When you find yourself in a hole stop digging.

Labour’s Māori MPs have declared that Maori charter schools are safe which is a shocking announcement for a number of reasons. One of the reasons why that is a shocking announcement is because all Partnership schools have large Maori And Pasifika student populations and this announcement appears to only protect those schools lucky enough to have a Maori name for their school.

Photo-Facebook South Auckland Middle School

South Auckland Middle School pictured above is one of the partnership schools not considered to be a “Maori” charter school so has not been protected by the Maori Labour MPs.

Labour’s Māori MPs, including associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis, have given their word that Māori charter schools will not be shut down.

That is wonderful news for those charter schools but it is also patch protection and blatant favouritism that does not help Maori students in schools like Vanguard Military School, South Auckland Middle School or Middle School West Auckland. It will not help save this young man’s school…

Photo supplied to Whaleoil

And it will not help these students’ school either.

Vanguard Military School students.
PHOTO-Vanguard Military School facebook page

[…] There’s been a mixed response from the heads of two Māori charter schools in Auckland and Whangārei about their likely future.

Raewyn Tipene, chief executive of He Puna Marama which helps to run Te Kāpehu Whetū in Whangārei, said she was shocked by Education Minister Chris Hipkin’s announcement.

“To be so aggressive in his desire to close down what are effectively schools and children and families – you know we’re not prisons, we’re not doing something abhorrent.”

Ms Tipene said she could not understand why the current government wanted them to change.

“Here we are four years on and our results are year on year spectacular – why would you get rid of a process like that?”

She felt more assured about the future of the school after speaking to Te Taitokerau MP Kelvin Davis, Ms Tipene said.

“I think Kelvin’s very very keen to reduce that angst that’s occurring and get us all to the table and work through it.”

She said the authority wanted to turn around low levels of education achievement for Māori.

“They got sick of seeing our young children, our Māori people failing at education and then seeing this failure creeping through and presenting quite disturbingly at primary school level.”

[…] “I don’t want to undermine anything that the other charter schools are choosing to do collectively because they’re all great schools.

“I’m just conscious that I have to do the best for my school.”

Translation: I know it is unfair that we have been singled out for help but I have to do what is best for my students even if we are benefiting from patch protection.

Chris Cahill is the police union boss, and he’s been busted lying about firearms before, so much so that media have had to retract his claims.

Now he’s been busted again. His credibility is shot to pieces now. Pun intended.

Chris Cahill, President of the Police Union, launched his latest scaremongering campaign in our media last December.

This time Chicken Little was warning about the horrific number of Police officers facing guns in the hands of criminals that year.

Radio Live reported his claims that 1 in 8 of the 12,000 cops in New Zealand had been threatened with a firearm in the last 12 months. That is 1,500 police officers.

“For frontline officers, a staggering 1 in 5 have been threatened with a firearm”. That is: 2,400 incidents if you do the math. Radio Live didn’t. We did.  

Huge, outrageous claims, sounds alarming. So, what is reality?

Well we have finally got the real numbers from the real Police. There were actually only 18 incidents during that period. With only 12 prosecutions resulting. In three cases Police were fired on. Thankfully without injury.

Almost every case would have preventable simply with the threat of a serious penalty.

Many would have involved replica guns or airsoft toys, reported as real firearms. Likely none of these incidents would have been perpetrated by licensed owners. Also likely – many of the offenders would already be serving non-custodial sentences at the time of the latest crimes.

The Union’s snake oil salesman says its 2,400 – It is actually 18.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Why would ANY media still make themselves vulnerable by using the crooked Union’s figures? Their credibility is utterly shot. The Otago Daily Times has had to apologize for using their numbers.Radio NZ has also lost a Broadcasting Standards complaint for the same reason.

Cahill had told the Otago Daily Times (Also other media) that 20,000 firearms are stolen in New Zealand each year.The real figure? 527. With police recovering 866– to finished the year in credit. Like the many years before.

Cahill is presenting at a gun control seminar in Wellington next week. He literally could not even get ten words into his introductory biography without more than doubling the annual number of our firearm importations. He claimed “Over 50,000”. It’s really 24,553 to service our 250,000 licensed shooters.

The lies never stop.

The Police Association has refused to comment on this latest embarrassment. Why would they? The New Zealand media simply act as their mouthpiece and never hold the crooked union to account. That needs to change.

Then perhaps our news teams can ask why of the last 100 burglaries where firearms were stolen only 8 offenders ever stood before a judge.

I hope the Minister of Police is looking at this.

