It’s true, but I’d like to see what other system he proposes to distribute scarce resources in a fair manner without waste.
As it is our student loan scheme is fuelling far too many diploma mills teaching courses of dubious value to students who should be doing something else.
there are some pretty sketchy course out there (particularly for early school leavers ) that seem to be a rort to hoover up less astute peoples loan entitlements
the “retail” course are the worst, you can end up in SERIOUS debt learning the arcane arts of working in shop !
Uruguay provides free education through to post grad level and a free laptop for every child in primary education and is rolling out the same for ALL students currently
Population of about 4 million, ——NZ about 4.5 million
I would say given their current level of development, that such a policy for Uruguay is sensible – education will be a primary way to lift the productivity of their country. NZ isn’t in the same position.
Also comparing total country population isn’t as important as comparing the number of students taking up these offers, or the types of education being offered, and if you want to get really detailed, the quality of the education (best measured by international ratings of universities and/or achievements of university professors).
what do you consider Uruguays current level of development Lanth
I own a small property there, have spent a lot time there both rural and urban and consider it many ways more developed than NZ ( in the areas in i consider important to be fair)
I would say given their current level of development, that such a policy for Uruguay is sensible – education will be a primary way to lift the productivity of their country. NZ isn’t in the same position.
Actually, NZ is in the same position. Due to not doing the investment to develop our economy needed over the last thirty years and giving that money to the rich instead we have increasing poverty and and an economy overly dependent upon a single sector.
Then we throw in the fact that the low hanging fruit in science and development has gone we actually need more students to work cooperatively to push ever more innovation.
Brazil does as well, and pays generous university scholarships. The only problem there is that the public schools, which the poor go to, are so bad that the privately schooled rich are far more likely to pass the tertiary entry exams. Hence most of the tertiary budget goes to kids who don’t need it. Friends of mine are trying to change this by preparing poorer kids better for the entrance exams.
I’d favour a system where university was basically free, and with useful scholarships for those who deserved them, but with more stringent entry requirements than at present. This could easily be paid for by a slightly higher tax rate on those who have already gone through university, such as myself and Paula Bennett. Alternatively, graduates could be bonded to perform community tasks for a couple of years after graduating. Once enough people realise education is not a commodity to be sold to individuals, just like a massage or a packet of biscuits, we’ll find a way.
“Are there any other education models overseas that we could perhaps emulate?”
“Bonding” is another alternative for occupations that provide public essential services: doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.
Personal example: In return for a free education you agree to spend 4 years working in a designated area of extreme need (rural or poor area). We had a lovely doctor and his young family serve in our rural town. 20 years later they are still there. They decided it was a much better lifestyle than working 60 hours a week in a flash suburb trying to retire the huge debt a medical education requires.
Sadly, they don’t read, full stop. Lanthanide wouldn’t have expressed his bewilderment like he did if he had bothered to read some of Chomsky’s voluminous writing about education.
“students who should be doing something else” – what precisely? Emigration? Crime? There are not so many jobs around these days for those without any formal education. Apprenticeships are rare, and polytechs are being squeezed, so many end up at private institutes that milk them for all they can get.
Languishing on a benefit isn’t socially beneficial, but has better income than study and doesn’t have to be repaid. OAB links show ways in which scarce resources have been put into furthering education for collective good (in Germany & Finland – I think Denmark also has no fees/ loans). The NZ politicians who instituted the high fee/ loan system (Goff & Smith in their forefront) had their own educations paid for by the state at a time when the country was monetarily poorer.
““students who should be doing something else” – what precisely? Emigration? Crime? There are not so many jobs around these days for those without any formal education. Apprenticeships are rare, and polytechs are being squeezed, so many end up at private institutes that milk them for all they can get.”
There should be more jobs, more apprenticeships, better funded and more polytech courses.
At no point am I blaming the students, who are the victims of these diploma mills. I simply said they should be doing something else.
“Languishing on a benefit isn’t socially beneficial, but has better income than study and doesn’t have to be repaid. ”
Going to a diploma mill, getting a student loan and then ending up in a crappy dead-end / low-wage job, or no job at all, isn’t much better.
It’s true, but I’d like to see what other system he proposes to distribute scarce resources in a fair manner without waste.
What the hell, Lanth. What “scarce resources” are you talking about here. What “waste” are you talking about here?
Are children hungry in NZ because there is a “scarcity” of food? Are pensioners in NZ cold because there is a “scarcity” of power? Are hospitals and schools understaffed because of a “scarcity” of nurses and teachers? Get a grip.
What Chomsky is pointing to is a bloody simple idea: the economic system is currently set up as a system of social control and rationing. High controls and strict rationing on the bottom 90% of society. Absolutely minimal controls and rationing on the top 10% of society (but especially the top 0.1%).
FFS man, can you not see the real “waste” which is happening day to day is letting Kiwis rot in a toxic mix of idleness and ignorance?
“What the hell, Lanth. What “scarce resources” are you talking about here. What “waste” are you talking about here?”
I was talking very generally about market-based economies, where the market puts prices on goods and services, which acts as a self-balancing system to minimise waste. Nothing more.
In this particular case, making education completely free leads to waste in the form of people doing study that doesn’t benefit themselves or society at large, hence my further statement that we already have too many diploma mills in this country.
I think you’ll find that there’s more actual waste in the level of unemployment – a level of unemployment that economists say is normal for market based economies. Even education that doesn’t seem to benefit society benefits society as it increases critical thinking levels. And free education means that those people could always go off and get one of those useful degrees later.
I was talking very generally about market-based economies, where the market puts prices on goods and services, which acts as a self-balancing system to minimise waste. Nothing more.
Why don’t you check out your nearest council landfill Lanth, to see how deeply mistaken you are.
In this particular case, making education completely free leads to waste in the form of people doing study that doesn’t benefit themselves or society at large, hence my further statement that we already have too many diploma mills in this country.
Bullshit. The level of fees charged for education have NOTHING to do with the poor design and quality of some tertiary offerings. That’s down to the lack of judgement, purpose, public service values and vision of the supposedly experienced senior management and PhD qualified heads of those “educational institutions.”
And its down to the corporatisation of education: where the only subject areas valued are the ones which help commercial enterprises make more money.
“Why don’t you check out your nearest council landfill Lanth, to see how deeply mistaken you are.”
Hmm, that is a good point. Certainly the profit margin drives companies to make products with built-in obsolescence, which can only be seen as ‘waste’ in the grand scheme of things. I guess that’s a large part of the contribution for why we aren’t all working 10-15 hours a week with lots of leisure time: if the products we bought actually lasted as long as they could/should, we’d have less need of money and less need to work, as well as less work needing to be done.
But in general it is true. For example, in winter, the supply of summer vegetables goes down, pushing the prices up, reducing demand and ensuring that production of winter vegetables is favoured, reducing mis-allocation of resources on summer vegetable crops, etc.
“And its down to the corporatisation of education: where the only subject areas valued are the ones which help commercial enterprises make more money.”
I don’t really have a problem with fine arts degrees, or BAs etc.
My beef is with the private education providers, of which there are huge numbers, who promise things like great careers in IT if you just go study with them… who place you in a call-centre tech support job for an ISP.
Your case by case reasoning is excellent Lanth, but your general case reasoning is highly suspect. I think that is a function of you applying orthodox economic decision making frameworks to areas they are not valid for i.e. 90% of society.
Er, no, education is not “free”, it’s just that the state pays for it.
The difference between “free education” and what we have now, is that you eventually have to pay for the cost of the education yourself, but on an interest-free term (unless you leave the country).
This simply means that instead of going to a diploma mill, getting a crappy bit of paper and a $5k loan, you’d go to the diploma mill and get a crappy bit of paper.
