Woods Megan: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woods Megan: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 12 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5154. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take the last call in this general debate. We have had to sit here for the last hour and endure the National Party members opposite chanting that they are on the right track with job creation and employment and that they are creating their version of a brighter future. This has been hollow rhetoric from hollow members. What we have is aspiration that today we are not Spain and that we do not have unemployment of 24 percent. Well we on this side of the House want something more for our nation. We want something more for our future than that. We want something more than the 160000 people whom members opposite have thrown on the scrap heap of unemployment. We do not want to see 50000 people leaving every year for Australia because there is no future here for them. 
How does Labour propose to do this? Well Labour sees education as an investment in our future and not a cost to cut which is what members opposite have shown. Education is at the very foundation of a fairer and more prosperous New Zealand. We have heard from members opposite that we have to get the economy right if we want to pay for health and education. Well we will never get the economy right if we do not invest in our future and our education system. It is not an either/or situation. A good education provides our children with a lifetime of opportunities. Children have the right to the best education from their first day of school through to their first day on the job. Labour has a vision for education. It is a priority for Labour. What we have is a National Government that is presiding over a disaster in education. 
Today I want to focus on three areas of this disaster. I want to talk about the University of Canterbury where today the library went into lockdown because there was the first of what I predict will be many student protests. I want to point out that this was quite a small student protest today. 
Grant Robertson 
: Not like the ones that member was part of. 
Dr MEGAN WOODS 
: It was not like the ones this member was part of. It was because there is a Government opposite that has failed the University of Canterbury. Post-earthquake like so many things in Canterbury and Christchurch the Government made a commitment to support the University of Canterbury. But are we seeing support? No. We are seeing one in five staff at the university lose their job. We are seeing an 18 percent reduction in that workforce. We are seeing a Government that is doing nothing but failing the university. 
If the Government’s own scenarios of economic recovery are to be believed the rebuild will be under way student numbers will recover and the university has to be at the heart of that rebuild. But we see a Government that puts no confidence in the university and is simply failing it. Instead the Government is resorting to bullying tactics with the university with its own internal papers showing and telling us that the implicit message from the Tertiary Education Commission and the Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment is that if the institution is willing to lead the way with cuts that could easily run to hundreds of jobs the State may invest in the university. The university thinks that this is reprehensible. What we have are students being the collateral damage of this—students who are giving up on their university and do not see their future residing there. 
Just as I was reading the Twitter reports of the mini-protest at the University of Canterbury today I received an invitation to an event. It is a collaboration between the Canterbury Museum and the University of Canterbury called Canterbury Tales. It is going to show artefacts from the university and the museum. Well you know what? My fear is that graduates and students from the University of Canterbury will soon be the only artefact. This is a university that is in trouble and this is a university that this Government needs to step up and do something about. 
The second disaster of education in Canterbury that I want to talk about is the Canterbury schools blueprint that is going to be released tomorrow. The Minister of Education is claiming that it will foster close connections across the education sector. This is far from the truth. Instead what we are seeing today is Christchurch swirling with rumour with uncertainty— 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.