Posts by Hilary Stace
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Glad to hear that someone got the Air NZ tickets because I don't recall any mention of prize awarding and was wondering. Great to do it nice and discretely though.
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The live broadcast on Wednesday nights of Backbencher from the Backbencher in Molesworth St has been a popular event for Wellington pollies but I didn't realise your role in it, Damien. Is it continuing next year? I hope so.
There is always a large crowd and interestingly it is often full of the mainstream media (why are male reporters shorter and older than they look on TV and the women taller and younger). Last night didn't have the usual population of the young left, and instead the ACT suits were there in force (must have been the total Wellington population of them) to cheer for Rodney. He is probably desperately waiting for his effigy to make the Backbencher walls.
Otherwise, the new skinny Chester Burrows was unrecognisable and kept reminding me of Clem Simich, Moana Macky was articulate and assured, and Sue Bradford was her usual wise self. But it must be much harder to keep the audience under control.
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Thanks for the Frank Zappa link. His concert in the Auckland town hall in the mid 1970s was the best music event ever (in my opinion).
Re the Eden Park thing. Catching the train into Wellington today I noticed that they advertise train fares for events at the stadium. For as little as $4 return you can get an adult train ticket to a stadium event - and from the station it's a short walk to the stadium entrance. No wonder the Wellington region supports events at the stadium so well (and why Aucklanders probably don't eg Beckham).
But I see John Banks is cutting back on public transport development.
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Who won the prizes?
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What happens if you get the answer wrong? Is there punishment such as public humiliation or parental fines?
Or maybe there's a plan to provide extra educational support for those who have difficulty answering 'compare and contrast' questions? -
I'm a bit concerned that Anne Tolley delayed the review of NCEA for a year apparently after meeting with Auckland secondary principals on Friday. This raises all sorts of questions - apart from how did she manage to have a meeting at all when her bill was going through urgency all day?
Why wasn't she listening to all the other educational groups who have been meeting with her since she became education spokesperson after Katherine Rich stood down - many of whom advised her against the testing regime that was passed last week in less than 40 hours under urgency?
Why is NCEA allowed a whole year for review while education testing wasn't even allowed a select committee hearing?
What power does the Akld secondary principal lobby have? This is a very powerful group but they tend to come from the conservative end of education, high decile schools, those very concerned with zoning and compeitition between schools (mainly Auckland issues).
They are certainly not representative of NZ wide schools.Is this going to be her main advisory group?
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By the way on my plane to Auckland today were some fresh new MPs, so I did a bit more raving about this unnecessary Education Bill and the unjust law making process which denies us ordinary citizens our democratic rights to make submissions to a select committee.
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Good to hear the Green's Catherine Delahunty is on the Education and Science select committee. She has been an education and student activist since she was 14. She organised a march on parliament when she was 15 and took on the then Minister of Education - possibly George Gair. In this battle she appeared on the TV Gallery programme interviewed by Brian Edwards.
She's been an activist ever since, very articulate, and never intimidated by anyone, least of all the Roger Douglas's of the world. Not much will get passed her.
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If private schools got no state funding then I wouldn't be so concerned about them being excluded from testing. But since this new law seems to be about accountability I would like to see all schools included in the same testing regime. And have full ERO reporting.
I think parents of private school students could be quite shocked by the results that could show quite poor levels of achievement. There are some commonly held false assumptions out there including that private schools have better quality teaching. Just as people assume that private hospitals provide higher quality surgery and care.
By the way are the Exclusive Bethren schools included in John Key's extra millions for private schools?
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Just saw Alan Peachey, National MP, at the supermarket. Not that I've met him before but I have seen him frequently n the last few days since Parliament TV came into our house. He is the chair of the education select committee - so even though he is not minister he has power.
Shameless lobbyist that I am, I asked him about the Education Amendment bill and my concern about parents being fined for their autistic children being school refusers (the concern mentioned in Russell's original post on this blog), and my annoyance that we did not get a chance to make a submission on the bill. To his credit he seemed to understand the issue about parents of children with autism, and suggested I write to him at parliament.
He was actually very pleasant and seemed as pleased as the rest of us that parliament had actually risen after that marathon sitting, although they will be doing it again next week. Poor man, after all those hours of debating to be accosted in the supermarket aisle while looking for toothpaste.
I'm all for relationship building so will be taking up the offer.
You never know who you will see at Thorndon New World.