Christchurch Press has good background to Tolley’s budget mess.
The Government plan involved a reversal of lower teacher-pupil ratios for new-entrant classes. The 1:15 ratio started this year would be scrapped and returned to the previous 1:18. Tolley approved the plan, which noted that 772 fulltime equivalent teaching positions would be cut on May 3.
So it is clear that Tolley signed out a paper with not only the cuts but the timing in it.
Education Minister Anne Tolley said last night that she backed out of the plan days before the May 28 Budget announcement when she realised how many jobs would be lost.
“I don’t think that I thought they were actual staff. I didn’t realise that they were actually all in place,” she said. “I still thought that we were talking about it as being in the future.”
How could that be. She knew the 1.15 came in last year. I heard her talking about it in the campaign. She promised not to reverse it. So she knew before the election they were in place, she was reminded in writing they were in place and she still signed them off.
I thought there would have been some [redundancies] but I didn’t think they were all actually on the ground and in place,” Tolley said last night.
“I take full responsibility. It was my error and it was my decision, but we never went into that with the idea of making people redundant.”
Hardly credible. Probably a loss of nerve. I just can’t find it very hard to believe that Tolley is so stupid..
She “had no option but to leave the savings in”.
That just leaves a very big question for Bill English. If the decision to take out the teachers had been reversed before the budget as Tolley claims, while it was too late for the formal documentation, it is my view that English had to correct the error by way of note or erratum – or he as well as Tolley was in breach of the Public Finance Act.
The Government would somehow have to account for the savings in next year’s Budget, she said.
The ministry was putting together a paper with options on how to make the saving. It was due “any day”.
Needs to be done before the next fiscal update.
Overall a very sad picture of a Minister prepared to sacrifice the quality of education, not good at remembering how schools are staffed and certainly not capable of reading and understanding Budget papers. She is a front bench member of this government. It just shows how thin their veneer is.
What is also sad is her subsequent lack of honesty. When questioned on the cut she made no mention of her foolishness but did say she had set up a committee to advise her on how to implement it.
My God. How long until all this starts to be reflected in the polls? Nice one, Kiwis. You got your “change” alright.
Her Science is dodgy, her economics is dodgy now her accounting is dodgy.
Just as well Paul Holmes says she sounds reasonable since the rest doest seem to matter
People do make mistakes. I remember when we were told that signing up to Kyoto would inject $500,000,000 into the econonmy only to have it cost us that much. I would think that a $1,000,000,000 mistake would rate far higher than this when it comes to budgeting.
“Her Science is dodgy, her economics is dodgy now her accounting is dodgy”
Is she off her Tolley?
@ geek – making a mistake on poor or moving advice is one thing. Not reading or understanding papers you are signing off for budget cuts is in a different category.
I agree with Trevor. Such a mistake means she is either incredibly naive or stupid. Much as the latter label can be applied to the majority of Cabinet, it seems much more believable that she lost her bottle.
I would argue that when dealing with such large sums that not making a mistake is in fact far more critical. At least this mistake was picked up and addressed before those jobs were lost and the minister took responsability for her mistake.
I am pretty sure we the tax payer had to swallow that billion dollar one with not so much as an “I’m sorry” from the man in charge who instead felt the need to lump blame on tresury.
Chopper Tolley really is a dangerous as a junkie.
How can someone like this be a minister and claim to good at it? She should be looking to improve the education system as she has first hand account of how bad it is. Just look at her lack of comprehension!!
Deleted Trolling Warning Trevor
I love this quote:
‘ I thought there would have been some [redundancies] but I didn’t think they were all actually on the ground and in place,” Tolley said last night. ‘
There is a panic-stricken edge to these protestations.
I don’t think the bumbling Ministry of Education are keeping very good care of her either. What is going on here? Are they giving her just enough rope to hang herself? Or is it simply impossible to get good synergy if nobody knows what they are doing?
Education continues to disappoint, as it did with Labour for a great part. Not while you were in charge though Trevor!
“I don’t think that I thought they were actual staff.” Too many “thinks” and no actual thoughts, at a guess. She probably really means “I wish that I thought…”
This is another example of her inability to make good decisions, understand her portfolio and from where I sit, I get the distinct impression that soon our education systems will be in tatters! Just look at the nonsense going on with Aorangi – If one did not know better, one would think the moe are most certainly setting her up for a big fall. However, if you are a minister, you should read ALL the information you are given. What concerns me is that she actually DOES NOT have any credibility in terms of this portfolio – being a parent whose children have gone through the systems does not mean you understand the subtleties involved and make you an expert – and if you actually don’t have any credentials, then you make sure you read things indepth so that you understand it. If you ask me, I would suggest that the real push behind her is the ex principal Nat MP – I bet he is just waiting for her to fall so he can step in and ‘save the day’. Then watch the Nats put in performance pay and return to bulk funding, so that the rich can get richer and the poorer trampled! How many schools like Aorangi are going to be the collateral damage in this puppetry act!
Oh no! Not the Bulk funding drama again!!!!!
AND did you see in another Stuff website story about proposed parenting courses for behaviourally troubled students she is quoted as saying there are pockets of money about and they (Ministry) just need to figure out how to put them together (to pay for courses) – so I guess that’s where the money for night classes and school advisors is heading. Strange that they can’t keep track of ‘pockets of money’ when most NZers are very aware of where their dollars are not stretching to during a recession.
[...] Alert education followers will remember the revelations around Tolley
@Paul – what nonsense is at Aorangi? None. There are four schools within a 1.5 km radius, all of which could take their piffling small roll of less than 100. In fact it was originally set up as a satellite of one of those schools and has only been in existence a few decades. All its buildings are badly run down and will cost millions to rebuild, compared to say three new classrooms at another school plus maybe some addons. And that doesn’t take into account the value of the land when it is sold. Labour closed many more schools with much less justification, in fact Aorangi should have been closed during their term of office,
@Paul – sorry to burst your bubble. If Labour had continued the amalgamations then far more schools would have been closed that are still running today. Although they do close anyway. Aorangi should have done years ago. It is a very poor example to cite here, the community in that area is very well supplied with schools with the two nearest primaries only 720 and 855 metres away (as the crow flies). All that nonsense about bulk funding is just scaremongering anyway.
[...] legendary. The chopper ride was just stupid. Night class cuts have annoyed Nats as well as others. Not reading the budget papers she signed cutting teacher numbers. Cutting and narrowing teacher professional development in [...]
National Standards implementation, and the re-jigging of the roles of advisors – presumably turning science advisors into maths advisors, music advisors into literacy? I don’t know but it looks like there will be a waste of expertise and their resources here. They will react. They are most likely reacting now behind the scenes!