Smith Nick: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:22157] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 After that amazing valedictory speech from Richard Prebble it is back to battle. I want to raise with the Government the damning report that is provided in the  
Education Sector Review 
 which paints a horrifying picture not only of the state of the Government’s education bureaucracies but of the mess that they have made impacting on ordinary New Zealand students. When the Government first came in it passed a big Tertiary Education Reform Bill which set up the Tertiary Education Commission. It told this Parliament and the people of New Zealand that that would result in a flash new strategic approach to tertiary education. As my colleague Bill English said that bureaucracy has consumed $100 million a year of public money—$100 million every year. We are talking about half a billion dollars of public money. Five years later what does the Government’s own report state? It states: “The … education agencies do not have the capability to take a strategic approach to policy implementation.” That is what the Government’s own report states. We can remember so well Steve Maharey giving speech after speech about the new strategic approach to tertiary education. Five years later and after spending half a billion dollars the Government’s own report states that that has not happened. 
 Then there is the fiasco that occurred in respect of students’ school qualifications. That is the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) debacle. We have the same report—it is from Treasury from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and from the State Services Commission—stating that “the agencies do not have the essential capability … to support the magnitude of change” that is expected to be undertaken in the senior secondary sector. What does that mean? It means that the 540000 secondary students in New Zealand get a botched qualification. After 5 years of having Trevor Mallard at the helm of our education system we have botched the qualifications for thousands of New Zealand students. 
Some of those students are my constituents. Some of them are bright top students from excellent secondary schools like Nayland College Waimea College and Nelson College for Girls. I have met some of those young people who are angry and frustrated that for their 5 years of hard toil at secondary school they have ended up with a botched qualification. What does the Government say? Government members think that is funny. Trevor Mallard was in the Chamber earlier making jokes about it. After 5 years of him being in the role of Minister of Education we have a gigantic botch-up. 
What does the report state about the NCEA? It states that there is an urgent need to stabilise the NCEA and that there is a view that greater ministerial involvement would assist that. What does that say? It says that the Minister has not been doing his job and that young bright New Zealanders have paid the price for that with a botched qualification. Then we hear what the report states about the Tertiary Education Commission. The commission is the bold new agency that the Labour Government set up and the report is damning in terms of that commission. We know that 2 years after Trevor Mallard said that singalong courses would be stopped they are still going. This very day at the Eastern Institute of Technology students continue to be enrolled in singalong courses.