Is there a journalist reckless enough to direct a question to Hamish Rutherford, who lurks at Luxon's side in pressers, rather than to Luxon himself? As in "Can I ask Hamish a question? I'd prefer to talk to the ventriloquist, not his dummy”.
Not a nice time be laid off with a mortgage that you've been paying down for a while.
BNZ, and I presume all the others removed the re-draw facility from their existing mortgage agreements this week. So you've got to make a new application to borrow funds to tide you over the initial unemployment until you find a new job.
I'm not convinced about the appropriateness of voucher systems in the NZ setting, although we already have a quasi voucher system (with scholarships etc). NZ has "a much smaller market for – and culture of – private schooling than many other OECD countries" (Research-Note-The-State-of-Schooling.pdf), however that same research (from 2020) found that "state schools are underperforming compared with state-integrated and private schools", and that has to change.
That research doesn't even address the question, let alone challenge it. Since vouchers are a state level choice about how to run the entire education system then the effectiveness of that choice needs to address the performance of the whole education system in comparison to public funding. Examples of successful students, teachers or institutions do not make that point, regardless of how successful examples they may be.
We should also keep in mind that there is a survival bias to successful examples. The schools which fail and are subsequently closed due to their failure or absorbed into the public system are not around to study (and there are numerous examples of this style even in NZ, where we already saw the evidence of these schools undermining student testing at a national level).
I think that Finland does not allow any form of private schools but expects that every state school is of the highest standard and funds it accordingly.
They also as a society value education and understand the benefits to everyone in the society so, as expounded in 'Viking Economics', people are happy to pay higher taxes to get the mutual benefits of an educated work force.
What is happening here? We are cutting services, encouraging a two tier system of health and education, not ensuring enough quality graduates for our needs, allowing to go overseas many of those graduates we do produce because of the lack of employment.
We are cutting taxes and impoverishing our country by doing so, developing an unfair society and we will pay the cost of all that.
You should disconnect the taxation issue from the funding of education. Its a choice to undervalue education and to systematically reduce the salary of teachers over time and that choice is not constrained by the amount of taxation collected by the government. The actual restriction the government faces is in the number of educators who will work in the public education system and the ability to train them to and have them perform well in their teaching.
This is a relevant point with Lars P Syll being a member of the MMT group of economists (you could find posts on his blog describing this fact). It over complicates things to link these together when its much more clear that this National led govt really doesn't value public education very highly as a profession.
There are private schools, although not very many. Apparently about 3% or pupils go to private schools. They teach the State Curriculum and are financed by the state,
An acquaintance, whose son lives there has told me that this is a reasonable review of the system. I don't have personal knowledge.
If the public education and health systems were of a high enough standard you wouldn't need to ban private schools and health insurance, they just wouldn't exist.
"That research doesn't even address the question, let alone challenge it. "
The comment you made was "Where voucher schooling has been used the consistent conclusion is that it does not work as advertised."
The Fordham research shows that voucher schooling can and does work, and points out the nuances.
"We should also keep in mind that there is a survival bias to successful examples."
And we should also point out that there in education (as with other disciplines) there is strong ideological bias that is often directed against alternatives to education.
First I will just point out that nobody is proposing alternatives to education which appear to be, no education.
Now otherwise you have again failed to contend the important question regarding vouchers (which are a change to the school system as a whole), which is do they make the overall school system better, improve performance overall, etc… The question is not can some schools succeed in their mission when they are paid in vouchers.
Now you can very well claim that the structure of public education is mostly driven by ideology all you want (I guess with the unstated implication that its not objectively well structured due to that), but the onus is still on research to demonstrate that the voucher alternative is actually better overall. The evidence is on the contrary that institutional competition for funding has and does damage the primary purpose of these institutions and most frequently undermines the standards of assessment well before it improves performance in those standards.
"Now otherwise you have again failed to contend the important question regarding vouchers (which are a change to the school system as a whole), which is do they make the overall school system better, improve performance overall, etc…"
That's not the question you posed. You said "Where voucher schooling has been used the consistent conclusion is that it does not work as advertised."
"…which are a change to the school system as a whole…"
Vouchers are not a change to the school system as a whole. They are a means for allocating financial resources.
"do they make the overall school system better, improve performance overall, etc… "
I don't know. Fordham's research says they do, but there are exceptions and nuances.
"The evidence is on the contrary that institutional competition for funding has and does damage the primary purpose of these institutions and most frequently undermines the standards of assessment well before it improves performance in those standards."
What evidence? How do you define the 'primary purpose'?
That is the question I posed. You may well not have understood that when you replied, but that is the question. And yes, vouchers are a change to the overall school system. You could very well set a voucher school in NZ today which would of course have zero chance of accepting voucher pupils, because the voucher system needs a systematic legislative change to even exist.
Finally, you seem to be search for just what is the primary purpose of education institutions? That would be to provide education, at least to their students.
"That would be to provide education, at least to their students."
I would suggest that any definition should include some kind of qualitative ambition. Anyway…
"And yes, vouchers are a change to the overall school system."
We'll have to agree to disagree. We have vouchers of sorts operating in the education system already, and we have choice in the system already. Vouchers are merely a mechanism to simply funding of those choices and any others the government may wish to introduce.
Your saying these existing funding mechanisms, which you are referring to as effectively vouchers, are not implemented via govt legislation and budgeting? I mean what are you even disagreeing with here. NZ's education system is overwhelmingly public even as far as it contains private schools which are still quite largely publicly funded.
"Your saying these existing funding mechanisms, which you are referring to as effectively vouchers, are not implemented via govt legislation and budgeting?"
No, I'm not saying that.
"NZ's education system is overwhelmingly public even as far as it contains private schools which are still quite largely publicly funded."
They are publicly funded as state schools are. I'm not sure what your point is.
Good so we seem to agree then that implementing a voucher system is a change to the overall school system. This is very clearly quite important to my claim, that if we are going to change the school system then one of the government goals should be to improve overall that system.
I mean if the govt wanted they could instead set up a bunch of new charter schools and then fund those over and above the level of public schools and if they were not incompetent in doing that they might very well succeed in creating some relatively successful new charter schools. But the justification of the public interest of such a policy appears to be does that improve the overall performance of NZs school system.
That is the supposed promise of voucher funding, that incentives are setup to make the delivery of education more 'efficient' and incentivized than the public sector (where efficient in this context supposedly means quite unrealistically having better teaching outcomes). But if that incentive structure undermines the overall education system performance its quite clearly not justified as an education policy.
"Good so we seem to agree then that implementing a voucher system is a change to the overall school system. "
Please don’t misrepresent me. I repeat, voucher systems are not a change to the overall school system. Voucher systems are simply a funding mechanism to facilitate choice, choice that is already in place in many cases.
Awesome. In that case it seems we already in NZ have the worlds most comprehensive voucher school system in place, no further school system reform necessary. School choice delivered.
You have convinced me of this. Apparently legislation of the school system is not needed to implement this, so I willed it into existence in my own thinking based on what you told me.
Did the 2020 research state the reasons why the underperforming happened, and therefore help understand what would be needed to achieve parity in performance?
For some reason my link to the reasearch broke – here it is Research Note: The State of Schooling | The New Zealand Initiative (nzinitiative.org.nz)– download the PDF from there. The answer to your question is that the report examines outcomes, not reasons for the outcomes, however section 3 does look at "which socioeconomic factors predict school authority attendance".
The full report concludes with this:
"Putting educational ideology aside, this report shows the absence of evidence for which schools are succeeding and which are falling behind. For too long, families have had to rely on prejudiced anecdotal evidence, and misleading league tables and decile ratings to decide the ‘right’ school for their child. More needs to be done and more can be done, but we must first use the right tools. Without the right information and tools, New Zealand will remain blind to serious educational problems and the successes that should be celebrated."
NZ Initiative… rw thinktank. Why do you believe their views on a voucher system are worth espousing on a lw opinion site?
A solution in search of a problem, seems to me. Greater resource targetting to low decile schools is a better answer, surely, than a 'free-market' approach. The aim should be to provide equitable education to all NZ children.
For examples of failed 2-tier education systems, you have only to look to UK (academies/charter schools run for profit, with expensive business management that sucks resource from the students and from the public sector); or to Oz (where private fee-paying schools are paid significantly more by the government than state schools).
If you have winner and loser Schools then you have winner and loser children, through no fault of their own.
Finland's system works because it aims for a high standard for their entire education system. Something ours also aspires to, but gets knee capped periodically by Governments wedded to dogma, rather than informed research.
New Zealand's has suffered from too much knee jerk simplistic bombastic "solutions'" by, mostly right wing, rote learning, cannon fodder for industry ideology. A two tier Education system.
They want to have a basic system for the "bottom feeders" and an elite system for their own children. Ironically they want other tax payers to subsidise a higher standard education for their children, with all the advantages of smaller class sizes, subject ranges, skilled Teachers and personalised Teaching they oppose funding in State Schools.
"If you have winner and loser Schools then you have winner and loser children, through no fault of their own."
It doesn't have to be that way. There is plenty of research that shows competition can improved educational outcomes, but certainly there have to be controls.
"New Zealand's has suffered from too much knee jerk simplistic bombastic "solutions'" by, mostly right wing, rote learning, cannon fodder for industry ideology."
My experience is that it has come from right and left. My children were exposed to educational philosophies such as the Numeracy Project (Un(ac)countable: Why millions on maths returned little | The New Zealand Initiative (nzinitiative.org.nz)) that was trialed under a National government but rolled out under a Labour administration. They were also unfortunate victims of the 'whole of language' experiment, which began as a system introduced in the 1970's to complement phonics, but somehow saw phonics based teaching relegated to such an extent that literacy rates fell alarmingly. My severely dyslexic child in particular suffered from this absurd ideological movement, which occurred under governments of left and right.
I am not an educationalist, but I am close enough to the outcomes of the education system to be deeply concerned about the quality of education in this country, and what it means for the future of NZ.
"socioeconomic factors predict school authority attendance". What is a 'school authority attendance'?
This does not seem to help, if it is about attendance figures, as the question concerned overall academic underperformance.
Attendance rates no doubt is a factor but what else?
Your final paragraph says in essence that the NZInitiative don't know, but criticise what information and argument based on that information is already published.
The very first paragraph of the link defines it for you:
"This research note takes a closer look at school effectiveness across state, state-integrated, and private schools, otherwise defined as school authority (or type) using the Initiative's school performance tool."
"Your final paragraph says in essence that the NZInitiative don't know, but criticise what information and argument based on that information is already published."
The research examined school effectiveness; it makes no claims about 'why' because that isn't its purpose.
"Like the governments before it, the current Labour-led administration and its Ministry of Education have shown themselves keen to jump on fashionable bandwagons. Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out. In this way, over time, NZ’s education system has been hollowed out. There is no canon of knowledge enshrined in the curriculum. There is a lack of rigorous assessment. New teaching approaches are thrown at the system without proper monitoring or evaluation. The result is that the successive tiers of education play catch-up, catch up. Secondary schools are teaching what primary schools should have. And tertiary institutions spend an incredible amount of effort making up for the deficits of secondary schooling. NZ once prided itself in having a world-class education system. It has now become a country in education free fall."
I am expected to treat what is little more than rhetoric as being worthy of the title of research? The use of exaggeration and generalisation is evident.
" Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out."
The conclusions from whatever research was conducted are no more than political press releases and contaminate the research to the point of having to doubt their reliability and freedom from bias.
The conclusions are drawn from the research. And that research is far from being an outlier. It's generally accepted that NZ's education system has been in decline for decades.
Traveller, you wrote early on, "I am not an educationalist, but I am close enough to the outcomes of the education system to be deeply concerned about the quality of education in this country, and what it means for the future of NZ."
I was a teacher and professionally worked with those concerns and for those outcomes.
One thing I taught as an English and History teacher were the dangers of such errors as hyperbole, exaggeration, false and rash generalisations. You have not yet acknowledged that danger in what you are quoting. If you can't see it, then your conclusions are as faulted.
