Protesting - Is it still allowed in New Zealand? Are we still a democracy? Are the media the Spanish Inquisition?

You are probably now very familiar with the dildo throwing incident at Waitangi on Friday 5 February 2016, where a female protester, Josie Butler, threw what we now know was actually a squeaky dildo shaped toy at Minister Steven Joyce's face.  To his credit, Joyce took it on the chin and joked afterwards that someone needed to alert John Oliver from the comedy media show Last Week Tonight so the incident could go to ground faster.

Josie Butler was arrested, but no charges have been laid.  She stated that the NZ Police were professional and did their job appropriately.  Steven Joyce doesn't want to delve into it further, but John Key stated on TVNZ's Breakfast yesterday, "I don't buy the argument that she's some hard-working nurse that we should feel sorry for - I'm sorry."

And here in lies the kicker.  Yes, Josie Butler is a nurse.  A nurse who following the Christchurch earthquakes five years ago received an award from then mayor, Bob Parker, for outstanding service.  Butler has held grave concerns about the TPPA for several years, after being alerted through her union, NZNO (Nurse's Organisation) about the implications to Pharmac, medicines and our health system. 

Butler is not the only person in the health system to share these concerns.  The concerns go right to the top of our medical hierarchy with high ranking medical specialists signing a document expressing their concerns about how the TPPA will impact Pharmac and our health system.

So Butler did not stand still.  She was part of a team in Christchurch that raised awareness of the TPPA, lobbied the city council and protested the TPPA at each opportunity.  This year she took the time out to travel to Waitangi as this offered another opportunity to protest.

Her protesting colleagues did not know what she had planned.  They are divided over the course of action she took.  Some have remonstrated her.  Ms Butler apparently has apologised for any offense caused and has been invited back to Waitangi for 2017.

But the media do not like to let a story go.  And this is what got my juices running hot this morning:

Exactly Helen!!!  You can read the latest version of this article here.  But this sentence stood out for me:

Canterbury District Health Board general manager of people and capability Michael Frampton said the DHB would not comment on whether Butler faced any disciplinary measures.

Was this protester protesting while she was at work? Was she wearing any clothing that showed her workplace? Did she do anything to promote her workplace apart from stating that she was a nurse who opposed the TPPA on grounds of how it will affect our health system (in the first place)?
 
Apart from the fact that she threw a squeaky toy shaped like a dildo at a Minister of the Crown, how was her protest against the TPPA any different than the tens of thousands of others who, like me, marched down Queen St last Thursday.

Does the media intend contacting every employer or educational institution these people work for/belong to find out what disciplinary action (if any) they will be taking against people exercising their democratic right to protest?

Over the last few years we have seen a number of people hounded out of their jobs, some for people doing something totally appalling in their job (think Paul Henry's removal from Breakfast after his comments on the then Governor General's birthplace) to those who did something outside their workplace that had nothing to do with their job (think Tony Veitch and his appalling domestic assault on his then partner). 

The media and the growing impact social media has a huge part to play in this, but when is enough enough?  When should media leave the job a person has out of it?  How much should our employers have a say over what we do, who we associate with, where we go and what we say when we are not at work?

And I say this with knowledge of how much an employer can interfere with our individual freedoms.  Currently, teachers are able to voice their opinion and protest against government on education policy and other matters.... but not for much longer.  The new version of the Teachers' Council, the Education Council aka EDUCANZ, wants to implement a Code of Conduct to replace the current Code of Ethics we operate under. 

The Code of Conduct, much like the one other state sector employees are subject to, does not allow a teacher to voice their opinion and protest.  Already this applies to our special education colleague who are directly employed by the MOE and therefore come under the state sector Code of Conduct.  They have not been able to voice the systematic gutting of special education services over the last seven years and how many children are now missing out on basic assistance to access education.

So as a teacher, will I, in future still be able to participate in a protest as I did last week against the TPPA by walking down Queen Street?  Will I still be able to be an active unionist who vehemently opposes GERM in education?  Will I still be able to be the educated professional that I am who opposes GERM based on how I know children learn and best practise teaching?  Will I still be able to publish this blog?

I believe that there is an epic failure in our society today when our democratic right to protest or to point out that a policy is fundamentally flawed will endanger our ability to work, that it gives an employer a right to dictate your private actions and thoughts.  Even more so, it is an epic failure that the media thinks they have the right to push into a workplace and demand to know what action an employer will take when everyone knows that that is a violation of the Employment Act to make such actions common knowledge.

So media, in my opinion, you have failed the standard.

How about you end your Spanish Inquisition on Josie Butler and actually do your job - get some answers out of John Key, Todd McClay, Steven Joyce and Bill English about the truth of TPPA.  While you're at it, ask Hekia Parata to be up front and truthful on how the TPPA will effect education and get Dr Jonathan Coleman to stop pussy footing around on how the TPPA will actually affect Pharmac.  Because our government has sold NZ down the road, and the media have failed the standard on doing their job of finding the truth on the TPPA.

