I want every Minister of Education to be highly successful and would have loved Hipkins and Tinetti to be so. – The Ministry of Education has been a MASSIVE handbrake to the progress of education in NZ. The coalition government pledged to reduce the Full-Time-Equivalents of the Ministry of Education to the pre-Hipkins era of 2,700. Stanford then appointed her Acting Secretary for Education and – during 2025 – made her the Secretary of Education. Like the great majority of NZers – I want the NZ education system to be the very best in the world … for every-child.

Source: New Zealand Herald December 19, 2025 22:05 UTC