"One thing I taught as an English and History teacher were the dangers of such errors as hyperbole, exaggeration, false and rash generalisations. You have not yet acknowledged that danger in what you are quoting. If you can't see it, then your conclusions are as faulted."
Have you read the actual research paper? What is your assessment of the actual data and conclusions reached?
These are the conclusions."Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out."
"These are the conclusions."Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out.""
That's commentary. Have you read the actual research paper and it’s conclusions and recommendations?
There are two threads to this conversation. One is about the decline in the education system, the other about vouchers. My comment you quoted is from the former.
Traveller. now that has been sorted. My error- it is commentary and obviously now the NZInitiative's generalisation is their reaction to their reading of the research. What was the response of the authors of the research to that summation of their work, I wonder.
It didn't help your argument, by the way, to be quoting the NZInitiative's reaction to support your original arguments. Distractive at best.
Re this COC Govt. once Winston has to hand over his Deputy PM possie to Atlas Dave he could well turn on them. Not suggesting it would involve principles!
Pre the last election he had a letter prepared for the Governor General withdrawing support for PM Ardern, which he never sent in the end, but he is certainly capable of being the worm that turned…again.
"If you have looked hard at the manner of things, if you have surveyed the troubles of our time, and cannot discover a way forward, do not despair. Do better. Grieve: mount an altar to the sensuous feelings of loss that swim through you. In the stinging fumes that redden the eyes, you might partly recover a clear vision of where to go. You might come to see that forward movement is no longer possible in these moments, and that the way to go was never forward anyway – but awk-ward: into the blackness of catacombs, into the shadows of sanctuary, into the riven cracks signed with the pen of the trickster, into the heat of compost, into the position of a prostrated man who knows that when the storm roars the thing to do is to be still. In that stillness, entire worlds churn."
The Newshub shutdown is fake panic. It’s TINA, when it’s really what the very right wing US owners wish to do, which is erode our democracy and make us more pliant.
The disaster of the media and a National government of whatever kind this is is real, but this is opportunism. There will be no more Dame Jacinda’s doing the correct thing supported by the country’s media. We will have opposition for its own sake and the further rise to prominence of the extreme.
I agree. This situation suits NAct very well. Pretty much no competition any more. TVNZ journalists/reporters will know if they run stories which do not present the govt. in a good light they are likely to be dumped on by this govt., which has demonstrated they have no ethical standards. It's happened before under the Muldoon administration.
Probably the reason Melissa Lee has been sitting on her a***e doing nothing. She's been told not to.
Hi Anne. IMHO, doing nothing is entirely the correct response. Newshub is a private company that has failed. Other private media formats are rising up and taking their place. It's simply the circle of life. and while unfortunate for those personally affected, no amount of corporate welfare should be put in their direction.
Day 2 of Tickle v Giggle in Australia. Do women have the right to single sex spaces?
Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright is giving evidence for Giggle today. Presumably because it's now necessary to establish what biological sex is. Tickle is arguing that they are female because of having a gender recognition certificate, and therefore should be treated as a woman (and allowed in women's only spaces).
Wright will be presenting evidence that there are two sexes in humans, and that humans cannot change sex.
correction to the above. Tickle has been able to legally change his birth certificate to female, in Queensland. Queensland has no gender recognition certificate process.
The key piece of legislation in this case is the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, initially set up because of women's rights and so that Australia would comply with being a signatory to CEDAW
"What it means to "live as a woman" in one pithy tweet. Roxy Tickle's evidence that he is a woman hinges on his repeated and ongoing intrusion on women only spaces, where by definition he is not permitted, because he's a man not a woman. Then he turns up in court and says that the very fact that he intrudes on women's spaces is evidence that he's entitled to be there. Trans logic is circular logic"
I would have thought the logic adopted by trans people…..on its literal and plain meaning.
We have discussed ad nauseam the most egregious examples of this logic namely that some mechanism exists to change one's biologic sex from male to female.
From this cherished held to heart belief from TRAs come
1 the ability for a man ro say he is a woman and enter and race against women in sports or sports teams despite research showing that a male passing through male puberty maintains strength, muscle and other sports advantages no matter how they dress currently.
2 the notion that as a man says he is a women he is able to enter into women's toilets and changing rooms. NB this need for men is tied to a conditon known as AGP Autogynephilia is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female.
3 the idea that a man should be held in a prison designated as one for women only. Some womens prisons now hold prisoners who have raped women.
The list of these leaps in logic is endless leading to the shorthand 'trans logic' and I am sure you actually know this.
I suspect this is part of the reason for Tabletennis’ comment about it being ‘creepy’ as well meaning people have explained over and again how male sexuality, in the form adopted by the trans community has an impact on women.
My fundamental belief about trans is that it is at heart misogynistic. Men may believe, even support, the notion that whatever other men want to do in the way of sexuality is ‘ok by them’
Well, I surprised you are comfortable conflating all trans people with a certain style of logic – are they not individuals, with individualistic views of the world? It's just like saying "women's logic" isn't it?
I thought you'd be all over that sort of broad-brush misrepresentation.
Thanks for the sarcasm and the deliberate, I suspect, bearing mind how long this issue has been discussed here, misreading of my remarks.
What I was explaining is the current set of beliefs adopted as part of the trans arguments.
'Logic' is some times used as a simile for belief.
It is common to group people into say 'cohorts' to look at them and their beliefs as a group. This does not mean that as being part of this group they lose their identity. Of course not. They may still vote Labour, or Democrat, support certain sports teams etc.
What we are saying is that here is a group of people who have decided to believe things that are ? possibly? lacking in logic. Prime among these beliefs is that by dressing as a woman a man becomes a woman.
For me it has a smidgen of similarity to the battle between proponents of trans- and con- substantiation.
The overriding belief is that a man can turn into a woman by adopting dress or womanface or by just saying they are a woman.
My belief is this belief or 'trans logic' can be seen through a lens of misogyny, ie inherent male beliefs. Others explain it through the lens of psychiatric makeup ie as a paraphilia/psychiatric illness. These all help people to understand why someone would say they are some thing they are not or belive some thing that is a biological impossibility.
Looking at children we can see the influence of social contagion and still, that some may do all they can to ensure their child does not present when grown up, as gay. It is tragic that any parent would do this to a child.
Shanreagh, Something that I have noticed as I have aged… There have always been men who get quite wound up with women who don’t know their place. As they get older they become rather peculiar, and have funny ideas about women/girls. Unfortunately I’ve had to deal with the consequences within my own extended family. For some reason Robert cannot comprehend that women themselves should have a say in their own issues, without the input from a man, or transwomen.
No Robert, I’m referring to those funny little men, especially older men, who are very controlling of women and girls. For some reason they get wound up by the idea that women and girls are able to decide and do things without the consent of men. Anyone would think that a woman must get their opinions from that woman’s male owner.
Presumably they have a gender hierarchy, at the top Men, then transwomen (a man who believes that he is a women), then much further down the list it is women.
In saying that, in my extended family a number several are gay/lesbian. I have noticed how a young nephew and his boyfriend, as well as some of his friends, have disturbing views of girls, particularly lesbians. Disgusting is a term that comes to mind, but as they are gay/bisexual/non binary, they believe that they can say whatever they like about women and girls.
Anyway, for the life of me, I can’t fathom why you seem to be so invested with this issue. If woman are concerned about transwomen in women’s spaces, then it’s a discussion for women to have.
It’s kinda obvious to me, and maybe others, that you as a man, have an issue with women discussing this, especially if they have the audacity to disobey you, and hold and express views that contradict yours.
Robert, the reason why I comment on this issue is because so many men (including men who identify as a woman) are telling women what to do. And heaven forbid, should a woman, or group of women, decide that they want to have a say in women’s issues, men shut them down.
In my opinion Robert, I get the impression, that you are one of those men who who gets a little wound up, if woman do their own thing, without your approval.
I appreciate that you may disagree with this, but it is the impression that I get from your comments around this topic.
"…'trans logic' can be seen through a lens of misogyny, ie inherent male beliefs."
Which of course doesn't mean that 'misogyny' is an essential part of being male.
What are 'male beliefs'?
And David you say “If woman are concerned about transwomen in women’s spaces, then it’s a discussion for women to have.”
Women (and girls) are the ones directly affected but it’s not just women that are concerned. Men have Mothers, Wives, Daughters, Girlfriends, etc so many men are also concerned.
As a cohort, as a group. The overwhelming prime belief is that a person can trans into a being that they are not, by the mere expression of the belief.
So if a man says 'I am a woman therefore I am a woman or if 'I shop in womens clothing stores therefore I am a woman,…..etc
My belief that I am a princess does not mean I am a princess.
The belief that, say Roxy Tickle has, that he is a woman does not mean that he is a woman
I certainly prefer 'facts', but beliefs are powerful – such are the mysteries of the human mind, and imho our species still has much to learn, time and circumstances permitting.
Biological sex in humans has been immutable throughout history.
If, at some time in humanity's future, that was no longer the case, who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?
The devil is in the 'anomaly'
not quite sure what you mean there. Biological sex in humans is the way that we reproduce. It is inherently binary: we have the people that have the physiology that produces eggs and the ones that have the physiology that produces sperm.
Are you suggesting that in the future we might reproduce differently from that?
It’s not possible for humans to change sex, and I don’t see a potential mechanism by which that might be possible in the future. Afaik, sex is hardwired in soon after conception, and leads to two different pathways of development (egg/sperm people) that includes chromosomes, differences in physical body shape and size which then feeds into differences in strength and capacity. Short of imagining a magic wand, how would it be possible to change all that (barring intervention at conception, which precludes any notion of informed consent)?
"Facts of all kinds have been regularly 'upstaged' by human beliefs, not to mention by new knowledge, since time immemorial."
Yes. When a new concept or theory is proposed that answers more questions than it creates. Usually accompanied by good evidence pertaining to this change. This is not the case regarding human sex.
"Biological sex in humans has been immutable throughout history.
If, at some time in humanity's future, that was no longer the case, who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?"
Biological sex in humans is binary and immutable.
Historical truth, contemporary truth, and future truth.
Your last question is the stuff of SF fan-fiction, not the basis for legislative and policy changes, nor for significant iatrogenic harmful medical interventions.
However, I would answer it will be those who understand biology, psychology, ethics and safeguarding.
Sex is determined by a mechanism originating before conception. The sex of the zygote is determined by the chromosome carried by the fertilizing sperm. In humans its called either an X or Y chromosome with the egg providing an X chromosome. The resulting genome is usually either XX (female) or XY (male).
"Biological sex in humans has been immutable throughout history.
If, at some time in humanity's future, that was no longer the case, who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?"
It should be possible to entertain such a question, for the purpose of testing one's beliefs; that's what Ursula le Guin does with her "impossible sci-fi stories" and we like Ursula here, don't we 🙂
I especially liked the last line,
"who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?"
I’d take this more seriously if I saw any attempt by you to challenge your own beliefs. Did you miss the three explanations of what biological sex is and why it can’t be changed?
If you want to do an abstract thought experiment and reference Le Guin, you’d need to give some kind of explanation for how it’s relevant to this conversation today. But of course you won’t, because explaining is losing and it’s only other people, not yourself, that bother sharing their ideas and clarifying.
take your pick. Any belief you hold in this conversation today, expressed or not, tell us what it is and how you challenge that belief. You talk about others needing to be challenged but I don’t see you applying that principle to yourself.
the problem here is that you appear to be both arguing that trans people are being disappeared and arguing in a conversation about the necessity of centring biological sex in law, policy and culture. Did you mean to erase women’s culture, or was that accidental.
I can’t tell if RG doesn’t care about women’s sex based rights, doesn’t understand them, or is simply arguing abstract whatevers for the sake of his own thought experiment agenda, but you I have more expectation of.
If a woman cannot call a man a man without permission from that man, there are no women’s rights.
