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Speaker 1: The government's returning ten polytechnics into local hands from next year.

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Speaker 1: It's the latest move to unwind the previous government centralized

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Speaker 1: mega institute that was tapooking you might have heard of.

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Speaker 1: It is going from January. First, Southern Institute of Technology,

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Speaker 1: why Cutter Institute of Technology, un Tech, Institute of Technology

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Speaker 1: and Otago among others will return. Penny Simmons is the

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Speaker 1: Minister for Vocational Education. Minister, good evening, Good evening, Ryan.

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Speaker 1: So we did the tapooking a thing because the polytechs

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Speaker 1: weren't working, and now we're undoing that and the polytechs

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Speaker 1: are back. Why will they work this time?

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Speaker 2: Well, many of them were working, but there was financial

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Speaker 2: work that needed to be undertaken. We've done that. We've

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Speaker 2: had financial advisors in with each of the polytechnics over

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Speaker 2: the last year plotting a pathway to financial viability. They

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Speaker 2: are now following that pathway. These ten that are going

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Speaker 2: to be stood up a following that pathway to viability.

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Speaker 2: This is work that should have happened five or six

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Speaker 2: years ago. It's happened now and they are getting rid

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Speaker 2: of the wasteful spending. They are getting themselves back on

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Speaker 2: track to be sustainable.

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Speaker 1: What were they spending money on?

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Speaker 2: Ah look at was really looking through their course offerings

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Speaker 2: where they are offering things that didn't have enough students

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Speaker 2: in them, so the programs weren't viable and so having

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Speaker 2: to work through or that in some instances down as

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Speaker 2: low as two or three people in a course and

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Speaker 2: they were still running them.

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Speaker 1: How many univers how many politics were doing that?

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Speaker 2: Oh, that would be quite wide ranging across the polytech system.

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Speaker 2: So that sort of work had to be done. It

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Speaker 2: should have always been done in the polytechnics that were

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Speaker 2: financially viable. It was being done as a matter of course,

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Speaker 2: but some that had got themselves in trouble just weren't

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Speaker 2: in that financial discipline.

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Speaker 1: We're paying attention. So have you written it into the

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Speaker 1: rules that that cannot happen?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: Do they have to constantly review and if there are

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Speaker 1: classes with two or three people in them then they

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Speaker 1: must cancel.

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Speaker 2: So what's written into the legislation is that if polytechnics

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Speaker 2: are not financially sustainable, there are there is provision for

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Speaker 2: mergers and closures. So they have been given these pathways

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Speaker 2: to financial viability. They've been worked through with financial advisors

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Speaker 2: and the senior management team. They will have local councils appointed,

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Speaker 2: local management appoint it. It's up to them to make

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Speaker 2: sure they stick the path.

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Speaker 1: When's when you say when they get viable? When is

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Speaker 1: that for all of them?

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Speaker 2: Look, most of them, it's next year. It's next year

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Speaker 2: or twenty twenty seven. There's some that have got a

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Speaker 2: very small death sit next year, but most next year

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Speaker 2: or twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: What's cost us tax PA all up to go full

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Speaker 1: to pooking and then unwind.

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Speaker 2: Look it costs well, the previous government spent over three

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Speaker 2: hundred million on it. We are using money that is

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Speaker 2: in reserves in tapoking at plus a small one a

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Speaker 2: small a contingency fund that the Minister Finance is made available.

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Speaker 1: Would you say, Minister, that's three hundred million dollars down

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Speaker 1: the drain.

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Speaker 2: Pretty much wasted. Yes, because there's nothing to see for it.

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Speaker 2: They didn't do the work getting their financial pathways, so

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Speaker 2: they didn't do the work in selling off assets that

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Speaker 2: aren't needed. There's over one hundred million dollars worth of

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Speaker 2: assets that aren't needed that will be sold off over

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Speaker 2: the next couple of years. That's part of that financial

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Speaker 2: viability pathway. You shouldn't have more assets than you need.

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Speaker 1: To have, Okay, Minister, appreciate your time. Penny Simmons, Minister

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Speaker 1: for Vocational Education. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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