When it comes to politics, a pet peeve of mine is opposition members of Parliament who seemingly do little for 3 or 6 or 9 years and then come into power and seem baffled as to what they intend to do with the portfolio they are now in charge of.  

And this applies to all parties - anyone in opposition. Heading into an election, I find myself wondering what on earth some politicians have done with their 3 plus previous years in opposition.  

I appreciate that when you’re in opposition, you have significantly less resources that when in Government,  and don’t have great access to the Budget detail or ministry they’ll inherit when in power. But we’re not paying opposition MP’s just to perform occasionally in the House and in the front of the media. We’re paying them to fully understand their area of responsibility and have the expertise to challenge the Government’s ideas and bills so they can advocate effectively for the best outcome for all New Zealanders.  

A special callout here for list MPs - who don’t have the added responsibility and duties of representing an electorate.  

If you are the spokesperson for a fast moving portfolio such as education, then being seen to be across the Government’s plans is even more important.  

Willow-Jean Prime’s seeming lack of interest as Labour’s education spokesperson in a generational change proposed by the Government for secondary education this week irks. I’m sure she’s not the first MP to ignore correspondence or decline a meeting, but her refusal to work with Education Minister Erica Stanford on changes to NCEA irks because it looks lazy. It looks arrogant. Most annoyingly, it looks like Labour isn’t interested in working with the Government on serious issues that many New Zealanders would prefer adopted a bipartisan approach.  

I get that it sucks when your competitor is in Government, develops an initiative and reaches out for bi-partisan consensus. It’s on their terms and benefits them. But we’re scrapping the current national standards program for senior education and implementing a new one with a short time period for consultation. Isn’t that something worth coming together on? Isn’t it something worth swallowing some pride for? 

The excuse was that Willow-Jean Prime prioritised engaging with the sector over speaking to the minister. Yes, engagement with the sector is important, but you’d presume prime was already well. Being more informed by the Minister surely would only make those engagement conversations more insightful.  

Erica Stanford is moving at pace - she’s been moving at pace since she took on the education portfolio. Stanford is an example of a Minister using her time in opposition wisely.  

There isn’t a lot of time for consultation - Willow-Jean Prime is right on that one. But she’s had since March to get her head around the Government’s direction and would be much better prepared if she had accepted Stanford’s offer to continue working cross party on this. As an opposition list MP with a commitment to one select committee, there’s no excuse. She should be able to keep up.   

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