Govt partner pulls support on polytechs

Te Ururoa Flavell. Photo / Supplied

The Maori Party will pull its support from a bill to restructure polytechnic councils after it failed in its bid to ensure Maori representation would remain.

Yesterday Te Ururoa Flavell said the party would continue to support the bill only if the Government backed its amendment to provide for three Maori appointments to the councils.

The amendment failed after National and Act voted against it.

The bill will still pass with Act's support. But both Labour and the Maori Party criticised it strongly yesterday for giving excessive power to the minister and stripping back the need to ensure local representation at polytechnics.

The bill reduces the numbers on polytechnic councils from as many as 20 people down to eight, four of whom will be appointed by the Minister of Tertiary Education based on their experience.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said the changes were needed because the governance structure was unwieldy.

Smaller, more focused councils would enable polytechnics to strengthen their financial performance and meet the needs of local businesses.

But the changes remove the requirements for Maori, staff, student, business and community representatives, although the minister must take into account the desirability "in principle" of including Maori on the council and ensuring the council reflects the community it serves.

Mr Flavell, the Maori Party whip, said the party had previously supported the bill in the hopes of exploring shared governance models. When it became clear that was not possible, the party made its support conditional on an amendment increasing the council sizes to 12 and providing three Maori places.

He said he did not believe it was enough to simply require the minister to take into account the desirability of Maori representation and Maori would yet again be left to depend on the good will of non-Maori who were represented.

The failure to get changes through spelled the end of Maori Party support, but it would continue to work with the minister to try to ensure Maori were on the councils.

Labour Party tertiary education spokeswoman Maryan Street said the bill gave too much control over the council to the minister.

She said the lack of guaranteed union and employer representation was objectionable, given polytechnics were supposed to cater for the workforce needs in their local areas.

"At a time when jobs and skills should be a top priority, Anne Tolley has moved to rob polytechnics of the stakeholder input they need to ensure they are doing the best job possible. It's simply inexplicable."

The bill is expected to become law by May next year.