Nic – Drowsy has, I believe, posed a question that requires a suspension of belief, in order to uncover base motivations in those taking part in the thought experiment. Hunkering down and declaring that the proposal is impossible is a not-unexpected response. It's a thought exercise, designed to stretch thinking and reveal calcification of thought (I reckon). I find it interesting, in a way similar to reading science fiction 🙂
again, this would only have credibility if you demonstrated any kind of self reflection about your own beliefs. You think expressing biological sex matters hinders the thought experiment, but I see it as enhancing it. I can both do an imaginative exercise about fantasy of humans changing sex and hold an understanding of material reality. You on the other hand appear to want to ignore biological sex/material reality in favour of fantasy, how very binary of you.
You also utterly fail to take any account of why material reality matters. Transcendence of/denial of material reality is the patriarchal wet dream. It’s the core of male dominated religions that kill nature and hate women, as well as being core to trans activism where it has transhumanism as an end goal. It’s also why we have climate change and the ecological crisis. That the loss of women’s rights is happening at the same time isn’t a coincidence.
If you want to do an abstract thought experiment and reference Le Guin, you’d need to give some kind of explanation for how it’s relevant to this conversation today. But of course you won’t, because explaining is losing and it’s only other people, not yourself, that bother sharing their ideas and clarifying.
And you have yet again failed to answer. You don’t have to of course, and that leaves people free to come to their own conclusions.
I can’t tell if RG doesn’t care about women’s sex based rights, doesn’t understand them, or is simply arguing abstract whatevers for the sake of his own thought experiment agenda…
I don't know either, weka, but I suspect – Lord save us from men (and women) with agendas.
If you want to do an abstract thought experiment and reference Le Guin, you’d need to give some kind of explanation for how it’s relevant to this conversation today. But of course you won’t, because explaining is losing and it’s only other people, not yourself, that bother sharing their ideas and clarifying.
And you have yet again failed to answer. You don’t have to of course, and that leaves people free to come to their own conclusions.
take your pick. Any belief you hold in this conversation today, expressed or not, tell us what it is and how you challenge that belief. You talk about others needing to be challenged but I don’t see you applying that principle to yourself.
and in the absence of you saying what it is, I will continue to make my own conclusions based on what you have been doing on TS on this topic for some time.
The context for my three points was that I expect more from Drowsy. I have zero expectations of you now.
Just wondering, weka, how many "Robert Guyton to weka" comments have been posted on TS over the years. My guess would be hundreds, at least. Despite that high level of interaction, you claim that I don't answer your questions. On the face of it, that would seem unlikely. If there were no "Robert Guyton to weka" comments, a person might wonder if I was refusing to engage with you, but that's clearly not the case. Is it possible, do you think, that you haven't been recognising that I am responding to you in an open, honest way, but that you aren't perceiving it thus?
my comment was specifically about this topic. Other topics I see you sharing your thinking.
you appear to be conflating ‘replying to a comment’ with ‘answering a question’ or ‘clarifying one’s point’
it’s not just me, you do this with a range of people.
it’s possible and likely you are not being intentionally dishonest. However telling me that basically I’m the one with the misperception again demonstrates an unwillingness to examine your own beliefs despite using rhetoric to challenge others.
in the past day I have pointed out multiple times where you are avoiding clarifying or answering directly. In the face of that you mostly have continues to avoid clarifying or answering directly. 🤷♀️
it’s like you want to play but only on your terms. This is why, I think, David makes the points he does. I think he is wrong in the characterisation, but I can see why he gets that impression, and you never do anything to show that you are not what he says.
I have zero expectations of you [Robert Guyton] now.
That's disappointing. To quote the wisdom of GoT:
A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward.
– King Stannis Baratheon [“I am your King!”]
I expect more from Drowsy.
What “more” do you expect, I wonder.
We all have views on this (and that), what's good (and bad), and one's own views are invariably the best (or so it seems to me), but I could never "have zero expectations" of either weka or Robert.
on this particular topic, it’s RG’s behaviour I am pointing to. Who knows what his actual views are, he almost never says. We are left to guess, and then he objects. It’s such a long standing pattern of behaviour, I’m surprised I have to even explain it. But unlike RG, I think explaining is winning, for us all.
as an example, from today, I laid out three potential explanations for RG’s behaviour/position. RG played some word games with that and eventually said it was none of them. What he didn’t so was say what he actually thinks. This is how he often/usually engages on this topic. All the time. He had the opportunity to clarify and he chose not too.
Funny little men, who are so desperate to control women, that they indulge in circular logic that just goes around in circles and goes nowhere.
Transwomen could always organise their own spaces, but for some reason they seem to be determined to take over women’s* spaces, & tell them what to do.
* Women in this case meaning actual real women. Not men who believe that they are women.
David made a valid point about TW organising their own spaces.
You framed that as a claim and asked him to expand on that, specifically on toilets and changing rooms.
I pointed out that there has been widespread discussion on that.
You attempt a derail.
My conclusion is that you have no intention of educating yourself and will continue with your sophistry (although tbf, a chunk of wha you do doesn't even meet the bar of sophistry).
Engaging with Robert reminds me of the parable of the donkey & the tiger..
As a kiwi bloke who is on the wrong side of 50 I have learned many things.
In this case, shall I say women’s issues.
When a woman (real/actual women, not transgender women) is in need to hear a man’s opinion or view on women’s issues, she will then advise you (the man, or transgender person) what your options/views will be. Your response will be, yes dear you are right, as usual.
Following this little piece of advice will allow you to enjoy the rest of your day.
I asked David to explain his claim, as it seemed to me he was quite wrong in making it.
You suggested I do my own research.
I chose rather, to ask David; I still can't see the error in that. Perhaps, weka, you could explain why directing a question about a claim made by an individual, to that individual, is insufficient?
David wrote;
""Transwomen could always organise their own spaces…"
I don't think that's a reasonable claim. I hope David will respond and respond in a way that's more useful than this drivel 11 April 2024 at 3:00 pm
Sure they could live as a women meaning dress as a women etc. Living/dressing does not alter biology though.
The leap in logic occurs when the wish to live/dress then is magicked by some alchemy to say they are a woman. This cannot happen any more than me dressing as a princess will make me a princess or dressing in a green suit will make me into Kermit the frog.
To take the princess analogy further having dressed as a princess I make it my life's work to insist that all that I meet treat me as a princess. First I insist, ie compelled in speech to call call me 'Your Highness', I may change my surname to reflect a long obscure set of Germano-Spanish Portugese royalty that I say are my ancestors. I then force people to curtsy to me. I may change my name my Deed Poll to Princess Susannah. I then insist on getting some sort of payment from the Govt.
All the way along kind people are helping me to check out that I am seeing the world correctly, to get help, to offer help. They may try to stop me gatecrashing events where real royalty is. Because I am so fixed in my ideas I may be arrrested if I breach protocols/boundaries around real Royalty as I am a threat, as imposters always are, to real Royalty.
To live as a woman does not involve compelling people to act as if you are a woman ie being part of your delusions. It does not involve going into womens safe spaces or into womens sports teams or even into womens prisons.
Aside from seeing drag performers, I worked with one man who dressed as a woman and he never expected that we belived he was a woman and he always used the mens toilets at work. A gentle soul we all treated him with kindness/caring. He did not change his name to a female one. He was good at his job, he just like dressing as a woman.
Funny little men, who are so desperate to control women, that they indulge in circular logic that just goes around in circles and goes nowhere.
as David says or the violent, foul men of the type that Weka has pictures. often caught on camera masturbating in front of women in toilets, of raping women in prisons.
As I said above the whole concept now is one of misogyny, adopting womanface. Many are fetishists or autogynephiliacs. Many would benefit from counselling and care.
What we as a society do not need to do is to pander to their delusions by making woman the props to support deluded men.
So Robert if a man dresses as a woman then presumably there is no onus on society to go along with the belief that this dressing/living has somehow made him a woman?
Then while dressed as a woman surely a man would have no expectation of going into women's safe spaces or to play in women's sports.
He remains a man just dressed a little differently so he uses the male toilets and continue to play in men's sport.
Presumably you will agree with this as I have confined to to just dressing as a woman.
The examples of the trans logic we are facing is
1 when a person feels that dressing means morphing into a woman,
2 that dressing entitles a man to go into women's toilets
3 that dressing entitles a man to play in women's sports.
So Shaneagh if you go to a party as a pirate, you could just as easily go to a party as a woman. You could spend your time living as a homeless person, even though you owned a home. If there is such a thing as trans logic, there will also be lesbian logic. Is there?
It may have been the topic of your conversation, Shanreagh, but it wasn't mine. I asked only about just 2 things. I'm disinterested in the other points raised by others here and have made no comments about them, consequently I don't feel compelled to answer questions on them.That you (and others) think I hold certain views about them is a mistake that compounds every time one of you claims this or that about my position.
I don't understand what you mean by "trans logic".
Robert Guyton 9.1.1.1.1.1
10 April 2024 at 2:39 pm
It is this I am trying to explain. Perhaps it would be clearer if you accepted I have (tried) to answer this, thanked me and then moved on to your different questions.
Thank you, Shanreagh, for trying. You've given me examples of what you believe are manifestations of "trans logic", but that's not what I'm asking for. I'm trying to understand how anyone can describe/define the way a group of people think by calling it, "X-logic". For example, can we justifiably use the term, "lesbian logic", or "Asian logic". Do you think, "trans logic" means the logic employed by trans people? Would you also say, "Asian logic" when describing the way Asians view the world?
"What’s meant here is TRA logic. It’s an ideological belief set and political movement that uses circular logic.
it’s a mistake to see TRA = trans or vice versa."
seems to be, at last, addressing my original question:
"What is "trans logic"?
Dozens of responses later and I'm still in the dark, but perhaps what you have said will cast some light: are you meaning that the phrase, "trans logic" is not a valid one, and that TRA logic is?
‘trans logic’ is vague. What Joyce was talking about is the ideology. Which obviously is not something that all trans people subscribe to. It’s better to think about TRA logic, or gender identity ideology logic. Circular reasoning is not uncommon there.
It covers all the things that Gender Critical people have been saying for several years including:
Acknowledgment of the lack of evidence for the benefits of cross-sex hormones, the need for caution and the importance of data collection and follow-up. NHS England must now follow the recommendation for a review of cross-sex hormones and include them in a broader research programme.
The recommendation for provision of specialised NHS services for detransitioners and those who regret their medical transition. This is an urgent requirement.
Insufficient research on social transition, inconclusive evidence of any benefits but clear risk of creating persistence of an identity that would in all likelihood have resolved by itself. Governments should use this information to end the practice of social transition in schools carried out by untrained adults. The impact on other children of adults pretending a child has changed their sex is outside the terms of reference for this report, but it is something the government must address.
Recognition that no formal science-based training in psychotherapy, psychology or psychiatry teaches or advocates ‘conversion therapy.’ Normal “exploration of complex psychosocial challenges and/or mental health problems an adolescent may be experiencing is essential to provide diagnosis, clinical support and appropriate intervention”, and it is harmful to equate this approach to ‘conversion therapy.’
Visubversa
"The long awaited Cass Review final report is out."
And now see what the Te Whatu Ora is going to do with this information…Their long awaited report on the use, safety and effectiveness, of puberty blockers has still not seen the light of day.
1. Parents interviewed by Cass were looking for depathologisation of trans children, and decentralisation of supporting services away from a single UK centre, and into mainstream medicine, as seen in other countries.
Instead, the report focusses on unpicking why children are trans, as if it's a mental health problem, not on providing the best medical support for trans kids and their families.
2. The review panel was 'naive', having no one experienced with the trans research community in the UK or internationally involved in the report output. Cass herself has no experience of trans people in her social circle. This is like reviewing Maori health initiatives without anyone Maori being part of debate, vs only being interviewed.