Novopay: A dog with fleas, a bad case of fleas.

Novopay is a dog with fleas.  Steven Joyce said that in February 2013 a couple of weeks after John Key gave him the responsibility of fixing Novopay aka Nopay, Novopain or Nevapay... we in the education profession have found the only fun in Novopay, apart from the surprise of actually being paid, is making up new names to describe its poor performance.

Here we are 18 months later and Steven makes this announcement:

After pouring $45 million in to fix Novopay, the teachers' payroll system is no longer a "dog" and teachers will be thankful that the Government has taken it over, Prime Minister John Key says.

Senior Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce, who last year described Novopay as "a dog" today said a Government-owned company would assume management of the system from Australian company Talent2 from October this year.

He said "pretty good progress" had been made in recent months to fix the system which has been plagued with problems including large numbers of over and under payments to teachers since it was introduced in 2012.

However, remaining issues prompted contractual issues in recent weeks and Talent2 had not been prepared to provide extra resources necessary for further development of the system.

It had become clear "that the best outcome would be a change in the provider relationship".

Opposition parties seized on today's announcement as yet another admission from the Government that the system had been a costly disaster, but Mr Key defended the decision.

"If you look forward, the sector will take quite a lot of confidence that effectively the Government is taking over the programme and the project. They'll know it will be properly resourced and properly looked after."

When reminded that Mr Joyce had called it a dog he said, "Yeah, but I think it's come a long way since then".

"It's actually fundamentally operating pretty well. This is a very complex sector there's a lot of different pay scales for teachers it's not an easy thing. But the Government has stabilized it and got it working reasonably effectively and I think a lot of teachers will say thank goodness the Government now has some control over the process."

He said it was possible to make the argument the Government should have assumed control earlier, "and hindsight's a wonderful thing".

However the Government had now made "the right call" over the system which he said was originally signed up to by the previous Labour Government.

President of the New Zealand Principals' Federation Philip Harding said his members were encouraged that Talent2 had withdrawn from managing the system, but warned "there is a long way to go before principals will have any confidence in the system".

"'The announcement does not cure the Novopay shambles that the sector has been battling for the last three years."

"The same challenges of random errors, frustratingly slow problem resolution, inaccurate personnel data, and significantly increased workload will continue," he said.

"Success will be determined by the way the new entity is managed, and more importantly, resourced to deal to these priorities."

Meanwhile, Mr Joyce earlier confirmed Talent2 will pay the Ministry of Education between $18 million and $22 million including $7m cash and other considerations such as license to use the core software by way of a settlement.

That sum was set against the $45 million the Government had paid to address the problems with the system. Overall Novopay had cost $110 million to date.

Mr Joyce said the agreement for the Government to take over should ''not necessarily be seen as failure on anyone's part any more than it had been''.

It was, he said, ''the next logical step''.

''This decision has been made in the best interests of all parties - staff administrators, schools and the Government.''

Talent2 said the "mutual agreement" settled a "flawed contractual arrangement" between itself and the Ministry of Education.

"This change allows Talent2 to better focus resources and investment on its core payroll business and broader New Zealand client base."

Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins said the announcement today would be "cold comfort to teachers and school staff still struggling with Novopay" and Talent2 was "dropping a hot potato in the taxpayer's lap".

"Goodness knows how much more (money) will be shovelled down this black hole before the problems are finally fixed."

He questioned why Education Minister Hekia Parata signed off on the system and why it had taken Mr Joyce so long "to finally decide to take action".

"Teachers and school staff have waited long enough for Novopay to be fixed. It has taken up their valuable teaching time, as well as hours and hours of school administration. Students and parents have also paid the price for this ongoing uncertainty."

NZ First education spokeswoman Tracey Martin said Mr Joyce had "admitted defeat" in cutting Talent2 loose.

"Mr Joyce cannot fix a system that National got so wrong in the first place, and has wasted tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars on."
(Novopay no longer a 'dog' - PM NZ Herald 30 July 2014)

Steven, we'll believe it when we see it mate.

You could talk to a cluster of schools and find that a significant portion of those schools are still experiencing issues.  Personally I believe Novopay has completely stuffed up my sick leave entitlements somehow and their pay slips would frazzle the mind of a top mathematician because they are incomprehensible.  But my concerns are minor in comparison to the people who still play Novopay Lotto every second Wednesday as they check their bank accounts to see if they have been paid or not.

But this also puts fear into principals and support staff who deal with the fall out of Novopay on a daily basis.  How will this new organisation cope with the End of Year actions that Novopay has failed so badly at for the last two Decembers?

