The PPTA is sadly misguided

Can politicians really take their lead from the PPTA? I think not.

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The Post Primary Teachers’ Association called this week for politicians to drop politicking, focus on a cross-party approach to education decision-making, show real leadership and end policy founded in political point-scoring. Perhaps the PPTA could show us how it’s done. So far this year, its press releases have accused the Government of being “clearly foolish” over public-private partnerships, of having “broken promises”, and of “slashing and burning” in the public sector. “It’s as if the Government,” says PPTA president Robin Duff in one release, “has abandoned any commitment to state secondary schools.”

One imagines that what Duff really means by a cross-party approach is actually a commitment by all political parties to agree with the PPTA. The union is sadly misguided. For a start, there is a huge range of fundamental aspects of the education system on which Labour and National plainly concur already. Despite Duff’s claim that each new Government “starts by dumping the policies of the past government and neglects to preserve and enhance sound educational policy”, the education system does not change unrecognisably each time there is a change of personnel in the Beehive.

But apart from that, the very essence of a democracy is that political parties support different philosophies and promote different ideas. An election is a contest of those ideas. Education is not, as Duff implies, too important to be the subject of political debate, it is too important not to be. People need to discuss and debate education policy, not simply defer to the PPTA.

Duff should be careful what he wishes for. During the last round of industrial action by the PPTA, a lot of parents would have welcomed cross-party support – but only for tackling the teacher unions.

In three months’ time, when we are sick of the sight and sound of politicians on the hustings, we should recall the images we are seeing from Tripoli. It has taken years of oppression, months of warfare and the support of Nato rockets and drone aircraft before Libyans unseated the Government. If we want to topple ours, we only need vote.

It’s a shame the “running of the sheep” down Auckland’s Queen St, as part of the Real New Zealand Festival based around the Rugby World Cup, was cancelled. It is not clear whether it was canned out of concern that the sheep would be traumatised, or out of fear of bad publicity, whether or not there were genuine fears for animal welfare. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. After the Adidas rugby jersey and Telecom abstinence fiascos, PR people are super-sensitive about potential Rugby World Cup controversies, however minor.

The SPCA said the risk of festival organisers not having a drawcard for their event was “small in comparison to the distress of the animals and the likelihood of world approbation if even one sheep is harmed”. Yet it is hard to believe the world would have risen up as one if a ewe had tripped and grazed its knee outside Smith & Caughey’s. These animals are born in August in the cold, have their tails chopped off without anaesthetic, are separated from their mothers, forced to breed with rams they have never met before and have their warm coats cut off on a regular basis. There is no excuse for animal cruelty, but let’s not kid ourselves that sheep are anything but reasonably robust creatures. After all, they are herded all the time without the SPCA complaining. Why is it more inhumane to shepherd them down Queen St for a one-off event than to herd them down a rural road where they do not even have the opportunity to pause to windowshop? They are moved in and out of paddocks and shearing sheds and, ultimately, sent to the meat works where they get chopped up for our dinner.

The event would certainly have put a new spin on the term “Queen St farmers” (mind you, if the Real New Zealand Festival were truly showcasing New Zealand, it would be dairy cows rather than sheep being herded down Queen St, defecating and urinating their way along the road with their waste being hosed down the gutters, straight into the harbour).