3. As an outcome of this, the Cass report is unbalanced in naming 'trans ideology' as a bias, without a corresponding recognition of the significant anti-trans bias pushed over the past 5 years in the UK.
4. No trans treatment processes from outside the UK were evaluated for effectiveness as potential alternative models to to GID service. Once again, the Cass framed trans kids as a 'mental health problem' issue, completely erasing the identity of trans kids and their families.
Instead, the report focusses on unpicking why children are trans, as if it's a mental health problem, not on providing the best medical support for trans kids and their families.
I'd like to know if that's really true. I haven't read the report, but everything I have since in the last day, including interviews with Hilary Cass, shows that there are issues with large numbers of children with concurrent mental health issues, abuse histories and undiagnosed autism. All things that GIDS was ignoring in favour of affirmation only.
I used to think that transness wasn't a pathology, and I think that could be true, but needing hormones and surgery suggests to me that it is. And what is gender dysphoria if it's not a mental health issue? I think that the need to transition via extreme body modification is something that is largely culturally imposed. If we lived in societies that valued gender non-conformity, then the whole born in the wrong body bullshit wouldn't exist like it does.
I move we scrap official limits on the acceptable number of politicians clubbed to death, too.
Pricks.
An official limit on the acceptable number of sea lion deaths in commercial fishing nets is no longer necessary, Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says.
Despite the number of sea lion pups inexplicably plunging by almost a third last year, Jones has scrapped the Fishing Related Mortality Limit (FRML), which sets the maximum number of sea lion deaths each year before a squid trawl fishery in the Southern Ocean has to close.
Joe-IMHO very few of the things this government is doing are vote winners.
Standardistas need to compile a list of these stupid/crazy/crap policies to roll out at the next election and say "do you really want to continue with this lot in charge?"
@Joe "An official limit on the acceptable number of sea lion deaths in commercial fishing nets is no longer necessary, Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says."
I believe the only reason Shane Jones became an MP again, so he can abuse use his position to give any conservationist, NGO, conservation volunteer, animal lover, etc the middle finger.
Yet there is no kai to be found on a dead planet.
This government doesn't seem to include the costs, to the tax payer, associated with all the hours put into legislation and laws such that we do not have a society where some people have all the rights and others non.
Under "Selected Video" you will see a date that is currently playing, or you can select a date from the filtering dialogue box on the right hand side.
The site no longer allows you to choose a particular question form a list of questions. On the right there is a scrolling list of speakers. You will need to scroll down to the name of the person asking the first question, or the particular question you are interested in, click on the name and the video will begin.
I'm finding it very clunky, but it does work. Hope that helps.
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Lindsay Mitchell writes – A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant. Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive. For instance, the fact that 64 percent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For ...
Earlier this year, the Herald ran a series of articles amounting to a sustained campaign against raised pedestrian crossings, by reporter Bernard Orsman. A key part of that campaign concerned the raised crossings being installed as part of the Pt Chevalier to Westmere project, with at least 10 articles over ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 19 include:PM Christopher Luxon is expected to hold his weekly post-cabinet news conference at 4:00pm on Monday.Parliament is not sitting this week. It resumes next week for a two-week sitting session up to and ...
Hi,Thanks to all the beautiful Worms who came to the LA Webworm popup on Saturday.It was a way to celebrate the online store we launched last week — and it was super special.As I talk about a lot, I really value our community here — and it was a BLAST ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during ...
Forget thin is in, apparently now bigger is better … or is it? After over a decade of body positivity, girls, teens and women are even more confused about what body positivity actually is. The movement began with women confronting unrealistic expectations of how their bodies should look. But sub-strands ...
Grace always sat at the bar at the back of The Cambridge, where she could watch who came in. A huge mirror ran the length of the pub, so you could sometimes watch people without them knowing. The mirror made the place seem a lot bigger than it really was. ...
MONDAY Sheriff Mark Mitchell rose at dawn. He had a long day’s ride ahead of him. He was headed for Waikeria. Waikeria! Even the name itself stirred his blood, and set root in his imagination. There was nothing and no one in Waikeria. But he would bend it to his ...
The first phase of the inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones finished this week, turning up plenty of revelations and few answers. But through all the confusion, heartbreak and antipathy on display, the simple fact at the heart of this case remains: if little Lachie’s body had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Benjamin, Professor in Art History, University of Sydney “She’s no oil painting”. Those were the unkind words of a colleague commenting on the subject of Vincent Namatjira’s acrylic painting, Gina. Every one of the prominent Australians and cultural heroes in Namatjira’s ...
Government plans to require local councils hold a referendum on whether to have Māori wards breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, a Waitangi Tribunal report has found. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This year the National Rugby League (NRL) opened its season in Las Vegas. It was an audacious move by the league’s ambitious head honcho Peter V’Landys to showcase the game in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate Professor, Music Industry, RMIT University Leading music organisations have praised the federal budget for its investment in the live music sector. The budget includes A$8.6 million for a program called Revive Live: to provide essential support to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland The 2024 federal budget contains A$110 million for Indigenous education. This includes funding for various different organisations to represent and help Indigenous people as well as scholarships in a bid to ...
Air New Zealand has confirmed Nouméa’s Tontouta International airport in New Caledonia is closed until Tuesday. The airline earlier told RNZ it would update customers as soon as it could. Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report government officials had been working on an “hourly basis” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Linley, PhD Candidate in Ecology, Charles Sturt University Grant Linley Australia’s unprecedented Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20 created ideal conditions for misinformation to spread, from the insidious to the absurd. It was within this context that a bizarre story ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcel Scharth, Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney OpenAI executive Mira Murati launching GPT-4o.OpenAI Earlier this week OpenAI launched GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”), a new version of the artificial intelligence (AI) system powering the popular ChatGPT chatbot. GPT-4o is promoted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treasure McGuire, Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland Speedkingz/Shutterstock Menopause is a natural biological process that marks the end of a ...
A new poem by Hannah Patterson. Xiāng There’s a pear tree in our backyard And Xiāng tells me She can’t eat them anymore Not after some things that have happened in her life. She tells me, in Mandarin The word for pear sounds the same as the word for disassociation ...
‘Cycling Works’ aims to show business support for citywide cycle infrastructure. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, supermarket giant Foodstuffs lost its attempt to block the construction of a cycle lane outside Thorndon New World in Wellington. The Spinoff’s Wellington editor ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Slow Productivity by Cal Newport (Penguin, $40)Taking out the top spot in Auckland this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University For decades, Australia has exported uranium – but not used it, other than in the Lucas Heights research reactor. But change is coming. We now face a rapidly deepening commitment to ...
"In future I should walk away," Green MP Julie Anne Genter says after complaints over an exchange in Parliament and from two members of the public. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Graffam, PhD Candidate in Theatre, Monash University Gianna Rizzo/Malthouse Music pumps; lights pulsate; two sweaty bodies sway together, touching, breathing in each other’s scent. A male body framed by downlight restlessly shifts between stances and gestures. He undresses. The intensity ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sandra van der Laan, Professor of Accounting, University of Sydney Mtaya/Shutterstock At some point, you or someone else will need to make a decision about your “send-off”. Most Australians die in an institution, such as a hospital or aged care facility. ...
Asia Pacific Report Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai — who is also Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group — has reaffirmed MSG’s support of the pro-independence umbrella group Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) stance opposing the French government’s constitutional bill “unfreezing” the New Caledonia Electoral Roll. It is ...
Producer Susan Leonard remembers her father Ernie, a pioneer of Māori television, and how his legacy lives on in Pathfinders.My father was a fabulous man. His name was Ernie Leonard and he started in TV in the 1970s when it was still glamorous – when TVNZ made behind the ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk, and Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist The suspected ringleaders of the unrest in New Caledonia have been placed in home detention and the social network TikTok has been banned as French security forces struggle to restore law and order. The French ...
Multi-year appropriations - which give the government authority to spend money without reapplying annually - are loosening Parliament's control of the public purse, auditor-general says. ...
Dr. Eric Chuah who stood for a centrist NZ political party in the October 2023 NZ Elections for Maungakiekie Auckland will stand as a candidate for Tauranga City Council Ward of Matua-=Otumoetai and Mayor of Tauranga. ...
If you can’t get to the comedy fest, let us bring the comedy fest to you. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is in full swing at the moment, with a veritable smorgasboard of comedy treats ...
A new poll commissioned by Unions Wellington shows an overwhelming majority of Wellingtonians oppose the Council’s plan to sell the 34% public stake in Wellington Airport. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aruna Sathanapally, Chief Executive, Grattan Institute, Grattan Institute A central focus of this week’s budget is the treasury’s forecast for inflation. By this time next year, inflation is projected to be back within the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target range. Inflation has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yolanda van Heezik, Professor of Ecology, University of Otago Getty Images Cities across Aotearoa New Zealand are trying to solve a housing crisis, with increasing residential density a key solution. But not everyone is happy about the resulting loss of natural ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Reeve, Deputy Program Director, Energy and Climate Change, Grattan Institute WDG Photo/Shutterstock For years, the electricity sector has been the poster child for emissions cuts in Australia. The sector achieved a stunning 26% drop in emissions over the past 15 ...
It’s often the last thing people want to do, but asking someone if they’re having suicidal thoughts is a critical first step to helping them. Content warning: this story discusses suicide and suicidal ideation. For a list of resources that can help if you or someone you know is feeling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy J. Ralph, Associate Professor, Macquarie University The pyramids at Giza, like dozens of others, are located several kilometres west of the current path of the Nile.Alex Cimbal / Shutterstock The largest field of pyramids in Egypt – consisting of 31 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute ABO PHOTOGRAPHY/Shutterstock Receiving a cancer diagnosis is life-changing and can cause a range of concerns about ongoing health. Fear of cancer returning is one ...
Winston Peters has been on tour around the Pacific while two unrelated crises unfolded, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Two separate ...
This is the Mount Everest of artificial meatcraft.Ah, bacon. Pig’s gold. Toast’s consolation. Dawn’s savoury embrace. If meat was a currency, bacon would be the Benjamin Franklin. Or if you’re feeling patriotic, the Lord Rutherford. When it comes to fake bacon, the obvious question is: why bother? In the ...
From illegal milk to sprinkler bans and airplane ticket scams, Tyrone Barugh is on a one-man mission through New Zealand’s most obscure legal loopholes. I’m deep undercover, investigating Wellington’s criminal underworld. Inside this store, I’ve been told there is a million-dollar trade in illicit substances. A man dressed in black ...
New Zealand’s drug legislation hasn’t been overhauled in nearly 50 years, in spite of a recommendation from the Law Commission in 2011 to do so. Our Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in 1975 and is based on a United Nations framework set in 1961. Now a new organisation, Harm ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) A free copy of this amazing story of a woman who operated behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France was up for grabs this past fortnight. Readers were asked to share a story of wartime bravery, ...
It’s been a recess week at Parliament, which might indicate slim pickings for conversation topics for the Raw Politics team. But things are never dull in politics, especially with a new Government keen to follow through on its law and order promises, and a NZ First minister who wants to ...
Dear Hon Judith Collins, Minister of Defence, and Hon Christopher Penk, Associate Minister of Defence I have written to you, to attempt to give you an insight into the incredible hardship of being an NZDF family. Whilst I cannot speak on behalf of serving personnel, I can speak from my ...
Analysis: What a difference a year makes. In mid 2023, Wayne Brown the Auckland Mayor was a politician diminished by a calamitous response to the region’s Anniversary Weekend storm emergency and later forced against his preference into a half sale only of the city’s airport shares. His demeanour among his ...
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Asia Pacific Report An open letter to The New Zealand Herald has challenged a full page Zionist advertisement this week for failing to acknowledge the “terrible injustices” suffered by the Palestinian people in Israel’s seven-month genocidal war on Gaza. In the latest of several international reports that have condemned genocide ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When he was opposition leader, Bill Shorten faced Coalition criticism for attacking “the top end of town”, a phrase he used in his 2019 budget reply. Now Peter Dutton is finding the line “billions of ...
