Pages

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Mike Hosking: Jan Tinetti represents shoddy government leadership


If you are a regular to this show, then you will know my interest in the Jan Tinetti scandal.

There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind, or I suspect anyone who has followed this, that she misled Parliament.

It has been going on for several weeks now and her conduct has, at last, caught up with her.

You could argue this is a bit beltway - and it is.

But it's important because it is representative of just how shabby our leadership is.

Tinetti is a minister of the Crown and a woman who is in charge of an education system that is in crisis. An education system whose performance is embarrassing, whether it be in the basics of literacy and numeracy, or the basics of simply turning up on a regular basis.

It's not all Tinetti. Her predecessor, a guy by the name of Chris Hipkins, has a lot to answer.

But what Tinetti did was interfere with the ministry's release of attendance stats. They made her look bad, so she tried to delay them.

And having interfered with their release, she then claimed she didn't.

This little tail of skulduggery has been expertly executed by National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford who, sitting day after sitting day, has needled away and asked question after question.

Now, the trouble with Question Time is a minister can, and often does, BS their way through an answer. So, you have to be clever in your question line - and Stanford has been.

You can also tune in on any given day and be lost in a myriad of detail and wonder what on earth this is all about.

And that is why moments like this are never really covered. The media will argue we don't care and we lack the attention span to deal with it.

But Parliament is important and Question Time is important, if for no other reason than it is the Opposition's best attempt to get to the bottom of matters, away from the spin and press releases of the outside world.

Most importantly, it puts the Government on notice and on record. You simply can't mislead the house, which is what Tinetti appears to have done.

It ultimately goes to who you are, what your morals are, how good are you at your job and how much you hide behind noise and excuses.

It's also a good example of a party that has long ago run out of talent. Hipkins did all the jobs previously because there was no one else and when he became Prime Minister we got Ginny Andersen in police and Tinetti in education.

How's that going for them?

Anyway, the Privileges Committee has extraordinary power. They won't use it because they are spineless and also dominated by Labour MP's, but the embarrassment should be enough.

Very few ever get referred. Tinetti has the shame of being one of those few.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings

4 comments:

Anna Mouse said...

The Labour Government (for the lack of a word that describes regime, oh there it is afterall) are an embarrassment in their entirety.

They (through Ardern) promoted being the most open and transparent government ever but in fact the truth is they have been nothing but the opposite of that statement.

All their aspirations in policy, promoted and lied about have come to abject failure one after another at the cost of the taxpayer.

The damage to our country in all aspects from the politcal, social, economic, educational, infrastructural and race reations has brought New Zealand to a nation on the brink of collapse across those structures.

Labour have gone out of their way to deconstruct all of these tenets of a Nation and seemingly have done so with deliberate will.

Nothing has remained uncorrupted from their touch at the same time the rottem apple in the bottom of the barrell still has its shills in media espousing their wonder while ignoring that they too are citizens in a country they are complicit in destroying.

The fathoming of Labours 'end game' is difficult to comprehend because it looks, feels and smells like they are actually traitors to the citizens that elected them.

It then seems they are using that system in a hell bent effort of deconstruction for the benefit of a few self style elites.......

Once the bottom of the decline is found New Zealand will be a Feudal society where you are divided into vassels and serfs based upon an identity presribed by your birth.

Gaynor said...

As a tutor of Maths and reading at all levels, for 40 years,I can say that the horrifying literacy and numeracy results are directly related to the truancy numbers. This is is not just my opinion but also that of many educationalists.
Disengagement is the key word . If you are failing particularly in these basics at school you give up .I have just read an article on Stuff. 'Schools Have The Power to Deter Rangatahi Maori from School Research Finds".
I won't comment on the bad error of a research study,which involves only five
people which amounts to just anecdotal evidence , but the main narrative highlighted here by Stuff and the government which is that more Maorification of schools is the answer.
To put it bluntly, for those trying to genuinely improve literacy and numeracy the answer is instead changing the whole ideology behind our present rotten education system. Tinetti can't and won't do this . She will just shift some deck chairs around in an ineffectual sort of way.
Thank you Mike for bringing Tinetti's 'sins' into the light. It is so important.

Anonymous said...

Wonderfully complete and succint comment from Anna M. Like you, I cannot see a motivation but believe all of this government are traitors for letting this steamroller over the top of them and us for the last five and a half years.
We know what happens to traitors.
MC

Anonymous said...

Pull the curtain back a little more to uncover who the masters of our government really are. Our corporate government is following the agenda of the NWO ONE World Communist Government's agenda 2030. All western countries are in lockstep with this 'by design destruction of democracy'. It is up to 'we the people' to stop this by refusing to comply with this deliberate insanity. Fear not and do what is right, push back, call out bullshit loud and proud, put differences aside because we all face a greater evil to humanity than petty differences among ourselves. Stay vigilant.