Robertson Grant: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2011. Volume:675;Page:20919. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I think it is important that we make sure that the debate in the Committee stage covers the bases of the Education Amendment Bill (No 4). In the earlier debate on Part 1 there were a number of questions raised by members on this side of the Chamber about the scope particularly around the student services levy section. As we move to the transitional provisions of the bill about how this bill will come into force and how it will work in relation to a range of different entities obviously I do not feel that a sufficient contribution has been made by the Minister for Tertiary Education on Part 1 on how some elements of this process will work. In particular I am concerned—well “concerned” is not the right word; I think it is a good thing that there is a cap on the student services levy because it has clearly gone out of control—that as we transition to this new arrangement the Minister now has an extraordinary range of powers. Mr Joyce is not so much “Daddy Cool” as “Daddy State” which is what he reaches in this clause. He gets to give a series of directions to an institution listing the categories of student services—basically the broad areas of student services that an institution can provide—and then if he is not satisfied with where the institution ends up in terms of those broad categories of student services he can move to directing the types of services that are provided by the institution. As we move to finalise the arrangements in Part 2 for how the bill will come into force I say that the Minister has not described to us exactly how he would do that what sort of judgments he would make about a sufficient range of student services and a sufficient range of costs for student services and most particularly as was raised in earlier stages whom the Minister will consult with.  
Clause 227A(1)(c) “requires the institution or institutions to establish adequate arrangements for decisions to be made jointly or in consultation with the students enrolled at the institution or their representatives on all or any of the following matters:” and that includes the types of services that are available and the amounts students will pay for them. Whom will the Minister consult with? As we move to bring this bill into force we have another bill in the House that would wipe out the representatives as mentioned in clause 227A(1)(c) because those representatives would be from students associations which will cease to exist within this bill. I am aware that we are discussing Part 2 and the transitional provisions but it does matter as to how this bill comes into force. How will the Minister be able to enact this legislation if there is no students association for him to consult with? This is the problem we have on this side of the Chamber with the bill in general. Although it is a laudable goal to limit the growth in costs of student services levies there is a squeeze on institutions in terms of their overall funding and that has led to the rise in student services levies. There is now a squeeze from the other direction in terms of students associations which provide a range of services going out of action. On the top of that students are now expected to be somehow consulted without their representative organisation being there. It is a laudable goal in this bill but I really do not think the Minister has adequately answered the questions earlier about how it would actually happen or how he would play the role of “Daddy State” for the institutions when it comes to deciding what student services they can offer. I just make that point as we discuss the transitional arrangements about how this bill will come into force. I feel there are some risks ahead for institutions and unless this Government is prepared to front up fund tertiary institutions properly and support students associations it will be very difficult to bring this bill into force.