Turner Judy: Urgent Debates — Te Wananga o Aotearoa—Auditor-General’s Report 
Turner Judy: Urgent Debates — Te Wananga o Aotearoa—Auditor-General’s Report 
[Volume:628;Page:551] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 The inquiry by the Controller and Auditor-General into Te Wananga o Aotearoa is an interesting situation because we have always known that failure is a good teacher. Possibly the failure in this case was the failure to deal appropriately with what appears to be phenomenal success. During the Address in Reply debate I said that I had some concerns regarding our response to the crisis faced by the wananga. I was concerned that we did not develop a knee-jerk reaction and throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater because the interesting thing for me as someone with an education background is the amazing success that we have had with the wananga in terms of second-chance education. People who have gone into that institution lacking a huge amount of confidence and who have lacked belief in themselves that they could improve their lot through education have been given the chance through some courses that are confidence-building. Such courses might not result in great employable skill levels but they start people down the road towards tertiary education. There is huge anecdotal evidence that the wananga has delivered well on those courses. 
However the institution seems to have failed to manage that growth. Let us have a look at what we are talking about. The wananga moved from having just over 1000 students in 1999 to having up to 63387 students by the year 2003. That equates to 34280 equivalent full-time students—a phenomenal and rapid growth. The wananga ended up with 1232 staff at that same time. I believe that it failed to consolidate that growth at any stage and to upgrade its procedures and accountability around that growth. I have some sympathy with that. I imagine that it is very difficult to put brakes on what is compelling demand that meets real needs.  
In the brief time I have to speak on this I want to feature the lessons we need to learn when things are going well. Sometimes it is more difficult to manage success than it is to rectify failure and I think that that is probably the situation we are facing here. The issues that have been highlighted by the Controller and Auditor-General are not small matters. There have been poor decision-making practices particularly around the issue of significant expenditure. There have been inadequate identification and management where there are clear conflicts of interest. Good practice is well established for how conflicts of interest are managed and identified but these principles have all seemed to be lost in the wash of success. There have been unacceptable practices in senior management expenses particularly concerning international travel and credit card expenditure. Yet in the middle of all that we must not lose sight of what second-chance education has meant for literally thousands of New Zealanders. So my concern today is that as we address this issue and encourage those who should have been more watchful and supportive—those who should have been asking questions a lot more and those who should have been responding when asked serious questions—let us make sure that as answers are found we are watchful also of other initiatives where success is enjoyed into the future and learn from them. Let us not arrive back here again on another issue. 
At the same time let us not undermine the very good work that has happened through the wananga. I believe that courses have been on offer that have stretched the bounds of good second-chance education. There have been loose arrangements around what was acceptable and what was not and those do need to be corrected. I have been concerned at times to hear members of this House mock some of the ice-breaker activities that have obviously been run on some of those courses yet ice-breaker activities are common even on corporate courses where a group of people needs to be pulled together to build some team spirit for the short-term purpose of a course. Some sort of silly activity is run to break down those barriers so that people can participate quickly and overcome the natural social boundaries that often exist between people who are new to each other. I have heard members of this House ridicule and mock the content of some of those courses—content that included silly ice-breakers that are common to many courses. Such sarcasm has undermined what have been actually quite worthwhile courses that have seen those who participated go on to some really significant qualification courses. They needed to start with that ice-breaker course which members have often taken time to mock in this House. People needed to start somewhere where they were safe where they could achieve and where the measuring of their success was such that it built their confidence and not repeated in them that sense of failure they were often left with from their primary and secondary education. 
As I finish this speech I want to caution the House and ask for us to be really careful. Let us ask the hard questions let us hold people to account and let us make sure we learn the lessons that need to be learnt. Let us make sure that those who need to put up their hands and make changes do so but let us not do that at the expense of people who have relied on Te Wananga o Aotearoa who have gained huge benefit from its courses and who have gone on to be extremely productive. They are the people of whom the wananga is proud to say: “ They went through our institution and look what they are achieving now.” I think we should be supportive of that.