Nope. Then the government would be paying money to the diploma mill. At the moment they are lending it to the students. What they lend out, they get back.
And thanks for telling me that free education is paid by our taxes.
Prior to the neoliberal “reforms” of the ’80s and ’90s, higher education in NZ was free. We hardly need another system.
To answer your question though, Noam Chomsky has been an anarchist his whole life. An explanation of anarchism or communism would be beyond the scope of this discussion, but you can read some of Chomsky’s thoughts on anarchism and student debt here.
You also probably get less innovation and entrepreneurship because you are coming out of Tech or Uni already saddled with debt and staring down the barrell of an enormous mortgage to get onto the property ladder. The Atlantic Monthly recently ran an article here http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/the-disruption-myth/379348/2/ about the slowing pace of innovative disruption and the establishment of new businesses in the US. Gee, do you think a $100,000 debt for your degree might be a factor??
Unnecessary education – demanded by employers and government scourges you to get it. Students are suffering from what they call credential-inflation. How to cut this out? Break through that system of requiring students to have full skills before you hire them. Encourage employers to train staff on the job. And then encourage them in a system where you work your way up, get seniority and better pay. That implies that employers want to keep staff on of course. But at present most want to be able to go to the shelf and pick up a barbie or ken doll, wind it up and put it on the shop floor smiles, arms and legs all working perfectly.
So they demand students spend their own money on the perhaps of getting a job for which they may apply numerous times and never even get the courtesy of a photocopied acknowledgment with their name written in the square at the top.
Employers and the whole shonky right wing approach has whipped away. employment, Also the loss of jobs providing jobs that led on to other jobs for NZ that would give us a healthy economy.
Education is now the Land of Oz where you go and pay for magic employment dust which you try to spread around, sometimes successfully. Lecturers noticed once the fees became a major expense, students limited what they wanted to learn to ensure they could pass their papers. The passing was important, the cost was a burden. Not getting a higher education. And for government education gets you off the unemployment statistics, that it must keep at a certain level on the OECD list of countries they are helping to do over, I mean renovate.
We’ve had The Age of Enlightenment which apparently ended at the start of the 1800s. So do we have the De-Enlightenment now.? The Age of Murky Darkness or The New Dark Ages with the religion of money defining everything? Why don’t we continue with the old enlightened ideas now? What is so wrong with following the prescription?
The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th-century Western Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.[1] It spread across Europe and to the United States, continuing to the end of the 18th century. Its purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange.[2] The Enlightenment was a revolution in human thought. This new way of thinking was that rational thought begins with clearly stated principles, uses correct logic to arrive at conclusions, tests the conclusions against evidence, and then revises the principles in the light of the evidence. wikipedia.
edited.
As the countries that aren’t infested with right wing education policy continue to leave us behind, and get all the best investment opportunities, the policy will fail and fail and fail, while wingnuts wail and wail and wail, and cling even harder to their failure.
Noam Chomsky has hit the education nail on the head….and Cuba is a case in point ( the true story you never heard from the USA):
For a long time Cuba has been one of the leading countries as regards education in Central and South America…due to widely available , affordable/free high quality state education
“Following the 1959 revolution, the Castro government nationalized all educational institutions, and created a system operated entirely by the government…..
Education expenditures continue to receive high priority, as Cuba spends 10 percent of its central budget on education, compared with 4 percent in the United Kingdom and just 2 percent in the United States, according to UNESCO.[6]…
In 1995, the literacy rate was 96%. This was second after Argentina of thirteen Latin American countries surveyed…
Cuba has 47 universities and total university enrollment is approximately 112,000 citizens….All higher education institutions are public.
Cuba is a world leader in the education and training of doctors…it turns out many , many doctors. As the Michael Moore documentary on USA health System ‘SICKO’ graphically and ironically pointed out Cuban public health care is vastly superior to that in USA..
In fact the Cubans even train doctors who cant afford to be trained in their own countries….”In 1999 a program was implemented to attract students to study medicine in Cuba from less privileged backgrounds in the United States, Britain and Latin American, Caribbean, and African nations.[27] Cuba currently hosts 3432 medical students from 23 nations studying in Havana.[28]
However, Cuba has also provided state subsidized education to foreign nationals under specific programs, including U.S. students who are trained as doctors at the Latin American School of Medicine. The program provides for full scholarships, including accommodation, and its graduates are meant to return to the US to offer low-cost healthcare.”…
I spent 3 months in Cuba 2 years ago. I stayed with a local family who make jokes about Michael Moore’s docos – it was apparently filmed in a “dollar hospital” which is for foreigners or the communist elite. Sure, there are lots of doctors, but drugs are hard to come by and unaffordable for the majority that try to get by on the average Cuban wage (about $30 USD a month). Almost everyone I met dealt on the black market just to get by and I met very few people who had anything positive to say about the Cuban Government.
well as you probably know Cuba has been under an economic embargo by the USA for years …so you can hardly blame Cuba for the lack of medicines or standard of living…considering the effects of this embargo on a small country it is amazing Cuba has survived at all
There are two parts to the student debt. Course university fees then the living allowance loans of about $150 per week which is claimed by those who are not living at home. The latter are the crunch items which raise the total to huge heights.
free broad humanities (philosophy, history, languages, arts, classics etc) based undergrad degree first then specialise into higher levels once you have learned to think widely and understand historical and cultural perspectives.
Loans and debt aside, when university students are almost entirely from the middle class, their world views are never seriously challenged, and so conservatism/orthodoxy deepens at an intergenerational level.
It’s no coincidence that student based activism spiked in the 60s when a fair proportion of students were from working class backgrounds. The prospect of debt and an inability to access ‘lifeboat funds’ from parents when going through University, more or less excludes the working class these days.
+100 Bill…and the cost of tertiary education and the difficulty in finding jobs and paying back loans for university education …..also channels students into strictly vocational degrees
…again less time for thinking and reading and researching and learning and critical thinking about deep philosophical , psychological, political, social , religious and historical issues
….university education is being undermined from within as well as from without
…university education is becoming training for a professional vocation rather than the education of the whole person…and society as well as the individual is the loser
“when university students are almost entirely from the middle class, their world views are never seriously challenged, and so conservatism/orthodoxy deepens at an intergenerational level.”
Yup. From personal experience, I’ll agree with you there Bill. My unconventional academic path has led me to ‘surprise’ fellow students and mentors with the way I understand how societal structures are perceived and operate compared with the way they treat societal structures as uncontested best practice that people must fit into
Bill, not sure about your assertion that university students were more representative of working class backgrounds (in NZ?) than these days.
Small sample etc etc but in 1969 NZ History tutorial of some 15 students, asked about our class origins, all but one were middle class. We believed then that university was the prerogative of the middle class.
Have you some research to indicate otherwise?
We middle class students of the late sixties sure knew about student activism though- Harewood bases, Omega, Vietnam, Peace Power and Politics in Asia, student representation at Uni. I’m the son of a grocer- “petit bourgeois” was my answer to the question. I spent very little time studying in 1968 failing all but one of my units, but spent a lot of time challenging the values of the day.
My sense is that more working class folk are getting to Uni as numbers increase and more degrees as a percentage are awarded to attendees, or are working class numbers diminishing? Could be wrong though.
That’s the way you keep societies efficient and healthy from the point of view of the corporations. And as universities move towards a corporate business model, precarity is exactly what is being imposed. And we’ll see more and more of it.
And we see it here as well as National make more corporatechanges to our universities.
