and Validation) Bill be now read a third time. Those of this opinion
will say Aye, to the contrary, no.
The Ayes have it. Call on
Government Order of the Day No. 2.
Appropriation
and Validation) Bill third reading. Education (Tertiary
Education (Tertiary Education and Other Matters) Amendment Bill first
reading. Mr Speaker. The Hon
Michael Woodhouse. On behalf of the
Minister for tesh try
education skills and employment, I move that the
Education (Tertiary Education and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now
a read first time. I nominate the
Education and Science
Committee to consider the bill. At
the consider
consider the bill. At the appropriate time, I intend to move
that the bill be reported to the
House by a date that is four months
and one week from the date the bill
receives its first reading. I
also intend to move that The Committee
have the authority to
meet at any time while the house is sitting
except during Oral
Questions, during except
except during Oral Questions, during any evening on a day on
which there has been a sitting of the
House, and on a Friday and
a week where there has been a sitting of the House
has
has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders...
This bill will help the tertiary education
system run more efficiently ean
sure quality and provide additional
student protection. Tertiary
education providers need to innovate
and be able to respond quickly to
the changing needs of the students
and the labour market.
The changes the bill is proposing balance
increasing flexible assessment with
the appropriate accountability
and tering mechanisms to
ensure providers provide
providers provide better outcomes for students. The changes in
this bill will also ensure
a more consistent playing field for
tertiary education providers
and will broaden
will broaden student protection arrangements. Currently, education
legislation does not allow
the Government the flexibility to
make reasonable changes to increase
or shift funding across the
tertiary shift
shift funding across the tertiary education system and
responses to changes in government policy
or student demand. The lack
of flexibility has meant that the
Government has been operating short
one to two year funding cycles
meaning that providers are more
focused on
meaning that providers are more
outcomes. This bill will enable changes to be made
to a funding mechanism after that funding
has been approved including two
conditions on the funding. This
flexibility will
flexibility will give them responsible Minister for confidence
to approve tertiary education
funding for up to three
years and will reduce compliance to providers
and give them more
time and resources to focus
on improving student outcomes. To ensure
the changes don't compromise funding
certainty for providers,
the legislation will
legislation will require the minister to make changes only when
it is reasonably necessary
following consultation with the sector and
with an
consultation with the sector and
Government has already implemented a number of changes to strengthen
the monitoring of tertiary
education organisations in response to recent
investigation. This bill built
on these changes by allowing better
men tering of the
tertiary education institutions use
institutions use of government funding. The bill
requires providers to
funding. The bill requires providers funding.
funding. The bill requires providers to have information on their
use of Government funding, prepared
and collated, to be provided to
the regulatory authority when the need
arises. I want to assure the House
that this is not
increasing the reporting burden on providers, but a
requirement for providers
to hold information in an accessible
format for use when required. It allows
the Tertiary Education
Tertiary Education Commission to impose conditions on a TEO so that
they can monitor
activities not funded by the
government if required. The TEC will
allow the TEC to recover some of the cost incurred
as part of investigating breaches of
funding conditions, only
where breaches are found to have occurred.
These changes will give the TEC more
ability to identify, investigate
and address compliance issues. The
bill also
address compliance issues. The bill address
address compliance issues. The bill also seeks to create a
consistent playing field for
tertiary education providers to encourage performance
and innovation. Tertiary education
providers that provide good outcomes
for students should receive the
same benefits regardless of
whether they are publicly or privately owned.
Currently, public and private
providers receive the same rate
of funding for similar
provision. However, the act allows a future
minister to fund
private providers at
minister to fund private providers minister
minister to fund private providers at a different rate
than public providers for the
same provision. The bill requires tertiary
education providers to be funded at the same
rate for the same provision
regardless of their ownership. This
change reflects current practice.
