Why Did Erica Stanford Appoint Professor Elizabeth Rata to her Ministerial Advisory Group?

By
Allan Alach
-
29
1242

I wrote last time about the old saying that you can judge a person’s character by the company they keep. 

Is Erica Stanford Aiming to Become the Worst Ever Minister of Education?

That article mentioned Professor Elizabeth Rata of Auckland University who clearly has a major influence on the education policies espoused by Erica Stanford. There has to be some serious concerns about her influences, given her background, ideology and political affiliations. 

Martyn Bradbury has gone further into Rata and her influence on Erica Stanford in this article:

The real agenda behind Erica Stanford’s radical new anti-Māori education policy

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‘The Minister’s defence that removing Māori words from books for under 5s is a phonetics decision and not an attack on the Māori language would sound believable if she hadn’t appointed an extremist to do this exact outcome.’

Martyn explains in his article why the so-called justification for removing Māori words from junior readers is nonsense (these would confuse children learning to read in English) and that the unspoken subtext is based on racism and Rata’s desire to ‘decolonise’ New Zealand education.  One unexplained feature of Rata is that in her earlier career she played a role in the establishment of Kura Kaupapa schools (Māori language schools) yet today she is railing against the inclusion of Māori in junior readers.

He has included a YouTube video of Rata speaking at a Real Change 2022 event, posted on YouTube by the ACT Party. I recommend you go to the article and watch the full 26 minutes of her talk, then ask yourself ‘Is this a person we want influencing education in New Zealand?”

For example, in the introduction she says:

‘Nearly 40 years ago the 1985 Treaty of Waitangi Amendment Act set in motion a radical constitutional agenda, the aim to shift the country from democracy to tribalism.  In that time a corporate tribal elite has privatised public resources, acquired political power and attained governance entitlements.  Activist judges have created treatyism, a new interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi as a governance partnership.

Intellectuals have supplied the supporting racialised two worldviews ideology, and the question we must ask is this – how has a small group of individuals, both Māori and non-Māori, managed to install a racialised ideology into our democracy?”

Later on she adds:

‘The corporate tribes have already acquired considerable governance entitlements. The next and final step is tribal sovereignty. It’s a coup d’etat in all but name accomplished not by force but by ideology and enabled by a compliant media.’

Rata and others are entitled as a right, to hold whatever political beliefs they want (as is the case for all those who hold opposite views to Rata). However I would seriously question whether it is acceptable for her and the others who influence Stanford, to use their connections to impose their particular ideology on the country’s education system. I’m sure there would be cries of outrage if a fundamentalist religious group had similar influence on a future government.

In an earlier article I wrote about the move towards a ‘Knowledge Based Curriculum.’ This is very much Rata’s speciality, another example of her influence. Accompanying this is the current focus on structured reading, also very much a Rata project, although she is supported in this by a number of academics.  

I will write future articles about both the knowledge based curriculum and structured reading; however please note that both of these have been strongly challenged by a wide range of academics and teaching experts. Stanford however has gone 100% for these in spite of the well expressed opposition.

As well as speaking to ACT conferences, Rata has also appeared on The Platform radio show; that in itself is enough to know how she is viewed by that segment of society. She has also been appointed by David Seymour to the ‘Charter School/Kura Hourua Establishment Board’ which again raises questions about her input into education policy.

So that summarises Elizabeth Rata’s background, beliefs, and influences on education. She is not alone however; when Erica Stanford was appointed Minister of Education, she immediately formed a Ministerial Advisory Group that included Rata and a number of others whom I will discuss in my next article.

One thing seems to be clear though; while Stanford is a National party MP, so much about her decisions points towards her beliefs being far more closely aligned to ACT than National. 

Is this what people who voted for National in 2023 wanted?



29 COMMENTS

  1. Jesus Christ, anyone who knows anything about the way kids absorb language would know that they can easily learn a couple of languages without becoming confused, let alone a few words of a different language.

  2. Thanks for the article as more needs to be disseminated and brought to light the extremism that this woman espouses under the guise of democracy. She also likes to cherry pick historic events to push her agenda like how she frames the 1853 Constitutional ACT claiming that this should be our country founding document not the TOW. And just for clarification she isn’t Maori.

  3. Here’ an idea – why don’t all you Woketards get punching away on your keyboards and try to get Professor Elizabeth Rata fired or cancelled or whatever it is you little pricks do now?

  4. Guerilla surgeon is quite correct.
    My grandchildren were tri-lingual at the age of five(English, Mandarin, Cantonese) and happily engaged with Te Reo in a comfortable learning environment at their school.
    Elizabeth’s Rata’s rant about democracy is about the freedom of Pakeha to deny Maori sovereignty. She misquotes Karl Popper.
    Professor Karl Popper wrote “The Open Society and its Enemies’. about totalitarian governments in Europe (Popper was a Marxist who in 1919 fought fascism in street battles in his native Vienna). She uses Abraham Lincoln to support her belief in ‘democracy’ . (Lincoln’s Republican government gave grants of land and money to newly freed slaves).
    She compares the Treaty of Waitangi to Mao’s little Red book.
    She says of the Treaty “It served the purpose of its time.” (Get land off Maoris!)
    I cannot go on with the distortions and exaggerations she uses. I am laughing too hard and I should not be because she is more dangerous than a cobra.