By Adam Burns, RNZ News reporter Worried New Caledonian expats in Aotearoa admit they are “terrified” for friends and family amid ongoing violence and civil unrest in the French Pacific territory. The death toll remained at four tonight, and hundreds have been injured after electoral changes sparked widespread rioting by ...
French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia after several days of civil unrest in the capital. Four people are dead due to the unrest and violence in the capital, Nouméa. France TV reports that a 22-year-old gendarme who had been seriously wounded has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland This week’s budget was Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ third and – for practical purposes – final for the current parliamentary term. Even if the 2025 election is delayed long enough to give ...
They held a noisy but peaceful demonstration against the ongoing genocide being carried out by the State of Israel, condemning the Israeli ambassador who was hosting an invitation-only event to celebrate the establishment of the State of Israel. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bridget Haire, Senior lecturer, public health ethics, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Bowonpat Sakaew/Shutterstock HIV prevention was allocated A$43.9 million over three years in this week’s federal budget. Some $26m of this is for “PrEP” for people without access to ...
Karen Chhour wants Oranga Tamiriki to establish more partnerships with Māori, despite introducing a bill to Parliament removing their obligation to do so. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bridget Haire, Senior lecturer, public health ethics, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Bowonpat Sakaew/Shutterstock HIV prevention was allocated A$43.9 million over three years in this week’s federal budget. Some $26m of this is for “PrEP” for people without access to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole George, Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of Queensland New Caledonia’s capital city, Noumea, has endured widespread violent rioting over the past 48 hours. This crisis intensified rapidly, taking local authorities by surprise. Peaceful protests had been ...
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350240619/anatomy-political-misfire-how-pms-accommodation-supplement-saga-unfolded
Huge amt of time by civil servants to sort this out.
Gota wonder how much that cost ….
How sad for Mr Luxon. He was entitled after all.
Interesting to read the lines prepared by staff and the way he can't deviate or ad lib.
Is there a journalist reckless enough to direct a question to Hamish Rutherford, who lurks at Luxon's side in pressers, rather than to Luxon himself? As in "Can I ask Hamish a question? I'd prefer to talk to the ventriloquist, not his dummy”.
Yr heart has to go out to all the media people whose lives are being messed up today..
They will have mortgages…and the like..
It's just ghastly…
Not a nice time be laid off with a mortgage that you've been paying down for a while.
BNZ, and I presume all the others removed the re-draw facility from their existing mortgage agreements this week. So you've got to make a new application to borrow funds to tide you over the initial unemployment until you find a new job.
Fun times.
Where voucher schooling has been used the consistent conclusion is that it does not work as advertised.
https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2024/04/07/the-swedish-for-profit-free-school-disaster-2/
Seymour was an advocate for voucher schools I think.
There is quite a body of research that would disagree.
The impact of voucher programs: A deep dive into the research (fordhaminstitute.org)
I'm not convinced about the appropriateness of voucher systems in the NZ setting, although we already have a quasi voucher system (with scholarships etc). NZ has "a much smaller market for – and culture of – private schooling than many other OECD countries" (Research-Note-The-State-of-Schooling.pdf), however that same research (from 2020) found that "state schools are underperforming compared with state-integrated and private schools", and that has to change.
That research doesn't even address the question, let alone challenge it. Since vouchers are a state level choice about how to run the entire education system then the effectiveness of that choice needs to address the performance of the whole education system in comparison to public funding. Examples of successful students, teachers or institutions do not make that point, regardless of how successful examples they may be.
We should also keep in mind that there is a survival bias to successful examples. The schools which fail and are subsequently closed due to their failure or absorbed into the public system are not around to study (and there are numerous examples of this style even in NZ, where we already saw the evidence of these schools undermining student testing at a national level).
I think that Finland does not allow any form of private schools but expects that every state school is of the highest standard and funds it accordingly.
They also as a society value education and understand the benefits to everyone in the society so, as expounded in 'Viking Economics', people are happy to pay higher taxes to get the mutual benefits of an educated work force.
What is happening here? We are cutting services, encouraging a two tier system of health and education, not ensuring enough quality graduates for our needs, allowing to go overseas many of those graduates we do produce because of the lack of employment.
We are cutting taxes and impoverishing our country by doing so, developing an unfair society and we will pay the cost of all that.
You should disconnect the taxation issue from the funding of education. Its a choice to undervalue education and to systematically reduce the salary of teachers over time and that choice is not constrained by the amount of taxation collected by the government. The actual restriction the government faces is in the number of educators who will work in the public education system and the ability to train them to and have them perform well in their teaching.
This is a relevant point with Lars P Syll being a member of the MMT group of economists (you could find posts on his blog describing this fact). It over complicates things to link these together when its much more clear that this National led govt really doesn't value public education very highly as a profession.
That isn't actually true. They do exist.
There are private schools, although not very many. Apparently about 3% or pupils go to private schools. They teach the State Curriculum and are financed by the state,
An acquaintance, whose son lives there has told me that this is a reasonable review of the system. I don't have personal knowledge.
https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/finland/organisation-private-education
Yip ban private schools and health insurance,
If the public education and health systems were of a high enough standard you wouldn't need to ban private schools and health insurance, they just wouldn't exist.
Private education is not prohibited in Finland (aacrao.org)
"That research doesn't even address the question, let alone challenge it. "
The comment you made was "Where voucher schooling has been used the consistent conclusion is that it does not work as advertised."
The Fordham research shows that voucher schooling can and does work, and points out the nuances.
"We should also keep in mind that there is a survival bias to successful examples."
And we should also point out that there in education (as with other disciplines) there is strong ideological bias that is often directed against alternatives to education.
First I will just point out that nobody is proposing alternatives to education which appear to be, no education.
Now otherwise you have again failed to contend the important question regarding vouchers (which are a change to the school system as a whole), which is do they make the overall school system better, improve performance overall, etc… The question is not can some schools succeed in their mission when they are paid in vouchers.
Now you can very well claim that the structure of public education is mostly driven by ideology all you want (I guess with the unstated implication that its not objectively well structured due to that), but the onus is still on research to demonstrate that the voucher alternative is actually better overall. The evidence is on the contrary that institutional competition for funding has and does damage the primary purpose of these institutions and most frequently undermines the standards of assessment well before it improves performance in those standards.
"Now otherwise you have again failed to contend the important question regarding vouchers (which are a change to the school system as a whole), which is do they make the overall school system better, improve performance overall, etc…"
That's not the question you posed. You said "Where voucher schooling has been used the consistent conclusion is that it does not work as advertised."
"…which are a change to the school system as a whole…"
Vouchers are not a change to the school system as a whole. They are a means for allocating financial resources.
"do they make the overall school system better, improve performance overall, etc… "
I don't know. Fordham's research says they do, but there are exceptions and nuances.
"The evidence is on the contrary that institutional competition for funding has and does damage the primary purpose of these institutions and most frequently undermines the standards of assessment well before it improves performance in those standards."
What evidence? How do you define the 'primary purpose'?
I could point to work that suggests that competition between institutions is indeed healthy for those institutions and for student outcomes, including Does Competition Work in Education? | Center for Excellence in Education (cee.org) and The Education Competition Index: Quantifying competitive pressure in America’s 125 largest school districts (fordhaminstitute.org). But no doubt you could point to studies that present a different picture because this is not settled. But to suggest that competition damages 'the primary purpose of these institutions' is in my view an unsustainable claim.
That is the question I posed. You may well not have understood that when you replied, but that is the question. And yes, vouchers are a change to the overall school system. You could very well set a voucher school in NZ today which would of course have zero chance of accepting voucher pupils, because the voucher system needs a systematic legislative change to even exist.
Finally, you seem to be search for just what is the primary purpose of education institutions? That would be to provide education, at least to their students.
"That would be to provide education, at least to their students."
I would suggest that any definition should include some kind of qualitative ambition. Anyway…
"And yes, vouchers are a change to the overall school system."
We'll have to agree to disagree. We have vouchers of sorts operating in the education system already, and we have choice in the system already. Vouchers are merely a mechanism to simply funding of those choices and any others the government may wish to introduce.
Your saying these existing funding mechanisms, which you are referring to as effectively vouchers, are not implemented via govt legislation and budgeting? I mean what are you even disagreeing with here. NZ's education system is overwhelmingly public even as far as it contains private schools which are still quite largely publicly funded.
"Your saying these existing funding mechanisms, which you are referring to as effectively vouchers, are not implemented via govt legislation and budgeting?"
No, I'm not saying that.
"NZ's education system is overwhelmingly public even as far as it contains private schools which are still quite largely publicly funded."
They are publicly funded as state schools are. I'm not sure what your point is.
Good so we seem to agree then that implementing a voucher system is a change to the overall school system. This is very clearly quite important to my claim, that if we are going to change the school system then one of the government goals should be to improve overall that system.
I mean if the govt wanted they could instead set up a bunch of new charter schools and then fund those over and above the level of public schools and if they were not incompetent in doing that they might very well succeed in creating some relatively successful new charter schools. But the justification of the public interest of such a policy appears to be does that improve the overall performance of NZs school system.
That is the supposed promise of voucher funding, that incentives are setup to make the delivery of education more 'efficient' and incentivized than the public sector (where efficient in this context supposedly means quite unrealistically having better teaching outcomes). But if that incentive structure undermines the overall education system performance its quite clearly not justified as an education policy.
"Good so we seem to agree then that implementing a voucher system is a change to the overall school system. "
Please don’t misrepresent me. I repeat, voucher systems are not a change to the overall school system. Voucher systems are simply a funding mechanism to facilitate choice, choice that is already in place in many cases.
Awesome. In that case it seems we already in NZ have the worlds most comprehensive voucher school system in place, no further school system reform necessary. School choice delivered.
What gives you the idea we have ‘the world’s most comprehensive voucher school system in place’?
You have convinced me of this. Apparently legislation of the school system is not needed to implement this, so I willed it into existence in my own thinking based on what you told me.
Did the 2020 research state the reasons why the underperforming happened, and therefore help understand what would be needed to achieve parity in performance?
For some reason my link to the reasearch broke – here it is Research Note: The State of Schooling | The New Zealand Initiative (nzinitiative.org.nz)– download the PDF from there. The answer to your question is that the report examines outcomes, not reasons for the outcomes, however section 3 does look at "which socioeconomic factors predict school authority attendance".
The full report concludes with this:
"Putting educational ideology aside, this report shows the absence of evidence for which schools are succeeding and which are falling behind. For too long, families have had to rely on prejudiced anecdotal evidence, and misleading league tables and decile ratings to decide the ‘right’ school for their child. More needs to be done and more can be done, but we must first use the right tools. Without the right information and tools, New Zealand will remain blind to serious educational problems and the successes that should be celebrated."
NZ Initiative… rw thinktank. Why do you believe their views on a voucher system are worth espousing on a lw opinion site?
A solution in search of a problem, seems to me. Greater resource targetting to low decile schools is a better answer, surely, than a 'free-market' approach. The aim should be to provide equitable education to all NZ children.
For examples of failed 2-tier education systems, you have only to look to UK (academies/charter schools run for profit, with expensive business management that sucks resource from the students and from the public sector); or to Oz (where private fee-paying schools are paid significantly more by the government than state schools).
The link about voucher systems was not from NZI. The voucher link is from my comment at https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-04-2024/#comment-1995786, and is https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/impact-voucher-programs-deep-dive-research
If you have winner and loser Schools then you have winner and loser children, through no fault of their own.
Finland's system works because it aims for a high standard for their entire education system. Something ours also aspires to, but gets knee capped periodically by Governments wedded to dogma, rather than informed research.
New Zealand's has suffered from too much knee jerk simplistic bombastic "solutions'" by, mostly right wing, rote learning, cannon fodder for industry ideology. A two tier Education system.