David Harvey makes the same point as Chomsky , but about mortgages. people with mortgages don’t srrike. they also tend to develop certain attitudes like cynical detachment.. having no considerable assets and being Christian have a complementary effect on me – both things free me up to be experimental with my life. currently I’m doing business and I feel totally free to charge people what I think is fair, instead of maxing out my fees according to market rates, which in my line of work are desperately, corrosively cynical. so, that’s a wonderful liberty that I have. also, following Christ requires you to be a bit cavalier about conventional wisdom. like eagleton says, if it doesn’t get you killed it appears that you have some explaining to do. on the path of radical integrity are deep suffering and profound peace.
They dress up with a partial conscience when they think it may benefit them – couldn’t bring myself to vote for them this election and I’ve been left my whole life.
Student debt made the Herald last weekend.
Verity Johnson writes..
“Students are increasingly worried about money. Not, “how many boxes of wine can I buy with all the change under the sofa?” But, “how will my degree get me a stable future career that repays my gaping debts?” This manifests itself in the serious, grey and practical pall that has settled over us students. I don’t blame us students. The message behind universities has changed historically.
Once, uni was about knowledge. Now we’re told to pick sensible degrees that will get us a sensible job with a sensible salary.
University is supposed to be about stretching your mind. This model makes it about your stretched pocket.”
The following are 18 sobering facts about the unprecedented student loan debt crisis in the United States…
#1 According to the Wall Street Journal, the class of 2014 is “the most indebted ever“…http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/congatulations-to-class-of-2014-the-most-indebted-ever-1368/
#2 In 1994, less than half of all college graduates left school with student loan debt. Today, it is over 70 percent.
#3 Approximately 15 percent of graduate and professional school students leave school with student loan debt balances in the six figures.
#4 At this point, student loan debt has hit a grand total of 1.2 trillion dollars in the United States. That number has grown by about 84 percent just since 2008.
#5 According to the Pew Research Center, nearly four out of every ten U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 40 is paying off student loan debt right now.
#6 The median net worth of young households that have student loan debt is 20 percent lower than the median net worth of young households that do not have any student loan debt and that are led by someone with only a high school education.
#7 Among college educated people, the median net worth of young households that do not have student loan debt is seven times higher than the median net worth of young households that do have student loan debt.
#8 In 2008, approximately 29 million Americans were paying off student loan debts. Today, that number has ballooned to 40 million.
#9 Since 2005, student loan debt burdens have absolutely exploded while salaries for young college graduates have actually declined…
#10 According to CNN, 260,000 Americans with a college or professional degree made at or below the federal minimum wage last year.
#11 Even after accounting for inflation, the cost of college tuition increased by 275 percent between 1970 and 2013.
#12 Debt for law school students has risen dramatically over the past decade or s
#13 Last year it was being reported that 34.9 percent of all student loan borrowers under the age of 30 are at least 90 days behind on their student loan payments.
“Labour did nothing and crushed the one party that was prepared to make Tertiary Education free…..the Mana/Internet Party”
Actually, that comment, made me get off my lazy arse and do just a little research.
Yeah, gutting, old Roger Me Now Nomics helped put the wedge in a while back, then down track, labour removed the interest on student loans. National introduced EFTs system and has been quielty removing funding from Universities since (are they not dropping in rankings?). So, changes were made to fund the increased projections of students entering Universities. But I really do not trust any of the powers that be, that further changes (taxes) will eventually turn up.
That aside, here as some good links (which informed me from both sides of the fence): Again, however, we do seem to be following the USA and GB, and their projections are not looking pretty.
2. It was National that introduced the “bums on seats” funding model, in which universities were funded based on the number of equivalent full-time students (EFTS) enrolled.
Throughout National’s nine years in power, government funding of the tertiary education sector steadily decreased. Universities resorted to rising student fees to cover deficits, a trend that still persists at universities across the country. The election of Labour in 1999 did not stem the tide of changes to the way tertiary education is funded in this country.
( a good summary of Universities and costs up to 2009). Aside it was National who did not want to touch the topic of taxing students… political expedience only… not love.
4. Heres the biggest for last (but remember, there is no mention of DOL studies and if people end up in their intended field etc). As with many stats, there are positives and Negatives:
The Student Loans Scheme Annual Report 2013 provides information on the scheme and those who borrowed from it in 2012, as well as the financial schedules for the year to 30 June 2013. The information in the report aligns with the outcomes framework developed by the agencies that manage and administer the scheme. Key findings in the report are:
The nominal value of loan balances was $13,562 million as at 30 June 2013.
201,187 students borrowed from the loan scheme in 2012 (73 percent of eligible students).
As at 30 June 2013, 710,000 people had a student loan with Inland Revenue.
The median repayment time for those who left study in 2009 and remained in New Zealand was 6.7 years.
Author(s): Ministry of Education.
Date Published: December 2013
Please consider the environment before printing the contents of this report.
This report is available as a download (please refer to the ‘Downloads/Links’ inset box, top right). This inset box also has links to related publications and information that may be of interest. Please consider the environment before printing.
Highlights
Student Loan Scheme portfolio
As at 30 June 2013:
The nominal value of loan balances was $13,562 million. (Refer to chapter 4.0.)
The carrying value of the loan scheme – calculated using International Financing Reporting Standards – was $8,288 million. (Refer to chapter 4.0.)
The carrying value ratio increased from 63.9 percent of the nominal value to 61.1 percent of the nominal value ratio. (Refer to chapter 4.1.)
The fair value of the loan scheme was approximately $8,298 million. (Refer to chapter 4.0.)
The cost of lending is forecast to increase to 40 cents per dollar for the period 1 July 2013 to 31 December 2013. It is forecast to increase to 42 cents for each dollar lent by 2016/17. (Refer to chapter 4.2)
710,968 people had a student loan with Inland Revenue for collection. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
Since the loan scheme began:
Students have borrowed a total of $18,520 million. (Refer to chapter 3.1.)
$8,125 million has been collected in loan repayments. (Refer to chapter 3.3.)
More than 374,000 loans have been fully repaid. (Refer to chapter 3.3.)
During 2012/13:
$1,150.7 million in loan repayments was received by Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Social Development, $274.2 million more than last year. (Refer to chapter 5.3)
Outcomes
Research shows that people with tertiary qualifications have lower unemployment, higher incomes and increased wellbeing. (Refer to chapter 2.2.)
The number of domestic students in tertiary education in 2012 was 375,000 compared with 245,000, the number enrolled in 1994. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
The participation rate for Māori of all ages was 14.6 percent in 2012, down from 15.1 percent in 2011. The participation rate of Pasifika students in 2012 was 11.4 percent, down from 11.5 percent in 2011. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
The total number of qualifications completed in 2012 was 143,000 by 126,000 domestic students, an increase of 2.7 percent from 2011. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
The total number of qualifications completed in the New Zealand tertiary system in 2012 was 162,000. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
About borrowing in 2012
201,187 students (73 percent of eligible students) borrowed from the loan scheme. (Refer to chapter 3.1)
Of these 54,836 were new borrowers (based on provisional Ministry of Social Development data), representing 27 percent of all borrowers. (Refer to chapter 3.1.)
The average amount borrowed was $7,822 and the median amount borrowed was $6,9889. (Refer to chapter 3.1.)
Borrowers
Between 1997 and 2012:
57 percent were female. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
48 percent were European, 22 percent were Māori, 12 percent were Asian and 9 percent were Pasifika. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
47 percent had studied at non-degree level, 35 percent at bachelors level and 9 percent at postgraduate level. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
As at 30 June 2013:
The average loan held by Inland Revenue was $19,076 and the median loan balance was $13,307. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
57 percent of repayments were collected through the PAYE tax system in the 2012/13 tax year. (Refer to chapter 3.3.)
Repayment times
The median repayment time for those who finished study in 2003 was 7.2 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
The median repayment time for those who finished study in 2006 is expected to be 7.5 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
The median repayment time for those who finished study in 2009 is expected to by 7.3 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
The median repayment time for those who left study in 2009 and remained in New Zealand was 6.7 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
4.
