“What exactly is your job?” That is the question The 11-year-old Sada Taualai asked the Prime Minister Bill English last Friday.
“I’m the leader of the government and we do all sorts of things from locking up criminals to paying for the school,” he told Sada who ticked the question on his clipboard, nodded, then asked for an autograph.
English was sharing breakfast with the students at Holy Family School in Cannons Creek, north of Wellington.
Sada wants to be a journalist. The 11-year-old, armed with a clipboard, waited until the PM had finished his Weetbix before he posed his toughest question.
The grilling continued when 9-year-old Jayelle Temarama set aside her Milo, shook English’s hand and got right down to business.
“How exactly did you get this job?”
“If you wait long enough you get a turn,” English replied. “I did my other job well so they gave me this one.”
English went on to visit near-by Windley School to re-launch The Graham Dingle Foundation’s Kiwi Can Programme back into Porirua.
Foundation regional manager Lee Pownall said 600 students from Windley, Maraeroa and Bishop Viard College would benefit from the life-skills programme.
A lack of funding saw the Porirua programme end some years ago so the re-launch was a triumph, he said.
Windley principal Rhys McKinley said the programme matched the values already taught at the school and the children loved taking part.
“We’re a low-decile school and we do have extremes so when people talk about the 1 per cent of the nation who struggle that’s 20 per cent of our kids. We need all the help we can get.”
Kiwi Can coordinator Faafoi Seiuli was delighted to have the nationwide programme back in his home town.
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