They want to have a basic system for the "bottom feeders" and an elite system for their own children. Ironically they want other tax payers to subsidise a higher standard education for their children, with all the advantages of smaller class sizes, subject ranges, skilled Teachers and personalised Teaching they oppose funding in State Schools.
"If you have winner and loser Schools then you have winner and loser children, through no fault of their own."
It doesn't have to be that way. There is plenty of research that shows competition can improved educational outcomes, but certainly there have to be controls.
"New Zealand's has suffered from too much knee jerk simplistic bombastic "solutions'" by, mostly right wing, rote learning, cannon fodder for industry ideology."
My experience is that it has come from right and left. My children were exposed to educational philosophies such as the Numeracy Project (Un(ac)countable: Why millions on maths returned little | The New Zealand Initiative (nzinitiative.org.nz)) that was trialed under a National government but rolled out under a Labour administration. They were also unfortunate victims of the 'whole of language' experiment, which began as a system introduced in the 1970's to complement phonics, but somehow saw phonics based teaching relegated to such an extent that literacy rates fell alarmingly. My severely dyslexic child in particular suffered from this absurd ideological movement, which occurred under governments of left and right.
I am not an educationalist, but I am close enough to the outcomes of the education system to be deeply concerned about the quality of education in this country, and what it means for the future of NZ.
"socioeconomic factors predict school authority attendance". What is a 'school authority attendance'?
This does not seem to help, if it is about attendance figures, as the question concerned overall academic underperformance.
Attendance rates no doubt is a factor but what else?
Your final paragraph says in essence that the NZInitiative don't know, but criticise what information and argument based on that information is already published.
"What is a 'school authority attendance'?"
The very first paragraph of the link defines it for you:
"This research note takes a closer look at school effectiveness across state, state-integrated, and private schools, otherwise defined as school authority (or type) using the Initiative's school performance tool."
Research Note: The State of Schooling | The New Zealand Initiative (nzinitiative.org.nz)
"Your final paragraph says in essence that the NZInitiative don't know, but criticise what information and argument based on that information is already published."
The research examined school effectiveness; it makes no claims about 'why' because that isn't its purpose.
If you want to understand why NZ's educational system has been in such decline, that is a far more detailed conversation. However, this piece gives some clues (System in freefall: why NZ children face education tragedy | The New Zealand Initiative (nzinitiative.org.nz)), including this:
"Like the governments before it, the current Labour-led administration and its Ministry of Education have shown themselves keen to jump on fashionable bandwagons. Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out. In this way, over time, NZ’s education system has been hollowed out. There is no canon of knowledge enshrined in the curriculum. There is a lack of rigorous assessment. New teaching approaches are thrown at the system without proper monitoring or evaluation. The result is that the successive tiers of education play catch-up, catch up. Secondary schools are teaching what primary schools should have. And tertiary institutions spend an incredible amount of effort making up for the deficits of secondary schooling. NZ once prided itself in having a world-class education system. It has now become a country in education free fall."
I am expected to treat what is little more than rhetoric as being worthy of the title of research? The use of exaggeration and generalisation is evident.
" Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out."
"… kind, caring, inclusive and modern…"
The Business Roundtable to a T.
The research note is in the PDF that you can download from the URL.
The conclusions from whatever research was conducted are no more than political press releases and contaminate the research to the point of having to doubt their reliability and freedom from bias.
The conclusions are drawn from the research. And that research is far from being an outlier. It's generally accepted that NZ's education system has been in decline for decades.
Traveller, you wrote early on, "I am not an educationalist, but I am close enough to the outcomes of the education system to be deeply concerned about the quality of education in this country, and what it means for the future of NZ."
I was a teacher and professionally worked with those concerns and for those outcomes.
One thing I taught as an English and History teacher were the dangers of such errors as hyperbole, exaggeration, false and rash generalisations. You have not yet acknowledged that danger in what you are quoting. If you can't see it, then your conclusions are as faulted.
"One thing I taught as an English and History teacher were the dangers of such errors as hyperbole, exaggeration, false and rash generalisations. You have not yet acknowledged that danger in what you are quoting. If you can't see it, then your conclusions are as faulted."
Have you read the actual research paper? What is your assessment of the actual data and conclusions reached?
"The conclusions are drawn from the research."
These are the conclusions."Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out."
What does that say about the research?
But we've been here before………
"These are the conclusions."Anything that sounds kind, caring, inclusive and modern is in. Anything appearing old-fashioned, rigorous or demanding is out.""
That's commentary. Have you read the actual research paper and it’s conclusions and recommendations?
Traveller wrote:
"The research examined school effectiveness; it makes no claims about 'why' because that isn't its purpose."
Then why are you promoting vouchers?
Did the Business Roundtable suggest them?
You've quoted them extensively in your comments.
There are two threads to this conversation. One is about the decline in the education system, the other about vouchers. My comment you quoted is from the former.
Traveller. now that has been sorted. My error- it is commentary and obviously now the NZInitiative's generalisation is their reaction to their reading of the research. What was the response of the authors of the research to that summation of their work, I wonder.
It didn't help your argument, by the way, to be quoting the NZInitiative's reaction to support your original arguments. Distractive at best.
Is the original research sound in your opinion?
I wish you well on your travels.
"Is the original research sound in your opinion?"
Yes. And it's supported by other work including
Now_I_dont_know_my_ABC_final-1.pdf (theeducationhub.org.nz)
Ed-Hub_Long-literacy-report_v2.pdf (theeducationhub.org.nz)
"I wish you well on your travels."
And you!
The guardian website has the roundup of late nite u s. comedians…(always a recommended watch..)
And Jon stewart does an effective dissection of gaza/america's relationship with israel..
(And he has the first funny God/gender-wars joke I have heard…)
Re this COC Govt. once Winston has to hand over his Deputy PM possie to Atlas Dave he could well turn on them. Not suggesting it would involve principles!
Pre the last election he had a letter prepared for the Governor General withdrawing support for PM Ardern, which he never sent in the end, but he is certainly capable of being the worm that turned…again.
"If you have looked hard at the manner of things, if you have surveyed the troubles of our time, and cannot discover a way forward, do not despair. Do better. Grieve: mount an altar to the sensuous feelings of loss that swim through you. In the stinging fumes that redden the eyes, you might partly recover a clear vision of where to go. You might come to see that forward movement is no longer possible in these moments, and that the way to go was never forward anyway – but awk-ward: into the blackness of catacombs, into the shadows of sanctuary, into the riven cracks signed with the pen of the trickster, into the heat of compost, into the position of a prostrated man who knows that when the storm roars the thing to do is to be still. In that stillness, entire worlds churn."
~ Bayo Akomolafe
There’s no Fair Go in Luxon’s New Zealand.
The Newshub shutdown is fake panic. It’s TINA, when it’s really what the very right wing US owners wish to do, which is erode our democracy and make us more pliant.
The disaster of the media and a National government of whatever kind this is is real, but this is opportunism. There will be no more Dame Jacinda’s doing the correct thing supported by the country’s media. We will have opposition for its own sake and the further rise to prominence of the extreme.
What is your evidence that "the very right wing US owners wish to … erode our democracy and make us more pliant"?
It's a life crisis for 250 people and their families and subcontractors.
I agree. This situation suits NAct very well. Pretty much no competition any more. TVNZ journalists/reporters will know if they run stories which do not present the govt. in a good light they are likely to be dumped on by this govt., which has demonstrated they have no ethical standards. It's happened before under the Muldoon administration.
Probably the reason Melissa Lee has been sitting on her a***e doing nothing. She's been told not to.
Hi Anne. IMHO, doing nothing is entirely the correct response. Newshub is a private company that has failed. Other private media formats are rising up and taking their place. It's simply the circle of life. and while unfortunate for those personally affected, no amount of corporate welfare should be put in their direction.
Day 2 of Tickle v Giggle in Australia. Do women have the right to single sex spaces?
Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright is giving evidence for Giggle today. Presumably because it's now necessary to establish what biological sex is. Tickle is arguing that they are female because of having a gender recognition certificate, and therefore should be treated as a woman (and allowed in women's only spaces).
Wright will be presenting evidence that there are two sexes in humans, and that humans cannot change sex.
https://twitter.com/tribunaltweets2/status/1777841201007472750
correction to the above. Tickle has been able to legally change his birth certificate to female, in Queensland. Queensland has no gender recognition certificate process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_rights_in_Australia
The key piece of legislation in this case is the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, initially set up because of women's rights and so that Australia would comply with being a signatory to CEDAW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Elimination_of_All_Forms_of_Discrimination_Against_Women
The SDA was amended in 2013 to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A02868/latest/text
https://twitter.com/hjoycegender/status/1777596165191586127
Helen Joyce (Director of Advocacy Sex Maters UK)
"What it means to "live as a woman" in one pithy tweet. Roxy Tickle's evidence that he is a woman hinges on his repeated and ongoing intrusion on women only spaces, where by definition he is not permitted, because he's a man not a woman. Then he turns up in court and says that the very fact that he intrudes on women's spaces is evidence that he's entitled to be there. Trans logic is circular logic"
" Trans logic is circular logic"
Is that like saying all Māori are animists?
Trans logic. What is "trans logic"?
Dear Robert
I do appreciate all your attention you give me, but it is getting a bit too creepy.
So, in case this needs a translation for you: back off.
Attention?
I don't understand what you mean by "trans logic".
I would have thought the logic adopted by trans people…..on its literal and plain meaning.
We have discussed ad nauseam the most egregious examples of this logic namely that some mechanism exists to change one's biologic sex from male to female.
From this cherished held to heart belief from TRAs come
1 the ability for a man ro say he is a woman and enter and race against women in sports or sports teams despite research showing that a male passing through male puberty maintains strength, muscle and other sports advantages no matter how they dress currently.
2 the notion that as a man says he is a women he is able to enter into women's toilets and changing rooms. NB this need for men is tied to a conditon known as AGP Autogynephilia is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22005209/#:~:text=Autogynephilia%20is%20defined%20as%20a,of%20himself%20as%20a%20female.
3 the idea that a man should be held in a prison designated as one for women only. Some womens prisons now hold prisoners who have raped women.
The list of these leaps in logic is endless leading to the shorthand 'trans logic' and I am sure you actually know this.
I suspect this is part of the reason for Tabletennis’ comment about it being ‘creepy’ as well meaning people have explained over and again how male sexuality, in the form adopted by the trans community has an impact on women.
My fundamental belief about trans is that it is at heart misogynistic. Men may believe, even support, the notion that whatever other men want to do in the way of sexuality is ‘ok by them’
Well, I surprised you are comfortable conflating all trans people with a certain style of logic – are they not individuals, with individualistic views of the world? It's just like saying "women's logic" isn't it?
I thought you'd be all over that sort of broad-brush misrepresentation.
Thanks for the sarcasm and the deliberate, I suspect, bearing mind how long this issue has been discussed here, misreading of my remarks.
What I was explaining is the current set of beliefs adopted as part of the trans arguments.
'Logic' is some times used as a simile for belief.
It is common to group people into say 'cohorts' to look at them and their beliefs as a group. This does not mean that as being part of this group they lose their identity. Of course not. They may still vote Labour, or Democrat, support certain sports teams etc.
What we are saying is that here is a group of people who have decided to believe things that are ? possibly? lacking in logic. Prime among these beliefs is that by dressing as a woman a man becomes a woman.
For me it has a smidgen of similarity to the battle between proponents of trans- and con- substantiation.
The overriding belief is that a man can turn into a woman by adopting dress or womanface or by just saying they are a woman.
My belief is this belief or 'trans logic' can be seen through a lens of misogyny, ie inherent male beliefs. Others explain it through the lens of psychiatric makeup ie as a paraphilia/psychiatric illness. These all help people to understand why someone would say they are some thing they are not or belive some thing that is a biological impossibility.
Looking at children we can see the influence of social contagion and still, that some may do all they can to ensure their child does not present when grown up, as gay. It is tragic that any parent would do this to a child.