Watching my daughters do exactly as Chomsky predicts, through sheer exhaustion (though they did come out and sign wave for Labour, and did hold hope for a while before the election):
-trying to work (in ever more scarce part time jobs) around impossible timetables, not announced until the last minute
-studying with increasing sense of detachment from reality by universities having to assume “corporate” competitive models
-educational inflation means they have to do masters, so studying goes on…and on… and costs more and more….
And then the job market is so tight you need contacts to get a foot in the door, if we are honest, so how to pay off student debt, they can’t afford to work overseas as the debt increases even more.
The logical conclusion to this? Only the rich (but not necessarily the bright and motivated) will have a decent education…hey just like the old days!!
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Nobody likes a fascist, except other fascist’s of course. Thankfully they were completely outnumbered in Auckland last Saturday when a supposed advocate for women’s rights, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker, tried to give a public speech about how transgender people are worthy of persecution.You can understand why Parker and her ...
On Friday I sent out a newsletter called Posie Parker vs Transgender Rights to provide information about the visit to our shores of Ms Parker. I attempted to show there were multiple points of view but on balance my sympathies were strongly with the counter protest group standing up for ...
Brian Easton writes – Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector ...
Oh, the irony. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has made a career out of inciting public hostility against the trans community, only to find herself on the receiving end of public hostility at her Auckland rally. In a further case of karmic justice, the people who brought her into the country ended up ...
In 1972, British soldiers tortured a false confession out of Liam Holden, resulting in him being given Britain's last death sentence. While it was commuted to life imprisonment, Holden was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years. Now, the courts have finally recognised that it was torture: In 1973 Liam Holden ...
Taxpayers are not only subsidising already-very-profitable private banks via the cheap ‘Funding For Lending’ loans that helped pumped up house prices in 2021, but are also paying the banks upwards of $2 billion a year in interest for cash kept with the Reserve Bank. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: ...
This weekend saw a showdown between two tribes of contemporary gender politics: those in favour of progressing transgender rights versus women wishing to defend their spaces. It’s a debate with huge passion, outrage and consequences. The figure at the centre of the clash was the British “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” Posie ...
Tomorrow the Auckland Transport board meet again. Here are some of the highlights from their board papers. The open session starts at 9am and can be watched on this Teams link. Closed Session The closed session is typically where the most interesting items are discussed. Items for Approval ...
Mutual Support: Democracy in New Zealand will not be saved by pitting Pakeha against Māori, but by joining together with every other citizen who still understands the meaning of working together to build something good that will last. Call that co-governance if you like, or call it something else – ...
Imagine being a great big business success enjoying your lavish Waiheke island property with infinity pool and ballroom and riparian rights and heli-pad. Sweeeet. But imagine, also, having to take orders from some little bureaucratic oik about how often you can land a chopper on it.I can’t, really, but it ...
Hi,New Zealand’s Life megachurch has confirmed to Webworm it was paid $10,000 by Hillsong for investigating Brian Houston’s sexual misconduct allegations.Following Webworm publishing this piece about the $10,000 payment, Life’s Corporate Communications Manager Phil Irons has confirmed what it was for:Paul [de Jong] was engaged by Hillsong to assist in ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 19, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 25, 2023. Story of the Week Q&A: IPCC wraps up its most in-depth assessment of climate change The final part of the world’s most comprehensive assessment of ...
by Daphna Whitmore I thought the #LetWomenSpeak meeting would be a good time to talk about free speech and why it is important for the left. Then the mob stampeded the open-air gathering and no one got to speak. Here’s what I was had prepared. Today I want to talk ...
By Don Franks Today my friend Ani O’Briien went to a meeting in Auckland and wrote: “No sooner had Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull arrived at the Rotunda, a protestor (who had managed to get past the barrier) ran at her and threw a red substance all over her and a security ...
Jonathan Milne, managing editor for Newsroom Pro, has expressed his indignation about the outcome of a court decision yesterday in an article headed Posie Parker wins the beautiful freedom to make an ugly argument.Newsroom Pro laments: High Court Justice David Gendall has regretfully allowed an outspoken anti-trans activist to enter New ...
imagine my surprise this week when the National Party, in their infinite wisdom, decided to release an education policy. As you can imagine, this got us so riled up here in the office that we dusted off our Windows XP laptop, waiting 17 hours for all the updates to be ...
Come on Jess thought Mr Evans come on. He watched the large clock on the wall tick closer to 8:40am. Come on girl.In two minutes he had to submit the class attendance report and with Jess having already been late once that term it’d mean an automatic visit from the ...
This week’s UN IPCC report warned climate emissions will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C. Bronwyn Hayward points out in The Hoon podcast how far behind NZ’s government and councils are now on climate action compared to the rest ...
Chris Hipkins, after he became prime minister, committed to defeating the cost-of- living crisis. He proceeded to make a bonfire of policies that were at the heart of Jacinda Ardern’s administration. But, as Richard Prebble pointed out this week, “the government has not just U-turned, it has repudiated the ...
There are some wellness, crystal-gazing, holistic spiritual guidance types in my disaster-hit coastal community who insist that the power of positive thinking will overcome the physical and material damages incurred by the community. They object to restrictions on road travel … Continue reading → ...
Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector is inherently unstable, like military ...
1. We see here new police minister Ginny Andersen. Which larger than life NZ political figure was her great-uncle?a. Rob Muldoonb. Bill Andersenc. Richard John Seddond. Norman Kirk2. We see here archival footage of Ginny Andersen coming out of her electorate office to ask ex-tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop if he ...
Buzz from the Beehive Stuart Nash, speaking as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, one of his remaining portfolios after he was dropped down the Hipkins Government batting order, has drawn attention to the blue economy and its potential. Nash says the government is investing in the blue economy, or – ...
Photo by Josh Mills on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the ...
Roundup is back! We skipped last week’s Friday post due to a shortage of person-power – did you notice? Lots going on out there… Our header image this week shows a green street that just happens to be Queen St, by @chamfy from Twitter. This week (and last) in ...
After threatening Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of consequences if he dared to bar her entry, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has been given her visa, regardless. This will enable her to hold rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, and spread her messages of hostility against an already marginalised trans community. Neo-Nazis may, ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR:Auckland MayorWayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
Open access notables The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products has put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are weshortchanged democratically by the way ...
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
Further assistance is now available to businesses impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle, with Customs able to offer payment plans and to remit late-payments, Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri has announced. “This is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to assist economic recovery in the regions,” Meka Whaitiri said. “Cabinet has approved the ...
More than 41,000 sole parent families will be better off with a median gain of $20 a week Law change estimated to help lift up to 14,000 children out of poverty Child support payments will be passed on directly to people receiving a sole parent rate of main benefit, making ...
A major investment by Government-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance towards electrifying the public bus fleet is being welcomed by Climate Change Minister James Shaw. “Today’s announcement that NZGIF has signed a $50 million financing deal with Kinetic, the biggest bus operator in Australasia, to further decarbonise public transport is ...
A world-leading payments system is expected to provide a significant cash flow boost for Kiwi innovators, Minister of Research, Science, and Innovation Ayesha Verrall says. Announcing that applications for ‘in-year’ payments of the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) were open, Ayesha Verrall said it represented a win for businesses ...
Minister of Transport Michael Wood joined crowds of keen cyclists and walkers this morning to celebrate the completion of the Te Awa shared path in Hamilton. “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, greener, and more efficient for now and future generations to come,” Michael ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for its historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi today. The ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, with several hundred ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has concluded her visit to China, the first by a New Zealand Foreign Minister since 2018. The Minister met her counterpart, newly appointed State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, who also hosted a working dinner. This was the first engagement between the two ...
