Higher education

32 comments on “Higher education ”

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1. Tigger 1

   7 April 2009 at 4:57 pm

   “her colleague Wayne Mapp sought to defend the jaunt by claiming Mrs Tolley had needed to get a clearer understanding of Auckland’s population pressures,’

   Honestly this is comedy gold – you couldn’t make this stuff up. Well, you could but it wouldn’t be nearly as funny.
2. gobsmacked 2

   7 April 2009 at 4:57 pm

   She loves the smell of napalm in the morning.
3. Pat 3

   7 April 2009 at 5:00 pm

   Flying is a good idea. You could start at Whenuapai airbase, who have finally had their future secured thanks to National, after 9 years of uncertainty at the hands of Labour. Now the local schools can plan ahead with confidence.

   A minute later you could fly over Hobsonville, to see the grass paddock where Labour promised a 1500 student high school opening in 2006.

   A minute later you could fly over the horse paddocks at Massey where Labour were going to build a high school, then a special needs school, then a ….. horse paddock.

   A minute later you could fly over Massey High School, a high achieving public school bursting at the seams, surrounded by empty paddocks where additional classrooms could be built.

   Just a small corner of West Auckland. Labour had their chance with Education, and during a good economic period they failed to make the most of the opportunities and invest in infrastructure. They should be too ashamed to criticize.
   • Tigger 3.1

     7 April 2009 at 5:06 pm

     Pat, you seem to have an irrational hatred of paddocks. You should really see someone about that.
     • Pat 3.1.1

       7 April 2009 at 5:13 pm

       I have a rational hatred of paddocks that should be schools. You should join me, Tigger, since building just one of these schools would result in less children being bused to school from West Auckland to the North Shore i.e. a smaller carbon footprint. And less horse shit adding to the greenhouse gases.
       • Tane 3.1.1.1

         7 April 2009 at 5:16 pm

         Fewer children, clearly.
       • Tigger 3.1.1.2

         7 April 2009 at 5:22 pm

         Pat, if carbon footprints are your problem Tolley herself campaigned on relaxing zoning laws, meaning that children will be bussed (well, the rich don’t bus their children of course, they gift them cars or drive them to school) all over the place in future. Not to mention the carbon footprint of a helicopter ride…
         • Chris G 3.1.1.2.1

           7 April 2009 at 8:03 pm

           I think Pat successfully spun this post in other direction here. Was she looking at paddocks in the helicopter? ahh, no. Right. Moving on
   • richard 3.2

     8 April 2009 at 7:54 am

     Or you could do it all on Google Earth and save $1800.
4. Tane 4

   7 April 2009 at 5:02 pm

   How else is she supposed to travel? On the cycleway??
5. gingercrush 5

   7 April 2009 at 5:03 pm

   I’ve been waiting since 2pm for someone at the Standard to bring up this. Its not a big deal. And unlike the Worth situation won’t do any damage. But Tolley is rather weak as Minister of Education. She has troubles answering questions and she still needs media training. So she is rather easy pickings for Labour.
   • Tane 5.1

     7 April 2009 at 5:25 pm

     Sorry gc, we’re not all glued to Question Time y’know.

     It’s not so much the cost that bothers me (a waste to be sure, but peanuts in the greater scheme of things), it’s the fact our minister of education didn’t know what a ‘helicopter view’ meant and went as far as to actually hire a helicopter to view Auckland educational institutions as a result.

     I mean, it’s no great surprise when she famously didn’t know what a Vice-Chancellor was as National’s education spokesperson, but seriously, wtf?
6. George Darroch 6

   7 April 2009 at 5:57 pm

   Oh dear. A helicopter view! This is hilarious.

   Well, it would be if she wasn’t the Minister.
7. ripp0 7

   7 April 2009 at 6:39 pm

   Cos I know you guys kid along some from time to time I found myself checking the helicopter use (scoop) link.. yep, it stood up which means I’d have to stand down any reference to ‘helicopter money distribution’ per one, Ben Bernanke. Here you’d mostly take this to mean throwing money at the problem.. or rather the Minister doing so. Unlikely.. in the circumstances..

   but you nevah can tell 🙂
8. what? 8

   7 April 2009 at 6:40 pm

   Auckland is a big and fragmented city, its difficult to get a good idea of where various suburbs and populations are in relation to each other.

