Shearer David: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Shearer David: Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20309] 
DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert) 
: 
 I will take another call on the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill and in particular on clause 8. I follow on from what my colleague Pete Hodgson was talking about in terms of transparency. 
There are three aspects that are certain about the implications and the impact of this bill. The first of which is that the students associations will die and wither because that has happened everywhere else under similar legislation. Pete Hodgson gave the reasons why that has happened. The Education and Science Committee listened to the students associations of Australia where similar legislation came in and in practically all of their universities the students associations withered and died and became a mere vestige of what they were previously. What did they say to us? They said: “Don’t go down this path. It’s not worth it. It will seriously degrade the quality of life on campuses across your country.” That is what they said. All of them said that. They recommended that we do not go down this path. 
In Australia they are reinstituting students association fees. They are going back to what they had before. Why are they doing that? It is very very simple. The student services that were once provided by the students associations in Australia were being provided by the institutions. The universities themselves the private training establishments and the polytechnics stepped up and provided the same services that the students associations once provided except at a much inferior level of contribution. The students ended up paying compulsorily a fee to the university a fee to the institution to get an inferior quality of service on all the various aspects of student life that they missed out on before. That is a certainty. That is the No. 1 certainty of what will happen when we bring in this legislation. 
As I said before this legislation is a piece of ideology looking for a problem or looking for a cause. It is nothing more than that. There is absolutely no doubt that what will happen is that the institutions themselves the universities will end up having to levy students a fee which students will not have the option of opting out from as they do now—they are free to opt out and give that money to a worthy cause. They will not have that option. Why is that? It is because the universities accept as we all did when we went through university that this is not about providing services that are somehow optional or whatever. The creches the health centres the counselling centres the places of worship the sports clubs the cultural clubs the advocacy and all that goes with it provide the rich nature of university life. We all accept that it is not about a compulsory aspect; it is an essential part of an institution. 
This is clause 8 and an amendment will come through. If this clause is about transparency of information I would like to see us list what the students associations will not be able to provide as a result of this legislation—will not be able to provide. This legislation will take this away. Let us say that the students associations are no longer responsible at the particular organisations they are in for providing the creche.