By Tova O’Brien
Behind-the-scenes budget documents show Education Minister Hekia Parata knew full well the impact her education reforms would have.
She knew the number of teachers that would be cut, that technology teachers would be hardest hit, and that there would be negative fallout from the changes.
Ms Parata said publicly that “we are not cutting teacher numbers”, but it turns out that she knew all along that 1063 teachers would be cut by 2016.
And even today - more than a month on from the biggest botch up of the Budget - she artfully dodged the word "cut".
Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins suggested that Ms Parata either deliberately misled the public, or failed to read the advice she had been given.
“Either Hekia Parata lied or she didn't read the advice she was given. There's no other conclusion that can be reached from these papers that have been released today,” he said.
Behind-the-scenes budget documents show Ms Parata knew technology teachers would go. She said she did not hide it, but just did not have enough time to mention it.
“I think we have to bear in mind if we step back through that that there was something like less than a week I think when parents and teachers became concerned,” she said.
They would have been even more concerned with her original plan, which would have seen 1326 fewer teachers.
Mr Hipkins says that cabinet did not fully understand the impact of the plan when they approved it.
“Cabinet vetoed that one but they still approved another version of it without fully understanding the impact of the version they did approve,” he said. “So all around the Government totally botched this.”
And in a way, the Government knew it would.
Ms Parata suggested there was no opportunity to consult the sector. She said that may be perceived negatively because the changes are "likely to be highly controversial".
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