And Metiria Turei raised an excellent point on One News Tonight and on Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint (sorry I couldn't get a link to the clip with Metiria on the late news but here is the one without her from One News at Six) about if National were to win the Treasury Benches on 20 September, is this move a step backwards into the 1990s to reintroduce the bulk funding of teachers' salaries and devolving pay roll responsibilities to schools? 

When Corin Dann asked John Key if it did mean bulk funding was on the horizon, John Key said no.  But teachers have heard John Key say no about a lot of things in education and then watch those things being introduced.  So teachers do not trust John Key.

Another concerning aspect is the government's adamant demand that the teacher pay roll has to be simplified.  Good luck.  It is not simple because teachers are not one size fits all.  Some teachers take on many more roles within their schools and consequently have to be adequately recompensed.  During our last primary teachers collective agreement negotiations, the MOE tried to have many of our hard fought for allowances scrapped.  We would not agree to that.  People deserved to be paid for the extra responsibilities they take on and the effort they put in.  Schools wouldn't function with out that effort and kids would miss out.

A member of Stand up for kids - protect our schools  on Facebook posted this copy of an email from Peter Hughes, the Secretary of Education, which was sent out today.

From: Peter Hughes <Peter.Hughes@minedu.govt.nz>
Date: 30 July 2014 12:45:15 pm NZST
Subject: Message from Peter Hughes

Good afternoon,

Earlier today the Minister Responsible for Novopay, Hon Steven Joyce, announced that school payroll services will transfer to Crown management on 17 October. I have provided a link to Minister Joyce’s press release here.

I thought it would be useful if I explained to you the reason for this change.

As you are probably aware, our plan was always to have a fully outsourced payroll system for the Education sector. The Ministry wanted to focus on its core business – supporting you to raise student achievement.

We ran into some major problems with Novopay. It meant that the Ministry had to get back involved to try and make things right and ensure you were getting the levels of service you are entitled to expect.

We have come a long way, with a steady pay period to pay period performance that is now well within the acceptable error levels defined by the Novopay technical review. However, to deliver on your expectations, we need to go further. At the moment we have a model where responsibilities and accountabilities are split across two organisations, and the Ministry is diverting time and energy away from what we should be focussing on.

From 17 October there will be a single Government-owned company solely focussed on managing school payroll services end-to-end. There will be clear accountability and expectations from the Government on ensuring staff get paid correctly on time, every time. It will be a company that is service-driven, not focussing on a commercial bottom line.

We will make sure the new company supports schools in the right way and we will focus on what we should be focussing on - raising student achievement and improving educational support to your schools.

We intend to transition Talent2 staff working on schools payroll into the new company to ensure the handover goes smoothly.

This new model will allow us to further improve payroll delivery and school support. The new arrangements will help us deliver the simpler, more user friendly service that you’ve been asking for. This change is in the best interests of the Ministry, of Talent 2 and most importantly of you and your teams.

I’ll keep you all up to date as the transition progresses. If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with me directly, or with your local Director of Education.

Kind regards,

Peter

Peter Hughes | Secretary for Education | Office of the Secretary for Education

This email is soothing to the naked eye, however I still feel unease that staff from the existing organisation will still be involved.  Yes, I understand they know the system, however, they have consistently provided a not positive experience for the last two years, so you question them naturally.

And naturally the unions have something to say.

In this press release, Government Novopay buy-out too late and schools still paying, NZEI makes a valid point about the monies still owing to some schools, some of that money from 2012, and there is also the issue of the extra workload on the principal and admin support staff.

Chris Hipkins in his post Taxpayer to fork out millions for Novopay rescue points out who signed off  this dog with fleas.  He also pointed out how much money has already been wasted on Novopay and how much it was costing to buy Talent2 out of the Novopay and future running costs.  I can tell you that Chris Hipkins says that Labour is discussing the Novopay issue and believes that something has to change from the current system.  Chris has said it may mean dumping the system completely and starting again.

In the Herald this morning there is an accusation that the government is trying to appease teachers by announcing these changes now in the lead up to the election.  Novopay move slated as a diversion says "Chris Hipkins, Labour's education spokesman, said the Government was trying to divert attention from Novopay before the election campaign because "teachers will be confronting National MPs and candidates with the clear message that Novopay hasn't been fixed"."  Which John Key countered with "the education sector "will take quite a lot of confidence that effectively the Government is taking over the program and the project. They'll know it will be properly resourced and properly looked after.""

Well Mr Key, the education sector does not trust your government.  You guys made Novopay go live despite the fact their were close to 200 flaws identified that weren't remedied when the go ahead was given (see Why Hekia Parata (and Anne, Craig and Bill) should go, Novopay - or Nevapay, Bullshit John Key says, Why Steven Joyce should just man up and dump Novopay) and then the buck passing and incompetence that has followed.

Teachers also don't believe or trust you Mr Key because your government has not consulted or listened to the education sector about anything in your education policy - National Standards, Charter Schools, truancy services, special education, residential schools, Te Kotahitanga, performance pay, IES roles, class sizes, professional development/Advisory Services..... the list goes on.

