Hekia Parata

It is bad enough that she has a revolving door staff recruitment process in her office, worse still that no one seems to be able to work with her, still worse that she can’t win a seat, lost a court battle over a school closure, helped the Nats lose some support in Christchurch…but the fatal mistake that will cost her any hope of retaining her ministerial position, which was tenuous anyway, is her display of naked ambition on The Nation this morning.

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Sources in Wellington are saying that John Key is looking at another reshuffle to remove ministers who have dropped the ball repeatedly.

His words of encouragement to Hekia Parata after his last re-shuffle may no longer hold true.

Hekia has been responisble for far too many screw ups that have caused bad press for National.

She has lost a case to Mai Chen about closing a special school in Nelson. She has been fisted by the teachers unions and parents in Christchurch over closing schools, and she embarrassingly had to use taxpayers money to pay out her departmental head.  Read more »

Hekia Parata was accurately predicted to be useless as a minister by this blog in 2010. She is an ill tempered bully who loses staff almost as quickly as she replaces them.

In November 2010 I highlighted the problems with Queen Hekia, and the questions the media should have been asking.

Fairfax and APN editors should start asking a few questions of their political journalists. They have really dropped the ball on this one. They should ask the following questions:

• After losing five parliamentary Executive Assistants in the first two years in parliament, do they think Hekia will front the next CTU anti 90 day advertisement?  Read more »

This will be the next challenge for Hekia Parata….the teacher unions demanding that marking in red ink be stopped in case the poor petals get offended.

Teachers at a secondary school in London have been told they must not use red ink when marking homework in case it upsets pupils.

The move was condemned as “political correctness gone wild” and ministers were forced to deny the Government issues guidelines on the colour of teachers’ pens.

Tory MP Bob Blackman took his concerns to parliament after a teacher in his Harrow East constituency informed him the secondary school had banned staff from using red ink.  Read more »

In war time France I think. Consorting with the enemy or something similar…oh wait, It was collaborateur.

Hekia Parata never learns. These same people that she is fawning all ver will be plotting for ways to spread her brains on toast and turn her liver into a nice Pâté.

NZEI area field officer Louise Simmons at a November ’12 meeting – Hawkes Bay Today

Primary teachers had a paid stop work meeting yesterday.  This seems to be the result

Waikato primary teachers have voted to support strike action if the Government refuses to budge on negotiations over their collective agreement.

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National is having a shocker. First there is Hekia Parata creating bad news cycle after bad news cycle.

Then there was the Peter Dunne’s stupid car park tax. Now there is his even stupider cellphone tax.  Read more »

Hekia Parata has been a terrible minister of education. She was promoted way beyond her ability and has screwed up just about everything she has touched.

The latest story is Hekia has an ex staff member suing Ministerial Services in a personal grievance case.

A former staff member in the office of Education Minister Hekia Parata is pursuing a personal grievance against ministerial services.
Ministerial Services confirmed a staff member who worked in Ms Parata’s office had lodged a personal grievance against ministerial services, which is part of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Apparently this may not be the only one.

Radio New Zealand reported a senior private secretary left the minister’s office in December last year at the same time Ms Longstone departed and three other private secretaries had also left the office. It was unclear on what grounds these staff left her office.  Read more »

The DomPost takes a swipe at Hekia Parata’s unusual staff turnover, something I have blogged on previously.

Ms Parata has lost several private secretaries and a senior adviser just two months into a two-year secondment.

She also let go her senior private secretary just before Christmas.

Ministerial Services confirmed there had been no other employee disputes or employee exit arrangements from the office.

Ms Turei said she had lodged an Official Information Act request over potential staff exit arrangements in the office because of a worrying number of reports about internal office tensions.

She was concerned at the cost of the minister’s mounting tally of relationship problems.  Read more »

Hekia Parata is away on holiday working like a navvy in Europe at an Education Conference that conveniently happens to be in Amsterdam, followed by a little side trip to Paris, taking along union bosses for a little sharing of the trough in a bid to try to tame them.

Here is her week in review, she started in London:

London today with Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st…

— Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 11, 2013

Then she attended a Commonwealth Day function:

Attended the Commonwealth Day reception at Marlborough House in London. Great to catch up with Sir Anand Satyanand. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st… — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013

Then she and “her team” whizzed off to Amsterdam:

Just arrived in Amsterdam with the NZ Union & Teacher Leader delegation to attend the 2013 International Summit on the Teaching Profession. — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013

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