Check it out here: http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/john-key-kyoto-protocol-backdown-video-5209695
Predictably, John Key defended the decision to have Associate Education Minister Craig Foss deal with Novopay. Predictably he cited commercial sensitivity when questioned about the sanctions Novopay and its parent company Talent2 would face if the issues are not fixed by the Wednesday deadline Mr Foss has set. (By the way, don't hold your breath on that one; our admin lady has already picked up the same set of errors for our cleaner/caretaker position that we've had for the last three months!)
Craig Foss has come under some intense scrutiny by the opposition in parliament over the Novopay debarcle. Nanaia Mahuta (Labour Education spokesperson) has called for Hekia Parata to step in and solve the issue herself. The NZEI has called for a public inquiry into the Novopay debarcle. However, John Key claims that Mr Foss is doing a great job with this issue he has been delegated, and that it is actually Novopay at fault, that it is Novopay who is responsible for fixing the issues.
John claimed that the previous payroll provider (Datacom/Multiserve) couldn't carry on as their system was breaking down. Well, that is news to administrators and principals in schools about the country I am sure!! The lovely admin lady at our school scoffed at the PM's assertion. She has been in the job for ten years or so at our school, and she has never had a headache with the payroll like she has had with it since Novopay went online. Even the fact that she is an administrator at a neighbouring school as well put Novopay in a complete spin!! She dreads pay week now!
John Key tried to claim that there are many intricacies in teachers' pay. Yes, there are some extra allowances, units, etc., but Novopay don't know their percentages, fractions and decimals because one of their biggest problems in paying people is the fact they don't seem to be able to process people who work part time or relieve for part days. So I guess they fail the numeracy standard.
Between 5:38-6:20 in the Breakfast interview, John Key valiantly tries to defend Hekia Parata as the Minister of Education. He made this very true statement: "Quite frankly if you put any of the twenty of us in Cabinet into that portfolio we'd face just the same issues."
Well Mr Key, let me put it in simple words even you can understand: Your Minister of Education, regardless of who they are, will be passionately opposed by the education sectors while they continue to push forward policies that are detrimental to New Zealand's quality public education system, best practise, sound research and what is best for children!!!!!
"A well organised opposition" is what Mr Key said has been mounted against Hekia Parata - again here he speaks the truth. We are a well organised opposition because we have good practise and research on our side. Parents want what is best for their children - and they are increasingly aware that NACT policy is not in the best interests of their children.
In regards to Kyoto, I have to say I am very disappointed that New Zealand will not be participating. It seems that John Key and his government do not value the clean green 100% pure image we have spent a fortune on advertising to the world for the last decade or more. "We are a tiny, tiny part of world emissions..." says John Key - yes we are, but we need to make sure our tiny, tiny part of world emissions is dealt to. If we don't do our bit, how can we expect to exert influence over growing industrial nations like India and China to get them to decrease their emissions?
So that really is just the bullshit that John Key said today.
Mr Key has made a statement that the previous system was "effectively falling over". What does this mean and is this fair and accurate? I can't recall the same level of noise about the old system.
ReplyDeleteTalking to various admin staff at various schools, they say they haven't had the grief with Multiserve or Datacom like they have with Novopay. This is the Nats covering their own butts because they did not ensure that Novopay had met their milestones or trialled the system effectively before it went live.
ReplyDeleteReally, it should have been implemented in regional stages so they could iron out the bugs on smaller groups.
But check out this article on stuff: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7951431/Novopay-problems-Teachers-underpaid-overpaid-not-paid
I nearly choked when I read this part near the end of the article:
"The Education Ministry agreed to pay Australian company Talent2 $100.5 million to build and run its Novopay payroll system for eight years, a ministry spokesman says.
The figure is far larger than the $29.4m capital cost of the system or the figure of $62.4m originally attributed to the contract in 2007, which included seven years' running costs."
Seriously!! Who has been telling half truths?