Judith Collins: Public Service Minister on the strike action from nurses and secondary school teachers

The Government is blasting the secondary teachers union for calling a strike. 

Post Primary Teachers' Association members will put down the tools next Wednesday, rejecting a three-percent pay increase over three years.

Tens of thousands of healthcare workers are also preparing to walk off the job on two separate days next month.

Public Service Minister Judith Collins told Mike Hosking it seems the union spent more time on its marketing, than it did at the bargaining table.

She's urging teachers to stop using kids as political footballs and get a union that actually cares about them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The unions are back with more strike action on the way.
The secondary teachers there are this Wednesday. The nurses are
out for two more days next month. Anyway, Judith Collins
is the Minister of the Public Service, anders with us
on all of this. Judith, morning to you, good morning.
I think you were standing with ere Ak Stanford yesterday
when she was suggesting this is a bit of a stunt.
How as far as the teachers are concerned, is it
a stunt? Do you think they've only been there for

(00:21):
six days?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, not only six days, but clearly they looks like
they spent more time on their marketing than they did
at the bargaining table. And you know they haven't even
put the offer to their members. They've just let's all
go out and strike. And what they're going to find is,
on top of the four percent to seven and a
half percent annual pay progression that's still there, there's an
extra one percent on top of that, or three percent

(00:45):
over three years. I just say to them, you know
these kids that they're targeting, which are the secondarys kids,
the senior secondary kids going through exam times and worrying
about NCAA and Cambridge, those are the same kids who
missed out two years of education when we were stuck
in these lockdowns in Auckland. And when I think about
what they've already gone through, and the teachers don't forget

(01:08):
their pay has increased massively over the last few years.
You know, I just have a heart stop using these
kids like some football and get a union that actually
cares about them.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Do you haven't? I mean, it's an impossible question to answer,
I think, but do you have a sense that is
this union driven and there are plenty of teachers out
there who actually, in a quiet moment, wouldn't be going
along with it? Or are they all in and they
hate you and they're feeling ripped off and they're on
strike No matter what.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I don't think the teachers hate us. I mean they've
got a minister in Erica Stanford, who was the biggest
advocate ever for teachers. I mean she and the government,
without being asked to, went off and paid for all
of their teacher registration fees that have been an ex
for a long time. She's put huge amounts of money
into professional development, She's done all the things, and you know,

(02:01):
it gets the bargaining table. We go to the bargaining table,
and it's obviously all just a stunt. That's they don't
even put an offer back. They just go, we're not
even putting it to our people were on strike. What
those same teachers are going to find is that actually
partial strikes means partial loss of pay as well. Now,
and I don't think there's these unions are actually put

(02:23):
in their teachers first. What they are, as they've said
it for you know, we've seen it from the public
service sector unions. They're going to keep on striking and striking,
carrying on to cause as much disruption because they don't
want this particular government. They want another.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
One was going to ask, how much do you think
of this as ideological? They simply don't like you.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
You know, look, you've got a where were they worrying
about what was happening with our kids when they were
locked down? You know we were they I don't remember
them ever saying anything about what's going to happen with
these kids. What I did know is that there are
teachers who are worried about it. Dan near the union there, No,
they were right in there supporting the then government no

(03:07):
matter what.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
As I think we've discussed this before, but certainly nurses.
I mean that number of the Prime Minister often quotes
about one hundred and twenty five hundred and twenty seven
thousand dollars for senior nurse. It's on. It's commensurate with
New South Wales. Now, I think we can say the
same about teachers, can't we. Teachers are are actually quite
well paid, now, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, when you've taken to account twelve weeks, that's three
months paid leave every year, plus all the professional development,
plus everything else that goes with it, all the allowances.
If you've got ten years experience with the normal allowances
that most would be getting, that's one hundred and forty
seven thousand a year. And you add in that the

(03:47):
fact that there's three months paid leave. Now who else
gets that?

Speaker 1 (03:54):
It's not bad?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
No?

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Just quickly, Well, I've got you as a seasoned practitioner,
and I'm a wonk. But watching yesterday Jerry and his philosophy,
the philosophy that he sees the public attacking you guys,
and to do something about that, we need to tidy
ourselves up in the house, I actually thought that wasn't
a bad argument.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, I'm a careful what I say because just just
in case, and I don't want to have an opinion
on it. Anything goes to Privileges Committee, but I'm ma
sure of it, but it is important. We've always had
rules about what you can say and not say in Parliament,
and one of them is to call someone else lacking

(04:39):
and courage and that's those rules have been there forever,
well before some of these newer MPs have turned up,
and they're there for a reason, and it's about acting
and behaving in a professional manner. Parliament does have a
certain amount of theater to it and that keeps us
all excited about every day, obviously apart from the great work.

(05:03):
But the other thing is it shouldn't become just a
comedy of jokes and stupid behavior, because ultimately we end
up with this is the same body that asked the
public to respect us to act in a way that
is professional. And what we don't want to do is
to see Parliament descend into some sort of, as I said,

(05:25):
comedy of errors.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
What do you make of Hipkins and co Ah.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Well, you know, would it be too rude to call
them gutless, spineless, hypocritical? I look at this and think
you guys were every single day telling us all through
those lockdowns and everything else when we were a threat
of lockdown. In lockdown, just come out of lockdown. Why
you are the sole source of truth and suddenly you're

(05:51):
too chicken to turn up? And the excuses that I've heard,
I think imagine if Christopher Luxeon pulled that one. Can
you imagine it? I actually wouldn't be surprised. I mean,
we saw how to Cindra doing decided you couldn't go
on your show because you asked your some hard questions. Okay,
I expect that Chris Hipkins will probably do the same.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Now, yeah, all right, appreciate it. Judith Collins, we started
out Minister of Public Service and we moved to other areas.
But that's the fun of this program, isn't it. For
more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news
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