Mr Key says Novopay is not so much of a dog anymore, but teachers, principals and support staff will be more reserved.  While pleased that Talent2 will be taken out of the equation somewhat, we are wary.  Quite frankly, teachers will be watching from October to see if this new crown enterprise to take on Novopay will meet the standard or not.  I'll report back later in the year.

The Ongoing Saga of Novopay and the Minister of Misinformation

This morning I was cruising through all the news apps on my phone and I spotted this wee story from late yesterday afternoon from 3 News:  Ministry chasing Novopay overpayments.

Steven Joyce, the Minister of Misinformation, is at it again telling us that Novopay is settling in.

Bullshit Minister!

It has been 20 months since Novopay went live thanks to being signed off by Hekia Parata, Craig Foss and Bill English and it is still a dog with fleas throwing up new issues frequently.

At our last NZEI branch primary teachers PUM (paid union meeting), with maybe 70 odd attendees, 90% put up their hands to show they continued to have ongoing issues with Novopay personally. These ran from not being paid, to not being paid correctly (not at right level, under or overpaid, not paid units & allowances), to stuff ups with sick leave, maternity leave, unpaid or study leave. 

 

And that doesn't include principals, support staff or caretakers and/or cleaners.

 

In early March I was talking to a principal of a city school.  She is a strong character and doesn't take things lying down.  She told me one of the Novopay stories at her school: 

 

At the end of 2012, just as they were breaking up for the end of term four, Novopay made an overpayment of $17,000 to support staff, some teachers, and a teacher who hadn't worked at the school for months.  That $17,000 sent the school bank account into the red.

 

No reimbursement was made throughout 2013, despite numerous phone calls and letters and emails to Novopay and the Ministry of Education. 

 

As 2013 progressed, our heroine principal decided on a new plan of attack.  The local MP, a back bencher who doesn't get a lot of noticing outside the local city newspaper (he's really seen in the region's major newspaper, let alone in National media), was approached to help solve the problem.  This principal applied substantial pressure on this MP to advocate for the return of the monies owed to her school.  She applied this pressure regularly, so regularly that he decided that to get some peace he would get the MOE to reimburse this city school.

 

So early in 2014, the money was finally returned to this city school.  Then the MOE tried to tell the heroine principal that it was "just a loan" until Novopay paid back the money.  Back to the MP she went.... and he got the MOE to retract that statement.

  

I have another friend with a wife, several children and a mortgage who wakes up every second Wednesday and wonders if the Novopay Lottery has come through for him that morning.  Each fortnight throws up new wonders for him.  One week no pay, the next fortnight underpaid, the following correct, the next one overpaid....  Every fortnight brings new stress for him and his family.  It has an impact on him paying his mortgage, putting petrol in the car, child support payments....  It impacts his principal and office staff who deal with the fact that Novopay has stuffed up yet again.

 

So if you or a fellow staff member are still being given the short end of the stick 20 months after its implementation this is what you need to do:

• inform your principal/admin staff responsible for Novopay in your school asap each time. 
• ring NZEI on 0800 NZEI HELP (or the PPTA one if you're a secondary teacher) to get their support, but also so they can keep tabs on the problem and create general pressure.
• keep a record of every Novopay stuff up and how it has affected you and what's been done to resolve it. Keep adding to the record each time a stuff up happens.  Make sure you have dates and even screen shots of your payslips and missed payments and extra charges from your bank accounts.
• email that record of stuff ups to your local MP, Steven Joyce, Hekia Parata and even John Key and Nikki Kaye (Associate Minister of Education who seems to have a better grasp of the portfolio than Hekia) to show them that there is still a problem and it's ongoing.
• send a copy to opposition education spokespeople like Chris Hipkins, Catherine Delahunty and Tracey Martin so they can keep the acid on the government.

 

I've said it before and I will continue to say it over and over again:  Novopay is a dog with fleas and should be dumped Steven Joyce.  Hekia Parata, Craig Foss and Bill English should have lost their jobs for signing off this project, and Hekia and Craig as well as Anne Tolley should have lost their jobs for not monitoring the project as it was developed effectively.

Essentially, these ministers, Mr Joyce, Ms Parata, Mr Foss and Mrs Tolley have failed the standard.

Am I about to be Novopained?

It's the term break. I've got the car serviced, sorted some insurance for future circumstances, and I've been working on probably the biggest decision personally and financially I have made in my life yet!

Tonight I've arrived at the beach to spend time with cousins and catch up with old work colleagues and friends. I was at quiz and I thought, during a break, "I'll check that Twitter message that came while I was driving. "

Everyone was talking about Novopay. I checked my email. No payslip.

I asked if others had received payslips.

Someone retweeted a message to me saying that the payslips would come out at lunch time tomorrow but we'd still get paid on time.

