By: Larry Williams | Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:06 PM

The teacher unions are gearing up for another fight -this time on league tables.

The PM has confirmed that league tables could be considered. It’s a fight that the Minister Hekia Parata doesn't seem to want to buy into.

On cue, the opposition parties and the teacher unions have slammed this.

League tables are destructive they claim.

So it could be all on again and the teachers will probably win the battle again and the loser will be who? Well just possibly the children.

The parents might want to compare schools but the teachers most certainly don't want this and they will dredge up every available excuse to make sure it doesn't happen.

The bottom line is that it is a parent’s absolute right to compare their child's school against others.

It's simple, parents want to make informed decisions about where to send their children to school.

They don't really care whether it’s via an Education Review Office report or league tables, parents just want to be able to see how a school is performing.

 

ACC

ACC is going to get a make-over.

It looks like the first thing that will happen is ACC will not have to fund future liabilities. It will move to a pay as you go model.

This could have issues for future generations as there will be an unfunded liability there.

However the pay as you go model could save around 25% on premiums. 

The Government is also looking to back away from opening up ACC to competition. This is bad.

Monopolies don't work for the consumer and if the ACC mess has taught us one thing it should be to open ACC up to competition.

Choice will do wonders for the culture at ACC -trust me.

 

AIR NZ

Air NZ has named its new CEO. It's Christopher Luxon who is currently with the airline.

It’s a big job. The international airline industry is in turmoil. Financially most are struggling. Air NZ's share price has plummeted. Investors are very wary about airlines.

On another matter -Air NZ is looking to put on more capacity to the U.S. with the possibility of flying to other destinations within the U.S.

United Airlines has decided not to go ahead with its Auckland-Houston route which was going to be a code share with Air NZ anyway.

Air NZ now has a monopoly on direct services to the U.S. The consumer has no choice if they want to fly direct. It means that Air NZ can charge what they like and get away with it. I'm not saying they will but the lack of competition on that route is now a concern.

Air NZ can up the prices by simply reducing the number of the cheaper seats available.

 

 

WINSTON PETERS

Mr Peters’ argument that superannuation is affordable and there is no aging crisis has no credibility and is more or less being totally discounted by the evidence.

It’s a shabby argument Mr Peters is making and the fact that he argued completely the opposite back in 1997 when he wanted to introduce compulsory superannuation means that this particular political play will be consigned to where it should be - the bin.

 

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