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“Te Kōrero Tūmatanui: The Neoliberal Hijacking of Our Children’s Education” - 29 October 2025

The Curriculum Con Unveiled

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

29 Oct 2025 — 22 min read

Kia ora e te whānau. Tēnā koutou katoa.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/577212/just-absolutely-ridiculous-new-school-curriculum-unpopular-with-principals

Here’s what you need to know right now: The New Zealand Government has handed control of your children’s curriculum to a right-wing think tank funded by corporate interests that see education as a marketplace, not a birthright. Education Minister Erica Stanford appointed Dr Michael Johnston, senior fellow of the New Zealand Initiative, to chair the Ministerial Advisory Group rewriting what your tamariki learn. The NZ Initiative is funded by corporate members whose combined revenue represents a quarter of New Zealand’s economy and is an official partner of the Atlas Network, a global web of free-market fundamentalist organizations working to privatize public services and dismantle collective approaches to social problems.

Principals Federation president Leanne Otene says her members are “disgusted” and “past being disappointed”. Drama Teachers Association president Annette Thomson says the draft curriculum is “devoid of meaningful indigenous knowledge” and “clearly not been written by New Zealanders”. But here’s the smoking gun: in speech notes emailed to Stanford on October 20, 2024, curriculum lead writer Elizabeth Rata explicitly stated her hope that Stanford’s reforms will be the “circuit breaker” to “ending decolonisation’s success”.

This isn’t education reform. This is ideological warfare against mātauranga Māori, dressed up in the language of “knowledge-rich” curriculum and “science of learning.”

Whakapapa: The Historical Roots of Educational Colonization

To understand this attack, we must trace its whakapapa. The colonial education system has systematically failed Māori tauira since its inception, a reality the Education Ministry itself acknowledged when Secretary for Education Iona Holsted told Parliament in 2018: “The school system has under-performed for Māori students since the system began, so we have an intractable systemic problem”.

The statistics paint a devastating picture. In 2023, 28.3% of Māori students left school without NCEA Level 1, nearly double the rate for non-Māori (13.8%). Data released in 2024 showed Māori students were 1.36 times more likely to leave school without University Entrance than European students, even after accounting for socioeconomic factors. Only 8% of poorer students in Year 8 are at or above curriculum level in maths, while for Māori students it’s one in every 10.

Yet when Māori-controlled education succeeds—kura kaupapa Māori consistently achieve better NCEA results, with some schools like Te Kura Kaupapa O Wairarapa posting 100% pass rates across NCEA levels 1-3—the response from this Government is not to learn from that success but to strip away the very approaches that work.

The Issue: Ideological Capture Disguised as Evidence

The 12-member Ministerial Advisory Group appointed by Stanford in December 2023 was stacked with ideologically aligned actors. Chair Michael Johnston brought with him extensive connections: eight of the twelve MAG members had prior collaboration with Johnston through academic research, think tanks, and advocacy work.

Here’s the network revealed:

Elizabeth Rata, curriculum lead writer, is a Pākehā sociologist whose views on Te Tiriti o Waitangi have been described by researcher Bevan Holloway as “the intellectual bedrock upon which the ACT party’s challenge of it can be found”. She has publicly stated her belief that kaupapa Māori “contributes to creating ethnic division, is anti-democratic and fundamentalist”.

Melissa Derby, who identifies as Ngāti Ranginui, is a board member of the Taxpayers’ Union, an organization that alongside the NZ Initiative is an Atlas Network partner and has received funding from tobacco companies.

By February 13, 2024, Johnston was asking about “writing the documents,” prompting Ministry Chief Adviser Anya Pollock to remind him that advisory groups lack “legal personality” and thus lack “strong formal accountability”. Leaked emails show Rata had “my English writing team, dates and venue all ready to go,” stepping outside the MAG’s scope. The Ministry acknowledged Rata “acted outside the scope” but accepted her team selections anyway.

This violates whanaungatanga (relationships), manaakitanga (care and respect), and rangatiratanga (self-determination). The normal democratic process—where the Ministry consults with subject associations representing thousands of teachers—was hijacked. The New Zealand Association for the Teaching of English withdrew from Ministry working groups in March 2025, an unprecedented step, stating they didn’t want to be represented as agreeing with the process.

The Offshore Ideology Factory

Stanford traveled to Florida in June 2025 to attend the Core Knowledge Foundation’s annual conference, speaking alongside E.D. Hirsch Jr., founder of the knowledge-rich curriculum movement, Sir Nick Gibb from England, and Paul Givan from Northern Ireland. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge curriculum has been criticized for its Eurocentric focus, prioritizing Western history and literature while inadequately representing marginalized cultures.

Hirsch’s work is described by critics as conservative in nature, despite his claims to be politically liberal. The Core Knowledge approach has been warmly received by conservatives and home-schoolers in the United States while facing hostility from progressive educators. The central problem: someone must decide what counts as “core knowledge,” and those decisions are inherently political. When that someone is a coalition including Elizabeth Rata—who wants to end decolonization’s success—we know exactly whose knowledge gets prioritized.

Stanford posted on LinkedIn celebrating how “New Zealand was invited to share our world-leading education reforms on the international stage”. World-leading for whom? Not for the 28.3% of Māori students leaving without qualifications. Not for the educators who call it “educational violence.”

The Money Trail: Who Profits?

The New Zealand Initiative’s 2024 annual report boasts that “education reform advanced significantly” with “Dr Michael Johnston, chaired the Ministerial Advisory Group on curriculum reform, directly shaping teaching practices in schools”. The Initiative is funded by corporate members including all five major New Zealand banks (ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, Kiwibank), both major supermarket chains (Foodstuffs, Woolworths), and global corporations like British American Tobacco.

