Tuesday, 13 January 2004


At last, perchance, understanding

My opinion is that the network review process is one raddled by the thick rouge of hypocrisy. The reasons given and the explanations offered do not stack up in any rational manner. I have thus struggled to understand the motivation behind the closures and merging of our schools. This was one reason for the web log. But now it appears clear. Using the official information act Deborah Coddington has obtained cabinet papers that reveal the reasons for the network reviews. Read her article: "Cabinet Papers: Close Schools - Pocket Millions". Well done Deborah!

So notwithstanding Trevor Mallards denials, this, to quote Chris Trotter “increasingly looks like a cynical cost-cutting exercise”.

Labour is a party that expects employers to negotiate in “good faith”. The cabinet papers exposed by Deborah Coddington show that in the case of network reviews the Labour party appear to have been less than truthful about the reasons for the closures of our schools. This is not negotiation in“good faith”. I now feel “Labour - the party that holds others to a higher standard than itself”. In my book this is morally depraved: corrupt, if you will.

And the teachers unions that make but faint (if any) protest while schools are closed? Well, teachers must be aware that salaries make up a very large portion of the costs of education. The resultant new large schools will make it very easy to have large class sizes. A future saving to be made by any  government, and a good reward too for the current silence.

The question that we are now forced to ponder is simply “why are Labour trying to save money in education”? The only answer I can see is simply that “children don't vote”.

If we, the voters of New Zealand, aid and abet Labour in this cynical exercise, and we do so by keeping them in power, well, we deserve the future our children will give us... Happy New Year.


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10:53:29 PM