I Told You Seymour Was Playing Us For Fools

Some weeks back I wrote an article called,

 Is David Seymour Ignorant or Deliberately Misleading? 

where I concluded by writing that ‘Seymour is playing us for fools and winning.”

A recent article about one of the new charter schools makes that very obvious. As usual I will highlight selections, however I encourage you to read the article.

Sunday Read: Wheels come off the charter school circus clown car 

“Minister of Education Hon David Seymour announced that the Charter School Agency (CSA) had entered into a contract with the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa Charitable Trust (NZPAACT) to establish the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA) as a charter school from Term 1 2026, with the charitable trust as Sponsor.

The problem? There is no NZPAA Charitable Trust and never has been.”

See?  How much more evidence do you need?

“That’s right, the Charter School Agency circus clown car signed a multi-million dollar legal contract with a non-existent entity and the Associate Minister of Education and charter school circus ringmaster’s official notice signed it off. Cock up, conspiracy or prat fall?”

I guess there could be a number of reasons for this, but it’s hard to come up with any that have any validity. However given this government’s commitment to open government, I’m sure we will not have any difficulty finding out….. oh look there’s that flying pig again.

“Yet, how would we even know? Almost every aspect of the charter school application, review and approval process is shrouded in obsessive secrecy at the insistence of the associate minister. We are all of us publicly funding these blatant schooling privatisations but we aren’t allowed to know who the applicants are, the dollar value of the contract or even the numbers of students on a charter school roll just because the associate minister says so.”

However I’m certain we can count on Seymour to explain this all for us…or not…. another pig just flew by…

“The associate minister’s explanation? He just shrugged it off.

On 13 November, in response to questions from RNZ, Associate Minister Seymour stated that the “administrative error” was “a bit of a screw up”, and that the trust existed (this was later corrected by his Office), but that “there’s not actually a problem to be addressed here”. In other words, nothing to see here, folks, just move on.

These and other reported comments by Mr Seymour in the same article do not give us confidence that he has full knowledge or grasp of events in this matter. For example, the same RNZ article reported that the CSA was unable to clarify the legal status of the contract. Mr Seymour said he had confidence in the agency’s processes.” 

When will the sheeple of New Zealand open their eyes to what Seymour is doing, and to how Luxon is aiding and accepting of this? 

How much more will it take for the masses to rise and say ‘that’s enough!”

“We pointed out that no such entity as NZPAA Charitable Trust exists and asked him the following questions:

• • Given that one party does not exist, how could the two parties have entered into a contract as the NZ Gazette notice states? 

• • How could the Charter School Authorisation Board have recommended approval of a non-existent entity as Sponsor?

• • How could the said entity have presented an application as a registered Charitable Trust with no registered charitable trust number? 

• • How could the due diligence processes of the CSAB, the CSA, and Associate Minister Seymour’s Office have failed to notice that the applicant had not provided the most basic evidence to prove it was what it claimed to be (i.e. a registration number)?

We received an automated reply.”

The article then goes into some detail over subsequent events and correspondence, too long to discuss here. It’s well worth reading!

Following that correspondence, follow up questions were asked.

“Now very concerned about what we consider an absence of probity (honesty and doing the right thing) by government and its secrecy shrouded agencies, on 13 November we wrote to Associate Minister Seymour seeking responses to the following further questions:

• • What was the name of the sponsoring entity in the EoI submitted to the CSA dated 24 March?

• • Was it the same entity named on the full application submitted on 16 May?

• • Was it the same entity that was approved by the CSAB

• • On what date was the application approved by the CSAB? 

• • Was it the same entity that signed the contract with CSA?

• • On what date was the contract signed?

• • Has the CSA notified the Audit Office (i.e. Audit New Zealand) of this issue of the non-existent NZPAA Charitable Trust?

• • In what respects have the actual CSA processes concerning this application differed from those assured by the Audit Office in its July 2025 final report to CSA?

• • Given its status as an official government record, why have you not yet withdrawn or corrected the NZ Gazette notice you authorised on 27 October?

We received an automated reply.”

Note that both sets of questions received an automated reply, and no other reply was forthcoming.

Anyone care to speculate why the Associate Minister didn’t reply?

“Given the associate minister’s apparent lack of urgency in this matter, AEC has also now decided to write to the Office of the Controller and Auditor General requesting an urgent review of the process of approval of NZPAA as a charter school.

The need for sunlight and disinfectant is urgent precisely because the school has now appointed a chief executive and a principal, and is actively recruiting staff and enrolling students.

The circus ringmaster says there isn’t a problem to be addressed here.

AEC says watch this space.”

To repeat, Seymour is playing us for fools, in this case over charter schools. However his record in this government shows it’s not just charter schools where he is playing us.

And there is no way of avoiding the conclusion that while Seymour may be the circus ringmaster, the bloke in charge of the circus is either negligent in his oversight, or very comfortable with the ways things are going.

Are you comfortable with the way things are going?

On the charter school issue, Brie Elliott (under her real name Brianna Anglesey) has started a petition about charter schools. The link is here:

“Petition of Brianna Anglesey: Halt the opening of new charter schools

Petition request

That the House of Representatives urge the Government to immediately halt the approval and opening of any new charter schools under the current process, and conduct a full independent review of governance, conflicts of interest, transparency, and public accountability before any further approvals.”

Please sign and share. Given what we’ve learned about the charter school shenanigans, this is something you can do to stop Seymour from playing us for fools.