Bill English – "No one will be worse off": Liar.

Anne Tolley -?

I wonder if anyone online can advise me on this point? If I was to write a?

It has come to my notice that your performance in electing a sensible and democratic government has been sorely lacking. Before the election, it was obvious to any thinking person that should National/ACT be elected, they would abandon democratic, evidence-based government in favour of knee-jerk policies?

From soundbite to policy

Great title, both accurate and scary.

There seems to be a sense of entitlement emanating from the National government driving their arrogant disdain for proper democratic process for bills that will actually have significant impact on peoples' lives.

If their bills are so awesome, wouldn't public?

my two noms are, obviously not included in the competition, because I lack networking skills, which as APRA and NZMIC will go to great pains to?

Isn't that what the country voted?

... the actions may be interpreted on the other hand by the electorate as the new government just getting stuck in and more or less doing what they said they were going to do...

Two-thirds of respondents to this poll seem to feel that way.

just ain't working

if there's an editor in the house, could all this '160@ ...' business be removed?
just ain't working

I fixed it. The ampersand in the URL confused the system into thinking it was an email address, but I made a TinyURL that works now.

Circumventing the?

Most disturbing snippet I just read about this bill is this:

"The bill also contains provision for a huge increase in fines for the parents of truants, from $150 to $300 for the first offence and from $400 to $3000 for second and subsequent offences. The penalty for?

I read through the Education (National Standards) Amendment bill this morning, and three things struck me

1) National Standards is a phrase rich in irony

2) WTF is the spurious justification for putting?

Being a National supporter, his stock response to any question about motivations/reasons etc was 'They've got the mandate, the country voted for them'.

Even when I pointed out only some of the country voted for?

The schools that take the 'worst' children, the 'problem' ones, and work to help them will be seen as failing

Yes, although I must say that our local school gets a lot of problem children and results-wise... it kicks ass.

1. It's (possibly) not produced sustainably.
2. It uses carbon to get it here.

Which are true, but both those things also apply to oil. My understanding of the main reason for introducing biofuels was that?

Being a National supporter, his stock response to any question about motivations/reasons etc was 'They've got the mandate, the country voted for them'.

That's what George W Bush said when he was re-elected. "I have a mandate, I was given political capital and I intend to spend it." With about?

If there's anything more depressing than a National supporter, it's a stupid National supporter...

About as depressing as stupid people running the line that you're not a "real" Government because your support isn't over some arbitrary — and remarkably mobile — line. Sorry, Rogan, but you want to get your?

That's what George W Bush said when he was re-elected. "I have a mandate, I was given political capital and I intend to spend it." With about 53% of the vote, heh.

Oh, someone remind me what Obama's share of the popular vote was again — and, thanks to the?

You never stopped being a rancid little fool, so full marks for consistency and 'not achieved' on every other count. But I'm still utterly disinterested in listening to you trying to play Emily Post — or Socrates — around here.

Craig, its only been a month and already you have been reduced to posting lame intellectual sophistry?

This is as good an opportunity as I'll ever get to ask a large audience this question: am I the only person who, whenever he hears of reads the word "sophistry", conjures up?

When I see the word "sophistry", it conjures up the image of someone who has no idea what it means, but suspects it's a really fancy-pants synonym for "stupid".

With about 53% of the vote, heh. And look how well that ended ....

I think Nat's point, Craig, is that people who get elected by a relatively small margin may want to be careful about acting arrogantly, as if they have a whole lot of "political capital". I haven't?

So when they say "irony", do you think of a clothes-presser or a blacksmith?

Spider Robinson's God is an Iron.

am I the only person who, whenever he hears of reads the word "sophistry", conjures up the image of an upholstery shop?

I always think of lesbians.

Then I realise that would be something like "sapphistry".

am I the only person who, whenever he hears of reads the word "sophistry", conjures up the image of an upholstery shop?

Not until you mentioned it.
Then again, I'd never associated Judas Iscariot with carrots until someone mentioned that they'd always made that connection. Since then I've thought of?

And I'm thinking Rodney is setting up to be John's Winston, perhaps with the added bonus that one suspects outside the terms of his?

I always think of lesbians.

We have a pill for that.

