Latest News
Political parties back extra tertiary education funding
Opposition parties are largely endorsing the government’s move to pump $128 million more into tertiary education, but say it shows things need to change.
National and ACT argue the funding would not have been needed if they were in power, while the Greens say the funding system is long overdue for an overhaul.
The government announced the funding on Tuesday afternoon, after recent proposals from Victoria University of Wellington and Otago University for widescale job cuts, with entire subjects at risk.
The government also announced plans for a full review of tertiary education funding, though its terms of reference are not expected to be presented to Cabinet until December – after the election in October.
Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon was supportive of the government’s funding, saying it was necessary but would not have been needed if National were in power.
“We don’t want our universities going broke,” he said. “I think we’ve got no choice but to make sure our universities don’t go bankrupt and we’ve got to back our universities.”
“Frankly we wouldn’t be here if we had a National government because we would have recovered the international student section much faster, we wouldn’t have spent an endless amount of wasteful time on a mega polytechnic merger, and frankly we would ensure that more than 50 percent of our kids are not failing our university entrance exam.
“We would be managing inflation down in the first instance.”
He said it showed “gross incompetence” from the government.
“It’s been an unmitigated disaster for the past six years and there’s one person been in charge [of education] for the last five and a half years, it’s been Chris Hipkins.”
He had not had a chance to look into the review the government had announced, he said, and had no opinion on whether it was too slow.
He refused to lay out just yet what National would do for universities if it was in government.
“We’ll have more to say about that with our education policy before the election,” he said.
ACT leader David Seymour took a similar approach, saying the funding was only needed because of mismanagement.
“Yes, it is necessary to keep universities going, of course it is. We need to ask how we got here: Closing the borders for far too long when there were easier options available, putting funding into fees-free tertiary that hasn’t increased participation but has effectively paid off the student loans of mostly well-to-do citizens.”
ACT leader David Seymour Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Seymour was also more willing to lay judgement on the universities’ financial arrangements than Luxon.
“The universities need to rationalise,” he said. “There are far too many departments in far too many subjects at far too many universities for the size of the country. The universities do need the flexibility to make sure that we have a few centres of excellence in each subject.”
Green Party tertiary education spokesperson Chloe Swarbrick welcomed the extra funding, but suggested the review was what really mattered.
“The funding model for our universities is fundamentally broken, and that’s what the focus needs to be on,” she said.
“I’m really proud to have worked with the Tertiary Education Union, with students associations and with the minister in making this happen – but it is a plaster, a band-aid for what is needed which is long-term structural solutions.
Green Party tertiary education spokesperson Chloe Swarbrick. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“The review has also been a really long time coming, so stoked to see the government committing to that. What we now need to see is the terms of reference.
“To that effect I’d say that it has been incredibly frustrating over the past few years to consistently be in select committee talking to the [Tertiary Education Commission] and [Ministry of Education] and asking them about students. They consistently say there is no problem because they don’t have the data to show it because they’re not collecting that data, so we want to see students front and centre of that inquiry.”
She said part of the problem with the funding of universities was declining student enrolment, and poverty and hardship had a role to play in that.
“Perhaps we need to ask the question of why students aren’t enrolling in tertiary education in the first place,” she said. “What we’re hearing very clearly – as actually evidenced in our student inquiry last year – is that two thirds of students regularly cannot afford the basics.”
Te Pāti Māori has been approached for comment.
VIA RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
rnz
Police say person who fired gun at officers still at large
New Zealand sides named for RLWC finals
Parliamentary Service working on extra chairs and offices for increased number of MPs
-
Latest News2 months ago‘Chilling’: Business groups speak out against National’s supermarket break-up plan
-
NZ News2 months agoTom Phillips report: The missed opportunities to find the children
-
Latest News2 months agoCars bearing Chinese police markings stir unease in Auckland
-
Politics2 months agoNational vows to try to split Pak’nSave and New World
-
Fiji News2 months agoPlans to have new Constitution by Dec 24th 2026
-
Politics2 months agoMBIE confirms botched biometric projects costs blown out to $50.7 million
-
NZ News2 months agoCop who stole $68,000 can now be named as champion Muay Thai fighter Haimona Tamati-Te Paki
-
Latest News2 months agoFive Karangahape Road venues lose their liquor licences after police intervention