Again as David says below
Shanreagh, Something that I have noticed as I have aged… There have always been men who get quite wound up with women who don’t know their place. As they get older they become rather peculiar, and have funny ideas about women/girls. Unfortunately I’ve had to deal with the consequences within my own extended family. For some reason Robert cannot comprehend that women themselves should have a say in their own issues, without the input from a man, or transwomen.
David – are you the person who calls trans people "funny little men"?
No Robert, I’m referring to those funny little men, especially older men, who are very controlling of women and girls. For some reason they get wound up by the idea that women and girls are able to decide and do things without the consent of men. Anyone would think that a woman must get their opinions from that woman’s male owner.
Presumably they have a gender hierarchy, at the top Men, then transwomen (a man who believes that he is a women), then much further down the list it is women.
In saying that, in my extended family a number several are gay/lesbian. I have noticed how a young nephew and his boyfriend, as well as some of his friends, have disturbing views of girls, particularly lesbians. Disgusting is a term that comes to mind, but as they are gay/bisexual/non binary, they believe that they can say whatever they like about women and girls.
Anyway, for the life of me, I can’t fathom why you seem to be so invested with this issue. If woman are concerned about transwomen in women’s spaces, then it’s a discussion for women to have.
It’s kinda obvious to me, and maybe others, that you as a man, have an issue with women discussing this, especially if they have the audacity to disobey you, and hold and express views that contradict yours.
David writes:
"If woman are concerned about transwomen in women’s spaces, then it’s a discussion for women to have."
which begs the question, "Why does David comment so regularly on this issue?
Robert, the reason why I comment on this issue is because so many men (including men who identify as a woman) are telling women what to do. And heaven forbid, should a woman, or group of women, decide that they want to have a say in women’s issues, men shut them down.
In my opinion Robert, I get the impression, that you are one of those men who who gets a little wound up, if woman do their own thing, without your approval.
I appreciate that you may disagree with this, but it is the impression that I get from your comments around this topic.
"…'trans logic' can be seen through a lens of misogyny, ie inherent male beliefs."
Which of course doesn't mean that 'misogyny' is an essential part of being male.
What are 'male beliefs'?
And David you say “If woman are concerned about transwomen in women’s spaces, then it’s a discussion for women to have.”
Women (and girls) are the ones directly affected but it’s not just women that are concerned. Men have Mothers, Wives, Daughters, Girlfriends, etc so many men are also concerned.
Shanreagh said;
"I would have thought the logic adopted by trans people…" and I have to ask if you believe all trans people think the same.
If you don't think that, and I hope you don't, you'll perhaps review your statement.
As a cohort, as a group. The overwhelming prime belief is that a person can trans into a being that they are not, by the mere expression of the belief.
So if a man says 'I am a woman therefore I am a woman or if 'I shop in womens clothing stores therefore I am a woman,…..etc
My belief that I am a princess does not mean I am a princess.
The belief that, say Roxy Tickle has, that he is a woman does not mean that he is a woman
Biological facts cannot be upstaged by beliefs.
I suspect you know this.
With apologies to Hughes Mearns:
Facts of all kinds have been regularly 'upstaged' by human beliefs, not to mention by new knowledge, since time immemorial.
https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/how-science-works/even-theories-change/
I certainly prefer 'facts', but beliefs are powerful – such are the mysteries of the human mind, and imho our species still has much to learn, time and circumstances permitting.
Biological sex in humans has been immutable throughout history.
If, at some time in humanity's future, that was no longer the case, who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?
The devil is in the 'anomaly'
not quite sure what you mean there. Biological sex in humans is the way that we reproduce. It is inherently binary: we have the people that have the physiology that produces eggs and the ones that have the physiology that produces sperm.
Are you suggesting that in the future we might reproduce differently from that?
It’s not possible for humans to change sex, and I don’t see a potential mechanism by which that might be possible in the future. Afaik, sex is hardwired in soon after conception, and leads to two different pathways of development (egg/sperm people) that includes chromosomes, differences in physical body shape and size which then feeds into differences in strength and capacity. Short of imagining a magic wand, how would it be possible to change all that (barring intervention at conception, which precludes any notion of informed consent)?
@Drowsy M. Kram
"Facts of all kinds have been regularly 'upstaged' by human beliefs, not to mention by new knowledge, since time immemorial."
Yes. When a new concept or theory is proposed that answers more questions than it creates. Usually accompanied by good evidence pertaining to this change. This is not the case regarding human sex.
"Biological sex in humans has been immutable throughout history.
If, at some time in humanity's future, that was no longer the case, who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?"
Biological sex in humans is binary and immutable.
Historical truth, contemporary truth, and future truth.
Your last question is the stuff of SF fan-fiction, not the basis for legislative and policy changes, nor for significant iatrogenic harmful medical interventions.
However, I would answer it will be those who understand biology, psychology, ethics and safeguarding.
Sex is determined by a mechanism originating before conception. The sex of the zygote is determined by the chromosome carried by the fertilizing sperm. In humans its called either an X or Y chromosome with the egg providing an X chromosome. The resulting genome is usually either XX (female) or XY (male).
Drowsy M.Kram posed an interesting question:
"Biological sex in humans has been immutable throughout history.
If, at some time in humanity's future, that was no longer the case, who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?"
It should be possible to entertain such a question, for the purpose of testing one's beliefs; that's what Ursula le Guin does with her "impossible sci-fi stories" and we like Ursula here, don't we 🙂
I especially liked the last line,
"who might be opposed to people changing their sex, and why?"
I’d take this more seriously if I saw any attempt by you to challenge your own beliefs. Did you miss the three explanations of what biological sex is and why it can’t be changed?
If you want to do an abstract thought experiment and reference Le Guin, you’d need to give some kind of explanation for how it’s relevant to this conversation today. But of course you won’t, because explaining is losing and it’s only other people, not yourself, that bother sharing their ideas and clarifying.
Politics as science fiction Robert?
weka – which of my beliefs are you referring to; ones I've stated, or those claimed by others on my behalf?
A quoted example would suffice, please and thank you.
take your pick. Any belief you hold in this conversation today, expressed or not, tell us what it is and how you challenge that belief. You talk about others needing to be challenged but I don’t see you applying that principle to yourself.
@RG (10:14 am)
Yes, Le Guin is a great favourite of mind/mine – so imaginative, and what would Homo sapiens be without the gift of imagination.
Embracing uncertainty can open up new possibilities – "the future’s not ours to see" – mind you, I don’t fancy the idea of thought police!
the problem here is that you appear to be both arguing that trans people are being disappeared and arguing in a conversation about the necessity of centring biological sex in law, policy and culture. Did you mean to erase women’s culture, or was that accidental.
I can’t tell if RG doesn’t care about women’s sex based rights, doesn’t understand them, or is simply arguing abstract whatevers for the sake of his own thought experiment agenda, but you I have more expectation of.
If a woman cannot call a man a man without permission from that man, there are no women’s rights.
Nic – Drowsy has, I believe, posed a question that requires a suspension of belief, in order to uncover base motivations in those taking part in the thought experiment. Hunkering down and declaring that the proposal is impossible is a not-unexpected response. It's a thought exercise, designed to stretch thinking and reveal calcification of thought (I reckon). I find it interesting, in a way similar to reading science fiction 🙂
again, this would only have credibility if you demonstrated any kind of self reflection about your own beliefs. You think expressing biological sex matters hinders the thought experiment, but I see it as enhancing it. I can both do an imaginative exercise about fantasy of humans changing sex and hold an understanding of material reality. You on the other hand appear to want to ignore biological sex/material reality in favour of fantasy, how very binary of you.
You also utterly fail to take any account of why material reality matters. Transcendence of/denial of material reality is the patriarchal wet dream. It’s the core of male dominated religions that kill nature and hate women, as well as being core to trans activism where it has transhumanism as an end goal. It’s also why we have climate change and the ecological crisis. That the loss of women’s rights is happening at the same time isn’t a coincidence.
So weka, you won't or can't provide one single quote to back your assertion?
Come on.
You wrote:
"Any belief you hold in this conversation today"
Okay.
"Drowsy M.Kram posed an interesting question".
What I actually said,
And you have yet again failed to answer. You don’t have to of course, and that leaves people free to come to their own conclusions.
I don't know either, weka, but I suspect – Lord save us from men (and women) with agendas.
Well, Drowsy, you could ask.
Why would anyone bother doing that when you so consistently fail to share or clarify your thinking, or answer direct questions?
No need to ask for myself, Robert.
I could ask on behalf of others, if that would be helpful
Go on then, give it a whirl!
Wot?
weka[]
11 April 2024 at 11:19 am
What I actually said,
And you have yet again failed to answer. You don’t have to of course, and that leaves people free to come to their own conclusions.
weka[]
11 April 2024 at 10:59 am
take your pick. Any belief you hold in this conversation today, expressed or not, tell us what it is and how you challenge that belief. You talk about others needing to be challenged but I don’t see you applying that principle to yourself.
possibly the wrong quote, but if can’t see what I was meaning, or go back and figure it out yourself, I’m not doing the work for you.
You selectively quote to support your own point or position and make it harder to follow the other person’s argument. It’s dishonest.
Ok Robert, here goes.
It appears that you have been given three options/characterisations to choose from, none of which seem particularly appealing (to me):
I suspect it's none of the above, although it might be the third one – who knows what agendas lie in the hearts of men (and women.)
Thanks, Drowsy, I appreciate your courage in joining the fray. If you're happy, I'll quote and add my responses in italics.
"It appears that you have been given three options/characterisations to choose from, none of which seem particularly appealing:"
It certainly does appear that way. Yes, I have been "given"(unasked) those options. Again, yes, they aren't particularly appealing.
I suspect it's none of the above, but who knows."
You are quite right in your suspicion that, " it's none of the above ".
As to who knows, well, I know 🙂
The claim is often made, that I don't answer questions posed to me.
and in the absence of you saying what it is, I will continue to make my own conclusions based on what you have been doing on TS on this topic for some time.
The context for my three points was that I expect more from Drowsy. I have zero expectations of you now.
"possibly the wrong quote," she says, breezily…
Certainly the wrong quote and to me, it matters.
weka!
" It’s dishonest."
Are you accusing me of dishonesty?
yes
That's unkind. I'd like a second (mod) opinion, please.
it’s got nothing to do with me being a mod, and I’m not moderating you (if I was, it would be in bold), it’s my personal opinion.
Just wondering, weka, how many "Robert Guyton to weka" comments have been posted on TS over the years. My guess would be hundreds, at least. Despite that high level of interaction, you claim that I don't answer your questions. On the face of it, that would seem unlikely. If there were no "Robert Guyton to weka" comments, a person might wonder if I was refusing to engage with you, but that's clearly not the case. Is it possible, do you think, that you haven't been recognising that I am responding to you in an open, honest way, but that you aren't perceiving it thus?
it’s like you want to play but only on your terms. This is why, I think, David makes the points he does. I think he is wrong in the characterisation, but I can see why he gets that impression, and you never do anything to show that you are not what he says.
That's disappointing. To quote the wisdom of GoT:
What “more” do you expect, I wonder.
We all have views on this (and that), what's good (and bad), and one's own views are invariably the best (or so it seems to me), but I could never "have zero expectations" of either weka or Robert.
on this particular topic, it’s RG’s behaviour I am pointing to. Who knows what his actual views are, he almost never says. We are left to guess, and then he objects. It’s such a long standing pattern of behaviour, I’m surprised I have to even explain it. But unlike RG, I think explaining is winning, for us all.
as an example, from today, I laid out three potential explanations for RG’s behaviour/position. RG played some word games with that and eventually said it was none of them. What he didn’t so was say what he actually thinks. This is how he often/usually engages on this topic. All the time. He had the opportunity to clarify and he chose not too.
It’s fairly obvious Robert.
Funny little men, who are so desperate to control women, that they indulge in circular logic that just goes around in circles and goes nowhere.