The Atlas Network, of which the NZ Initiative is an official partner, had revenues of US$20.2 million in 2022, distributing grants globally to promote “individual liberty”—a euphemism for free-market fundamentalism. About US$75,800 was distributed in Australia and New Zealand.

This violates kaitiakitanga (stewardship). Public education is being redesigned not by educators for children’s wellbeing, but by think tanks funded by corporations with vested interests in privatization and market-based “solutions.”

The Rhetoric Versus Reality: Decoding the Doublespeak

Stanford claims her reforms are “raising achievement and closing the equity gap.” Her October 2025 announcement celebrated phonics check data showing 58% of students at or above expectations at 20 weeks, up from 36% in Term 1. She claimed Māori students performing at or above expectations increased from 25% to 43%.

But context matters. Education researchers have warned these claims are premature, noting that the ability to decode individual words is not the same as actual reading comprehension. A UK study showed greatly increased achievement on similar phonics tests did not result in significant improvements in later reading ability.

Meanwhile, Te Tiriti o Waitangi has been removed as the guiding principle of the curriculum, replaced by “the science of learning”. Bruce Jepsen from Te Akatea says: “The relationship between colonisation and education is one in which indigenous forms of knowledge and pedagogy are marginalised and suppressed and this is a case of that”.

This is a false dilemma fallacy: presenting “science of learning” and Te Tiriti as mutually exclusive when evidence-based teaching can and must honor Te Tiriti obligations. It’s also cherry-picking data: celebrating short-term phonics scores while ignoring that Māori students leaving without qualifications increased, with the gap between Māori and non-Māori the largest since at least 2013.

The Hidden Connections: Five Smoking Guns

The Atlas-Initiative-Government Pipeline: Michael Johnston chairs the curriculum advisory group while serving as senior fellow at the NZ Initiative, which is an Atlas Network partner. The Initiative’s 2024 annual report celebrates curriculum reform as organizational achievement.
The Rata-Stanford Email Trail: On October 20, 2024, Elizabeth Rata emailed Stanford speech notes explicitly calling for reforms to be “the circuit breaker” to end “decolonisation’s success”. Rata also recommended replacing Te Whāriki’s “constructivist approach with a teacher-directed one”—targeting even early childhood education.
The Taxpayers’ Union Connection: Melissa Derby, MAG member, sits on the board of the Taxpayers’ Union, which is an Atlas Network partner that has received tobacco industry funding.
The Foreign Consultant Factor: Critics including drama teachers say curricula appear “written by foreign contractors rather than by New Zealanders”. Ministry documents from February 2024 show officials considered “bringing in overseas experts to help us develop templates and frameworks” due to lack of agreed definition for “knowledge-rich curriculum.”
The ACT Party Treaty Removal Attempt: ACT fought to have Treaty of Waitangi clauses stripped from education legislation, being overruled by coalition partners. Dr Michael Johnston defended Stanford’s retention of the Treaty clause as “a tactical political move while prioritising educational achievement”—revealing it’s seen as obstacle to be managed, not principle to honor.

The Implications: Quantified Harm to Our Tamariki

The human cost is staggering. With 28.3% of Māori students already leaving without basic qualifications, and Māori students 53.4 per 1000 being stood down compared to 28.4 per 1000 for Pākehā, this curriculum threatens to worsen these outcomes by:

Removing cultural identity and connection: When Stanford banned kupu Māori from Ready to Read books, Professor Margaret Mutu called it “an attempt to maintain the doctrine of discovery” and “inculcate white supremacy”.
Defunding proven success: The Government proposed cutting Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) funding, with only 48 of 53 roles currently filled, despite Rāwiri Wright noting “all of the disparities and the underachievement statistics... are not from kaupapa Māori education settings.”
Embedding structural racism: An Education Ministry analysis found Māori teenagers are less likely to get University Entrance than European students even after accounting for socioeconomic differences—yet the Government eliminates ethnicity for targeting services.

This violates aroha (compassion), kotahitanga (unity), and every principle of Te Tiriti. The curriculum redesign actively works against Māori flourishing while pretending to be evidence-based and neutral.

Te Whakatau: Our Path Forward

The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

We must act now. Here are your targets:

Education Minister Erica Stanford: Demand she release all emails and meeting notes between herself, the MAG, and the NZ Initiative. Demand she pause implementation until genuine consultation with Māori educators occurs.

The New Zealand Initiative: Name their corporate funders publicly. Ask why banks and supermarkets get to redesign our children’s education. Demand they disclose all Atlas Network funding received.

Your Local MP: Ask them to support the PPTA’s Waitangi Tribunal claim (WAI 3310) documenting how the education system breaches Te Tiriti.

Your Child’s School Board: Ask what consultation they had on curriculum changes. Ask how they’ll protect mātauranga Māori.

The curriculum isn’t neutral. It never has been. When Elizabeth Rata writes to the Education Minister celebrating the chance to end “decolonisation’s success,” she’s telling you exactly what this is: an ideological war against Māori self-determination, dressed up in the respectable language of “evidence-based practice.”

Our tamariki deserve better than to be experiments in offshore ideology. They deserve education that honors Te Tiriti, that sees mātauranga Māori as treasure not obstacle, that understands literacy isn’t just decoding words but understanding your place in te ao Māori and te ao whānui.

Kia kaha. Kia māia. Kia manawanui.

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