  5. Is this part of the swirling of our culture down the drainpipe. Useful foreign words that I learned early — it’s deja vu, all over again. We keep falling for new ideologies, can’t stick to reasoned and at the same time emotional approaches, standards, that we can believe in. This shape-shifting makes it hard to remain firm for relying on a perceived goal and standard to aspire to. I don’t want the same things I did when I was young. But I believed then we were a pretty good country but not now. Can we get it back?

    I’m trying all sorts of entry points to the body politic, like a mind mosquito. So AA Milne comes to mind? It’s the one about the grown ups that have to be kept watch on. It’s called Disobedience. To me it is wandering away from the place you should be in a careless, meandering way, and can we find our way back? (The line at the end of Hotel California from the traveller also comes to mind.)

    https://allpoetry.com/disobedience
    …James James Morrison’s Mother
    Put on a golden gown.
    James James Morrison’s Mother
    Drove to the end of the town.
    James James Morrison’s Mother
    Said to herself, said she:
    “I can get right down to the end of the town
    and be back in time for tea.”

    King John Put up a notice,
    “LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
    JAMES JAMES MORRISON’S MOTHER
    SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
    LAST SEEN
    WANDERING VAGUELY:
    QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
    SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN
    TO THE END OF THE TOWN –
    FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!”

    James James Morrison Morrison
    (Commonly known as Jim)
    Told his Other relations Not to go blaming him.
    James James Said to his Mother,
    “Mother,” he said, said he:
    “You must never go down to the end of the town
    without consulting me.”

    James James Morrison’s mother
    Hasn’t been heard of since.
    King John said he was sorry, So did the Queen and Prince.
    King John (Somebody told me)
    Said to a man he knew:
    If people go down to the end of the town, well,
    what can anyone do?”

  6. “One thing seems to be clear though; while Stanford is a National party MP, so much about her decisions points towards her beliefs being far more closely aligned to ACT than National.”

    I would wager that every National MP’s beliefs are more closely aligned with ACT than National.
    That’s why Luxon is so happy to play the fool and let Seymour drag Aotearoa to the far right.
    They only ever play the moderate to capture the swing vote. Once in power they will leverage ACT while the only way Luxon can get away with the rushing through of despicable legislation passed under urgency is to act like a drop kick bound to a coalition agreement probably written by the Atlas Network.
    To some they may be the CoC. I prefer CuC with the second word being “utter’, the third being a shortened version of Brooke van Velden.

    • Rangi that seems right. Also cool summing up by Verity Verdant.
      But goes down (up) like a cup of cold sick. Ewhh take it away.

  7. As a colleague of Elizabeth Rata at UOA and before the ACE merger I can tell you about these early days that do help explain her growing antagonism to many Māori developments

  8. Clearly sucked in by her Associate Minister for Education, David Seymour.
    Not at all promising for any right-wing coalition if she was ever to be PM! Too easily led (like the present PM).

  9. What did you expect Stanford to appoint Kylie Quince instead…..It’s not like the experts the last government used have left us with a world class education system.

    • We did once have a world-class education system and National were re-elected and f***** it all over again so yes go hold your beer that’s probably all your good at.

  10. Look when are people going to wake the fuck up National have a track record remember National standards.

  11. Back to the bland, cloned world of Janet and John.
    Here is Cwiss with David in the playground.

    ” Jump, Cwiss, jump!”, said David.

    Can you see Cwiss jump?

    Here comes BOY( Tama) to play.
    ” Look!” said Erica , ” It is Boy Whipping Top.”

    “Let us all play on the jungle-gym. I like the monkey bars,” said Cwiss.

    ”  No!”  said David, ” Jungle, is apartheid as only niggers can play on it. Let us all go play on playground equipment made of metal pipes, ropes, on which participants can climb, hang, sit, and—in some configurations—slide. ”

    ” Oh David, ” said Erica, ” Will you be my boy friend?”

    ” That is woke Erica!” said Cwiss,
    ” Girls need seperate places to play.”

    ” Cwiss can not climb, ” said Boy, “He is too fat!”

    ” You can not say that,” said David.

    ” Yes, he can because it is free speech, David,” said Erica.

    Boy got bored. See Boy run, ” I am off for my kai.”

    ” Arrest him,” said Erica, ” He said ‘ kai’ . We all are going to eat David’s -cat shit in a little tin-”

    Cwiss takes his donuts out of all his suit pockets and lumbers off to eat them with Nicola.

    David runs off to play with Tim in the infant room.

    Erica is left lonely because all the children are into learning from imaginative games not found in a 1970s mathematics text book.

    Tama says, ” Fuck all them pokokōhua !” and heads home to the marae. ” Never let skool get in the way of education !”

    NB. Skool is the correct spelling by phonics learning.

  12. Tama is today an award winning film director.
    Cwiss is a plumber.
    David is a market gardener.
    Erica has a florist shop.
    They all live in Australia.
    They all lead happy, contented lives and nobody gives a fuck how they did in school.

    • Using the word probably unqualifies her, she isn’t so there is the problem, she isn’t yet you are very happy to promote her but that’s what the right wing do, put unqualified people in place.

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