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Speaker 1: So we learned earlier today that right now eighty New

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Speaker 1: Zealand Principles are at the Fiji Hilton paid for you,

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Speaker 1: paid for by you, the taxpayer. You might recall, as

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Speaker 1: part of their collective agreement, the Principles were given six

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars each for professional leadership development. That's obviously what

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Speaker 1: they're spending. The money on the course costs seven hundred dollars.

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Speaker 1: The cost of the flights and anything else would be

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Speaker 1: covered by the school. Jordan Williams is from the Taxpayer's

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Speaker 1: Union with us. Now, hey, Jordan, good, evening, Heather good,

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Speaker 1: look for the Principles.

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Speaker 2: No, it's not. There's a technical term and education for

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Speaker 2: what a trip like this is called. And it's a

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Speaker 2: piss take. You go to Fiji, you got five days

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Speaker 2: there and you have to sit just thirteen hours in

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Speaker 2: between your pennicoladas, six of which are going and volunteering

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Speaker 2: at a school. So basically it's too easy morning of

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Speaker 2: actual professional development and the rest is you're sitting next

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Speaker 2: to your private pool.

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Speaker 1: Is there a better way for us to do this?

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Speaker 1: I mean, should we be asking the Principles or requiring

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Speaker 1: the Principles to spend this money on courses that have

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Speaker 1: been accredited and are actually up to our standards.

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Speaker 2: Well well obviously, and you know the there's always a

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Speaker 2: suspicion that some school principles run rings around the boards,

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Speaker 2: and I put you that this would be one of them.

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Speaker 2: If I put to my board or my cham and

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Speaker 2: that you know, I want to go to Fiji for

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Speaker 2: five days to do what amounts to what's seven hours

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Speaker 2: of professional development? You know, I'd rightly be laughed at.

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Speaker 2: You know that you can stand for professional development and yes, absolutely,

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Speaker 2: but you look at even the way that this is marketed.

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Speaker 2: It's very clearly, you know, taking the proverbial you've got,

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Speaker 2: you know, the focus isn't on education, it's on well

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Speaker 2: being of the principal's ie. It's a holiday. They basically

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Speaker 2: say it, and they defend the fact that it is

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Speaker 2: not in the school holidays because you'd think if your

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Speaker 2: principle and you have to go away for a week

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Speaker 2: to do some professional development, that you do it in

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Speaker 2: the holidays. But the course provider says, no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: you know, school holidays are for relaxing and principles go

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Speaker 2: on holiday here. That's why it has to be during

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Speaker 2: school too. It's nuts. It's a joke.

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Speaker 1: Not taking an issue with the idea behind it being

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Speaker 1: professional development, just the fact that this is such a

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Speaker 1: loose system that it can basically be spent on a holiday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well it is. I mean the whole thing is

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Speaker 2: marketed around effectively being a holiday and it's not. You

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Speaker 2: know that they specifically say this is about well being

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Speaker 2: and your well being that is sitting next to a

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Speaker 2: pool with a pinicolada, and anyone who looks into this course,

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Speaker 2: you know it's very clear that's what it is. And

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Speaker 2: the question comes back to why haven't the boards looked

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Speaker 2: at this course? So when the principal asks, presuming they

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Speaker 2: have in advance, of course the thing come on, But

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Speaker 2: you get a grip. We taxpayers didn't fork out the

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Speaker 2: extra six grand for professional development for you to go

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Speaker 2: for a holiday and Fiji.

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Speaker 1: Right, Jordan, Thank you very much appreciated, Jordan Williams, Taxpayers Union.

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