I bank with Westpac.  While other banks may show you the money on Tuesday night, Westpac don't - well not in my account they don't.

I write this just before 1:00am on Wednesday morning. As of yet, my bank account does not show a deposit.

Is it my turn to be Novopained?

What new bug means that we haven't had our payslips yet?

Why now?

The anticipation is killing me.

I could well wake in the morning to find the usual deposit in my bank.

Or I might awaken unable to pay my rent, insurances, loan and bills.

What will happen remains to be seen.

The next morning: whew! Pay went in.

But for many others it did not.   My mate Beven can't even buy a $4 box of tea this morning.  His card declined.

This has gone on long enough.

The Novopay issue is well below standard.

Man up Steven Joyce and dump it.  We want Datacom back.

Why Steven Joyce should just man up and dump Novopay.

Last Tuesday, NZEI members throughout the country were asked to show Steven Joyce, the Minister of Everything (including Novopay) that we want action on Novopay and we want it now.  It seems the Minister got a wee bit titchy when the unions confronted him about compensation to schools for the mega amount of time their admin staff has spent on Novopay stuff ups at the expense of their other expected duties, with some schools having to take on extra staff to cover the Novopay workload.  I'm sure you all remember that when he first took on the role back in the end of January that he mentioned this was something he would look into.  So after his titchiness, NZEI thought a show of force might remind him how schools are feeling.  Thirty-five National MPs had a protest of some sort outside of their office, and if some locations didn't have an MP's electorate office, they just protested somewhere people could see them.

I dutifully organised a small protest outside of the office of our local National MP.  During the organisation of this protest, some admin officers shared their experiences of Novopay with me.  I'm sharing two such stories with you. 

Heather is the admin person at a small, isolated rural village school with a roll of less than 50.  The other week, over three days, 11 hours alone was spent on dealing with Novopay.  For the first six months, she couldn't access so many aspects of Novopay through her log in because of one little tickbox that she knew nothing about - instead, Heather had to do her work using the principal's log in, an apparent no-no.  It took six months to solve this problem because the Novopay staff didn't know how to solve it, and despite the fact that she continually reported the problem and was told it was a priority to solve.  In the end someone from the MOE told her how to solve it.  Heather will no longer go through Novopay to solve her little school's backlog of problems; she has decided she gets better results dealing directly with the MOE.  Her school has outstanding pay issues still to be dealt with.

This next part is in the words of Vicki:

I am an office administrator and I too have had numerous issues with Novopay. One example is that last pay period I was on hold for 112 minutes before being cut off as they answered the call. I emailed advising I had been cut off after holding that long and requesting an urgent call back - I'm still waiting!!! I rang again straight away and held for another 1 hour 45 min before the call was answered. That's 4 hours out of my day just on 1 issue!

Vicki is the admin person at another rural school with less than 120 students.

These schools only have one admin person.  They are also expected to answer the phone (a bit hard when you are on hold with Novopay for two hours), order supplies, receive supplies, help students with stationery issues, be the sickbay monitor, monitor accounts, photocopy for staff, assist the principal in admin duties (i.e. newsletters, letters, typing, etc.), laminate and bind, deal with public and parental inquiries, collate and stamp resources and load onto the asset register..... and so much more than I could possibly put in.

In the last six months, these admin wizzes have had their workload doubled by a computer program!!  Some have even walked away from their jobs in despair as they can not bear what Novopay has done to their jobs.

A friend of mine, Louise, recently returned to primary school teaching after two years in private ECE.  She is an experienced teacher with well over twenty years in the profession.  She got her first payslip - and couldn't open it.  She appealed on Facebook for help.  I told her to use her MOE number with a zero in front as a password.  She did.  It didn't work.

Louise was one of those "lucky" people who start a new job and get a new MOE number courtesy of Novopay, despite having a long history with the MOE.  This new MOE number means that Novopay has no record of her qualifications, service, sick leave, etc.  Louise is being paid on the untrained rate, approximately $26,000, almost $30,000 below where she definitely should be, if not more.  She has had to go back to the institution she got her qualification from to get an academic transcript to get paid properly.  She has supplied Novopay with all the relevant details through her school's admin officer, and is now taking bets on when she will be paid at the correct rate.  I bet four months.  If that is so, when she does get paid, she will get a massive backpay, be taxed at a higher tax rate and then will have to wait until after April 2014 to get that tax back.

Today on Q&A, Steven Joyce said he'd be making a decision on the viability of Novopay before the end of the month.  He said that the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning is Novopay (not the toilet?) and that they are doubling or tripling the staff at Novopay to solve the backlog, but that finding skilled people had been a big issue.  He said the government had put $5 million into solving this problem, and later on they would look at getting that money back from Talent2.

Well, Mr Joyce, I have some advice for you:  DUMP NOVOPAY!!!

