Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): I rise actually in a very sad way to speak to this Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill. Can I start though by just acknowledging my parliamentary colleague the Dr Shane Reti—I nearly called him the honourable". It could be a slip of the tongue. You are doing a fantastic job. Actually the work and the heavy lifting that Shane has had to do given the scale of disruption and the number of people that have contacted the Opposition regarding these reforms—I just pay tribute to you.Look at the outset I do want to acknowledge that in many areas the Hon Chris Hipkins and I have been able to work together whether it's NCEA reform or even to pull the Tomorrow's Schools reform to a much better place. Unfortunately it is with absolute sadness that in this area of the education portfolio we could not be further apart and I'm going to walk the Parliament through some of the arguments Shane has already put up as to why we think that this is possibly one of the most devastating destructive pieces of reform to reach this Parliament in the education area really in the last 20 years.I want to start with the outset the premise of what the problem is. It is correct on this side of the House and it's been acknowledged by my learned colleague Jan Tinetti that there were issues in terms of the viability of the polytechnic sector. That is correct. It is correct that the last National Government actually did undertake some mergers in this area. We know that there are issues around standards and quality which we have previously raised and successive Ministers have raised but as my colleague has pointed out the solution was not this. The reality is that the overwhelming chorus from the hairdressers of New Zealand from when I sat in the public meeting with the people of Invercargill as they voiced their concerns to the Minister—and I do note that the Minister has not listened to the people of Invercargill—was that this is a massive overreach.I was fortunately very privileged to be awarded a fellowship to Singapore where I sat down with their officials and I talked to them about what is a comparable sector and the fact that they have less polytechnics than New Zealand. But to move to a single mega-merger is something that National has opposed and for the following reasons. The first is the cost of this merger and the benefits. Shane has already worked you through that it's not just the Opposition that have raised significant issues around process around the costs of the merger around the benefits versus the disadvantages; we've heard from Treasury who have raised significant issues around uncertainty and costs. We've heard in the regulatory impact statement itself about cost-effectiveness issues of productivity. We've heard that the Tertiary Education Commission themselves said to the Minister "Don't proceed with this." So pretty much everybody has said to the Minister "This is a massive overreach. You've gone too far. The proposals don't stack up."The Government has to take responsibility. It's not just the Hon Chris Hipkins that will wear this at the election; it will also be—unless New Zealand First at the last moment and I'm looking at the Hon Tracey Martin here pull the plug. They will wear the fact that these reforms are not only bad from a fiscal perspective; they are bad from a governance perspective they are bad from a regional perspective and at the election people will understand that more clearly. It is not OK and I really do respect Jan Tinetti to say that people haven't read this legislation. Actually we have heard from a lot of New Zealanders who have read this legislation and that is part of the issue that they have. National has made a number of commitments around this legislation because we are opposed. The first is around community assets and we did hear very eloquently from the Hon Nick Smith yesterday of an example in his area: Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT)—$50 million worth of assets. These are hard-fought assets by the community. There are philanthropists who have been involved in this; there's community groups. So we see this as large-scale theft by the New Zealand Government from the regions and we will be making that case over the coming months and we have committed to returning those assets to the communities to the people who have hard fought for and built up those assets for the future.The next issue that we are deeply concerned about—and it could never have been more prevalent and at a timing level it could not be worse—is the issue of international students. We know with coronavirus that we are dealing with a very devastating event for New Zealand. I am fielding queries all over the country from people who have arrived here some people who have ended up potentially having to go to campgrounds people who have been stuck at airports young people who are dealing with distance study. So the way that we handle ourselves through this period is crucial to be able to keep our international reputation. I am on a daily basis as is Shane trying to pedal hard for New Zealand to ensure that they have confidence in us. So to throw this massive piece of reform—and it's not just the Opposition who have raised these issues of our international reputation. Chris Hipkins himself has actually received advice on this at a time when we've got coronavirus but also people see massive uncertainty. They've got questions about their previous academic qualification and the status of that and what that means in terms of their future job prospects—it's actually quite serious and the Opposition are very concerned about that.In the area of industry training—well again we have a very very simple philosophy in this area: that industry training is best led by industry. Shane is absolutely right. In fact I was with a hairdresser recently. She will be voting National and there'll be a whole lot of other hairdressers in New Zealand that will be voting National as a result of this. Their voice has been taken away. There are many industries for which the case has not been made for what is excessive ideological Government control centralisation and there are many industry training organisations who are scratching their heads and actually are getting very motivated to campaign against Labour and the other parties in this Parliament because they feel they are losing their voice. But it's worse than that.You know we believe on this side of the House that actually when you look at a community like Nelson you look at NMIT part of the innovation that has come from these institutions in the area of aviation in the area of marine has been because of that partnership between the institution and industry. What these reforms are doing whether it's industry training whether it's the single mega-merger is they are paddling in a very different direction where they are providing a greater disconnect between industry and our education institutions and National will certainly oppose that.I think the other thing that we really do want to point out is that at a time when we've got significant pressures around the education budget we know that there is hundreds of millions—and again we are very sceptical around the costs of this mega-merger—that are being spent on this given that it doesn't have the support of industry doesn't have the support of a number of institutions doesn't have the support of many of the communities from which assets are being stripped away. But also to be able to pay for this we've seen the cancellation of things like both awards and scholarships innovation projects ICT graduate schools—cancelled as a result of this.So let me be very clear: if I am the Minister of Education and I have the privilege to be the Minister of Education in September of this year—and I hopefully will have a couple of Cabinet colleagues alongside me Dr Shane Reti—we will be paddling in a very different direction. We will be returning assets back to those communities to the people of Invercargill to the people of Nelson who have been sold a pup by New Zealand First that they care about the regions. We will be returning those assets to those communities. We will be ensuring that at an education institutional level there are greater partnerships between industry and those institutions. We will be stopping some of this reform because we actually believe that there's no way that the Government will be able to implement all of this by the election which we know they have a longer time frame. We will be absolutely ensuring that we lift quality and standards where possible. That might include some shared services but that is the right thing to do. It is not just what we believe; it's actually what multiple Government agencies told the Government around these reforms that they were wrong that they were not going to be cost-effective they were not going to lead to greater productivity. It also represents the will of many people in New Zealand from the hairdressers across the country to the people of Southland to the small businesses across New Zealand and we will stand up for them. We will reverse what we think is ideological centralisation and madness."