World-class satellite positioning services that will support much safer search and rescue, boost precision farming, and help safety on construction sites through greater accuracy are a significant step closer today, says Land Information Minister Damien O’Connor. Damien O’Connor marked the start of construction on New Zealand’s first uplink centre for ...
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Can I begin by thanking Gary Taylor, Raewyn Peart and others in the EDS team for their herculean work in support of the environment. I’d also like to acknowledge Hon Simon Upton, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, my parliamentary colleagues, and the many activists here who strive ...
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā tangata katoa, o moana-nui-a-kiwa, E ngā mate, haere, haere, haere atū ra, manuia lau Malaga. Thank you for the kind introduction and opportunity to join you this morning. It is always good to be here in Aukilani, where I ...
E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi, tēnā koutou katoa. Talofa lava and thank you Catherine, for the warm welcome. I’m sorry that I can’t be there in person today but it’s great for the opportunity to contribute virtually. I’d like to start by acknowledging: Alzheimers New Zealand, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
The native parrot the kea is under siege from aerial spread 1080 poison drops says a West Coast wildlife advocate Laurie Collins of Westport. While it is accepted that a good proportion of New Zealanders are opposed to aerial 1080 poison drops used ...
West Coasters might have a taste for the gung-ho but pragmatism has taken a turn for the cautious at an extraordinary Greymouth council meeting Outspoken West Coast Regional Council chair Allan Birchfield has been rolled by his colleagues in a bid to make peace with the government and stem the ...
By Tim Wilson, Executive Director, Maxim Institute* What does politics produce when mixed with violence and intimidation? Sadly nothing constructive, plus a humungous helping of anger, division, recrimination, spleen and confusion. Oh, and headlines. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Senator Lidia Thorpe’s defection from the Greens changed the power dynamic in the Senate. Now the government needs two crossbenchers (and the Greens) to pass legislation opposed by the Coalition. Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Crowley, Adjunct Associate Professor, Public and Environmental Policy, University of Tasmania Labor and the Greens on Monday announced a deal to strengthen a key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism, by introducing a hard cap on industrial sector emissions. But the ...
Security guards have made their voices heard and now have enough signatures to initiate a Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) for workers in their occupation. Since the Fair Pay Agreements Bill was passed in October 2022, more than 1000 security guards across Aotearoa New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bianca Fileborn, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, The University of Melbourne ShutterstockThe following article discusses sexual violence, self-harm and suicide. Gender and sexuality diverse (LGBTQ+) people experience disproportionately high levels of sexual violence, but we still know very little about ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jesse J. Fleay, Republic Constitutional Scholar, Federalist, Co-Author of the Uluru Statement, University of Notre Dame Australia Australia is preparing for a referendum to decide on the proposed Voice to parliament for First Nations people. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stated the ...
Toni Collette and John Leguizamo tell Tara Ward about the electric drama set in a world where gender equality becomes a sudden and shocking reality.There’s a moment halfway through in The Power when it seems Toni Collette could be channeling Jacinda Ardern. A mysterious medical event is sweeping the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Charlson, Conjoint NHMRC Early Career Fellow, The University of Queensland Shutterstock Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of the world’s most esteemed climate experts, delivered its sixth report and “final warning” about the climate crisis. It ...
The government's national security arm says it is working on how to address the spread of disinformation and this is not directed specifically at the general election. ...
Poet Ash Davida Jane talks with poet Andrew Johnston about his Selected Poems, which spans 23 years of his published work. I’ve started writing this review in the notes app on my phone from the backseat of my friend’s car, which feels a far cry from the world of Andrew ...
National is demanding Marama Davidson apologise to cis white men over her comments from Saturday. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says he considers the matter closed. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Manlik, Casual Academic and PhD Candidate, Macquarie University ABC The recent ABC mini-series, In Our Blood, offers a fictionalised account of Australia’s response to AIDS, focusing on the development of a partnership between impacted communities, health professionals and government. ...
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It’s true, but I’d like to see what other system he proposes to distribute scarce resources in a fair manner without waste.
As it is our student loan scheme is fuelling far too many diploma mills teaching courses of dubious value to students who should be doing something else.
+1 to this
there are some pretty sketchy course out there (particularly for early school leavers ) that seem to be a rort to hoover up less astute peoples loan entitlements
the “retail” course are the worst, you can end up in SERIOUS debt learning the arcane arts of working in shop !
Are there any other education models overseas that we could perhaps emulate?
Uruguay provides free education through to post grad level and a free laptop for every child in primary education and is rolling out the same for ALL students currently
Population of about 4 million, ——NZ about 4.5 million
GDP 59.201 billion , ——– NZ 181.3 billion
Per capita $17,121 , ——— NZ Per capita $40,481
hmmmm
Per capita $17,121 , ——— NZ Per capita $40,481.
Woo hoo, in your face Uruguay! Go All Blacks! No, wait…
Refer the famous photo of President Mujica of Uruguay, quietly waiting his turn for treatment in A&E.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BrTDyJZCYAAJjvm.jpg:medium
I would go gay for Jose !!
2 years living at the bottom of a well for your beliefs must give you some SERIOUS focus !
I would say given their current level of development, that such a policy for Uruguay is sensible – education will be a primary way to lift the productivity of their country. NZ isn’t in the same position.
Also comparing total country population isn’t as important as comparing the number of students taking up these offers, or the types of education being offered, and if you want to get really detailed, the quality of the education (best measured by international ratings of universities and/or achievements of university professors).
how is the quality of education measured by an international ranking based in no small part on research output?
getting back to full employment would see a drop in tertiary numbers.
what do you consider Uruguays current level of development Lanth
I own a small property there, have spent a lot time there both rural and urban and consider it many ways more developed than NZ ( in the areas in i consider important to be fair)
Actually, NZ is in the same position. Due to not doing the investment to develop our economy needed over the last thirty years and giving that money to the rich instead we have increasing poverty and and an economy overly dependent upon a single sector.
Then we throw in the fact that the low hanging fruit in science and development has gone we actually need more students to work cooperatively to push ever more innovation.
How does your argument deal with the fact that Germany does not charge for tertiary education?
Brazil does as well, and pays generous university scholarships. The only problem there is that the public schools, which the poor go to, are so bad that the privately schooled rich are far more likely to pass the tertiary entry exams. Hence most of the tertiary budget goes to kids who don’t need it. Friends of mine are trying to change this by preparing poorer kids better for the entrance exams.
I’d favour a system where university was basically free, and with useful scholarships for those who deserved them, but with more stringent entry requirements than at present. This could easily be paid for by a slightly higher tax rate on those who have already gone through university, such as myself and Paula Bennett. Alternatively, graduates could be bonded to perform community tasks for a couple of years after graduating. Once enough people realise education is not a commodity to be sold to individuals, just like a massage or a packet of biscuits, we’ll find a way.
Scotland
Free tertiary education
“Are there any other education models overseas that we could perhaps emulate?”
“Bonding” is another alternative for occupations that provide public essential services: doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.
Personal example: In return for a free education you agree to spend 4 years working in a designated area of extreme need (rural or poor area). We had a lovely doctor and his young family serve in our rural town. 20 years later they are still there. They decided it was a much better lifestyle than working 60 hours a week in a flash suburb trying to retire the huge debt a medical education requires.
Maybe you could read some of what Chomsky has written about the subject of education over the last forty years.
Right wingers believe the neoliberal doctrine.
There is no alternative for them, as their mantra dictates.
So they don’t read other ideas.
Sadly, they don’t read, full stop. Lanthanide wouldn’t have expressed his bewilderment like he did if he had bothered to read some of Chomsky’s voluminous writing about education.
Agreed.
Just repeat what they hear on TV.