And this is why:
*  Novopay is a poorly written computer program.
*  Novopay is a poorly built computer program.
*  It had 147 bugs before it went live.
*  Not all of those bugs are fixed six months after going live.
*  More bugs are appearing each pay round in addition to the orginal bugs.
*  No one seems to understand how Novopay was written or built.
*  Other IT experts say it is junk programming.
*  The people at NZ Post have suffered another Talent2 payroll since April 2011 and it is only just now coming right after 20+ months of stuff ups and disruptions.

And all this is in addition to the fact that Talent2 did not meet most, if any, of their milestones and took longer than was planned to deliver the program and that it was never properly trialled.

Mr Joyce says that returning to Datacom, the previous provider, would not fix the problem straight away.  But the big difference between Datacom and Novopay is this:  Datacom uses people to do the work; Novopay is a faulty computer program.  One can reason with a person and work with them to solve a problem; Novopay, being a computer program, is a different kettle of fish.

Under the old system, with Datacom, each payroll officer worked with a small group of schools.  They built a relationship with the principals and admin staff of each school and understood the needs of each school.  Yes, errors did occur, but they never rolled through weeks and months of not being solved like the errors with Novopay have.  With Datacom, often the issue was rectified the next day and a manual payment made by either them or the school to the staff member affected.  Novopay seems to say it will be fixed next payroll.... and then a few months later it isn't and more problems have compounded.

Back in 2008 I had several issues with Datacom over a few weeks when I was relieving in both primary and secondary sectors.  Because my payslips detailed where and when I was at it was easy to contact schools concerned to solve the problem.  On one occasion I had to contact Datacom directly, and after a bit of stern pursuasion, I managed to get through to someone who could solve the problem within days.  I'm glad I'm not relieving now.  To be a reliever being paid by Novopay would send me to the funny farm!!

Several weeks of misspayments was not fun.  But I feel for those support staff workers and teachers who have been affected by over/under/non payments for anywhere up to six months.  If we have to suffer through this for two years like NZ Post staff, then that is totally unacceptable!!

Quite frankly, Novopay has failed to meet the standard, and as a result, Novopay should be kicked into touch as soon as practically possible.

Why Hekia Parata (and Anne, Craig and Bill) should go!!

I've been wanting to write my opinions about Hekia Parata for months - but held off in the belief that the right time to blog would arrive.  It has.

If anything, the last week has shown why Hekia Parata should not be a minister of the government of New Zealand.  It beggars belief that John Key did not stand her down in his cabinet reshuffle a few weeks ago - and that really must be due to Hekia's mate Bill English (more on him later) that she still is a minister.  The fact that John Key appointed Steven Joyce to sort out the Novopay debarcle also speaks volumes.  It tells us that Hekia cocked up and is unable to fix it, to be blunt.

But Hekia isn't the only one who should be for the chopping block.  Read on as I explain.

The last week has been daily revelations of what has happened since the contract for the education payroll first went to tender in 2005.  John Campbell (Campbell Live Friday 1 February 2013 "What really happened in the Novopay debarcle") did a wonderful blow by blow of highlights, and the following really stood out:

• Talent2 were shortlisted for the payroll contract in 2005 (under a Labour government).
• Talent2 won the payroll contract in 2008 (under a Labour government).
• Talent2 said they would have the new education payroll up and running in 2010.
• The name "Novopay" first became the label for the payroll in October 2008.
• "There is a good relationship between the Ministry and Talent2" - minutes from the Novopay Board in November 2008.
• "Project in Yellow status overall due to slippage in some deliverables" - minutes from the Novopay Board in May 2009 (under a National government - Anne Tolley the Minister of Education).
• "Feedback has raised three areas of concern... risks around the late start for the payroll service" - for a briefing to Cabinet in July 2009 (under a National government).
• "Concerns raised on slippage in relation to milestone dates.... Talent2 have undertaken to improve processes..." - minutes from the Novopay Board in August 2009.
• "Information lacking still.  Need for a frank assessment... risks around changes to the schedule" - minutes from the Novopay Board in February 2010.
• "The confidence level of the proposed 'Go Live' date remained low" - minutes from the Novopay Board February/March 2010 (under a National government with Anne Tolley still the Minister of Education).
• Go Live formally delayed until 2011 in May 2010.
• "The Board should real concern the project had missed the first milestone..." - minutes from the Novopay Board in July 2010.
• "There are also some trust issues between teams... A frank and open discussion took place" - minutes from the Novopay Board in July 2010.
• "The Board needs to have confidence in the Project to be able to report to the Minister and the Cabinet on progress" - minutes from the Novopay Board in January 2012 (under a National government with Hekia Parata having been the Minister of Education for one month).
• "The Board noted it does not have confidence in Talent2's forecasting..." - minutes from the Novopay Board in January 2012.
• "A formal warning letter was delivered to Talent2" - minutes from the Novopay Board in April 2012.
• "Talent2 is laying the foundations for an allegation that the Ministry is in breach of its good faith obligations..." from a highly confidential internal MOE memo dated 19 April 2012.  "This is a clear signal that Talent2 will adopt the position that any termination by the Ministry would amount to repudiation of contract... If correct, that would entitle Talent2... to pursue the Ministry for damages."

