Caning by Mr Jones

Press, 23 September 1983, Page 1

Caning by Mr Jones

PA Wellington A Government member ot Parliament, Mr Norman Jones, last evening “caned” school teachers in Parliament for grizzling about their jobs. A former teacher himself, Mr Jones (Invercargill) said they should take their degrees into the private sector and see if any employer would give them up to $30,000 a year. He said the average teacher’s salary was $23,000 a year which included long, ppid holidays. Teachers were guaranteed a job until they were 60. Mr Jones was speaking during the Estimates debate on education. He reiterated statements he has made formerly about New Zealand schools’ being infiltrated by “trendy-Lefty socialists.”

“These are the same people who want University Entrance shifted from the sixth form to the seventh form to give them more time to put their own political prejudices,” he said. His comments prompted Ms Fran Wilde (Lab., Wellington Central) to observe that it appeared Mr Jones had got out of teaching just in time, “before it was taken over by all these dangerous pinkos.” Labour members had concentrated on cuts in education spending, saying that cuts seemed to be the main

priority of the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr G. W. R. Palmer (Christchurch Central), said the Minister had the singular distinction of having offended every main education pressure group. ’Under Mr Wellington the education system had run down and spending had declined.

“Education spending made up 17.4 per cent of Government spending in the 19705. The 1983-84 Budget sets it at 11.7 per cent of net Government spending.

“This is indeed the Minister of 1000 cuts. This Minister has presided over a huge educational retrenchment,” he said.

“He has engaged in a education philosophy which can be best termed as one of righteous rigidity.” Mr T. de V. Hunt (Nat., Pakuranga) said that Mr Wellington was one of the best Ministers of Education. He quoted from a report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which had commented on the high degree of professionalism of administrators and teachers.

The report said that the New Zealand education system was well organised, productive, capable, and would stand comparison with any in the world.

Mr P. T. E. Woollaston (Lab., Nelson) said that what used to be an excellent and equitable education system had for five years languished under a Minister whose aim seemed to be to cut expenditure.

“This Minister's sole priority seems to be to cut expenditure at the behest of his Prime Minister,” he said.

He had three pages listing cuts to education spending which totalled $lO4 million over three years.

Last year, the education vote for primary schools was underspent by $5 million, and the estimate for this year was $l2 million down on last year.

Ms Wilde said that at the beginning of the first term this year, there were 1400 teachers unemployed, althouugh that was just the tip of the iceberg as many had given up hope of finding teaching work.

By the second term that had dropped to 1377. Some had left the teaching service or gone overseas.

“Every one of those teachers cost the taxpayer $9897 a year to train, nearly $30,000 over three years.

“That means that at the beginning of this year nearly $45 million of taxpayers’ money was being thrown away while our children are crying out for reduced class sizes and more specialist teachers.”

Mr R. L. Bell (Nat., Gisborne) said questions asked by the Opposition and the Government during consideration of the education vote had cost taxpayers nearly $6OOO. He said 242 questions had been raised at the public expenditure and labour and education committees.

The answers from the Education Department entailed 319 pages and a conservative estimate of their cost was $5890. None would be used during the debate, Mr Bell said, because they wee all favourable to the Government.

He suggested there were many other areas within education where the money could have been far more effectively spent.

Mr G. T. Knapp (Socred, East Coast Bays) said that Mr Wellington had “done a very efficient job of reducing the importance of education in our society and in this Government’s priorities.” .