1. Support (voting) for National party policy

(is NOT the same as) support for

2. Disregard for parlimentary & other democratic processes

I suspect that Mr Key is genuine wants to do?

The present National Coalition Government may prove to be just as legislatively deficient as previous Labour Coalition Government. In it?s grim under urgency final?

Tom:

You never stopped being a rancid little fool, so full marks for consistency and 'not achieved' on every other count.

Try and debate the topic rather than calling names, Craig.

The present National Coalition Government may prove to be just as legislatively deficient as previous Labour Coalition Government.

But as someone pointed out above, it took Labour years to get that shabby. National's doing it in its first week.

So when they say "irony", do you think of a clothes-presser or a blacksmith?

The former, but I think I owe that to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

I always think of lesbians.

We have a pill for that.

That's alright. I'm okay with it.

Score me as another parent who condones their child's truancy. Fine me, jail me, call me names.

If you ever get any hassles, you'll let us know, won't you?

You'll be aware that IHC has lodged a human rights complaint against the ministry of education on this very basis. Details?

Score me as another parent who condones their child's truancy. Fine me, jail me, call me names.

I hear ya. How does this little cracker from the new minister strike you?

Tolley made no apologies for increasing the fines for truancy. "The maximum fine for (not) registering your dog is?

Meanwhile at education HQ the folk are now busy deciding teachers will weigh the cow rather than feed it...

It is all rather surreal...

It's clear that National have tapped?

Tolley made no apologies for increasing the fines for truancy. "The maximum fine for (not) registering your dog is $3000. I think it is more important you send your children to school than register your dog."

I'm going to take a deep breath and a fistful of valium and give?

The only justification for testing children is that it is an appropriate test which does no harm, and only given if it will help the child to learn better. Standardised tests do?

About as depressing as stupid people running the line that you're not a "real" Government because your support isn't over some arbitrary — and remarkably mobile — line. Sorry, Rogan, but you want to get your bitch on, I'm quite happy to repay the discourtesy.

Chill out Craig, it's Friday?

She doesn't understand and genuinely hasn't thought about the needs of kids for whom conventional schooling simply doesn't work.

I think you might have leant a little too heavily on the valium, that's some massive benefit of the doubt you're giving an MP who has been the understudy for the?

Score me as another parent who condones their child's truancy. Fine me, jail me, call me names.

Pardon me if I've ranted about this before, but I can't let it pass. I've been down this path with my now-15 year old son. He was out of formal education for three?

How do feel about some sort of annual test which measures your child against a hypothetical average?

I find it a waste of time Ian.I fully agree with your comments. I think a 'test' that gives an indication of one's child's strengths and weaknesses fine.That in turn gives teachers a?

that's some massive benefit of the doubt you're giving

Benefit of the doubt can be hugely amusing. For instance, during the Civil Union debate Gordon Copeland said he didn't know any straight couples who wanted civil unions, ergo it was just sneaky gay marriage. So I wrote him a nice?

That said I am less than happy with the present rush under urgency, I didn't like Labour making quite?

Tolley made no apologies for increasing the fines for truancy. "The maximum fine for (not) registering your dog is $3000. I think it is more important you send your children to school than register your dog."

...
Did you know the Council can have your dog put down for not doing?

The parents I know who have wanted to know the results of PAT and other tests are those who have high achieving children and?

"The maximum fine for (not) registering your dog is $3000. I think it is more important you send your children to school than register your dog."

Though National have always thought that registering dogs was very important. Didn't Stephen Franks want to take his dog to the Registry Office?

The maximum fine for (not) registering your dog is $3000. I think it is more important you send your children to school than register your dog."

I'll bear that in mind if ever my kids start biting the postie.

I don't give a crap how my kid shapes up against?

Didn't Stephen Franks want to take his dog to the Registry Office?

Badoom-tish!

Pardon me if I've ranted about this before, but I can't let it pass.

Kerry, you should go tell your story to the Select Committee when this bill comes before it. Ah wait, sorry, nevermind.

Perhaps since you've been denied that opportunity, you could write it down and send it?

PTAC considered that data for Herceptin in HER2 positive early breast cancer has been,
and continues to be, subject to unacceptable publication bias. Given this unacceptable?

