Pariah Parata

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, February 26th, 2013 - 20 comments
Categories: education, Hekia parata - Tags: ,

I’m starting to feel sorry for Hekia Parata. In his column yesterday Armstrong referred to her as “something of a pariah figure” in the education portfolio.

Her colleagues clearly don’t take her seriously any more – her decisions are now being “rolled by her cabinet colleagues”.

The same colleagues are probably behind the decision to break her written promises to schools in Christchurch.

1000 teachers, parents and principals have voted no confidence in her.

And the best that Key can manage by way of faint praise is to insist (all evidence to the contrary) that Parata is “not cannon-fodder“. Ouch.

Oh well, if I find myself feeling too sympathetic, I’ll just grit my teeth, I’ll remember the fiasco she has made of her portfolio, and I’ll feel sorry for kids and teachers instead.

20 comments on “Pariah Parata ”

  1. North 1

    That’s what you get for Hubris. Humanity from others not possessed by Hubris.

  2. SpaceMonkey 2

    It’s called karma.

  3. geoff 3

    Why would you feel sorry for a fuckwit like that? She’s just dumb enough to be manipulated by the other fuckwits like Key.
    All fuckwits, all should be shot with a ball of their own shit (that’s a metaphor LPRENT, not an actual threat)

    • Craig Glen viper 3.1

      Yeah lets face it she is getting her power and financial reward for her willingness to wreck our childrens futures, this woman like many of her male counter parts are bloody useless. NZ public education system has so many strenghts and the Nats are only to willing to dismantle it slice by slice.

  4. Tiger Mountain 4

    Save decent existentialist humanism for more deserving cases please, these people play for keeps. E.G check out the “long narrow country” Chile, this is ultimately where a lot of this cruel social policy derives from in recent times.

    • Murray Olsen 4.1

      The cruel social policy was not developed in Chile. It came from Austria and Chicago, via the Monroe Doctrine and Pinochet, was picked up by Thatcher and Douglas, and now is virtually the only game in town. Chile was used as a social and economic experiment on behalf of the Chicago Boys and the US State Department. Chileans were largely victims.

      • Tiger Mountain 4.1.1

        Only so much can be expressed in one comment Murray, but you are ultimately correct about Hayek, Friedman and US foreign policy of course. I just see parallels in our own long narrow country where geography, regionalism and earthquakes make things that bit easier for the neo libs.

  5. tracey 5

    Hekia parana

  6. Matthew Hooton 6

    You missed that this morning John Armstrong wrote: “Hekia Parata is already beyond redemption in most people’s minds.”

    See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong-on-politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502865&objectid=10867776

  7. tracey 7

    Another quality appointment by our leader… He really has proven to be a poor judge of character…

    Tolley, wilkinson. Parata, smith,

    • Weta 7.1

      What do you expect from a boy who spent most of his working life on – or managing – a trading floor ?

    • Colonial Viper 7.2

      Smith remains a very capable Minister. His life outside his portfolios – that’s another matter though.

  8. Wasn’t Hekia once touted as a future leader of the National Party?

    Not the kind of comment you would want out there in the media about yourself when Steven Joyce is prowling around the perimeter of that position, I would have thought. (or is ‘circling around that ship’ a better metaphor?)

    The most interesting thing about Parata’s treatment is whose purposes it serves.

  9. tracey 9

    Collins has gone very quiet. Women dont fare well in the nats unless the polls show they are needed (shipley).

  10. bad12 10

    Hekia is suffering at the hands of an unhappy National Government Cabinet, Slippery’s pet since the Mana by-election where they are reported to have got ‘really close’ is simply feeling the after effects of some nasty results showing up in National Party internal polling,

    This would tend to suggest that in the arm wrestle between what i see as 2 distinct tribes within the National Government that the tide has turned in favor of the English faction,

    If looks are anything to go by Tony Ryall was envisaging how the target being laboriously painted for Slippery’s back by Maurice Williamson and His apprentices Wilkinson and Heatley would fit the intended victim on a clip from tonight’s TV1 news…

  11. RedBaronCV 11

    He, actually they, will leave her there. She’s doing the dirty work for the rest of them so why would they taint some one else.

  12. RedBaronCV 12

    And did I read somewhere that the cabinet voted that Hekia should use the Minister of Education’s reserve powers to fund Wanganui Collegiate because otherwise she would have had to turn it down.

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