Anne Tolley archive at Grant Robertson

Archive for the 'Anne Tolley' Category

Hide has no delegations

October 3rd, 2010

As I have posted about a few times before I am pursuing the whereabouts of the review of special education. This is an important document for parents, students and schools. A lot of decisions are on hold in special education awaiting the review. It was by all accounts finished when Rodney Hide dumped Heather Roy as Minister more than a month ago.

Anne Tolley excitedly told us that Rodney was the Minister responsible for the area, and I have lodged written questions to him about the review. It is a bit of surprise then to find that those questions have been transferred by the Office of the Clerk to the Minister of Education on the grounds that Mr Hide still does not have any delegations. Delegations are the formal transfer of responsibility for issues from a lead Minister, in this case Anne Tolley, to an Associate Minister.

There are two possible scenarios here- either incompetence is reigning and the work has not been done to allow Rodney Hide to answer questions or he is trying to hide from answering questions on the review. Whichever it is, this is not an indication of a Minister or a government committed to special education. Its a pity- Heather Roy had actually done a very good job of the process of the review. That good work is being completely undone. Its bad enough Rodney Hide is still a Minister, but worse still that he is mucking around on such an important area.

UPDATE: At 8.15 this morning the questions were transferred back to Rodney Hide. Ah, the power of the blog… Now lets hope we get some answers, ~~because technically they are overdue~~!

Posted in Rodney Hide, Special Education and Anne Tolley. | 0 Comments

I reckon this is why National don’t want question time

February 24th, 2010

Trevor is too modest to answer his own question directly, but Jane Clifton has captured it perfectly in the Dominion Post this morning.

It’s becoming like a rerun of A Dog’s Show in Parliament these days, with Labour’s Trevor Mallard the purposefully stalking collie, and Education Minister Anne Tolley the heedless sheep that stamps its foot a lot and refuses to go into the pen.

That is certainly how it has felt in the House recently. Trevor’s questions have been factual, and go to the heart of the purpose of the national standards policy. Minister Tolley’s answers have been confusing, vague and often utterly irrelevant. Jane Clifton goes on

Like any good sheep, Mrs Tolley’s purposes are maddeningly opaque, and run to no set pattern. Two things are are becoming clear from their daily stoushes: one, that Mrs Tolley either cannot or would rather not explain the technicalities of the system, and two, that she cannot understand why her answers are regarded as unsatisfactory. This makes her haughty, and redoubles Mr Mallard’s roundup efforts.

The whole article is worth reading, hilarious and accurate. Question Time has not been great for National this year, and now they are wanting to avoid it all together.

Posted in Jane Clifton, Anne Tolley, National Standards and Education. | 0 Comments