On The Nation 14, 15 June 2014

This weekend on The Nation… a flagship policy under fire? 3News Political Editor Patrick Gower asks Education Minister Hekia Parata if her $359 million super teacher and principals policy will be derailed by opposition from the sector and whether public confidence can be restored in Kohanga Reo after the Serious Fraud Office investigation.

Conservative Party leader Colin Craig joins us to talk about deals, strategies and whether he’s hitting a wall with his efforts to win over National.

Then, the co-author of the first and only book on child poverty in New Zealand, Professor Jonathan Boston, and Children’s Commissioner Russell Wills talk to Lisa Owen about the hard choices that have to be made to reduce hardship and rate the Government’s progress so far. Do the rest of us have to make a sacrifice if we’re to stamp out child poverty?

Finally, reporter Torben Akel meets the National Party’s fresh-faced new candidate for Clutha-Southland, 24-year-old Todd Barclay, and asks how young is too young to be an MP and whether we’re seeing the rise of political careerists.

We’ll discuss all this and more on our panel: Auckland University Associate Professor of Pacific Studies, Damon Salesa, and blogger and pollster David Farrar.

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