Maryan Street

Selling off the student union building to make up for a shortfall in education funding will do nothing to secure the financial future of our Universities, says Labour's Tertiary Education Spokesperson, Maryan Street.

"Labour is watching this closely", said Maryan Street.

"If asset ownership and management issues are unclear and unhelpful to tertiary institutions delivering quality education to New Zealanders, then let's improve that. But if this is a back door approach to selling off Crown-owned assets, Labour will oppose it.

"Allowing tertiary institutions to rationalise land and buildings which are surplus to requirements or could be used for different purposes, sounds like a good thing to facilitate. But if it simply means institutions will quit valuable assets as a short term response to under-funding, that is quite a different matter.

"This just looks like a quick fix for the here and now and a way Steven Joyce can try and make up the cash shortfall tertiary institutions are facing without digging into the governments budget.

"Mr Joyce will have to make it clear what his intentions are for the institutions and their assets.

"Clarity of vision for the long term delivery of quality tertiary education is what matters here, and Mr Joyce has yet to provide that", said Maryan Street.