So back in November 2008, all was cheery and rosy, the honeymoon stage so to speak.  So what went fundamentally wrong between then and August 2009?  I could say that it was a change of government, a change of leadership at the top.  We all know that as soon as National came to power there was a dramatic change of culture within the Ministry of Education, they stopped talking to schools and ECE centres and collaboration and consultation ceased.

John Campbell told us that Talent2 were known to use their charm offensive when challenged over the "slippages" in delivering milestones.  But one wonders why Anne Tolley, then Minister of Education, didn't challenge these: 

• Was she just too inexperienced as a minister?
• Did the MOE cover up the extent of the deficiencies of Talent2?
• Were the MOE too scared to tell Mrs Tolley what was happening?

When National came in, they had a policy of decreasing the public service, taking people out of backroom jobs and putting them on the frontline.  The MOE was not immune to this, and lost some quality people with a lot of institutional knowledge and experience.  Those remaining in the MOE may well have been considering their job security when it came to rocking the boat over the Novopay lack of progress.  Combine that loss of knowledge and experience with concerns over job security and the fact that Anne Tolley was quite well known for throwing wobblies when she was told something she didn't want to hear from the MOE, and the answers to the above questions could be answered with: "quite possibly, yes."

Karen Sewell was still the Secretary of Education at this stage, but left the position in 2011 when Lesley Longstone took up the role.  It was not a secret that Ms Sewell was not a fan of National's education policies and was having difficulty stomaching the implementation of these policies.  One does wonder if she also tried to have a frank discussion with Minister Tolley over the lack of completion of milestones by Talent2, but was rebuffed.

So we know that there were concerns as early as August 2009 that the new Novopay pay roll system was in trouble for implementation in 2010, but then 2010 comes and "confidence is low" in Talent2, the 'Go Live' is pushed back to 2011 and no one is jumping up and down??  This is public money!!  John Key talked constantly of transparent government, but where is the transparency here?  Shouldn't there have been enough concern at the fact these milestones were not reached in mid 2010 to start an audit or investigation of some sort?  But then again, Anne Tolley was somewhat distracted by the strong opposition to National Standards that was in full swing at the time.

And as we know, Novopay did not 'Go Live' in 2011.  But New Zealand Post's new pay roll system did in April 2011.  "EPMU national industry organiser Joe Gallagher told NZ Newswire that problems with the pay system at NZ Post provided by Talent2 are ongoing more than 18 months after it went live on April 1, 2011."  Check it out by clicking here.  "Mr Gallagher said problems with the Talent2 system at NZ Post begged the question of why the company got another government contract....  NZ Post workers had been over-paid and under-paid. There had been thousands of mistakes from a system that was not fit for purpose.... 'I could go on all day about it,' he said.  Even now it is still not perfect, and they are still ironing the problems out of this "dog"."

Would it scare you much if I told you now that the Fire Service will this year "Go Live" with a pay roll developed by Talent2 as well?  My source tells me that fire fighters are nervous and are ready to walk off the job if the first pay goes wrong.

John Campbell's summary misses out anything that happened regarding Novopay between July 2010 and January 2012.  One wonders what happened, or didn't, during that 18 month period.  Because wouldn't this have been a good time to make sure it was fixed?  Is this the reason why Anne Tolley was moved sideways from the Education portfolio into the Police and Corrections portfolios rather than failing to get on top of the resistance to National Standards and plain being a useless and tactless tantrum throwing Minister of Education (by the way, I feel your pain police members and prison/corrections staff)?

So after the 2011 election John Key reshuffled his cabinet.  Moving Anne Tolley out of the Education portfolio was the answer to the sector's prayers.  We looked at Hekia Parata as a new set of eyes and ears, and hoped that she would be more forthcoming in collaborating with the different areas of the sector.

How wrong we were.

Hekia has managed to allienate the education sector in such a professional way that Anne Tolley could only profess to be an amateur!  Hekia spoke at Learning at Schools in Hamilton in January and later in April at the National Aspiring Principals Programme (NAPP) hui and impressed with her ability to speak with authority of the issues of the day and statistics without referring to notes.  By the time of the Rural Principal's conference in August, the announcements to the Christchurch Schools in August and her amazing performances at the NZEI and PPTA annual meetings in September/October, we knew that she had the same speil to give to everyone and did not like being challenged. 

