Opposition leader pays a Little visit to Wintec

Labour leader Andrew Little popped into Wintec Friday to start a conversation with students about the future of New Zealand.

Little and fellow Labour MPs, finance spokesman Grant Robinson and local list MP Sue Moroney, spent the morning at Wintec’s Gallagher Hub.

Little said he was keen to get around all the tertiary providers to get a look at what they did and to see what needed to be done differently.

“The demand for [education] is only ever going to grow…We need to make sure we’re getting it right,” he said

The Labour leader gave a short speech to a small but attentive audience, backed by a larger crowd listening in with half and ear as they worked at the Hub’s computers, before he spoke to students one-on-one.

He said Labour was reaching out to get a conversation going.

“To get your ideas, so that by the time we get to the election in 2017 we’ll have a set of ideas and policies that actually make sense,” he said.

He urged the audience to make the most of their time in higher learning to engage with politics and the world.

“Challenge yourselves, challenge the world around you, and challenge the politicians who turn up to the campus to speak,” he said.

Early Childhood Teaching student Matisha East got a good talk in with Little before he rushed to his next appointment.

East thanked Little for his stand against sending troops to Iraq, and discussed her concerns over the number of liquor stores around town and how close some of them were to schools. East said Little’s visit was a “positive start” to the conversation about the issues.

“It’s awesome to see a top level politician come to little Wintec,” she said.

“He had some good points, but nothing to really set my mind at ease over what John Key is doing.”