The 281 number came from a parliamentary debate I listened to and was not objected to by Labour or Mallard, so I have assumed it is the correct number for ALL school closures during Labour's 9 year tenure
Printable View
A small item in today's newspapers.
NZ is now assessed by Moodys as having a higher credit rating than the UK - NZ Aaa, UK Aa1.
Despite EZ's opinion, one would have to say that this reflects favourably on PM John Key's financial stewardship. :-)
Iceman steady as you go down an ever steepening slope
Hello PTC, thanks for the moral support. I'm like a leper out here - apart from Fred114.
It would seem that Labour did indeed preside over the closing of 281 schools in their last term. Some had a roll as low as 17, some closed voluntarily, but there you go. Mallard's handling of it was a bit rough too, I seem to remember. I'd guess many of those schools were in rural areas, and are part of the increasing size and reduced labour requirement of many farms.
At least Labour don't make a habit of lying about what they're up to. If National had been able to run the place properly (after Labour left it in such a tidy state), you right-wing people wouldn't need to preface everything with "well the whole world's finding it tough, we're doing better than most, Moody's think we're better than the UK".
National haven't been able to find the tiller yet, we're a rudderless boat being swamped in a vicious market-driven sea.
I seem to remember some rather obvious and blatant lies told by Cullen and Peters about a certain phone conversation with Peters....
EZ of course many of the schools Labour closed should have been closed. But if you are going to debate it, be consistent. National is closing 15 schools in Christchurch after the biggest natural catastrophe NZ has ever witnessed, many of them with severely damaged buildings and/or land. This surely is relevant. It should also be mentioned in the same breath that 13 schools are either being rebuilt or built new in Christchurch.
What are you referring to about lies ? National campaigned clearly on all major policies before the elections, including 'unpopular"policies like partial sell downs of SOE's and also gave more advance notice of the election than anyone has done before ! I think John Key has stuck very much to what he has said he would, whether people like it or not
The SkyCity deal is one area Key has put himself on shaky ground. As a commentator put it today, he is parking that aside in some sort of suspended or alternate reality while he waits for the press to forget about it. He clearly used selective facts to present National as having positive policy over gaming machines, when it was Labour's policy origination.
I don't know Christchurch very well, and so I assume some of the noise about the schools closing is the final reality that suburbs near them, will never be built on in future.
My main grump about National is that they are doing their best to leave small businesses out in the cold. And with them, the prospects of employment for many. National is lying, right now, about the new innovation scheme, Callaghan Innovation. They have only funded it to about half as much as it needs with the current staff.
Labour's reshuffle brings some hope to the ranks: David Clark has been given the job of going head-to-head with Steven Joyce. He was on TV this morning, he's very good. Dynamic, enthusiastic, fluent. I think Jabba Joyce will be in big trouble there.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Shearer-revea...4/Default.aspx
The vast majority of voters, particularly Aucklanders, see no need to apologise for getting Auckland a huge new Convention Centre, free, with extra tourism, employment, profits, self respect as a city - you have to have a bent for defeatism, punctiliousness, finickiness and losing sight of the overall objective and muddling your priorities to get it wrong.
As Australian Labour said of the Australian Greens - the Party of Protest, opposing growth and jobs. That's the anti-convention centre people in Auckland to a T.
ElZorro what did you expect when they elected a professional gambler for Prime Minister (what else is a foreign exchange trader) But I am not that much of a Labour fan either. My belief is most politicians would qualify to be certified blithering idiots.