Bill English National Party Education Spokesman

20 December 2004

Families will be horrified

The families of school children should be horrified at the elevation of David Benson-Pope to the Education portfolio, says National's Education spokesman, Bill English.

"This is the man who is on record as saying that sexually active 12-year-old girls are women.

"Helen Clark had no choice but to remove Trevor Mallard from being in charge of schools after his disastrous schools closure programme and his subsequent U-turns, but it is a pity she didn't go the whole way and sack him completely from the portfolio.

Mr English also says Steve Maharey's sacking from tertiary education is just desserts for the mess he made.

"His stewardship has been a disaster, with hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on courses that no one did. His policies were unsustainable and his credibility was shot."

Ends

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