Polytech petition heads to Parliament
The board and chief executive of Hamilton-headquartered megapolytech Te Pū kenga should be thrown out, according to a petition to be presented to Parliament.
The 436-signature petition, organised by Hamilton-based former Te Pū kenga executive Merran Davis, also wants an independent public inquiry into the performance of Te Pū kenga, which merged the country’s polytechnics in 2020 but has been beset by financial and other issues.
Davis said Te Pū kenga has wasted time and money, and lost trust and credibility ‘‘due to poor oversight, decision-making and risk management, and a lack of transparency’’.
Hamilton West MP Tama Potaka – who met with Davis this week – has agreed to present the petition to Parliament.
Davis said she hopes it will be referred to the education select committee and that there’ll be a chance to make submissions.
The petition was designed to ‘‘highlight the ineptitude of the governance and leadership, and the waste of taxpayer time and money’’ due to Te Pū kenga’s problems.
She believes those signing were likely to be former staff and others in the education sector aware of the organisation’s issues.
Davis was critical of former education minister Chris Hipkins’ role in establishing Te Pū kenga ‘‘because he made the decision to make this radical reform despite advice from his own advisers’’ at the Tertiary Education Commission.
Potaka said one reason for helping Davis was the fact that Te
Pū kenga was in Hamilton and National had longstanding concerns about Te Pū kenga as well.
The party’s policy towards the organisation was under development, but there was a need to ensure that charting the way forward was done ‘‘prudently’’.
‘‘We have to have offerings that are credible for people who want to take up tertiary options.’’
Davis, who felt the situation could change under a Nationalled government, said she wasn’t being critical for ‘‘political’’ reasons but raising points of principle.
‘‘If you’ve got a conviction about something, it doesn’t just go away,’’ she said.