Patrick Gower: Parata's apology 'gobbledygook'

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Apology labelled 'gobbledygook'

3News NZ

Hekia Parata (Getty)

Hekia Parata (Getty)

By 3 News online staff

Education Minister Hekia Parata is defending her decision to close or merge 19 Christchurch schools, and talking to Firstline this morning was loathe to say "sorry" for the upheaval and stress it's causing.

Under questioning from anchor Rachel Smalley, Ms Parata said she understood that "some communities are very disappointed", and that her ministry had learned lessons following last year's bungled announcement.

But 3 News political editor Patrick Gower, also appearing on Firstline, said her attempt at an apology was "bureaucratic gobbledygook".

"If the guy who's the head of Novopay can say sorry to Campbell Live, what's the big deal Hekia? Come on."

Her performance this time around, however he deemed "perfectly adequate".

"Closing schools is an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially in Christchurch, but this aspect – after the u-turn of course – yesterday's work, this morning and all the other media I've watched, she's handled it as well as many other ministers could.

"The problem for Hekia Parata is her performance last year has made her such a big target that people can't actually see that, and it's going to take her months and months and months of not putting a foot wrong to maybe get back into the public's good books – if at all."

3 News

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Comments

19/02/2013 1:15:30 p.m.

katubaldy wrote:

It ain't a question of getting back into the 'good books' for the Hammer. The public just want to see her written off the books and gone. When you've blown it as much as she has in a year and been as arrogant as it gets until yesterday, I'd say the damage has been done, she's lost too much credibility and kiwis are well over her by now.... and she can't even apologise....? For some schools the agony of uncertainty continues for another six weeks. Game over for the Hammer come 2014.

19/02/2013 11:44:02 a.m.

Lyn wrote:

There's only so much money to go around for education provision for the whole country. Kids have to change schools all over the country - because they're changing from e.g primary to intermediate or their parents shift. Sometimes it's because of traumatic reasons like marital breakups, parents deaths/ changeof circumstances etc. School change is inevitable for some in Christchurch & some parents are exacerbating their kids' angst, not helping them to move through a process that many have experienced before, & will do so in the future, in other areas. Coping with change is necessry part of life.