Government Robbing One Tertiary Sector To Pay Another

"The additional $35 million which the government has made available to universities is simply a shift of funding from private training institutions," said New Zealand First education spokesperson, Hon Brian Donnelly MP.

"It is no coincidence that the government announced a freeze on PTE funding a week before making a new offer to the universities. At the delivery of the budget, Steve Maharey was defending the rapidly increasing funding of PTE's by saying he was waiting for the proposed Tertiary Education Commission to sort out the issues."

Following presentation of a strong case for additional funding by universities, the government has back-tracked on its budget position.

"This smacks of a Minister who has been so absorbed by the Christine Rankin affair his mind was not on his education portfolio leading up to the budget," said Mr Donnelly.

"Someone does, however, need to explain this all to National's education spokesperson, Gerry Brownlee, who thinks the $35 million is new money."

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>