Maharey Steve: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Maharey Steve: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:617;Page:13255] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education)) 
: 
 The debate around education which seems to be coming to an end has largely consisted of Bill English—who would know about crumbling—talking about crumbling and Ms Coddington talking about the Teachers Council. There was a little bit of a discussion about Learning Media and other good things that are going on and now members are back to the Tertiary Education Commission. So I guess I will spend most of my time on the Tertiary Education Commission and take up the invitation of Bill English who was desperately interested in this matter. He was so interested that I guess he will take another call straight after this so he can be part of it. I will invite him to take another call at the end of these 5 minutes to use up the rest of that time in the completion of his so-called demolition of the tertiary education strategy. 
The basic proposition is this: if a nation is to move towards a more strategic approach to tertiary education it has to have someone to do it. This is not Nigeria so therefore we will not run it as a Government department. Therefore there has to be an intermediate body. That is what the Welsh do what the British do and what California does—one could go on and on. Every country that has moved towards this kind of model has had to have an intermediate body that stands one step removed from the Government so it can have the independence from Government policy it needs and one step removed from the sector so it can satisfy the need for the Government to know that there is a body out there that is scrutinising and doing its job properly. 
 I ask National members to get up and tell us whether they will run a strategic approach to tertiary education rather than return to a market-based approach. Will Mr English tell us when he takes his next call whether he will take the Tertiary Education Commission and repeal the legislation that underlies it? 
If we are to have a strategic approach someone has to do it. We cannot go back to the market. I did not hear anything about that—all I heard from the National Party is that it wants to give more direction. It wants to tell universities what to teach. It wants to tell polytechnics what to do. These are autonomous organisations in a democratic society and I will never put this Government in a situation whereby it will dictate what those organisations do. We want them to be autonomous organisations. I ask Mr English when he takes his next call to take up that challenge. 
What has the National Party done over the last little while? The Tertiary Education Commission has been in business for a little over a year. Mr English has not been the leader of the National Party for a little over a year and I do not know whether he has done anything. I have not seen anything. Now and again he pops up in the Chamber. Now and again he does a speech somewhere but I cannot remember him accomplishing one thing. 
Unlike him in a little over a year the Tertiary Education Commission has completed its first round of charters—523 of them are approved. It has completed its interim profiles for last year for tertiary education institutions industry training organisations and the larger private trainers. It has just completed one of the most stunning examples of policy in the last 4 years under this Government—the Performance-based Research Fund. I know that we debate back and forwards now and again—and I am looking at Maurice Williamson. I know that for many years Maurice Williamson thought we had to have a strategic approach to tertiary education research. We now have it. It is a class act. Right across the world I am told by Sir Howard Newby the person who runs the Higher Education Funding Council for England that this is a class piece of work. It is better than the research assessment exercise which is about to go into the last thing again. Who did that? The Tertiary Education Commission did that huge piece of work. 
The Private Training Establishments Strategic Priorities Fund has now been through two rounds of spending. That fund was capped by the work of the Tertiary Education Commission. We have had completed rounds for the Innovation and Development Fund the E-Learning Collaborative Development Fund and the Partnerships for Excellence. We have had the Growth and Innovation Pilot Initiatives round—the second one is underway—the Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences round has been completed and the Pacific peoples strategy and the Maori education strategy have now been put in place. 
The Centres of Research Excellence programme is run by the Tertiary Education Commission and we have had a 9.3 percent increase in industry trainees since it took over that strategy. We have the Modern Apprenticeships programme the Gateway programme—which it administers across the country for us—and it runs the whole industry training strategy. I could go on and on through pages and pages of work. 
The Tertiary Education Commission has been going for a little over a year. Am I happy with it? If its officials worked any harder I am not sure they would go home at all. All organisations as big as this will have teething problems as they work issues through with the sector. An issue like 5.1 worries this Government because we want to make sure we can get all of this under control. 
Reports noted.