The education act regulate it is use
of four terms that refer to tertiary
institutions, university, polytech,
Institute of Technology and college
of education. Only institutions
established as such under the
act Cape Carnaveral described using
Institute
Cape Carnaveral described using these terms. Particularly
to
Consider the current law unfair. They wish to use the
term Indigenous University as an English
language description after its official
name as the term Wainanga
is not well understood initially. I propose to
allow it to apply
ministerial consent to use a protected term as
establishments can already under
section 253 of the Act. It will
not mean it will become a
university under the law,
it simply means it could apply to use the
term
themselves as an Indigenous university. In the past year,
a number of issues have arisen
that highlight gaps in
the legislation relating to student protection
arrangements so this bill aims to
broaden student protection. Following the recent collapse of a
private school in Auckland, 14
international
international students were transferred to another
private school which meant additional
tuition
school which meant additional
were paid for directly by the Ministry of Education. The
export education levy is a
contribution paid by all providers
that take on international students, both schools
and tertiary providers to fund
development and risk
management initiatives for the export
education sector. The bill will extend the
levies reimbursements provisions to
cover private and partnership
schools. This will
allow international students
international students to be reimbursed for their fees and
continue
reimbursed for their fees and reimbursed
reimbursed for their fees and continue to study in New
Zealand should their provider fail. Recent
High Court ruling found that schools
cannot stand, suspend
or extend expel international students for
conduct outside of school even if
their enrolment contract allows
for it. This is consequences
for international students safety
and it.
international students safety and wellbeing as schools are unable to
effectively manage risky or
potentially harmful behaviour. The
bill will enable schools to
manage international student misconduct
outside of school so they can uphold
their contractual duty to
ensure international students' health,
safety and wellbeing. Following
the recent closure of an international
education provider, there was
evidence to suggest that learners
had not been appropriately assessed.
The current offence provisions
do not
The current offence provisions do The
The current offence provisions do not hold that provider to
account. The bill will make ate an offence
for a person who falsely awards
credits to students without
qualification. This will allow the
authority to pursue action against
providers for falsely
awarding credits. It proposes a number
of other changes that are minor
or technical or seek to modernise
other aspects of the act. In conclusion,
Mr Speaker, this will
increase funding flexibility and further
strengthen monitoring
strengthen monitoring and accountability of the sector,
create a consistent playing field for
tertiary education providers to
encourage performance and
innovation, and broaden student
protection arrangements which
supports all students studying in
New Zealand to have a
supports all students studying in
education experience. I commend the bill to the House. A point
of order, Chris Hipkins. Mr
Speaker, before I get into my contribution on the
first reading of this bill,
I just like to seek
some clarification for you that the referral motion
moved by the minister will be debated
separately at the end of the debate
on this first reading. The
short answer to the question is yes. It is
a debatable motion, not because
it's a shortening motion but because of
the other conditions that have
been put in there. There will be a
debate which will be held if the bill
gets its first reading. Thank you. A
point of order,
Michael Woodhouse. Speaking to that point of order, Mr
Speaker, the
Speaking to that point of order, Mr
but the signal of an intent to move a motion and at the end of this
debate there will be that motion,
can you just clarify whether
or not in response to that it is possible
to move a different motion that
warrants
to move a different motion that
position in that I will take some advice on that question and I will
report
advice on that question and I will
the House this evening on that. My gut feeling is that it is possible
and the fact that the member hasn't
supplied a copy to the chair, which
is somewhat unusual, might give
him a bit more latitude but
I will consider that matter and we will
House on it. Mr Speaker, speaking House on it. Mr Speaker, speaking
further to that.
House on it. Mr Speaker, speaking
order. Mr Speaker, I was on the standarding orders committee
when this rule change was
proposed about two Parliaments ago and
the decision of the Standing Orders Committee is
the
of the Standing Orders Committee is
select committee with a shortened timeframe of no less than four
months, any other conditions or any
other shortened timeframe
would be debatable. Just that is
absolutely the case and I didn't want
anything I said to take away from
that. The question, I think, that the
Minister asked was a different question. And
that is that the Government changed
its mind as to the type of motion
that it wanted to move did it
have the flexibility to do that. And that
is something which I am
currently considering and will report back. I
think, though, to be fair to the
member who's about to make a
speech, you know, he is free to refer to the
motion as currently indicated now,
although the debate will happen
later. Chris Hipkins. Thank you
very much, Mr Speaker. And as long as my
voice remains, I intend to take my
speech on this first reading of
the Education (Tertiary Education
and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. And
I want to say that I'm very proud to
stand here in defence of
New Zealand's