La
“students who should be doing something else” – what precisely? Emigration? Crime? There are not so many jobs around these days for those without any formal education. Apprenticeships are rare, and polytechs are being squeezed, so many end up at private institutes that milk them for all they can get.
Languishing on a benefit isn’t socially beneficial, but has better income than study and doesn’t have to be repaid. OAB links show ways in which scarce resources have been put into furthering education for collective good (in Germany & Finland – I think Denmark also has no fees/ loans). The NZ politicians who instituted the high fee/ loan system (Goff & Smith in their forefront) had their own educations paid for by the state at a time when the country was monetarily poorer.
Education is most valuable when given away. It is the wealth of nations.
““students who should be doing something else” – what precisely? Emigration? Crime? There are not so many jobs around these days for those without any formal education. Apprenticeships are rare, and polytechs are being squeezed, so many end up at private institutes that milk them for all they can get.”
There should be more jobs, more apprenticeships, better funded and more polytech courses.
At no point am I blaming the students, who are the victims of these diploma mills. I simply said they should be doing something else.
“Languishing on a benefit isn’t socially beneficial, but has better income than study and doesn’t have to be repaid. ”
Going to a diploma mill, getting a student loan and then ending up in a crappy dead-end / low-wage job, or no job at all, isn’t much better.
What the hell, Lanth. What “scarce resources” are you talking about here. What “waste” are you talking about here?
Are children hungry in NZ because there is a “scarcity” of food? Are pensioners in NZ cold because there is a “scarcity” of power? Are hospitals and schools understaffed because of a “scarcity” of nurses and teachers? Get a grip.
What Chomsky is pointing to is a bloody simple idea: the economic system is currently set up as a system of social control and rationing. High controls and strict rationing on the bottom 90% of society. Absolutely minimal controls and rationing on the top 10% of society (but especially the top 0.1%).
FFS man, can you not see the real “waste” which is happening day to day is letting Kiwis rot in a toxic mix of idleness and ignorance?
+1
We cannot afford the rich.
“We cannot afford the rich.”
Damn right!
In 1789 the French came to the same conclusion.
“What the hell, Lanth. What “scarce resources” are you talking about here. What “waste” are you talking about here?”
I was talking very generally about market-based economies, where the market puts prices on goods and services, which acts as a self-balancing system to minimise waste. Nothing more.
In this particular case, making education completely free leads to waste in the form of people doing study that doesn’t benefit themselves or society at large, hence my further statement that we already have too many diploma mills in this country.
I think you’ll find that there’s more actual waste in the level of unemployment – a level of unemployment that economists say is normal for market based economies. Even education that doesn’t seem to benefit society benefits society as it increases critical thinking levels. And free education means that those people could always go off and get one of those useful degrees later.
Why don’t you check out your nearest council landfill Lanth, to see how deeply mistaken you are.
Bullshit. The level of fees charged for education have NOTHING to do with the poor design and quality of some tertiary offerings. That’s down to the lack of judgement, purpose, public service values and vision of the supposedly experienced senior management and PhD qualified heads of those “educational institutions.”
And its down to the corporatisation of education: where the only subject areas valued are the ones which help commercial enterprises make more money.
“Why don’t you check out your nearest council landfill Lanth, to see how deeply mistaken you are.”
Hmm, that is a good point. Certainly the profit margin drives companies to make products with built-in obsolescence, which can only be seen as ‘waste’ in the grand scheme of things. I guess that’s a large part of the contribution for why we aren’t all working 10-15 hours a week with lots of leisure time: if the products we bought actually lasted as long as they could/should, we’d have less need of money and less need to work, as well as less work needing to be done.
But in general it is true. For example, in winter, the supply of summer vegetables goes down, pushing the prices up, reducing demand and ensuring that production of winter vegetables is favoured, reducing mis-allocation of resources on summer vegetable crops, etc.
“And its down to the corporatisation of education: where the only subject areas valued are the ones which help commercial enterprises make more money.”
I don’t really have a problem with fine arts degrees, or BAs etc.
My beef is with the private education providers, of which there are huge numbers, who promise things like great careers in IT if you just go study with them… who place you in a call-centre tech support job for an ISP.
Your case by case reasoning is excellent Lanth, but your general case reasoning is highly suspect. I think that is a function of you applying orthodox economic decision making frameworks to areas they are not valid for i.e. 90% of society.
The diploma mills exist precisely because the government hands out student loans to pay the exorbitant fees. If education were free, they’d disappear.
Er, no, education is not “free”, it’s just that the state pays for it.
The difference between “free education” and what we have now, is that you eventually have to pay for the cost of the education yourself, but on an interest-free term (unless you leave the country).
This simply means that instead of going to a diploma mill, getting a crappy bit of paper and a $5k loan, you’d go to the diploma mill and get a crappy bit of paper.
Nope. Then the government would be paying money to the diploma mill. At the moment they are lending it to the students. What they lend out, they get back.
And thanks for telling me that free education is paid by our taxes.
Prior to the neoliberal “reforms” of the ’80s and ’90s, higher education in NZ was free. We hardly need another system.
To answer your question though, Noam Chomsky has been an anarchist his whole life. An explanation of anarchism or communism would be beyond the scope of this discussion, but you can read some of Chomsky’s thoughts on anarchism and student debt here.
what is your definition of dubious value?
you can easily find out. he has written alot in the past few decades on it.
You also probably get less innovation and entrepreneurship because you are coming out of Tech or Uni already saddled with debt and staring down the barrell of an enormous mortgage to get onto the property ladder. The Atlantic Monthly recently ran an article here http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/the-disruption-myth/379348/2/ about the slowing pace of innovative disruption and the establishment of new businesses in the US. Gee, do you think a $100,000 debt for your degree might be a factor??
Unnecessary education – demanded by employers and government scourges you to get it. Students are suffering from what they call credential-inflation. How to cut this out? Break through that system of requiring students to have full skills before you hire them. Encourage employers to train staff on the job. And then encourage them in a system where you work your way up, get seniority and better pay. That implies that employers want to keep staff on of course. But at present most want to be able to go to the shelf and pick up a barbie or ken doll, wind it up and put it on the shop floor smiles, arms and legs all working perfectly.
So they demand students spend their own money on the perhaps of getting a job for which they may apply numerous times and never even get the courtesy of a photocopied acknowledgment with their name written in the square at the top.
Employers and the whole shonky right wing approach has whipped away. employment, Also the loss of jobs providing jobs that led on to other jobs for NZ that would give us a healthy economy.
Education is now the Land of Oz where you go and pay for magic employment dust which you try to spread around, sometimes successfully. Lecturers noticed once the fees became a major expense, students limited what they wanted to learn to ensure they could pass their papers. The passing was important, the cost was a burden. Not getting a higher education. And for government education gets you off the unemployment statistics, that it must keep at a certain level on the OECD list of countries they are helping to do over, I mean renovate.
We’ve had The Age of Enlightenment which apparently ended at the start of the 1800s. So do we have the De-Enlightenment now.? The Age of Murky Darkness or The New Dark Ages with the religion of money defining everything? Why don’t we continue with the old enlightened ideas now? What is so wrong with following the prescription?
The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th-century Western Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.[1] It spread across Europe and to the United States, continuing to the end of the 18th century. Its purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange.[2] The Enlightenment was a revolution in human thought. This new way of thinking was that rational thought begins with clearly stated principles, uses correct logic to arrive at conclusions, tests the conclusions against evidence, and then revises the principles in the light of the evidence. wikipedia.
edited.
As the countries that aren’t infested with right wing education policy continue to leave us behind, and get all the best investment opportunities, the policy will fail and fail and fail, while wingnuts wail and wail and wail, and cling even harder to their failure.
It’s happening now.