Just like in Europe our New Zealand Media are doing their very best to hide the truth from the public. The below article is an example of deceptive reporting. Their headline is careful not to reveal the rapist’s background. They don’t want anyone to link the sexual assaults on two Kiwi teenage girls to refugees or a particular culture/religion and the beliefs that make certain men view Western women as whores.

If the public were aware of the sexual violence and incompatible values and beliefs that many refugees and migrants bring to their host countries they would not support Jacinda Ardern’s efforts to import more of them from Manus Island.

Man raped two teenagers in Hutt Valley within nine months

[…] John, 23, forced himself on her, Justice Susan Thomas said in the High Court at Wellington on Friday.

The 18-year-old victim managed to escape when John let her answer her ringing phone, and she grabbed the phone, kicked him in the head and ran.

She had met John a couple of times and they had been intending to see a movie together on May 26, 2016.  The planned movie fell through but they drank in his car and ended up at an Upper Hutt carpark, where he attacked her.

She spoke to police but did not immediately make a formal statement. Police had already contacted John about the first rape when he committed the second attack.

The next victim was a drunk 16-year-old he passed while riding his bicycle in the early hours of February 21, 2017, in suburban Hutt Valley.

He stopped to talk to her and then committed one indecency before raping her, holding his hands over her nose and mouth so she had trouble breathing.

John was sentenced to a total of 11 years and six months’ jail. He has to serve at least six years before being considered for parole.

John sounds like a typical Kiwi name so this sounds like a double rape committed by a probably Pakeha New Zealander but wait, there’s more…

A statement from the second victim was read in court by a victims’ assistant. She described being so traumatised she wanted to kill herself and was medicated and hospitalised immediately after the attack.

She had nightmares and was embarrassed at being prescribed anti-depressants.

For a long time she blamed herself for having been drunk, and felt stupid because she could not defend herself as her brother taught her.

The statement said the court process was an ordeal. She threw up before giving evidence and during one break she ran out and wanted to give up but was pleased she was persuaded to finish it.

It had made her a stronger, wiser person, and she knew she had to look after herself better, the statement said.

Prosecutor Sally Carter said specialist medical reports on John thought he could be a high risk of reoffending because he did not recognise he did anything wrong, but treatment could change that.

How strange. Western men all know that raping a woman is wrong and that violence is wrong. Western culture makes that very clear. What kind of a strange Kiwi man called John is this?

His  lawyer, Mike Antunovic,  said John wanted to take any treatment that was offered, and said he was sorry.

A jury found John guilty of raping the first young woman, and sexually violating and then raping the second.

The judge said John came to New Zealand as a refugee from Uganda when he was a child. He had no previous convictions and had mostly been working in supermarkets doing night shifts. A psychologist commented on his conservative beliefs that women should not dress provocatively or walk home alone.

It was a real concern that the two rapes happened so close together and police had already spoken to John about the first before he committed the second, the judge said.

So, now we learn that John (whose surname for some strange reason has been withheld by the journalist) was a child refugee who has clearly not assimilated into Western culture. Despite growing up in New Zealand he has still been indoctrinated with the belief that women should not have the freedom to dress how they like or walk home alone. If they do then, in his mind, they are inviting the rape that in both cases he quite happily committed. Two brutal acts that he does not recognise as being morally wrong.

No wonder Stuff is so keen to fudge the facts on this story. How many other stories like this have gone under the radar because the media are hiding the connection between crime, refugees and a particular culture/religion?

George writes an Open Letter to Jacinda Ardern:

Open letter to the Prime Minister:

Ms. Ardern you lied to us. When you originally stated it was Labour’s intention to close charter schools you were met with a substantial backlash from the electorate and even from members within your own political party. This required you to backtrack on your original intentions by suggesting you would revisit this policy and implement some adjustments to the status quo. This was a blatant lie. Your decision to close charter schools either through voluntarily compliance or by force through your administration is a threatening aligned with a communist dictatorship.

One of your manufactured profiles Ardern, is your determination to promote the welfare of our children. You have just robbed thousands of young children and their families the security of their dignity, their pride and the success of their learning, a status that the socialist system failed so miserably to deliver. This is called child abuse. When your ideology takes priority over children’s welfare it can only be a destructive calling. You have chosen this calling and are therefore a signatory to this abuse. Your tears are those shed by crocodiles. How can we ever believe a word you say? How can children trust you with their welfare when your first intervention is to destroy the dreams of so many vulnerable children who have only experienced nightmares within the state system?

