Labour's Double Standard Beyond Contempt

Thursday 4 Dec 2003 Deborah Coddington Press Releases -- Education

ACT New Zealand Education Spokesman Deborah Coddington today accused the Labour Government of having double standards, in the wake of its decision to raise levies for private education providers by a massive 55 percent.

"The Government tabled the Education (Export Education Levy) Amendment Bill yesterday, which includes a special export education tax on private training establishments. When a PTE fails to meet its contractual obligations to its students, the Government will refund the students affected, then - through a levy - force all other PTEs to meet this cost," Miss Coddington said.

"This Bill highlights Education Minister Trevor Mallard's ideological bias against private education providers. When has Labour ever bailed out a financially-troubled State-funded polytechnic, then expected other polytechnics to accept the burden and fork out to make things right?

"This latest attempt to undermine the private education industry is beyond contempt. Mr Mallard should be consulting PTEs and asking: `How can we help'? Rather, he would prefer that the industry drift off into the sunset, never to be seen again," Miss Coddington said.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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