+11111
Noam Chomsky has hit the education nail on the head….and Cuba is a case in point ( the true story you never heard from the USA):
For a long time Cuba has been one of the leading countries as regards education in Central and South America…due to widely available , affordable/free high quality state education
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Cuba
“Following the 1959 revolution, the Castro government nationalized all educational institutions, and created a system operated entirely by the government…..
Education expenditures continue to receive high priority, as Cuba spends 10 percent of its central budget on education, compared with 4 percent in the United Kingdom and just 2 percent in the United States, according to UNESCO.[6]…
In 1995, the literacy rate was 96%. This was second after Argentina of thirteen Latin American countries surveyed…
Cuba has 47 universities and total university enrollment is approximately 112,000 citizens….All higher education institutions are public.
Cuba is a world leader in the education and training of doctors…it turns out many , many doctors. As the Michael Moore documentary on USA health System ‘SICKO’ graphically and ironically pointed out Cuban public health care is vastly superior to that in USA..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biVfMORI56Q
In fact the Cubans even train doctors who cant afford to be trained in their own countries….”In 1999 a program was implemented to attract students to study medicine in Cuba from less privileged backgrounds in the United States, Britain and Latin American, Caribbean, and African nations.[27] Cuba currently hosts 3432 medical students from 23 nations studying in Havana.[28]
However, Cuba has also provided state subsidized education to foreign nationals under specific programs, including U.S. students who are trained as doctors at the Latin American School of Medicine. The program provides for full scholarships, including accommodation, and its graduates are meant to return to the US to offer low-cost healthcare.”…
I spent 3 months in Cuba 2 years ago. I stayed with a local family who make jokes about Michael Moore’s docos – it was apparently filmed in a “dollar hospital” which is for foreigners or the communist elite. Sure, there are lots of doctors, but drugs are hard to come by and unaffordable for the majority that try to get by on the average Cuban wage (about $30 USD a month). Almost everyone I met dealt on the black market just to get by and I met very few people who had anything positive to say about the Cuban Government.
Not a system to emulate in my opinion.
well as you probably know Cuba has been under an economic embargo by the USA for years …so you can hardly blame Cuba for the lack of medicines or standard of living…considering the effects of this embargo on a small country it is amazing Cuba has survived at all
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Cuba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3155421&Itemid=1
….just as USA had Iraq under sanctions 1990- 2003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iraq
There are two parts to the student debt. Course university fees then the living allowance loans of about $150 per week which is claimed by those who are not living at home. The latter are the crunch items which raise the total to huge heights.
free broad humanities (philosophy, history, languages, arts, classics etc) based undergrad degree first then specialise into higher levels once you have learned to think widely and understand historical and cultural perspectives.
Loans and debt aside, when university students are almost entirely from the middle class, their world views are never seriously challenged, and so conservatism/orthodoxy deepens at an intergenerational level.
It’s no coincidence that student based activism spiked in the 60s when a fair proportion of students were from working class backgrounds. The prospect of debt and an inability to access ‘lifeboat funds’ from parents when going through University, more or less excludes the working class these days.
Just thought it worth mentioning.
+100 Bill…and the cost of tertiary education and the difficulty in finding jobs and paying back loans for university education …..also channels students into strictly vocational degrees
…again less time for thinking and reading and researching and learning and critical thinking about deep philosophical , psychological, political, social , religious and historical issues
….university education is being undermined from within as well as from without
…university education is becoming training for a professional vocation rather than the education of the whole person…and society as well as the individual is the loser
“when university students are almost entirely from the middle class, their world views are never seriously challenged, and so conservatism/orthodoxy deepens at an intergenerational level.”
Yup. From personal experience, I’ll agree with you there Bill. My unconventional academic path has led me to ‘surprise’ fellow students and mentors with the way I understand how societal structures are perceived and operate compared with the way they treat societal structures as uncontested best practice that people must fit into
Well worth mentioning Bill.
Bill, not sure about your assertion that university students were more representative of working class backgrounds (in NZ?) than these days.
Small sample etc etc but in 1969 NZ History tutorial of some 15 students, asked about our class origins, all but one were middle class. We believed then that university was the prerogative of the middle class.
Have you some research to indicate otherwise?
We middle class students of the late sixties sure knew about student activism though- Harewood bases, Omega, Vietnam, Peace Power and Politics in Asia, student representation at Uni. I’m the son of a grocer- “petit bourgeois” was my answer to the question. I spent very little time studying in 1968 failing all but one of my units, but spent a lot of time challenging the values of the day.
My sense is that more working class folk are getting to Uni as numbers increase and more degrees as a percentage are awarded to attendees, or are working class numbers diminishing? Could be wrong though.
The Death of American Universities
And we see it here as well as National make more corporate changes to our universities.
David Harvey makes the same point as Chomsky , but about mortgages. people with mortgages don’t srrike. they also tend to develop certain attitudes like cynical detachment.. having no considerable assets and being Christian have a complementary effect on me – both things free me up to be experimental with my life. currently I’m doing business and I feel totally free to charge people what I think is fair, instead of maxing out my fees according to market rates, which in my line of work are desperately, corrosively cynical. so, that’s a wonderful liberty that I have. also, following Christ requires you to be a bit cavalier about conventional wisdom. like eagleton says, if it doesn’t get you killed it appears that you have some explaining to do. on the path of radical integrity are deep suffering and profound peace.
Another BIIIIIIIIG opportunity for the Labour Party to shine with some sensible policy huh?
But will they/won’t they?
Nope, they won’t as they’re far too busy trying to balance the books by not raising taxes.
Amen Draco,
They dress up with a partial conscience when they think it may benefit them – couldn’t bring myself to vote for them this election and I’ve been left my whole life.
Check out this guy burning his worthless college degree, law degree, licence to practise law and computer science degree at the 30 minute mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC_RYgkkmcM
All this guy has got round his neck is a millstone of debt.
Student debt made the Herald last weekend.
Verity Johnson writes..
“Students are increasingly worried about money. Not, “how many boxes of wine can I buy with all the change under the sofa?” But, “how will my degree get me a stable future career that repays my gaping debts?” This manifests itself in the serious, grey and practical pall that has settled over us students. I don’t blame us students. The message behind universities has changed historically.
Once, uni was about knowledge. Now we’re told to pick sensible degrees that will get us a sensible job with a sensible salary.
University is supposed to be about stretching your mind. This model makes it about your stretched pocket.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11336749
Hi Students, join the Nact party, suck up now and avoid your student debt, otherwise this awaits you:
Could’nt happen in NZ, now could it. Thats what ya voted for….debt slavery:
http://etfdailynews.com/2014/10/09/why-the-student-loan-debt-crisis-is-out-of-control/
The following are 18 sobering facts about the unprecedented student loan debt crisis in the United States…
#1 According to the Wall Street Journal, the class of 2014 is “the most indebted ever“…http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/congatulations-to-class-of-2014-the-most-indebted-ever-1368/
#2 In 1994, less than half of all college graduates left school with student loan debt. Today, it is over 70 percent.
#3 Approximately 15 percent of graduate and professional school students leave school with student loan debt balances in the six figures.
#4 At this point, student loan debt has hit a grand total of 1.2 trillion dollars in the United States. That number has grown by about 84 percent just since 2008.
#5 According to the Pew Research Center, nearly four out of every ten U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 40 is paying off student loan debt right now.
#6 The median net worth of young households that have student loan debt is 20 percent lower than the median net worth of young households that do not have any student loan debt and that are led by someone with only a high school education.
#7 Among college educated people, the median net worth of young households that do not have student loan debt is seven times higher than the median net worth of young households that do have student loan debt.
#8 In 2008, approximately 29 million Americans were paying off student loan debts. Today, that number has ballooned to 40 million.
