PRESS RELEASE 13 OCTOBER 1999
ATTENTION: EDUCATION AND POLITICAL REPORTERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM APSU
MAD MAX 4: THE UNIVERSITY
The Aotearoa Post-compulsory Student Union today described the confrontation between the Minister for Tertiary Education
and a Canterbury University student this morning as "the unfortunate result of a lack of Ministerial training".
"Taking on the Tertiary Education portfolio is a big responsibility," said APSU Student Union President, John Barkess.
"As the Government and APSU both agree, tertiary education is central to improving social cohesion and economic growth.
Yet part of taking on this responsibility is being able to deal with the issues and people involved in tertiary
education which, funnily enough, includes students."
"What we are seeing here is a classic case of inadequate training and preparation. Throughout his time in the portfolio,
Mr Bradford has seemed a bit out at sea. First, he assumed that you can have universities that do not conduct any
research. Then he set up a whole policy package to encourage students to take science, without actually doing any
research himself to see if this was a problem."
"We are concerned that Mr Bradford is feeling a bit overwhelmed, by having too many portfolios, not enough time to do
his job properly, and not enough support. We are willing to offer our help to get him through this tough time, by
offering training and education. Perhaps an anger management course would be a good start."