English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:625;Page:20574] 
2.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What responsibility does he take for the 2004 scholarship “debacle” and does this responsibility conflict with his role as Minister of State Services in charge of the body that conducted the inquiry into scholarship 2004? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I take responsibility for deferring the 1998 decision to implement scholarship because there had been inadequate preparation by the member on that member’s left. As the recent State Services Commission report noted the Government received inadequate advice on policy risks associated with the 2004 scholarship. There is no conflict with my role as the Minister of State Services because as the member knows the State Services Commissioner—or in this case his deputy—acts independently in discharging his inquiry function. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Sure! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am sure that the State Services Commissioner and his deputy do not like the sorts of slurs on their integrity that have just come from Nick Smith. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that late last year he was moved out of the schools portfolio because he had become a political liability but that now he has been given back the schools portfolio which means he is now back in charge of policies like the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) about which even his own officials from the State Services Commission say that he and his ministry were primarily responsible for the debacle because they did not do the policy properly? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I remind the member that the vast majority of the work leading into the policy was done in the pre-1999 period. The premise of the member’s question is of course wrong. I was relieved of none of those responsibilities; I carried them although I did delegate some of them to my associate. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: What responsibility does the Minister take for allowing what were meant to be competitive examinations to identify our top academic students to be run under an achievement-based assessment format that was the precise cause of the variability of results at the heart of the scholarship chaos? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I do take some responsibility for not changing the decision made by Nick Smith and his colleagues in 1998. 
Deborah Coddington 
: How come the New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chairman Professor Fraser has gone the Chief Executive Karen Van Rooyen has gone and his Associate Minister of Education David Benson-Pope has been stood down yet the Minister who is solely responsible for the scholarship debacle is still here refusing to accept any responsibility for the NCEA? 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Personal charm! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The acting Prime Minister says “personal charm”. I think it is probably because I am a hard-working conscientious Minister. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that the leadership of our education system is in chaos having in the last 8 months lost the chairman and the chief executive of the Tertiary Education Commission the chairman and the chief executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority had the Hon Steve Maharey removed from his portfolio for incompetence David Benson-Pope stood down because of public allegations about his behaviour and that it indicates Labour’s desperation on education that he is now in charge of everything? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I will deal with the first two questions I think rather than the other seven and the answers to those are yes and there was not one. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister aware of the Prime Minister’s statement that a civil servant who loses his or her job because of incompetence will not be paid a cent; if so why will Karen Van Rooyen be paid $50000 by the Government after she resigns? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Because her resignation comes at the end of her notice period.