#9 Since 2005, student loan debt burdens have absolutely exploded while salaries for young college graduates have actually declined…
#10 According to CNN, 260,000 Americans with a college or professional degree made at or below the federal minimum wage last year.
#11 Even after accounting for inflation, the cost of college tuition increased by 275 percent between 1970 and 2013.
#12 Debt for law school students has risen dramatically over the past decade or s
#13 Last year it was being reported that 34.9 percent of all student loan borrowers under the age of 30 are at least 90 days behind on their student loan payments.
sobering…and the USA model is the one New Zealand is following….screwing its own youth!…
The debt New Zealand is putting on young people for tertiary education is a disgrace!
….It should have been a major Election issue!
Labour did nothing and crushed the one party that was prepared to make Tertiary Education free…..the Mana/Internet Party
…guess where all your youth votes have gone Labour?…they are NOT voting for you!
Chooky Shark Smile, you mentioned
“Labour did nothing and crushed the one party that was prepared to make Tertiary Education free…..the Mana/Internet Party”
Actually, that comment, made me get off my lazy arse and do just a little research.
Yeah, gutting, old Roger Me Now Nomics helped put the wedge in a while back, then down track, labour removed the interest on student loans. National introduced EFTs system and has been quielty removing funding from Universities since (are they not dropping in rankings?). So, changes were made to fund the increased projections of students entering Universities. But I really do not trust any of the powers that be, that further changes (taxes) will eventually turn up.
That aside, here as some good links (which informed me from both sides of the fence): Again, however, we do seem to be following the USA and GB, and their projections are not looking pretty.
So a recipe for wage slave =
Average UK student debts ‘could hit £53,000’
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-14488312
+
NZ house prices among world’s highest
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10450981/NZ-house-prices-among-worlds-highest
+
Who gets the best jobs (the rich kids of course)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-previews/who-gets-the-best-jobs—107947
If you read these links, it may help balance the picture (for the left or right view)
1. Since April 2006, student borrowers living in New Zealand have not had to pay any interest.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8197323/Bitter-pill-should-be-swallowed
2. It was National that introduced the “bums on seats” funding model, in which universities were funded based on the number of equivalent full-time students (EFTS) enrolled.
Throughout National’s nine years in power, government funding of the tertiary education sector steadily decreased. Universities resorted to rising student fees to cover deficits, a trend that still persists at universities across the country. The election of Labour in 1999 did not stem the tide of changes to the way tertiary education is funded in this country.
http://salient.org.nz/features/a-short-history-of-tertiary-education-funding-in-new-zealand
( a good summary of Universities and costs up to 2009). Aside it was National who did not want to touch the topic of taxing students… political expedience only… not love.
3. Total student loan debt sits at $13 billion, and is projected to hit $14b – the size of the annual health budget – by 2015.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/budget-2013/8683203/Student-loan-defaulters-to-face-border-arrest
4. Heres the biggest for last (but remember, there is no mention of DOL studies and if people end up in their intended field etc). As with many stats, there are positives and Negatives:
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2555/student-loan-scheme-annual-report-2013
Student Loan Scheme Annual Report 2013
Publication Details
The Student Loans Scheme Annual Report 2013 provides information on the scheme and those who borrowed from it in 2012, as well as the financial schedules for the year to 30 June 2013. The information in the report aligns with the outcomes framework developed by the agencies that manage and administer the scheme. Key findings in the report are:
The nominal value of loan balances was $13,562 million as at 30 June 2013.
201,187 students borrowed from the loan scheme in 2012 (73 percent of eligible students).
As at 30 June 2013, 710,000 people had a student loan with Inland Revenue.
The median repayment time for those who left study in 2009 and remained in New Zealand was 6.7 years.
Author(s): Ministry of Education.
Date Published: December 2013
Please consider the environment before printing the contents of this report.
This report is available as a download (please refer to the ‘Downloads/Links’ inset box, top right). This inset box also has links to related publications and information that may be of interest. Please consider the environment before printing.
Highlights
Student Loan Scheme portfolio
As at 30 June 2013:
The nominal value of loan balances was $13,562 million. (Refer to chapter 4.0.)
The carrying value of the loan scheme – calculated using International Financing Reporting Standards – was $8,288 million. (Refer to chapter 4.0.)
The carrying value ratio increased from 63.9 percent of the nominal value to 61.1 percent of the nominal value ratio. (Refer to chapter 4.1.)
The fair value of the loan scheme was approximately $8,298 million. (Refer to chapter 4.0.)
The cost of lending is forecast to increase to 40 cents per dollar for the period 1 July 2013 to 31 December 2013. It is forecast to increase to 42 cents for each dollar lent by 2016/17. (Refer to chapter 4.2)
710,968 people had a student loan with Inland Revenue for collection. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
Since the loan scheme began:
Students have borrowed a total of $18,520 million. (Refer to chapter 3.1.)
$8,125 million has been collected in loan repayments. (Refer to chapter 3.3.)
More than 374,000 loans have been fully repaid. (Refer to chapter 3.3.)
During 2012/13:
$1,150.7 million in loan repayments was received by Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Social Development, $274.2 million more than last year. (Refer to chapter 5.3)
Outcomes
Research shows that people with tertiary qualifications have lower unemployment, higher incomes and increased wellbeing. (Refer to chapter 2.2.)
The number of domestic students in tertiary education in 2012 was 375,000 compared with 245,000, the number enrolled in 1994. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
The participation rate for Māori of all ages was 14.6 percent in 2012, down from 15.1 percent in 2011. The participation rate of Pasifika students in 2012 was 11.4 percent, down from 11.5 percent in 2011. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
The total number of qualifications completed in 2012 was 143,000 by 126,000 domestic students, an increase of 2.7 percent from 2011. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
The total number of qualifications completed in the New Zealand tertiary system in 2012 was 162,000. (Refer to chapter 1.1.)
About borrowing in 2012
201,187 students (73 percent of eligible students) borrowed from the loan scheme. (Refer to chapter 3.1)
Of these 54,836 were new borrowers (based on provisional Ministry of Social Development data), representing 27 percent of all borrowers. (Refer to chapter 3.1.)
The average amount borrowed was $7,822 and the median amount borrowed was $6,9889. (Refer to chapter 3.1.)
Borrowers
Between 1997 and 2012:
57 percent were female. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
48 percent were European, 22 percent were Māori, 12 percent were Asian and 9 percent were Pasifika. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
47 percent had studied at non-degree level, 35 percent at bachelors level and 9 percent at postgraduate level. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
As at 30 June 2013:
The average loan held by Inland Revenue was $19,076 and the median loan balance was $13,307. (Refer to chapter 3.2.)
57 percent of repayments were collected through the PAYE tax system in the 2012/13 tax year. (Refer to chapter 3.3.)
Repayment times
The median repayment time for those who finished study in 2003 was 7.2 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
The median repayment time for those who finished study in 2006 is expected to be 7.5 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
The median repayment time for those who finished study in 2009 is expected to by 7.3 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
The median repayment time for those who left study in 2009 and remained in New Zealand was 6.7 years. (Refer to chapter 3.4.)
4.
Watching my daughters do exactly as Chomsky predicts, through sheer exhaustion (though they did come out and sign wave for Labour, and did hold hope for a while before the election):
-trying to work (in ever more scarce part time jobs) around impossible timetables, not announced until the last minute
-studying with increasing sense of detachment from reality by universities having to assume “corporate” competitive models
-educational inflation means they have to do masters, so studying goes on…and on… and costs more and more….
And then the job market is so tight you need contacts to get a foot in the door, if we are honest, so how to pay off student debt, they can’t afford to work overseas as the debt increases even more.
The logical conclusion to this? Only the rich (but not necessarily the bright and motivated) will have a decent education…hey just like the old days!!