Hon Bill English National Party Education Spokesman

23 June 2005

Another Mallard flip-flop

National Party Education spokesman Bill English says he welcomes Trevor Mallard's latest policy change on school holidays.

Mr Mallard today announced that he will not proceed with his proposed 'tournament week', a one-week break in the middle of the third term, beginning next year.

"The holiday was never going to work for parents. Thousands of families would have had to take time off work or leave their children unsupervised," says Mr English

"Schools and teachers didn't want it either.

This was a personal hobby-horse for Mr Mallard, but like most of his other 'good ideas', a rush of blood to the head is quickly followed by cooling his heels after the inevitable backdown.

"The demise of 'tournament week' comes hot on the heels of his partial backdown over school bus funding.

"It's amazing what a couple of bad polls can do to get a Labour Party Minister to listen to his sector.

"We can expect further backdowns in the next few weeks on his radical restructuring of polytechs and private training establishments.

"This Minister is well and truly past his use-by date and the education sector is ready for a change," says Mr English.

ENDS

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