Chris Hipkins
Education Spokesperson

19 March 2013

Novopay costs mounting up

Taxpayers are facing another $6-million Novopay bill to pay for the Government’s long overdue compensation package for schools, says Chris Hipkins, Labour’s Education spokesperson.

“Schools have been coping with the fallout from Novopay for seven long months. They’ve been crying out for financial assistance to help them cover their costs, so today’s belated announcement is welcome.

“Of course, the devil is in the detail. Steven Joyce’s one-size-fits-all formula for compensation bears no resemblance to the actual impact of Novopay, with the hardest hit schools receiving the same as a school of the same size that has been less affected.

“The costs of the Novopay debacle just continue to escalate. Today’s $6-million bill comes on top of $5-million announced just nine days ago to clear the backlog of pay problems.

“That is $11-million that taxpayers have had to find to clean-up after Hekia Parata.

“The fact is Novopay is a crock. Steven Joyce admitted today it has more than 500 known defects and a backlog of 19,000 issues. But he still expects schools to cope with a broken payroll system.

“Each payday more errors are added to the backlog, and parents, teachers and schools have no confidence that the system can be fixed.

“Steven Joyce can make all the soothing sounds in the world about technical reviews and long term solutions. But people want to know that the problems are being fixed and this debacle is going to come to an end,” says Chris Hipkins.

ENDS

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