Compliant to this intervention is your deputy leader, and it was he alone, not the electorate, who provided you with the mandate to implement this policy. It might be useful for you to remember that, and there is one thing the electorate never forgives, blatant dishonesty. Hipkins didn’t make this decision alone. You are PM, the buck stops with you. How can you sleep at night when only a week ago you were exhibiting support and lavishing praise upon those who had achieved academically within this environment, the very environment you now seem determined to destroy? This hypocrisy and political manipulation of societies most vulnerable children is disgraceful. But it did provided you an with another photo opportunity as you attempted to portray your child friendly persona. Those children must feel so hollow knowing your participation was a political stunt and that they were no more than props on your stage of deceit.

Discuss.

What gutless wonders these three Maori Labour MPs have shown themselves to be when it comes to standing up for Partnership schools and their Maori Whanau who benefit from them.

Kelvin Davis: I’ll resign

Peeni Henare

Peeni Henare: But my wife works at a Charter School

In 2015 Little labelled a decision by MPs Kelvin Davis and Peeni Henare to attend a $250-a-seat charter school fundraiser in Whangarei as a “misjudgement”.

He told the MPs it was his preference they didn’t attend, despite both having family connections to the school, but they attended against Little’s advice.

Willie Jackson: Just a change of name

Labour won’t close my charter school

In response to Education Minister Chris Hipkins’ press release yesterday where he made it clear that Partnership schools will be forced to close, Act leader David Seymour had this to say…

[…] “The Government has no clear alternative to Partnership Schools, they know that Maori and Pacific achievement is abysmal, a stain on the promise of opportunity for all, but they are so focused on helping the ‘sector,’ read unions, that they have forgotten about the kids.

“The Maori Caucus are missing in action. They are intimately and personally involved in Kura Hourua. The stood indepently of the Labour list and yet are not accorded the mana they deserve in Labour if this decision is anything to go by.

“Today is a bleak day for the Government, who are more concerned with payback to their union backers than pursuing policies that work for the future of our children.

Open letter to Jacinda Ardern:

With due respect to the Prime Minister of New Zealand and all concerned.

I am a 65-year-old grandmother and great-grandmother and this is the first time in my life I have ever written to either the media or the NZ government, and I do so with extreme concern and dismay.

Over my lifetime I have watched both my children and grandchildren struggle to receive an education delivered the way they need to learn. The same opportunity that is given to the 80% of other New Zealand children. My grandchildren are part of the 20% of New Zealanders who have some form of disability. In their case, this relates to their learning. They are wired differently and in the minority, but they do matter. In the past two of the oldest grandchildren with similar challenges passed through their local school with very poor social and educational outcomes, due to a system that failed them miserably with abysmal special needs support. Today both are struggling with their mental health and ability to gain work, at a cost to the taxpayer. It is obvious one size does not fit all.

These children and young people have the right to succeed in life. Two of my younger grandchildren were given this opportunity by the Villa Education Trust. Over the last four years we watched in awe at the progress these young people made while at South Auckland Middle School. They started SAMS insecure, and lacking in confidence in themselves and their ability. Failing miserably educationally and socially, and falling through the cracks at their previous schools, they transformed into leaders at SAMS, achieving regularly at merit and excellence levels. They are now creative, innovative and positive role models.

Most importantly, they have gained a high level of self belief and now have the confidence on which to base their future endeavours. Having now transitioned into senior colleges, SAMS has equipped and prepared them to reach their potential and positioned them to become productive members of our community. One has built their own blossoming business at fifteen-and-a-half, and recently met with you, Jacinda, at the Prime Minister’s Youth Awards dinner.

I am at a loss to understand why you would undo something that has proven to be exactly what these young people need. I see Charter schools as the fence at the top of the cliff instead of the ambulance at the bottom. Please, this is money well spent. As a taxpayer for 50 years, I can’t express enough how much I would pay to see more young people go through Villa Education Trust schools. It is a success story! I realise this is a simplistic way of viewing things, however, future funding for well-run Charter schools could equate to less funding required for prison and mental health services in the future. In my opinion, it must be cost effective to keep these schools running when you consider the possible negative social outcomes these schools are addressing.

When weighed against the cost of our horrendous youth suicide statistics we must ask: What investment are we really willing to make to ensure the future of New Zealand? These young people are as much a part of our future as any others. SAMS has created an extended family environment where young people feel accepted and valued, and can develop an often much-needed sense of belonging. They set high educational standards and expectations and the young people rise to the occasion. Pupils are given respect and become respectful in return. At SAMS EQ seems to be as important as IQ. They attend to the needs of the whole person. My grandchildren now dare to dream and have set high expectations and goals for themselves. Compared with their cousins who were not given this opportunity, the difference in personal growth achieved has been a stark commentary on the inability of our mainstream educational.system to offer an equitable education to everyone.

