thrupp@waikato.ac.nz
I have a new love in my life, a bright red fully-electric Mini! which there will be many. For instance, there are the people Marika, my wife, has called it Clifford, after the Big Red Dog. who have already brought EVs, our household included, who I’ve tried to tell her that a car being called got tired of waiting for a subsidy that a dog is no good thing – think ‘Dog and If anything, might never come and have now missed Lemon Guide’. But Marika doesn’t care, she out on thousands of dollars, sometimes governments tend loves dogs, and so Clifford it is. by a matter of weeks or months. Does the Being a new EV owner I’ve been to dig in around Labour government hate us? Probably following with interest the controversy not, but nor does it see that making over the Government’s recently introduced key policies and payments retrospective will increase the ‘feebate’ scheme that provides a subsidy for uptake of EVs which is the intent of the EVs and hybrids and penalises vehicles won’t admit problems policy. with high emissions such as utes and with them, for fear of Similarly, what about the farmers and SUVs. I’ve been struck by how much that tradespeople who will now have to pay scheme and its impacts bring into sharp empowering their more for the utes and 4 wheel drives that relief some policy and practice problems they really can’t do without? Again, I we deal with in education all the time as political opponents. would suggest that it’s not so much that well. the Government wants to punish those To begin with, the feebate scheme is intensely political at the national level. Promoted by the Green Party, New Zealand First put the kibosh on it during Labour’s first term in power between 2017-20. It is only because Labour now governs alone that the Once you get rolling with Science in Motion… scheme has become possible. Lots of education policy is like this too. It often doesn’t matter how good an idea is educationally speaking, unless it is supported by the Government in power it’s not going to fly. For instance, many of us in the sector worked for years to get rid of National Standards but it was only a change of government in 2017 that saw them removed. If anything, governments tend to dig in around key policies and won’t admit problems with them, for fear of empowering their political opponents. The last National-led Government • Easy, fun activity plans for Years 1-10 would brook no criticism of its National Standards policy and • Build science capabilities and concepts. leading up to the 2017 election was in fact planning an extension: ‘National Standards Plus’. I expect Labour will be just the same with its EV feebate policy. Another aspect of the feebate scheme is being seen to do the right thing internationally. Having faffed around for years, New Zealand is embarrassingly far behind other OECD countries with subsidising EV take-up. With the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in the UK later this year, it would have been glaringly obvious that New Zealand was a laggard. We probably shouldn’t underestimate how much New Zealand education policy is also driven by international pressures, For more info check out for instance from the OECD’s PISA testing programme. And www.education.nzta.govt.nz/science sometimes our politicians and policymakers justify what they do in New Zealand by referring to international trends and advice, a process that Juergen Schriewer calls ‘externalisation’. Then there are the perverse effects of the feebate scheme, of
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people, but it wants to discourage the discretionary purchase of a good match for their school context? gas-guzzlers by people who don’t really need them. At the same To misquote Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist, it’s really important time, it has delayed the penalty aspect of the scheme until next that principals understand that all too often ‘policy is an ass’. year and purchases of utes are reported to have risen as people While we may not always be able to do much about it, it’s a try to beat the deadline. mistake to just say ‘them’s the rules’. Rather, the realisation that Then there is the way the scheme subsidises any and all EVs policy is imperfect should lead us to be more sympathetic to that cost under $80,000. This means that those families or staff that are adversely some taxpayer’s money will be used to My point is that even impacted for random reasons, to look for pay for features that most New Zealanders work-arounds where possible and to lobby would regard as excessive. For instance well-intentioned for change. our Mini can parallel park by itself, you A further comparison between the take your hands off the steering wheel policy often has adverse feebate scheme and education policy is and let it do its thing. (A good party effects and this is very they are both, in part, having to respond trick – although not why we bought it). to bad policy in the past. New Zealand’s But it has been too much trouble for the true of education as problems with vehicle emissions are partly Government to target only the more basic because ownership of larger vehicles well. EV options, of which there are a few. has not been discouraged. In fact fringe A last example, what about the way this benefit tax policy has encouraged small scheme has polarised New Zealanders, many of whom have a businesses to buy a ute regardless of whether such a vehicle is deep affinity to the vehicles they drive? I can see climate change needed. As a result the most popular vehicle in New Zealand education in schools becoming more controversial than sexuality last year was the Ford Ranger ute whereas the most popular in education, especially in rural communities. Ben hears from his the UK was the small Ford Fiesta car. teacher that EVs are going to help save the planet and goes home In education we also have plenty of previous bad policies to a household that has a rather different outlook. to address. Many are in the school system itself: inadequate My point is that even well-intentioned policy often has adverse curriculum and assessment policy, the lack of Māori language effects and this is very true of education as well. How many times and inadequate special education would be a few examples. But do principals just miss out on staffing or special needs support we also have to pick up the pieces of much wider and longer-term because student numbers or characteristics don’t quite meet the policies to do with social inequalities, colonisation and racism. threshold? Or get the offer of resources or support that are not As educators we help to address the mistakes of the past in order to move forward. Let me finish by returning to our Mini Electric. It’s a blast to drive, great fun! As an EV it doesn’t have a big range but Marika and I don’t care, we bought it to soak up the vast majority of our driving which is local and we have an older petrol car for the occasional long trips. It’s also nice to actually have our Mini after waiting for months. A further perverse aspect of the feebate POPULAR MATHS SERIES scheme is that it comes at the time of great international demand for EVs and long shipping delays. A bit like having a new staffing allocation but then not being able to recruit for lack of teachers!
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