She pointed her finger at the Rural Principal's conference, waggling it at them like they were naughty children.  She knew what all those colour coded badges meant the day that she sat with Lesley Longstone and Gerry Brownlee to tell the principals and board chairs the fates of their schools.  She sat there with a sour look on her face and steam coming out of her ears at NZEI's annual meeting because members rebutted her policies and ideas and told her how it actually was, but she also offended every teacher in the room when she told us we were failing to teach guided reading, mathematics and science effectively (maybe that's because National dumped the Literacy Project in favour of National Standards, hijacked the Numeracy Project with National Standards, and decimated our advisory services so we no long have science advisors)!  And then she told off the PPTA annual meeting because Pasifica and Maori children are failing because teachers don't pronounce their names properly (perhaps we should just call her Patricia).

And then there are Hekia's other brilliant standout efforts of the last year:

• Ignoring advice of the MOE and following Treasury's advice instead to increase class sizes under the lie of "improving teacher quality.
• Ignoring the electorate/parents cries of foul against increasing class sizes.
• The backdown - only after John Key realised it was an epic fail of a policy and was hurting his popularity in the blue ribbon electorates.
• The announcement that the minimum teacher qualification should be a one year post-grad (God help children if this comes to pass!).
• Signing off on Novopay to "Go Live", despite the Novopay Board saying that there were at least 147 problems with it, without investigating further.
• Not fronting over Novopay or the reorganisation of Christchurch schools.
• An atrocious relationship with her Secretary of Education, Lesley Longstone, which spilled out into the public domain and culminated in Longstone resigning.
• Going through several private secretaries and a losing a senior advisor two months into a two year secondment.  The lastest private secretary to go was just before Christmas. 
• Passing the buck for Novopay onto Craig Foss.
• Refusing to attend important events in the education community within New Zealand and overseas.
• Refusing to engage with the NZEI, PPTA, NZAIMS, early childhood organisations and other organisations over educational issues.
• And then to top it off there was her comment about how it was "karma" that MOE staff had their pay affected last week - what she failed to comprehend when she said that was that a lot of those MOE staff have nothing to do with Novopay as they could be speech language therapists, GSE teachers.....

And as for John Key's assertion that there is no other person who cares as much about the achievement or the underachievement of Maori and Pasifica children than Hekia Parata, well he does a disservice to every teacher with Maori and Pasifica students in their classes.  And that comment on her being a top notch communicator - sure, if you like her cliches and jingoisms, I'm quite sure she would make a killing in the world of advertising or sales... perhaps she should work with Suzanne Paul selling some Natural Glow or some new wonder vacume cleaner!!

For another blogger's view of Hekia, read this blog "What the Hekia?" and realise I'm not the only one who thinks Hekia is not up to the job.

So far I have commented on Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata in their time as the Minister of Education.  I have shown that they both had numerous opportunities to prevent the train wreck that is Novopay.

But two more people have a part to play in this debarcle. 

Craig Foss was given responsibility for Novopay.  I've been wondering when that happened exactly.... does anyone know the answer?  John Key claims that this was done to allow Hekia to oversee the set up for Charter Schools (another dog of an idea), which one would think should have been in John Banks' court considering it was supposedly an ACT condition of coalition, but then Banks was a bit busy at the time dealing with his dodgy donation deals.  How soon did Hekia know that Novopay was a "dog with a few fleas" (to borrow Steven Joyce's apt phrase) and decided to throw that hospital pass onto someone else?  Why didn't Craig Foss ask the questions when the milestones weren't met and the Novopay Board questioned weather or not the "Go Live" would work?  Why was he not more upfront with the education community and the questioning in parliament?  Why did Craig Foss sign off on the "Go Live" despite the 147 identified errors in the pay roll system?

And then there is Hekia's good mate Bill English.  Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy National Leader, number two in the National Party rankings.  (I have a lot more I could say about Bill English and his performance, but another time).  Hekia is a part of this government because she is Bill English's protege and mate.  And Bill English, I assume because he is the Minister of Finance, also signed off on Novopay to "Go Live".  Surely, the man who is in charge of the government's finances, in charge of how our taxes are spent, would make sure he was approving the go ahead for a project that wasn't going to cost the tax payer a fortune and embarrass the government he is deputy leader of? 

But it seems the answers to all my questions regarding the roles of Anne Tolley, Hekia Parata, Craig Foss and Bill English are rather unsatisfactory.

As a tax payer I feel we are being cheated by a government that can not dot its 'i's and cross its 't's in the rush to implement poor policy and sell off our country.

As a teacher who has begun at a new school this last week, I wait nervously for Wednesday morning to see if I have been paid or not (my new principal assures me that all the feedback from Novopay is good, but please excuse me if I have no trust in Novopay).

Basically, Novopay has been an epic fail and should be thrown to the sharks.  Hekia Parata has been an epic fail as the Minister of Education.  But to sum it up, I have a little report card below:

• Hekia Parata  =  failed to meet the standard
• Anne Tolley  =  failed to meet the standard
• Craig Foss     =  failed to meet the standard
• Bill English   =  failed to meet the standard