It is roundly acknowledged as having had no benefit, and only because it is a legacy project of the Bush Jr. administration has it?

On DPF / Urgency, the Standard has a good point (the Standard is usually a bit foamy for me, but they're right here).

And then their comments section is a complete sewer, telling everyone who disagrees with them to f%^& off, and writing in big bold black under their comments to?

Giovanni: I think it was Farrar originally writing in the NBR.

Can't read you on account of all the egg on my face.

Obviously, Tolley has a picture in her head of what every truanting kid is like, and honestly believes that truanting is always caused by lazy and neglectful parenting.

I'd extend it a bit further, and say that National have a picture in their head of what poor/disadvantaged people are like,?

Can you do that link again – it just comes straight back to the blog – as does Russell's link to the Education National Standards Amendment Bill.

if anyone can provide advice on which offices in Parliament I should write to, I would be grateful to receive it.

Try your union first. Writing personally to your bosses might make you rather vulnerable.

Emerging evidence is that sequential 12 months is the least effective way to use Herceptin .

So what does National fund?

I wonder where the Nat/Act Policy came from? Ummm?

I think, Ian, perhaps they tendered it out in some sort of public/private policy partnership.This is what ya get when the lowest tender is accepted. ;-)

I've noticed DPF has locked up his comments section. Looks like he got sick of the sewer rats after all.

He normally turns off comments for blog posts about his NBR column.

James: the graph on page 4 of this document

Can you do that link again – it just comes straight back to the blog – as does Russell's link to the Education National Standards Amendment Bill.

(quoting myself)

Oh dear. They were PDF files. Technologically I seem to be a?

Political expediency 4. Science 0.

The climate change stance is just fucking embarrassing. *sigh*

I suspect that the really dangerous thing for them will be their playing?

Even education pales when compared to the loss of the planet.

Ah, but not when you're Fran O'Sillivan:

No one is focused on climate change when the very issue of the survival of the world's financial system predominates.

The airline said today that it was staying at 4 per cent even though the Government this week reduced the compulsory company contribution to 2 per cent.
...
However, employees needed stability in the scheme to allow them to?

The Bail Amendment Bill has passed its first reading. The Labour opposition voted in favour (not that unusual), but – here's the thing – the Maori Party voted against.

The Associate Minister of Corrections is co-leader of the Maori Party. So Dr Pita?

I was wondering why this new government has rushed into this undemocratic?

in the meantime we'll remove every other carbon-reducing initiative we can think of.

To be fair that isn't too hard, there weren't too many of them.

What they do with EECA will be the litmus test between being merely maladvised ideologues and complete idiots. That agency is one that saves?

Meanwhile at education HQ the folk are now busy deciding teachers will weigh the cow rather than feed it...

Ah, No Child Left Behind, or No Child Left Alone...don't get me started. OK, you started me. Here's how it works round our parts – a purely anecdotal and highly individual?

MMP flexibility ... here's the latest twist.

The Bail Amendment Bill has passed its first reading. The Labour opposition voted in favour (not that unusual), but – here's the thing – the Maori Party voted against.

The Associate Minister of Corrections is co-leader of the Maori Party. So Dr Pita?

I wish I could be as nice as Emma, really.

Sorry crazily long post, the comment on Pharmac is the one that hurts the most to write.

Re Democracy:
New Zealand still hasn't got the hang of MMP and governments still try and?

Don't worry. It happened on a Friday afternoon. Sky safe.

(still, at least Winston waited over two years before inventing the elastic portfolio, whereas poor old Pita couldn't get through the first week).

Maths is no easier. Many questions come in two parts: the question, and then "How do you know your answer is correct?" Again, he writes "I just do." [His physicist father assures me that "By inspection" is a perfectly respectable equivalent for this at the professional level].

I hated that?

It's so dull, so pointless! So trivialising, so excruciating, and so entirely unrelated to how kids think, how they learn, how they are engaged, what they need to know, what they want to know.

Jolisa, I'm really saddened by the story you've just recounted. I despair of the testing obession?

Cynical nasty answer is, the business round table wants standard exam grades so they can exclude people from the workforce based on those grades.