The staff at SAMS are well qualified and amazingly committed, going way beyond the call of duty to ensure no one gets left behind. There was a genuine sense of aroha at every school event I attended. The school culture encourages empathy, caring and individual accountability, and I consider this a credit to the staff and the leadership of the Villa Education Trust.

I have watched governments come and go in my life time, and have been disappointed many times by short-sighted policies. But, I was hopeful that this government would put ideology aside and sincerely care about every New Zealander, as they promised. I was stunned tonight to hear it reported that Chris Hipkins stated Charter schools cherry pick for success. Well, if that’s true, they cherry pick vulnerable young people who are failing in the mainstream system and, more often than not, come from disadvantaged homes. The fact that they can produce successes only proves that what they are doing is working.

How do we target child poverty? Could one of the ways be by producing independent, solution focussed learners who can navigate life successfully, use their initiative and be productive citizens rather than a drain on our social service system? How anyone could accuse Charter schools of elitism is beyond me.

I am not normally a particularly politically vocal person, but I have always voted as part of my responsibility as an NZ citizen and trusted our system, although not perfect, to be a fair and just one. I sincerely hope this government doesn’t bow to pressure from anyone who holds uninformed or misinformed prejudice against Charter schools. Please let common sense prevail. Why waste possibly ‘up to a million’ to compensate schools, who produce excellent results, for closing? See the investment in Charter schools for what it is – an opportunity to turn lives around. As a society, we will all benefit.

I am not an education professional and may be viewing this from an emotional perspective but, as far as I can see, the results speak for themselves. If you have any doubts, talk to the schools that the senior pupils transition into. Charter schools can and do work under the current structure so why try to fix something that isn’t broken?

I strongly oppose any change that would disenfranchise these young people of the right to an education that works for them, no matter how small their number.

Respectfully Prime Minister, you promised “a government for all New Zealanders, an empathetic government to improve the lives of the country’s most vulnerable people.”  I am struggling to see how this proposed change is congruent with your stated vision?

Yours sincerely,

[Redacted]

[Redacted]

South Auckland Middle School FB page
PM Jacinda Ardern congratulates a  Partnership school student from a school that she is closing down.

How can Jacinda Ardern’s government call itself Progressive when it allows a school that serves no one to stay open but chooses to close down popular schools with waiting lists like the Partnership schools of the four students that she recently honoured with certificates?

Tuturumuri School, about 30 minutes’ drive from Martinborough, Wairarapa, has no pupils and no fulltime staff.

[…] There are no fulltime staff or pupils at the rural Wairarapa school, but it remains open, with the Ministry of Education continuing to pay its annual operating costs of about $250,000.

The school’s roll has steadily fallen, from 25 in 2008 to just three last year. Those three have left, and there have been no enrolments so far this year.

The school was down to three pupils last year. It now has none.

But there some enrolments pending, and there were no plans for closure, acting board of trustees chairwoman Jocelyn Busby said.

“I can tell you the school’s still open, and the ministry and the NZSTA [New Zealand School Trustees Association] are in support of the board of trustees,” she said.

[…] Tuturumuri School soldiers on, with Ministry of Education support, in the hope of future enrolments.

Yet Partnership schools which are full with waiting lists have been told to close or be forcibly closed by Jacinda Ardern’s government. Despite being promised consultation, negotiation, transparency, openness and a way to transition the schools were instead left in in limbo in an information vacuum over the holidays. They were then blindsided by Education minister Chris Hopkins’ brutal Press release. As one person commented, it was a bit like telling your wife you want a divorce via Facebook.

[…] Ministry spokeswoman Katrina Casey said it was working closely with Busby on its future options.

“Our usual practice is to continue to pay a quarter of their base, heat, light, water and maintenance funding, regardless of whether students are on-site,” she said in a statement.

[…] According to the school’s website, it has a part-time caretaker, release teacher and part-time office administrator.

New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) vice-president Rikki Sheterline said the situation in Tuturumuri was not unusual. “I’ve known of cases before where schools have gone down to no students then gone back up again.”[…]

 – Stuff

So a school with no pupils gets financial support, communication and is not threatened with closure but Partnership schools full of Maori students and other students let down by the State system are being made to walk the plank by Jacinda Ardern.

Where is the compassion she is always bleating on about? Where is her passion for lifting children out of poverdy? Has she forgotten the promises she made to Maori at Waitangi so quickly?