| Friday, June 01, 2012 6:33 AM

Picking a fight with teachers and parents is always a dangerous move for a government.

A strongly unionised workforce and an issue close to the heart of parents is always going to prove to be dangerous.

And being an education minister in a National government has to be one of the toughest and unwanted jobs around - you're never going to be popular.

Hekia Parata was forced to backtrack from the original plans that would have seen some schools losing up to seven teachers, with intermediates being the worst hit. She insists the plans to set up a special group to help out those schools were in place all along.

That's a hard pill to swallow - especially as it's highly unlikely her office would have planned a week of selling the Budget to principals and teachers if they were aware of the outrage the plans would cause.

The minister has had to face off with protesters as she heads into speak to people, not a good look for a minister seen as a shining star in cabinet.

And it seems even within the Beehive, there's unhappiness about the plans, with sources saying this time the Government just went too far.

But the plans have been good for one group of people at least - the Labour caucus.

It's just the sort of issue they know is a vote winner and it has given David Shearer a much needed chance to get his face and voice out in the media and to the public.

Labour has seized on it, asking almost every question in the House on it this week and in speech after speech during the Budget debate have referred to the botch up in education policy.

The only issue for Labour is it seems every time they might be making some headway on an issue, and making a mark on the Government, someone within its caucus trips themselves up.

This time, yet again, it's Shane Jones. On Budget day, when Shearer should have been leading the opposition to the cuts, he was forced to answer questions about his errant MP.

Now the Auditor-General has decided to launch an inquiry into Jones' decision-making process in the Bill Liu immigration case, Jones is forced to effectively sit back and do nothing for up to a year while it is completed.

Jones himself has expressed frustration at that length of time - and he could well decide it's just not worth the hassle and give up on his political career once and for all.

Either way, Labour will be hoping it's just forgotten about so it can get on with the extremely difficult task in front of it - convincing the voting public it'll be ready for government in 2014.