I don't know what the NZBR want, but BusinessNZ is a strong supporter of NCEA. I can't recall NZBR saying much about assessment recently,?

What'll be next? Gakush? juku?

Oh god. I used to teach in a juku. Eleven year olds. It was a weirdly interesting job, in its own way. I'll never forget the time I asked if the midnight earthquake the night before had woken them up, and they were all "Nah,?

I can't imagine why I've got Pink Floyd stuck in my head now...

Really glad someone else mentioned Pink Floyd.

I can't see the youtube clip (lousy firewall....), but I've had this scenethis scene from 'The Wall' running through my head all afternoon.

p.m.

Twice a week.

That was just English; the other nights of the week were given over to Maths and other subjects. Eleven year olds. But Japan is a whole other story.

The testing is displacing teaching

Exactly. I didn't?

But the bit that makes him really flip out is when, after asking the same stupid comprehension question several times from several different angles, the final question is always: "What was the most important thing you learned from reading this article? And why is it important?"

He routinely answers "Nothing"?

Too cynical? yes.

Um guys this is actually one of the few pieces of legislation in this batch that actually has been through "the system". It's stupid because any competent business could hire on probation anyway and providing they wrote a letter at month one and month two they could fire any?

When I mentioned to her the success of the herceptin lobby, she said it had already been noted and was very much being taken into account.

That's the thing about this situation, there's no doubt in my mind that funding longer/more Herceptin has real merit, but I'm not a clincian?

Testing in schools. Any teacher worth a damn tests the appropriate kids regularly to spot weaknesses in their teaching.

Ben, agreed. What if the testing is so pervasive that it crowds out the enjoyment of learning? A structured classroom is essential, a curriculum too, but how would we feel if?

there's no doubt in my mind that funding longer/more Herceptin has real merit, but I'm not a clincian and I don't know the competing interests.

Paul, I'm also not a clinician but I can't quite see how you're deciding on merit from what I've read.

"Competing interests" seems to be?

teachers will weigh the cow rather than feed it

What for me makes a good MP is?

Unless, of course, they?

The paranoia over the comments is as George D notes, misplaced. I always turn off comments when linking to my weekly NBR column, so people comment over there.

As for tax cuts and bureaucracy, Lyndon correctly?

'One complaint I am hearing from both parents and teachers is?

I?ve previously blogged that passing bills under urgency without select committee scrutiny, will lead to flaws in the laws that will need to be corrected later.

It is of greater concern that the bills to be debated have not been made available to MPs at the?

I think that this might be the first move towards dismantling Pharmac completely, and replacing our buying model with something expensive and less effective.

Agreed, and I am so looking forward to the Nats explaining how boosting foreign pharma's profits fits with any of what they supposedly believe in. Heck,?

On Parliament TV they are now debating the Education Amendment Bill

Gosh, Metiria Turei is fantastic.

And, I'll say, literacy and numeracy are handy skills, thats all.

Any bets on how long before the Maori Party divorces the National /Act government?

I don't know about the whole party, but I'd guess individual MPs will be wondering why they got dragged down the aisle. Here's
the maiden speech from their newest recruit. It's a roll call of radical?

Gosh, Metiria Turei is fantastic.

Indeed she is. By far, the best of the bunch from here.

Any bets on how long before the Maori Party divorces the National /Act government?

In support of their agreement with National,Mrs Turia said :

?We face difficult economic times, the causes of which lie beyond our shores. The global economic downturn will particularly affect Maori people and workers. We are?

At the moment, it's so completely lost in its own rhetoric, in a world that they've created, and completely sure of the sources of all the problems they've located.

New Zealand's problems can be attributed almost entirely to the interfering hand?

And can someone explain why Anne Tolley, without a degree and not much apparent experience in the sector, got the Education portfolio over Alan Peachey who at least has a few years of secondary principal experience?

Who knows? That difference of experience sure shows in the debate. I'm glad I'm?

She showed how aligned the ideology of the Bill is with the No Child Left Behind law in the US and quoted an evaluation of that law that showed a 17% drop out rate of black students and those with disabilities from education in just 2 years.

And that's why?

