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.