroad. The new agency will begin operating from 1 September with almost double the budget of its predecessors.  
The changes in the bill represent an exciting opportunity for a real step change in the performance of our export education sector and for international education to make a greater contribution to the economic social and cultural well-being of New Zealand.  
Thirdly the bill will strengthen the regulation of the tertiary education system by improving and updating the legal arrangements of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. In particular the functions and powers of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority will be updated with a new rules regime replacing the existing powers of the authority. We have also updated and strengthened the regulatory management of private training establishments including expanding the range of enforcement measures available to the authority.  
Although most private training establishments are good performers the work of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to drive improvements in the lowest-performing establishments has been hampered by the outdated nature of the legislative provisions and the inconsistencies within them. This bill ensures that meaningful steps can be taken to address problems as they arise and students can have more confidence in the quality and strength of New Zealand’s private education system and its protection of students’ interests.  
It is vital that we keep working on enhancing the quality of the sector so that New Zealand remains an attractive place to study. This bill will strengthen our tertiary and international education sectors and improve accountability and transparency for students. I commend this bill to the House. 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the third reading of the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). It is an omnibus bill and being the deputy chair of the Education and Science Committee which heard the deliberations I am pleased to say that Labour supports it. The bill’s primary amendment is to provide greater transparency and accountability in the setting of student levies. Student levies increased hugely in 2010—just last year. We saw an average—yes an average—increase of 102 percent in student levies right across the country. Of course we know that when we talk about averages it hides the variances. What we do know is that at its extreme 600 percent was the rate of increase in the student levy at Canterbury University last year.  
Although this bill is an admirable attempt to do something about that problem and to do it in a transparent way that gives students a voice and a role in seeing how their compulsory levies are being spent it does not address the root causes. So I urge the Government to understand that this bill although useful does not fix the problem. The problem that was clearly identified by the submitters when they came to see us was the funding squeeze for tertiary institutions with Government funding not covering the cost of providing education to tertiary students in New Zealand. Of course they are not the only part of the education sector that is feeling this squeeze but with regard to this bill it is incredibly important that the Government understands the funding squeeze for tertiary institutions. That is why they sought to find other funding sources and actually ended up with what looks like a user-pays model. Their natural inclination when they were not getting the Government support they needed to provide the services they want to provide was to look to the students themselves. That is why we saw increases in the order of 600 percent at Canterbury University and increases across the board of 102 percent on average in our tertiary institutions.  
This is a very timely bill. It also establishes a new Crown agency in charge of export education as well as providing stricter requirements around the registration of private training establishments and we welcome that also. The registration of private training establishments is designed to stamp out growing qualification fraud in the sector and we certainly hope that it does meet that goal which is set out in the bill.  
However I will come back to an issue that was debated earlier today with regard to this bill because it is an important one for the Government to understand. Not only does the Government need to understand what caused the significant increase in student levies last year right around the country—and it was not just at one or two institutions but pretty much right across the board—it also needs to understand the implications of other legislation that the Government wants to push through before the election. I am referring to the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill. That bill in tandem with the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) will let student services fall through the gaps. The effect of the voluntary student membership bill is to gut students associations—those students associations that provide the very services such as the advocacy services and the hardship grants that keep students afloat in very difficult times. Students associations also help students to get through their studies.  
If the Government is successful in pushing through that bill—or more accurately I should say that if the ACT Party is successful in garnering the support of the National Government—then that will lead to a reduction in student services; we know it will. Why do we know this? We know this because this is exactly what has happened overseas where exactly the same measure has been brought to bear. If ACT gets its way with the Government and that happens then student services will suffer. Institutions will want to pick up those student services because they will not want to see students going without. They will want to make sure that students are well supported throughout the course of their education. They will then find that they are restricted by this very bill we are debating here today. That is tragic because by itself this bill is actually a very good bill. It is a very good bill because it aims to contain spiralling costs for students. That is a good thing particularly when the cost of living is out of control in New Zealand as it is. Students are facing increases to their transport costs because of the rising cost of petrol. They have faced increases to the cost of everything they buy because the Government increased GST. They also face increased childcare costs. I know of a number of students who have had to pull out of their studies because they can no longer afford to have their children in early childhood education while they are studying and that is because of that Government’s cuts to that sector.  
These are the sorts of cost of living increases that students face anyway. The last thing they needed last year was for their levies to go up by an average of 102 percent. So I commend the Government for even in some small way understanding that cost of living increases are out of control and for moving with this bill in order to contain a particular part of the problem. But unless the Government also moves to address the underlying concerns and the underlying funding pressures within the tertiary institutions and unless the Government also wakes up and stops the bill that will gut students associations so that they cannot provide those services then I am afraid they will be doing students a disservice. I do however want to lend Labour’s support to this bill because this is the good twin. I urge the Government to vote down the evil twin. 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I am pleased to speak in support of the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). As chair of the Education and Science Committee which held the hearings into the bill and reported it back to the House with some constructive changes I would like to acknowledge the role of the select committee including the cooperation of Opposition parties in getting this job done. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance and cooperation of the officials.  
The Minister of Immigration on behalf of the Minister for Tertiary Education has very clearly outlined the provisions of the bill and I do not need to repeat them. I just want to say a couple of things. One is that whether we are talking about the changes to the legal framework of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority the establishment of the new Crown agency Education New Zealand or the power that the Minister is being given to issue directions on student services fees this is good legislation. It is aimed at and it will achieve greater accountability in the tertiary sector. It will achieve higher performance by the sector and it will take New Zealand tertiary education forward into the future.  
I will make just one comment about the arguments being advanced by the Labour Opposition. I am a little bit disappointed in the Opposition members—although they support the bill and we very much appreciate that—for making continual linkages to a piece of legislation that frankly in my mind is irrelevant to this bill. The thrust of this bill as the Opposition well understands—and I reiterate my gratitude to the Opposition for its support and its work on the select committee—is all about rising quality rising accountability a better tertiary education system in New Zealand and a better international student education system. I commend the bill to the House. 
Debate interrupted.