Hekia Parasite-ata has left me gobsmacked

[PrincessBandit]

Just heard this bitch on the radio saying, about the school closures and amalgamations in CHCH, that while schools are "entitled to protest [over this]" she hopes "...that schools will use their money on education rather than fighting legal battles". She also added that schools had been given way more time than, basically, legally required to do something about it - by which it came across as: schools had been given considerably more time than they we entitled to over this issue, yet the whole thing was a fait accompli where schools were powerless to do anything in response as the government ignored them anyway!!!

Yet another case of the government saying they 'want the voice of the public' (all these useless referendums that cost the tax payer mega bucks) while always intending to ignore it if it doesn't go along with what they want.

I started off with a not-very-high opinion of Hekia P to begin with but was prepared to accept that sometimes a hatchet man (or woman) is needed. Her comments this morning (sound byte on Classic Hits news) has made me lose any last shred of benefit of the doubt I was nursing.

If she doesn't qualify as a nomination for bitch of the decade I don't know who would.

[BOGAR]

It is not often I want to say something bad about someone but I totally agree with you. Sometimes the tough decision has to be made but this isn't one of them and the only thing to go should be her.
Bloody money saving is just another way to get us all into a worse state for someone else to fix.
And I second that nomination.

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

Its why they didnt give her the flick because of her poor people management skills...

They needed someone to dish this crap out and then give the flick too when the dirty deed is done.

In saying that we all know she will fall from office and like Nick Smith rise from the ashes a little while later somewhere else as a reward for fucking over a section of our community surrounded by her guffouring old 'boys club' mates.

It sickens me the old school values, community and resources we grew up in/with wont be there for our children thanks to this govenments current direction.

[Moi]

Despite the fact that school children can't vote - ok, some Yr13s might be able to - politics has always stalked the school playground and will continue to do so, irrespective of who is in power...

Meantime children and their families are deprived of the important centre of their community - the local primary school...

Talk about kicking people while they are down.

[Paul in NZ]

She has definately come into politics with an albatross around her neck.

My guess is she will end up either ruling the world or quietly being retired to the darkness of her (presumably) copious closet. Damn woman has enough 'power jackets' to run a small city.

[Hitcher]

As a person with an active interest in the community engagement space, Christchurch school closures have provided a feast of case study examples for how to break most of the established best practice "rules" and effectively alienate or really annoy a bunch of people. People with good memories and voting privileges. Nice work!

And don't lay all the blame at the Minister's door. There are officials in play here too who should have known better.

[mashman]

The law and fiscal prudence. 2 things you vote for every election. Technically it's your own fault. It's shit that these communities will be slowly taken apart, but hey, it's only a community and Friedman and his associates demand their pound of money, I mean flesh, irrespective of the human fallout.

[slofox]

In my opinion, Ms Piranha - err I mean Parata, is in her current role as a hatchet person - to chop the cost of education.

[Tigadee]

And don't lay all the blame at the Minister's door. There are officials in play here too who should have known better.

In my opinion, Ms Piranha - err I mean Parata, is in her current role as a hatchet person - to chop the cost of education.

Exactly... Agendas are being pushed here. The whole Auckland real estate bubble aka shambles is another example.

Why else is the Herald pumping out related articles at such a prodigous rate? And all subtly written to manipulate the market under the guise of 'reporting the facts'?

Quoting 'experts' (who by the way work for banks or real estate agencies) as saying the value of houses will go sky high in xx months, or quadruple in xx years because of the Unitary Plan, or how 'the market' is looking at neighbouring suburbs to popular ones as alternatives, or how there is a shift outwards of Auckland as houses become unaffordable, etc.

[imdying]

A lot of parents in Christchurch would be better off teaching their children how to act with good grace when something doesn't go their way, their circumstances change, or when there is a change in their daily routine.

The schools have only one agenda to push, I'm not surprised by their reaction in the slightest. These people should have never have been consulted in the first place.

[jellywrestler]

If she doesn't qualify as a nomination for bitch of the decade I don't know who would.

Crazy Man here on KB would

[oldrider]

Hekia Parata has given way more consideration of the situation than did Trevor Mallard and Helen Clark when they closed our local school.

Besides which, Christchurch has had a natural disaster to contend with as well.

IMPO Christchurch has had more than enough consideration, it's time they got their own heads out of the sand and got on with it!

It's not now just all about Christchurch, the flow on increases in the cost of everything is now being felt right across the country!

[Paul in NZ]

Hekia Parata has given way more consideration of the situation than did Trevor Mallard and Helen Clark when they closed our local school.

Besides which, Christchurch has had a natural disaster to contend with as well.

IMPO Christchurch has had more than enough consideration, it's time they got their own heads out of the sand and got on with it!

It's not now just all about Christchurch, the flow on increases in the cost of everything is now being felt right across the country!

Some truth here. Fact is some parts of ChCh being serviced by these schools either don't exist or are depopulated. Some tough and unpopular calls will need to be made and this is one of them... To a point...

[Gremlin]

It doesn't make sense to keep all the schools open, if the students have left and gone to other areas. Merge them together, and/or open new schools where required and put the funding for students where they actually are.

Understand that schools are the centre of the community etc, but they have a vested interest in keeping themselves open, don't they?

[oneofsix]

It doesn't make sense to keep all the schools open, if the students have left and gone to other areas. Merge them together, and/or open new schools where required and put the funding for students where they actually are.

Understand that schools are the centre of the community etc, but they have a vested interest in keeping themselves open, don't they?

What you say would sound more reasonable if she was just starting the process now, after leaving the communities some time to come to terms with the fall out from the quake but this is the end of a process started before the communities had reshuffled around the new conditions and is therefore unfeeling, callous and somewhat self fulfilling, what parent is going to enrol their kid at a school under threat.