Wow this is dumb…
Jan Tinetti referred to Privileges Committee for possible contempt
Education Minister Jan Tinetti has been referred to Parliament’s Privileges Committee by the Speaker and could be found in contempt of Parliament after she failed to correct a false statement she made in the House quickly enough.
Tinetti would be the first MP in 15 years to be found in contempt of Parliament. The most recent was Winston Peters.
The issue at the heart of the matter is that Tinetti told the House in February that she had no responsibility for the release of school attendance data.
She was told later that day by staff that this was an error, but only corrected the record on May 2 – 14 sitting days later. Parliament sat on February 23, when Tinetti could have corrected the answer.
…I’ve only heard good things about Jan, so this is a surprise.
A generous appraisal would say that this looks like a fresh Minister who wasn’t aware of her Office’s full obligations and when she was told she seems confused over when she was supposed to correct it in the House.
A damningly cynical appraisal would be that it seems that it was more important to hide the truancy data and spin it than actually fronting up and admitting we have a problem WHILE acknowledging the disruption Covid has genuinely had on the learning environment.
Rather than get painted into an un-winnable corner justifying truancy, the Ministry just chose to spin and obfuscate, which is fine because that’s the job of the Ministry, but to have allowed those interests to mislead the House is wildly unacceptable .
Someone has to be sacked over that.
Pick a Public Servant and polish the silverware, a head will be required to roll for this, because the Minister either intentionally pulled this stunt (totally unacceptable) or was poorly advised (sack a public servant).
Meanwhile, truancy will grow as the unequal sacrifices seeded during Covid produce a damaged harvest of consequences where young peoples lives become blighted by a lack of education, socialisation and self-discipline.
Covid exposed the bleeding gums of our inequality, truancy is but a symptom of that.
We have far bigger issues in education than scapegoating truancy data transparency.
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A former school teacher, she should no better. I thought school teachers are perfect citizens.
The opposition minister s of education and health are streets ahead. Pointing to a shallow talent pool in Labour, after the loss of the two stars.
Great pun if intended – ‘no’.
Doesn’t seem hard: “Follow the bloody rules.”
You’d think that given the hyper fragility of polling and perceptions anyone showing the slightest weakness and inability to appreciate the situation would be chucked overboard.
It struck me straight off as a amateur stage managed attempt to bury a bad news story so being able to say, look we’ve fixed it at the announcement on truancy. Which they haven’t.
Yes
A very poor look! This just reinforces to voters that still follow news that Labour put higher priority on hiding bad news than fixing or acknowledging problems. More of the “Labour Party before country syndrome” that has become ingrained since 2017. Most don’t appreciate the seriousness or threat to democracy that this sort of behaviour represents. Tinetti should lose her portfollio at the very least for this behaviour. Ignorance is no excuse here and it is hard to believe she didn’t have good advice but chose to ignore it. The other option as Martyn opines is that she is just plain “dumb”.
Everyone in this Government would be out of work if not for the government. I have rarely seen such low performing MPs in my lifetime.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/kiri-allan-gives-wrong-speech-on-freedom-camping-bill/6OMK7SXSSZGXRNDPS6QA3TA6RY/
Lol. This government of supposedly competent people (that they seriously want us to re-elect!) just read whatever is shoved in front of them without thought. There is clearly (I mean this proves that) nothing going on between the ears here. Utterly empty shells.
Still waiting for the sacking of Michael Woodhouse for his blatant contempt of parliament with his false claim(lie) about a homeless man using an MIQ and Judith Collins who despite the facts being laid bare continued to support Woodhouse. Both are still employed…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-michael-woodhouses-isolation-homeless-mystery-man-claim-debunked/F5E6ZYXODHHKDZODYULYVBXSMA/
Well lookie here.
National, the party of high standards, thanks NaSC.
Most transparent government ever.
Sharma was denounced and mocked by the Labour Party for pointing out their coaching over OIA requests.
Well lookie here.
whose Shama????
Dr Pharma and the Sharma Karma Drama. Twas a gaslighting endeavor by Sharma.
But Bobble head was a malice fan.
Labour have a history of funding education adequately and are engaged, inquiring and friendly towards the school officials they deal with. It is a situation which isn’t faced with hard numbers, as it has been by successive National governments.
“the Ministry just chose to spin and obfuscate, which is fine because that’s the job of the Ministry”
It’s NOT fine, and that’s NOT the job of any Ministry. It’s kind of gross how you give her the benefit of the doubt in not knowing her responsibilities as a Minister. All MPs should be aware of their responsibilities, pretty bloody quickly after being put into office, and certainly once they’re pulling in $250K as a Minister. Yet she’s hardly the first not to be in recent years now is she? A lot of the bigger problems we have could be traced back to incompetent MPs, and it’s little things like this which ought to foreshadow screwups to come. Unfortunately they appear to make up a significant majority in parliament.
Another day another minister makes a mistake what a rabble . We all make mistakes when the mistakes keep happening in shows poor management and control
Warning – rant.
I thought Tinetti was said to be a good MP. Perhaps that was measured by the depth of feeling about rightness measure, sort of like a limbo stick in reverse. It seems that is all women now need to get followers – be committed to making change etc. And feel ‘passionate’ about it. Easily said; leave passion to sex, and even there it has to be handled cautiously.
Men of course never feel passion at the wrong times, they are cool, rational, far-seeing, canny in the Scots sense. So both sexes have misapprehensions about proper thinking to fit the problem’s requirements. But women have wanted to catch up with men and surpass them. Hallelujah they are achievers. God help us from idealistic zombies from whatever direction – unrestrained business or unrestrained purity of motive. Hah.
You know our education system is a disaster when Asian kids are staying away!!!
According to reports in the media, lots of Asian kids have formed their own study groups because they’ve found they can learn more by NOT going to school, instead using online materials.
Remember when the teachers’ unions used to preach about our ‘world class’ education system? Well, I haven’t heard them use that phrase for a while….
What an avalanche of hatred you seem to have unleashed Martyn.
Labour ministers of education are far preferable to those of the National Party in my book. What a storm in a teacup!
In my view it is the Ministry of Education in all its wokeness that is the problem.
It’s good to hear that our youth are rebelling. It will fortify their free spirits and create some free-thinkers. Good stuff. Hopefully we won’t lose too many along the way. The ramraids should be over soon though. They should really be hitting supermarkets… and banks… though no doubt the latter carries a hefty penalty.
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