Putting some lead in Labour’s pencil

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In the space of 10 days or so Labour Party leader David Cunliffe painted a sad picture of a party with a diminished view of what New Zealand could be.

Firstly he confirmed the party is still in the iron grip of neoliberalism with its tax policy announcement; secondly he apologised for being a man; thirdly he reassured us he won’t have Internet-Mana MPs in his cabinet and fourthly in the middle of a positive announcement about decreasing class sizes he introduced a “user pays” policy for a child’s access to technology in education.

Labour’s tax policy alone would have brought broad smiles of relief across Remuera and Parnell. It was an even paler version of the pallid policy Labour presented at the last election.

Gone is the commitment to remove GST from fresh fruit and vegetables; gone is the commitment to make the first $5000 of income tax free; gone is the commitment to end discrimination against the children of beneficiaries via the in-work tax credit and gone is any real commitment to a progressive income tax policy.

The only bright spot was Labour’s capital gains tax but even here this modest 15% tax means unearned income for the wealthy would be taxed at a lower rate than hard-earned income from wages and salaries.

The approval of right-wing media for Labour’s tax policy says it all.

I thought Cunliffe’s apology for being a man was cringeworthy. He should have said that sometimes it’s an embarrassment to be a man with the levels of domestic violence perpetrated by men and then announced some practical policies to hold men accountable and protect vulnerable women and children.

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The announcement to use the Manaia-Kalani Trust model to deliver technology to children in the classroom is a real worry. “User-pays” has haunted low and middle-income families for decades under successive Labour and National governments. It has no place in our classrooms. I spoke to a parent in Glen Innes a few days ago who simply can’t afford the weekly payments to the trust for her boy’s computer which will be worth virtually nothing once it’s paid off.

A much better option would be access to schools and classroom technology after normal school hours where children can come in and access the internet in a properly supervised homework setting. It would require government funding to staff those centres but it would be a natural extension of the school as a community hub where families and whole communities work together for the benefit of our kids to give them the best start in life.

Labour’s plans to reduce class sizes on the other hand will be welcomed across the board. Every teacher and every parent knows small class sizes mean more personalised help and a better chance for children to prosper in education.

It’s still a far too modest proposal however. Currently the government pours state subsidies into private schools to enable them to maintain class sizes of 1 to 15. Similarly with elite integrated schools like Wanganui Collegiate and ACT’s charter schools who are also rewarded with extra funding for small class sizes.

So why should public school parents be shy about asking for the same deal?

This last few weeks shows just how important it is for people who want real change in New Zealand, rather than just a change of government, to vote for parties like Internet Mana which will put some lead in Labour’s pencil.

20 COMMENTS

  1. “I thought Cunliffe’s apology for being a man was cringeworthy” – funny, that’s more or less what John Key thought too. Sometimes when the Left goes the full circle it ends up in the same place as the Right

  2. Hey John Minto – you say ”I thought Cunliffe’s apology for being a man was cringeworthy. He should have said that sometimes it’s an embarrassment to be a man with the levels of domestic violence perpetrated by men and then announced some practical policies to hold men accountable and protect vulnerable women and children.” HE DID! He said “I don’t often say it. I’m sorry for being a man right now, because family and sexual violence is perpetrated overwhelmingly by men against women and children.” Context context context. Compassion. And stop believing selective quoting right wing distorted media diversions.

  3. Fambo, I think what John meant was that the whole policy announcement was cringeworthy.

    2000 extra teachers will have a negligible impact on class sizes and there was no announcement on upskilling, re-motivating or retraining teachers.

    It is now generally accepted that it is the quality of the teacher rather than the class size that makes the real difference in getting the most out of pupils.

    But John slams it home, if parents can’t afford the ‘donation’, how will they afford the computer hire purchase ?

    • No.

      Its not either / or, its both. Step outside of binary thinking.

      As an ex teacher who taught in large secondary school classrooms in Auckland I can tell you its both.

      Its passion for ones subject, knowledge about your subject (and you don’t need a Masters to teach at secondary school level, a bachelors degree is plenty), and time available for each kid in the class.

      I had classes with over 30 kids for years 9 and 10. Its impossible to spend time with every kid in a class that big during any one lesson.

      Bigger classes mean more kids with behaviour which is disruptive. Smaller classes are simply easier to manage.

      Classes of no more than 20 would be perfect. That would mean A LOT more than 2000 teachers needed.

      And while I’m on the subject, they say they want to train more teachers? What about work for the teachers already trained who cannot find teaching jobs?

