The Phillipstown decision

The government's decision to merge Woolston and Phillipstown schools has been ruled unlawful due to poor consultation. This isn't the first time this has happened to Hekia Parata - last year her decision to merge Salisbury School was also ruled unlawful. Which raises the question: can Parata do anything right? To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose one High Court judicial review may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose a second looks like carelessness...

But snark at Parata aside, this does raise an obvious question: how many other Christchurch school closures would be found unlawful if they were tested in the courts? Sadly, due to the expense of judicial review proceedings, we'll probably never know.