As the school year winds to a close, Labour’s acting Education spokesperson, Chris Hipkins presents Hekia Parata’s 2012 Report Card, where she is assessed against National’s Standards.

CLASS SIZES: Hekia Parata promised so much with her project to increase class sizes, but delivered so little. Hekia assured us she could save money and improve teacher quality by jamming more kids into each class. But she had not done her homework and was forced to abandon the entire premise. An embarrassing effort.

CHARTER SCHOOLS: This is a group project, and Hekia has been hamstrung by having to work with little Johnny Banks. There was no mandate for this experiment in privatised, profit-driven schooling, and no-one is convinced by the idea of allowing unregistered teachers in front of the classroom. Poorly thought through and going nowhere.

SALISBURY SCHOOL: Definitely not achieved. Planning to close Salisbury School was a clear breech of the rules. Hekia completely over-reached and got shot down in the Courts. Another embarrassing failure. Read the rest of this entry »

The High Court ruling that Hekia Parata acted unlawfully in closing Salisbury residential school is a warning shot for a minister who is running roughshod over due process in Canterbury as well, says Labour’s Associate Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins.

“The High Court ruling today on Salisbury is a victory for the parents’ persistence, common sense and proper process. It’s also a slap in the face for a Minister of the Crown to have their actions ruled unlawful.

“This must be the end of Hekia’s attempts to close Salisbury.

“But I predict it won’t be the end of these sorts of hearings for Hekia. She is making a habit of riding roughshod over communities’ concerns and that annoying thing called the law. Read the rest of this entry »

Any reform of public services needs to be based on the principle of improving outcomes for New Zealanders, not implementing arbitrary spending cuts, Labour’s State Services spokesperson Chris Hipkins says.

“The rhetoric and reality of the National government’s public sector reform are poles apart. While it talks on the one hand about improving the responsiveness of public services, on the other it is implementing arbitrary cuts that focus on ‘input’ rather than ‘outcome’. Read the rest of this entry »

Labour today reinforced its commitment to enhancing and protecting New Zealand’s world leading ACC scheme which— Kiwi owned and operated for three decades— is envied internationally with low levies and Kiwis’ best interests at heart, says Labour’s ACC spokesperson Chris Hipkins.

“ACC is the only system in the world which provides 24-hour no-fault coverage for all physical injuries. It’s a public entity and the property of New Zealanders, not simply another insurance scheme to make profits for foreign corporates,” Chris Hipkins said. Read the rest of this entry »

National says this election is a vote on whether or not we sell New Zealand’s assets. When New Zealanders were asked if we should sell our power companies, our bank or our airline to get out of debt, the answer was an overwhelming “no”. New Zealanders say our future is not for sale.

This motivated us to find the political courage to map out a better, more viable alternative. It lifted our sights well beyond the election. It inspired us to set out an alternative vision for the future – a future we can all own, not sell. Keep New Zealand’s assets in New Zealand hands. To learn about the alternative, go to www.ownourfuture.co.nz

Rimutaka MP Chris Hipkins is spearheading Labour’s campaign to save our world-leading ACC scheme from the National Party’s privatisation plans.

National has announced they will ‘introduce competition’ into the ACC work account, a move that Labour says is nothing short of privatisation.

Independent studies have found that ACC is already among the cheapest accident cover schemes in the world. The only way the private sector can make money from it would be to deny more claims or increase costs.

Visit Labour’s ACC Works page to keep up to date with the latest.

During November local volunteers will be out and about delivering the 2010 Rimutaka Constituent Survey. Local MP Chris Hipkins distributed a similar survey last year was heartened by the strong response. Over 1,200 local residents took the time to fill it in and post in back. A summary of the results was published in the regular constituency newsletter, The Hipkins Herald.

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The latest edition of The Hipkins Herald will be hitting local letterboxes over the next few weeks. Delivered by local volunteers, the 8 page tabloid newspaper keeps local constituents informed about the work Chris is doing both within the electorate and at Parliament.

The Autumn 2010 edition discussed the National government’s proposal to increase GST, Labour’s campaign to stop loan sharks, and and recent visits to Rimutaka by Leader Phil Goff and MPs Ruth Dyson and Carmel Sepuloni. We also profile Chelsea Torrance, Rimutaka’s Youth MP.

I begin my remarks today by paying tribute to the 40,000 New Zealanders who, through no fault of their own, found themselves joining the unemployment benefit ranks last year—40,000 extra New Zealanders. They are real people who previously had real jobs. They have real families, real homes, and real mortgages.

Too often in this House when we talk about unemployment, we talk about numbers. We saw that with John Key last year, when he said that he was happy with the increase in unemployment rates last year given the economic conditions. I do not think that anybody should ever be happy with an increase in unemployment rates. Read the rest of this entry »

A year has now passed since the 2008 General Election. It’s a good time to reflect on the track record to date of the new National government. Have they helped or hindered economic recovery?

On the jobs front, the new National government has been conspicuous in their absence. 150,000 Kiwis are now unemployed, that’s 41,000 more than when John Key came into power. There is no doubt in my mind that National could have done much more to keep many of those hardworking Kiwis in their jobs.

All we’ve had from John Key is window dressing. His jobs summit in February is now widely considered a waste of time and recently his big idea from the summit, his cycleway, was launched without any reference to jobs.

Read the rest of this entry »