Export Education Levy

18 February 2004

Export Education Levy

“The announcement yesterday by the Government that private training establishments (PTEs) would be paying one rate for the export education levy and that all other export education providers would be paying a lower rate seems to be ahead of the deliberations of the Select Committee,” said Sandra McKersey, President of the New Zealand Association of Private Education Providers.

“Submissions to the Education and Science Committee on the Export Education Levy (Amendment) Bill only closed last Friday, but the Government is already assuming that there will be no amendments and that the Bill will be passed. The Bill would allow the Government to charge PTEs for the failures of their competitors despite there being no other instances where good operators are required to pay for the business failures of others, even if they are in the same industry.”

“NZAPEP is opposed to the new levy which is in response to the high profile collapses of Modern Age Institute of Learning and Carich Training Centres last year. It is based on the unjustified assumption that all public sector institutions are safe and all private sector institutions are high risk. Government already controls the industry through its various agencies and there is no reason to make PTEs pay for the Government’s monitoring and enforcement failures.”

“We are concerned at the manner in which this legislation was introduced without genuine consultation. To announce an intention to take an action, to call for submissions, to ignore the opinions of those adversely affected and proceed to implement the legislation in the face of unanimous opposition stretches the bounds of credibility and calls into question the integrity of the consultative process.“

ENDS

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