Yeah -'the newest recruit.'
Didn't make herself exactly wellknown round the rohe.
Has slanted her heritage.
Isn't welcome.

She got elected. She can't be that unknown or unwelcome, surely?

Which isn't to say she's popular with all, or carries great mana – I don't know her at all...

This ridiculous urgency process reminds of the late 1970s when I worked in the parliamentary library. In those days urgency literally went all through the night (now they?

How should one treat a child who has been told that their efforts are below average/standard ?

I wont go into 'slanted her heritage' but it is known.

She?

I'm sorry if this sounds a little cryptic but;

How should one treat a child who has been told that their efforts are below average/standard ?

There was a time 81, when exams did this to half the candidates...

Because the new law takes away any requirement for the employer to provide a reason for firing in the?

The Labout Party will now go back to raising grass roots issues and annoying, for want of a better word, "activists" to try and rebuild?

On Parliament TV they are now debating the Education Amendment Bill. This is surely post modern politics!

Do they have wi-fi in the chamber? Imagine if a few were reading this thread and using our links for rebuttal.. that would be cool.

Ian, agree totally on the heinousness of this?

Only those of a redistributionist mindset believe that someone else has to miss out on medicine when National increases funding for one drug... It must come out of general taxation.

Whether funding comes Health allocations or from the general fund or from wherever, it can only be spent once; the?

How should one treat a child who has been told that their efforts are below average/standard ?

One should say: but your good with your hands.

Their crowning achievement is that they drove NZ into a recession a good year to 6 months before the GFC.

Well, DexterX, it was a `technical' recession ... and according to Bollard is now technically over. Bollard says:

"Those numbers in New Zealand can jump around and historically they tend?

Jolisa – Do what is right for your child rather than what is politically correct for your political views and circle of friends.

And they say Labour blew it because they thought they knew better than parents what was ""right for" their children.

I'm just not convinced it's the way to fix the problem. The only people it's enriching are those who peddle the curriculum and testing materials.

Maybe it is?

The fines are aimed at those parents who just do not give a f&*k.

One of the points of a select committee process is to ensure that legislation does in fact end up doing what it is supposed to. If the goal here is to target parents "just dont?

And of course there is no research showing that homework enhances learning especially for the under 11's!

Ian, you're so right. Although in our house the evidence suggests that it enhances one's ability to articulate arguments that will eventually get you an A+ in a stage one Education or Sociology?

Yes Malcolm Gladwell is great.?

Obviously I want to do what's right for my kids. But if I and parents like me bail out of the public system, then we are leaving all those other kids behind, no?

Go Jolisa. And how cool would it be if the Obama girls were enrolled in a public?

The second aim was to ensure the infrastructure?

If she had to take the Bill through a select committee and listen to submissions where those issues were raised, she might have learned something.

But why on earth would she want to do that?

Or John Key's kids in State school?

Well, in NZ it's different: public schools kick some serious butt. It's not what I hear about the US of A.

The fines are aimed at those parents who just do not give a f&*k.

One of the points of a select committee process is to ensure that legislation does in fact end up doing what it is supposed to. If the goal here is to target parents "just dont give?

how cool would it be if the Obama girls were enrolled in a public school?

Don't they have top be? That's what happened to the Santos kids in The West Wing.

Well, in NZ it's different: public schools kick some serious butt. It's not what I hear about the US of A.

It depends where you live. To a large extent, schools are funded by cities and towns, with input from the state and federal level — imagine if your rates?

Is anyone who has this inconsistency in his or her position concerned about this?

I think it's more that I don't recognise the comparison.

It depends where you live.

Yes, I should have clarified: we live in a working class area, and the majority of kids at our school are from immigrant families. I was comparing like with like in that regard. (Although I remain largely ignorant of the situation in the US).

The repeal of S59 did not want to put definitions in because this would give licence for some punishments to be interpreted as OK. (Ideally it would read "No child should be hit ever".)

There were some who supported an explicit ban, but I think most who supported the bill?

It is experiencing the system that makes you realise how shit it is. John Key grew up in a shitty area and went to state school. helen clark was a boarder at a posh auckland state grammar school.

Sage, you're just making stuff up.

Key grew up in a nice?