      Here I am, a trained and experienced science teacher who cannot find any work where I live. And no, I’m not moving to Auckland.

      I’ll just keep on with my own business. Probably won’t go back to teaching now. I miss it though.

      • The thought that any science teacher is unemployed anywhere is outrageous. I’m furious on your behalf. I also agree with your comments.

  4. How is a 15% tax(capital gains) on property supposed to be unearned
    How is property unearned?

  5. And what will the ipad or whatever actually cost a family over 3 years, that is the question.

    • Far less than buying it at the shop. Price seems to be $373 going on the figures released but I really do hope that they don’t do iPads as we need to get away from the proprietary software not have more of it.

  6. Surprised at you joining the simplistic right wing criticising Cunliffe for his comments on violence and masculine power. Revenge I guess, not admirable really. As I have read your opinions in the past expressing the belief that NZ should stop exports and have a self sufficient economy, don’t know why I expected you to be reasonable. And you are wondering why he has doubts about Cabinet positions. Extremism isn’t a great idea, can be very destructive. I am a big fan of Hone but John you are becoming bitter and twisted and not helping your own cause. A tiny minority would vote for your belief system John, we need to change the govt and it is going to take some pragmatism. The education policies show that Labour is listening to kiwis, that is important, whether you agree with most of the population is irrelevant.

    • Extremism isn’t a great idea

      What’s so extreme about being self-sufficient?

      And before you say but trade is better there’s one simple fact that the rather stupid economists and politicians haven’t twigged to yet – societies don’t specialise.

  7. I think the technology hub idea could work – share the resources.

    Or, why not run a competition to create a NZ educational computing device that is a low/reasonable price and helps to develop our own NZ-based high-tech design/delivery capability. This could be something for IMP to pick up – why just make Apple/Microsoft/Samsung etc richer?

  8. I’m afraid to say the thing that will cost labour the most votes will be people worried that a vote for labour is a vote for your mate Kim dot com

  9. A much better option would be access to schools and classroom technology after normal school hours where children can come in and access the internet in a properly supervised homework setting.

    No it wouldn’t as that would maintain the Digital Divide because, the way society is going, you need access to that sort of equipment and the internet 24/7.

  10. “I thought Cunliffe’s apology for being a man was cringeworthy. He should have said that sometimes it’s an embarrassment to be a man with the levels of domestic violence perpetrated by men and then announced some practical policies to hold men accountable and protect vulnerable women and children.”

    Good suggestion…oh, hang on, that’s what he did.
    It was pretty clear to me that the sorry was in reference to the way men are involved in domestic violence.
    There’s a lot to bag Labour about, but let’s not slag him off for putting a new perspective on domestic violence. I thought it’s one of the better things Cunliffe has said since he became leader. When talking about domestic violence we men should be disempowering ourselves, and one way of doing that is to hang our collective heads in shame.

    In reference to colonisation, I’m sorry for being Pakeha.
    In reference to poverty, I’m sorry for being middleclass.
    In reference to domestic violence, I’m sorry for being a man.

    If either of those three sentences offend you, then perhaps you should go read about privilege and the importance of dismantling institutional inequality.

  11. Missing the spirit of things here John. Get the left elected then, when you have the influence, help fine tune.

    • It’s self-evident that it’s somewhat hard to fine tune policy settings when you’re exiled to the periphery.

  12. As Jesse Hume commented on male condemnation of Cunliffe’s ‘sorry’, ‘it is nothing but nit-picking about an apology that shows respect and comes from the heart. Because when you reveal your priorities to be more focused on personal offense than a problem of this scale, you are being part of the problem.’

  13. For many year we disagreed with John Minto, but not any more.

    Now with an ultra right wing Government that broke every promise made to us especially the pledge made by John Key to;
    * reduce Government,
    * have lees law changes.
    Well this all has been broken for a start, as this Government has past a couple of hundred law changes in its two terms thus far!

    Also another pledge broken;
    * Don’t want us to be tenants in our own land!
    He then went on to attempt to sell every asset we had.

    He still has to explain why he said “I don’t want us to be tenants in our
    own land?
    We are heading this way and fast.

    Due to this it is vital to have strong advocates for bringing N.Z. back to a kinder, more caring, egalitarian society John Minto & Key & we knew well untill the 1981 springboks tour came along.

    The only way to get rid of this money hungry uncaring lot is to form a coalition of the willing by uniting all opposition parties and put their differences and rid this poisonous lot from further taking us down the road of no future for our grandchildren, as everything will be foreign owned here if not.

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