   Granted she could have used a map, but as TV3 have said tonight AUT offered and paid for this trip so I don’t see what the big political deal is. Universities are autonomous and can spend their money in the way they please – they obviously thought it was valuable to show her where there campuses and potential students are. Big deal.
   • Tane 8.1

     7 April 2009 at 6:56 pm

     http://maps.google.com/
     • logie97 8.1.1

       7 April 2009 at 7:47 pm

       Not to mention Google Earth and street view. Perhaps the Prime Minister needs to get his own cabinet up to speed with their understandings of technology and what is on offer before they tell us what High Speed Broadband will do for us – particularly in Education!!! Helicopters to get a bird’s eye view is “So last year”
   • Chris G 8.2

     7 April 2009 at 8:09 pm

     I knew that was going to be a hillarious post when it started with the excuse of: Auckland is a big and fragmented city

     Perhaps our Minister of Defence should get up in a satellite and study NZ – get a good idea of where various invaders could come from and how populous their homelands are? Maybe NASA would fund it… Great.

     Oh wait whos our Defence minister —- Fuck Me! its Wayne Mapp! Hes just warming up defending the helicopter hijinx…
9. BLiP 9

   7 April 2009 at 6:42 pm

   As if we needed more evidence that Tolley prefers to look down upon her constituents.
10. Felix 10

    7 April 2009 at 6:58 pm

    Oh my fucking god – the minister of education isn’t able to recognise metaphor.

    Imagine what happens when she visits a school and someone mentions a desire to level the playing field.

    What a pack of retards. Glad they’ll all be gone in a couple of years.
11. Pascal's bookie 11

    7 April 2009 at 7:12 pm

    Ok. If the Nact’s have got a razor gang beavering away somewhere;

    Do. Not. Let. Tolley. Know.
    • BLiP 11.1

      7 April 2009 at 11:11 pm

      Hahaha! You two never fail to crack me up!!
12. Killinginthenameof 12

    7 April 2009 at 7:51 pm

    Well, I’m sure helicopter rides aren’t nearly as expensive as pay equality for women.
13. barnsleybill 13

    7 April 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Have we all forgotten Phil Goff jumping out of an air force plane a few years ago?
    • IrishBill 13.1

      7 April 2009 at 8:41 pm

      yes.
14. barnsleybill 14

    7 April 2009 at 9:42 pm

    I know many of us struggle to remember who the leader of the opposition is IrishBill.. So let me remind you of his parachute jump into the sea.. probably a little more expensive than Tolleys jaunt. Not that I am defending her egregious waste of our money.
    http://www.airforce.mil.nz/operations/airforce-news/79/ptsu.htm
    • Chris G 14.1

      7 April 2009 at 10:03 pm

      Apples and oranges bill.

      Tolleys under the same John Key who told us a week or so ago that government expenditure needs to be cut. Oh wait hes been saying that for yonks, oh wait so have the nats since…. Muldoon.
    • lprent 14.2

      8 April 2009 at 5:05 am

      Speaking as ex-soldier myself, I think that it is good that a minister of defense does some training.

      However I’d suggest that Tolley uses google maps.
15. jono 15

    7 April 2009 at 9:56 pm

    But Bill, Phil Goff didn’t do it because he misunderstood a basic metaphor. Its not the cost, its the sheer stupidity.
16. J J W 16

    7 April 2009 at 10:42 pm

    It must be pointed out that Tolley has never been a university student and her idea of tertiary education is a belly dancing class. Surely a handy skill for any politician to have. Tolley is rumoured to be the first Minister of Education in well over 30 years not to hold a degree. Shit, at least Mapp has a degree…

    Here is a link to the original story that Street was referring to, as it was published in Salient, Craccum and Nexus: http://tr.im/imWO
17. vidiot 17

    8 April 2009 at 8:57 am

    “Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley has been joyriding in helicopters at the taxpayers’ expense.”

    I hate to point out the obvious, it was AUT that funded it from their budget. Yes, they do get funding from central government, but once it’s in their coffers, it’s their accountability not ours.

    Can’t get in the way of a good beat up story tho.
    • richard 17.1

      8 April 2009 at 9:08 am

      Perhaps she was looking for evidence of an increase in obesity since the dumping of the healthy food requirements for shool tuckshops. Surely these fatties should be large enough to spot from the air, therefore no need for a ground mission.

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