Free Press

ACT’s regular bulletin

Teacher Unions’ Odd Position
Teachers will strike this week, forcing parents all over the country to make alternative arrangements. Their concern? That principals and boards of trustees will be given more flexibility in how they use their funding. They believe this will lead to fewer teachers being employed, but why would that be?

How it Plays out in Partnership Schools
ACT’s Partnership Schools have total flexibility in their funding. They have generally used this flexibility to economise on material things and employ more teachers. It is not clear why the teacher unions believe state schools would use flexibility to employ fewer teachers, unless…

Not All Teachers Are Created Equal
The unions’ job (not the teachers’) is to ensure all teachers get the same rigid pay scale regardless of performance. Free Press visited a top New Zealand firm that uses sophisticated 360 degree feedback on staff behaviour and performance to set remuneration but this is not possible under collective agreements.

The Realpolitik of Teachers’ Unions
The unions’ real concern about flexibility is that it will affect their core business: making sure the best teacher in New Zealand is paid the same as the worst. A more flexible funding model (like what’s used in Partnership Schools) could allow greater pay for good teachers, at the expense of those who aren’t producing solid results for their students.

Time to TERF
We have had it suggested by several former state school principals that while most teachers are wonderful, children are held back by those who aren’t (we can all remember one or two). The police used to have a scheme called PERF (Police Employment Rehabilitation Fund) that would pay out those who could no longer perform for various reasons. Perhaps it is time to consider a dignified exit for underperforming teachers who are just waiting to collect their Superannuation – TERF?

Robbery and Tobacco Taxes
Free Press has long criticised the relentless increases in tobacco tax. In January ACT’s Free Thoughts pointed out how it impoverishes the poorest New Zealanders and Maori in particular with few people actually quitting along the way. But there is another unintended consequence we could have predicted – crime.

Black Markets
Punitive taxes are a half-hearted prohibition, a bit like how National argues it could use stamp duties as a de facto ban on foreign homebuyers. With a carton of cigarettes now worth almost $300, who is surprised that there have been 17 robberies of tobacco in Christchurch in the past seven weeks, using weapons including ‘guns, hammers, knives, and axes?’

Slippery Slopes
As David Seymour said in Parliament a few months ago, plain packaging of cigarettes should frighten all legitimate businesses. Once it’s accepted that the Government will confiscate companies’ brands, the only remaining question is ‘who’s next?’ We didn’t think it would happen so soon, but university researchers now want plain packaging for soft drinks and fast food.

Costly Jihad
Everybody knows that smoking is really bad for you, but smokers already pay more in tax than they cost the health system, so it’s their problem. If the motivation for tobacco control policies is sheer do-gooding, how much crime and erosion of business confidence will do-gooders accept, have they made the calculation, do they care at all?

Burglary Up
Burglary is up and even National MPs’ electorate offices are now being burgled. The police minister says that the police will now attend every burglary, but what will that mean? Police generally know what is happening on their patch and prioritise accordingly. We doubt that attending every burglary will increase the resolution rate because most burglaries are carried out by professionals too smart to leave traces. We wonder what other crimes police will now not attend to.

Three Strikes for Burglary
Earlier in the year ACT tabled its Three Strikes for Burglary bill, but other MPs objected to it being debated. The policy is very simple: with resolution rates as low as they are, you have to commit a lot of burglaries to be convicted three times, so you should be sentenced to three years. ACT’s Three Strikes for violent and sexual offences has been a success at reducing reoffending for those crimes. ACT will continue campaigning for a Three Strikes rule for burglary.

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