Council tight-lipped on Aoraki submission
Timaru District Council is withholding contents of its submission on the proposed merger of Aoraki Polytechnic and CPIT.
Councillors approved the submission in the finals days of consultation on the controversial merger but were tight-lipped about their position on Wednesday.
District mayor Damon Odey declined to state the council’s position on the proposal before Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Steven Joyce made decisions after considering the submissions.
Odey said keeping the submission from the public while the minister considered submissions was a matter of following due process.
He rejected Labour MP David Cunliffe’s claim the council had been ‘‘remarkably quiet’’ about its views on the merger.
Odey said Cunliffe’s comment was ‘‘a wee bit out of touch’’, and said the council had been ‘‘in full consultation with Aoraki’’, meeting ‘‘numerous’’ times before the consultation period.
The council has pledged to release its submission in full once the Tertiary Education Commission publishes a summary of the 30 submissions it received on the proposal on its website.
Timaru chartered accountant and Former Aoraki deputy board chairman Paul Wolffenbuttel has criticised the business case for the proposed merger. He argued the proposal was not in the interests of students, staff or stakeholders in the wider Aoraki region.
Odey declined to comment on Wolffenbuttel’s criticisms.
Councillor Pat Mulvey also declined to state the council’s position on the merger, but insisted councillors ‘‘want to do what’s best for the district and for the district moving forward’’.
Aoraki Polytechnic chief executive Alex Cabrera said he had not seen the council’s submission, but said the Polytechnic welcomed input ‘‘from everyone in the community’’ while the minister considered the proposal.