Chadwick Steve: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chadwick Steve: Education Amendment Bill (No 4) — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 August 2011. Volume:674;Page:20584. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to say that we support the Education Amendment Bill (No 4) but we have some concerns about the powers that the bill gives to the Minister for Tertiary Education. For all that Government members say this bill is just a tidy-up and that it looks at strengthening the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the regulations around private training establishments there are aspects of the way that the Minister has put some squeezes on the tertiary education sector that we are really worried about. There is a certain irony that we are debating this bill a week after we debated at length the impact of voluntary student membership on universities and students and the effect that will have on student participation and student input into the tertiary sector. 
When we are considering a bill that looks at fee-setting mechanisms and transparency it is absolutely critical that first students have the capacity to be consulted and then second have a voice back to the ruling council about a fee-setting mechanism. That will be taken away because there will be no students associations around the country and that really worries me. 
Along with the funding cuts that have happened we have also seen funding cuts in Adult and Community Education and all those other portals that allow access into learning and lifelong learning that are so critical. I come from an area where second-chance education means such a lot so why the cuts there? It is the union that helps those adult learners to know the range of services they can access and what is a fair fee-setting mechanism and those opportunities will be taken from the polytech sector which I am more familiar with. 
I am worried that Mr Joyce has already cut $145 million from industry training. We have seen the number of people in industry training drop by 30000 and that worries me and there is a 10 percent drop in Modern Apprenticeships. I have had meetings with our polytech in Rotorua and the staff there said they could have taken many more students but for the funding cuts and the cap that has been put on student numbers. I find that irresponsible from a Minister who then comes to the House and says he believes in transparency and in tidying up the loose ends of a sector. Tidy up the loose ends of a sector and do it in a transparent way. That is why we are supporting this bill to select committee—so that we can hear back from various sectors that will be impacted on and they can give us their views in a proper select committee process. 
Labour will be supporting this bill but I do not think this is just a pro forma bill tidying up aspects of the tertiary education sector at all. One aspect I am happy to see—but again there is a delicious irony in the fact that some Crown entities are being forced together today—is the establishment I understand of a new industry group to look at export education. For all that is needed I wonder about the timeliness of that when such constraints are being put on public sector service delivery. I think there are some rather odd messages coming from the Minister’s tabling of this bill in the House but because we believe in democracy and community participation in this so-called non-controversial bill we will support it to select committee to allow the select committee process and submissions. Thank you.