Anyone who is engaging with the Chinese constituency nationwide will appreciate their disappointment at the performance of the NACT Government which culminated in yesterday’s PPTA strike.
280,000 students from more than 450 schools were affected by the strike action.
This is a double-blow to Chinese families. Firstly for those affected by the strike and secondly, for the fact that this proves the NACT Government has no plan to run the country or invest in our future.
Chinese families who value education so highly now realise that the NACT government are not interested in investing in their children’s future.
The PPTA asked the Government for a four percent pay rise to stem the flow of teachers moving overseas and for a cap of 30 students per class.
Negotiations between the PPTA and the Government stalled, sparking the strike action.
The Government said no contingency had been set aside for the increase of funding requested by the PPTA. But, interestingly, the Government had no trouble finding $1.775 Billion to bail South Canterbury Finance out of trouble.
Some members of the Chinese community told me they had voted for John Key because of his banking background. Now two years through the term, all they got was empty rhetoric, talk-fests and no real plan.
Some of them gave a vivid example to show that this government is so entrenched with their business mindset that instead of running the country, they choose to treat the voters as a “tradable commodity”.
For instance, they may give you $30 extra per-week through tax cuts but at the same time they take away much more through inflation, GST rise, water charges and cuts in ACC and health. Like the teacher’s case, the 1.5 per cent wage increase offered by the Government can easily be eroded.
Even worse, the billions to be spent on bailing out the Finance companies are taxpayer’s dollars. What does that mean to taxpayers proportionally?
For National, teachers and our future are not worthwhile in their dollar terms.
