English: Tolley’s cooked up Moroccan excuse
new-zealand-labour-party
Wed Jun 17 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
English: Tolley’s cooked up Moroccan excuse
Wednesday, 17 June 2009, 5:05 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
17 June 2009 Media Statement
English: Tolley’s cooked up Moroccan excuse
Bill English appears today to have confirmed that Education Minister Anne Tolley misled the public when she tried to defend her savage Budget cuts to Adult and Community Education services, says Labour’s Tertiary Education spokesperson Maryan Street.
“Anne Tolley has repeatedly tried to defend the cuts, which are sparking widespread anger across communities, by claiming that in times of recession courses such as Moroccan cooking should not benefit from taxpayers’ funding.
“But today in Parliament, when answering questions about the cuts on the Education Minister’s behalf, Mr English appeared to confirm that Moroccan cooking courses weren’t taxpayer subsidised and therefore would be unaffected by the cuts,” Maryan Street says.
“I understand that course (Moroccan cooking) is funded by the participants and won’t be affected (by the cuts),” Bill English said.
“This raises serious questions over just how cynical the Education Minister’s treatment of this issue has been. She has not only allowed funding for valuable literacy, numeracy and computer training courses to be slashed – she appears to have cooked up a bogus and misleading story to try to justify what she’s done.
“Either that or Mr English has got his facts wrong. I call on Anne Tolley to explain what’s going on because on the surface it appears that hundreds of thousands of people who have benefited from adult and community education courses are being very shabbily treated,” Maryan Street says.
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“The cuts kick in from January 1, 2010 and will result in a drop in funding to the sector of $152 million over four years – $19.4 million from January 1, 2010 to June 2010, $40.4 million in 2010-2011, $44.7 million in 2011-2012, and $48.4 million in 2012-2013.
“National needs to immediately reassess its priorities and reinstate this vitally important funding. Labour is organising a petition calling on National to: reverse all expenditure cuts in Budget 2009 that affect Adult and Community Education services for the 2009/10 financial year, with a reinstatement of these funds taking effect from 1 January 2010.”
ENDS
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