How many more strikes are we going to see this year I wonder? The money required for the prime minister’s knee jerk, gun buyback scheme is going to continue to have flow-on effects. The cost of a buyback was not planned for or budgeted for, yet this massive amount of money has to come from somewhere.
- Has it been taken away from education?
- Has it been taken away from mental health?
- Has it been away from building houses?
- Has it been taken away from lifting children out of poverty?
In the below audio the person interviewed on Radio New Zealand felt that it was very unlikely that a compromise could be struck before the date of the strike. He said that it isn’t even clear what it is exactly that the teachers want.
Perhaps with the teachers, it is not just about a pay rise, perhaps it is really about conditions and the fact that they are drowning in paperwork with not enough time to teach?
The Minister of Education Chris Hipkins seems mystified as to why the teachers won’t accept what he considers to be a very generous offer. He seems to think that they are striking over money rather than conditions. quote.
He said the Government’s current offer to primary and secondary teachers was the largest pay offer they have received in over a decade.
Stuff
“The offer demonstrates our commitment to reward and value teachers, while balancing other priorities including mental health, tackling the housing crisis and lifting kids out of poverty,” Hipkins said. end quote.
It sounds like the reality of being in government has finally hit. You can only give away “free” money for a short while before you realise that it is a limited pot.
Ardern’s pork barrel politics has wasted money on a free year at university for the children of mainly middle-class families. Now because of an attempt to look as though the government is taking action, Ardern will be wasting even more money paying gun owners for guns that they will replace within days of banking the cheque.