Transwomen could always organise their own spaces, but for some reason they seem to be determined to take over women’s* spaces, & tell them what to do.
* Women in this case meaning actual real women. Not men who believe that they are women.
David; that's just ditzy!
Have you anything constructive to say on the issue?
David wrote:
"Transwomen could always organise their own spaces…"
Please expand on this claim, David. Perhaps with regard public toilets. Or changing rooms at public swimming pools.
Cheers!
Plenty of discussion out there about third and NB spaces if you care to educate yourself.
Are you covering for David?
David made a valid point about TW organising their own spaces.
You framed that as a claim and asked him to expand on that, specifically on toilets and changing rooms.
I pointed out that there has been widespread discussion on that.
You attempt a derail.
My conclusion is that you have no intention of educating yourself and will continue with your sophistry (although tbf, a chunk of wha you do doesn't even meet the bar of sophistry).
I addressed my request to David, in response to a claim he made.
Still waiting for his response, though not holding my breath.
You may conclude whatever you wish. I'm hanging out for David's reply.
😂
Engaging with Robert reminds me of the parable of the donkey & the tiger..
As a kiwi bloke who is on the wrong side of 50 I have learned many things.
In this case, shall I say women’s issues.
When a woman (real/actual women, not transgender women) is in need to hear a man’s opinion or view on women’s issues, she will then advise you (the man, or transgender person) what your options/views will be. Your response will be, yes dear you are right, as usual.
Following this little piece of advice will allow you to enjoy the rest of your day.
I asked David to explain his claim, as it seemed to me he was quite wrong in making it.
You suggested I do my own research.
I chose rather, to ask David; I still can't see the error in that. Perhaps, weka, you could explain why directing a question about a claim made by an individual, to that individual, is insufficient?
David wrote;
""Transwomen could always organise their own spaces…"
I don't think that's a reasonable claim. I hope David will respond and respond in a way that's more useful than this drivel 11 April 2024 at 3:00 pm
Robert, I find little point in replying to you, as you either don’t understand, or deliberately misunderstand what others are saying.
As for “drivel” you’re just reinforcing my thoughts regarding your attitude around this issue.
If you want to believe weird stuff, that’s up to you.
"Is that like saying all Māori are animists?"
No.
It seems very much like that, claiming that one group of people have one “logic", which is what you are supporting.
It's just not the case., is it.
"It seems very much like that," – but it's not.
The reasoning behind "Transwomen are women" is an example of circular logic.
I don't think RG knows what circular logic is.
A home-owner could live as a homeless person, simply by getting out on the street and living rough.
But that doesn't mean s/he is a homeless person. Is that your point?
My point is, they live as a homeless person. just a someone might live as a woman.
Sure they could live as a women meaning dress as a women etc. Living/dressing does not alter biology though.
The leap in logic occurs when the wish to live/dress then is magicked by some alchemy to say they are a woman. This cannot happen any more than me dressing as a princess will make me a princess or dressing in a green suit will make me into Kermit the frog.
To take the princess analogy further having dressed as a princess I make it my life's work to insist that all that I meet treat me as a princess. First I insist, ie compelled in speech to call call me 'Your Highness', I may change my surname to reflect a long obscure set of Germano-Spanish Portugese royalty that I say are my ancestors. I then force people to curtsy to me. I may change my name my Deed Poll to Princess Susannah. I then insist on getting some sort of payment from the Govt.
All the way along kind people are helping me to check out that I am seeing the world correctly, to get help, to offer help. They may try to stop me gatecrashing events where real royalty is. Because I am so fixed in my ideas I may be arrrested if I breach protocols/boundaries around real Royalty as I am a threat, as imposters always are, to real Royalty.
To live as a woman does not involve compelling people to act as if you are a woman ie being part of your delusions. It does not involve going into womens safe spaces or into womens sports teams or even into womens prisons.
Aside from seeing drag performers, I worked with one man who dressed as a woman and he never expected that we belived he was a woman and he always used the mens toilets at work. A gentle soul we all treated him with kindness/caring. He did not change his name to a female one. He was good at his job, he just like dressing as a woman.
as David says or the violent, foul men of the type that Weka has pictures. often caught on camera masturbating in front of women in toilets, of raping women in prisons.
As I said above the whole concept now is one of misogyny, adopting womanface. Many are fetishists or autogynephiliacs. Many would benefit from counselling and care.
What we as a society do not need to do is to pander to their delusions by making woman the props to support deluded men.
I suspect you may know this though.
"Sure they could live as a women meaning dress as a women…"
along with other womanish behaviours… live as a woman.
Yes, that's correct and what I was saying.
"Living/dressing does not alter biology though."
I didn't say it does. You folk read that in, as you do.
Doesn't make them homeless as they have a home, just as it doesn't make them a woman.
And you reckon David was being ditzy!
Edit; “Trans logic. What is “trans logic”?
Trans Woman is a woman = Trans logic.
Got it in one gsays.
That is the prime illogical belief.
I genuinely believe you folk have messed-up thinking and I mean that most kindly.
Doesn't matter how you mean it.
Point out the error in calling it circular logic:
"It", Molly?
Calling what "circular logic?
"…messed up thinking…"
You are the one that wants us to share your belief that someone with a home is homeless.
"You are the one that wants us to share your belief that someone with a home is homeless."
That's not what I said, gsays, I wrote:
"My point is, they live as a homeless person. just a someone might live as a woman."
as as as as as as
Can you see the difference?
@Robert Guyton
"It"? – that which you mean kindly.
"Calling what "circular logic?"
Going around in circles a bit yourself here, so linking to my reply to get you back on the straight and narrow:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-04-2024/#comment-1995893
gsays; do you believe all trans people believe/claim that "Trans Woman is a woman"?
Or are you painting all trans people with the same brush, in the same way someone might say, "All women…blah, blah, blah"?
If you don't mean that, then you might look at your statement,
Trans Woman is a woman = Trans logic." with fresh eyes.
Shanreagh has replied to you at 9.1.1.2.1.1
The answers to your many questions are there.
They have missed it, just as you have.
So Robert if a man dresses as a woman then presumably there is no onus on society to go along with the belief that this dressing/living has somehow made him a woman?
Then while dressed as a woman surely a man would have no expectation of going into women's safe spaces or to play in women's sports.
He remains a man just dressed a little differently so he uses the male toilets and continue to play in men's sport.
Presumably you will agree with this as I have confined to to just dressing as a woman.
The examples of the trans logic we are facing is
1 when a person feels that dressing means morphing into a woman,
2 that dressing entitles a man to go into women's toilets
3 that dressing entitles a man to play in women's sports.
So Shaneagh if you go to a party as a pirate, you could just as easily go to a party as a woman. You could spend your time living as a homeless person, even though you owned a home. If there is such a thing as trans logic, there will also be lesbian logic. Is there?
Robert
Are you able to address these? After all this is the topic of the conversation.
It may have been the topic of your conversation, Shanreagh, but it wasn't mine. I asked only about just 2 things. I'm disinterested in the other points raised by others here and have made no comments about them, consequently I don't feel compelled to answer questions on them.That you (and others) think I hold certain views about them is a mistake that compounds every time one of you claims this or that about my position.
Robert Guyton 9.1.1.1.1.1
10 April 2024 at 2:39 pm
It is this I am trying to explain. Perhaps it would be clearer if you accepted I have (tried) to answer this, thanked me and then moved on to your different questions.
Thank you, Shanreagh, for trying. You've given me examples of what you believe are manifestations of "trans logic", but that's not what I'm asking for. I'm trying to understand how anyone can describe/define the way a group of people think by calling it, "X-logic". For example, can we justifiably use the term, "lesbian logic", or "Asian logic". Do you think, "trans logic" means the logic employed by trans people? Would you also say, "Asian logic" when describing the way Asians view the world?
What’s meant here is TRA logic. It’s an ideological belief set and political movement that uses circular logic.
it’s a mistake to see TRA = trans or vice versa.
weka – your comment @
11 April 2024 at 12:26 pm
"What’s meant here is TRA logic. It’s an ideological belief set and political movement that uses circular logic.
it’s a mistake to see TRA = trans or vice versa."
seems to be, at last, addressing my original question:
"What is "trans logic"?
Dozens of responses later and I'm still in the dark, but perhaps what you have said will cast some light: are you meaning that the phrase, "trans logic" is not a valid one, and that TRA logic is?
‘trans logic’ is vague. What Joyce was talking about is the ideology. Which obviously is not something that all trans people subscribe to. It’s better to think about TRA logic, or gender identity ideology logic. Circular reasoning is not uncommon there.
The long awaited Cass Review final report is out.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/09/cass-review-nhs-children-gender-dysphoria
It covers all the things that Gender Critical people have been saying for several years including:
Visubversa
"The long awaited Cass Review final report is out."
And now see what the Te Whatu Ora is going to do with this information…Their long awaited report on the use, safety and effectiveness, of puberty blockers has still not seen the light of day.
And to balance the Cass report, a critique from those raising trans children in the UK.
Points from the critique:
1. Parents interviewed by Cass were looking for depathologisation of trans children, and decentralisation of supporting services away from a single UK centre, and into mainstream medicine, as seen in other countries.
Instead, the report focusses on unpicking why children are trans, as if it's a mental health problem, not on providing the best medical support for trans kids and their families.
2. The review panel was 'naive', having no one experienced with the trans research community in the UK or internationally involved in the report output. Cass herself has no experience of trans people in her social circle. This is like reviewing Maori health initiatives without anyone Maori being part of debate, vs only being interviewed.
3. As an outcome of this, the Cass report is unbalanced in naming 'trans ideology' as a bias, without a corresponding recognition of the significant anti-trans bias pushed over the past 5 years in the UK.
4. No trans treatment processes from outside the UK were evaluated for effectiveness as potential alternative models to to GID service. Once again, the Cass framed trans kids as a 'mental health problem' issue, completely erasing the identity of trans kids and their families.
I'd like to know if that's really true. I haven't read the report, but everything I have since in the last day, including interviews with Hilary Cass, shows that there are issues with large numbers of children with concurrent mental health issues, abuse histories and undiagnosed autism. All things that GIDS was ignoring in favour of affirmation only.
I used to think that transness wasn't a pathology, and I think that could be true, but needing hormones and surgery suggests to me that it is. And what is gender dysphoria if it's not a mental health issue? I think that the need to transition via extreme body modification is something that is largely culturally imposed. If we lived in societies that valued gender non-conformity, then the whole born in the wrong body bullshit wouldn't exist like it does.
I move we scrap official limits on the acceptable number of politicians clubbed to death, too.
Pricks.
An official limit on the acceptable number of sea lion deaths in commercial fishing nets is no longer necessary, Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says.
Despite the number of sea lion pups inexplicably plunging by almost a third last year, Jones has scrapped the Fishing Related Mortality Limit (FRML), which sets the maximum number of sea lion deaths each year before a squid trawl fishery in the Southern Ocean has to close.
The New Zealand sea lion, or rāpoka, is the world’s rarest and with a population of just 10,000 features on an international “red list” of endangered species.
Last year, an annual count was so low it triggered a government review of squid fishing in their foraging grounds, around the remote subantarctic Auckland Islands.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350240291/death-limit-endangered-new-zealand-sea-lions-scrapped
Joe-IMHO very few of the things this government is doing are vote winners.
Standardistas need to compile a list of these stupid/crazy/crap policies to roll out at the next election and say "do you really want to continue with this lot in charge?"
You mean like selling our land to foreigners?
@Joe
"An official limit on the acceptable number of sea lion deaths in commercial fishing nets is no longer necessary, Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says."
I believe the only reason Shane Jones became an MP again, so he can
abuseuse his position to give any conservationist, NGO, conservation volunteer, animal lover, etc the middle finger.Yet there is no kai to be found on a dead planet.
This government doesn't seem to include the costs, to the tax payer, associated with all the hours put into legislation and laws such that we do not have a society where some people have all the rights and others non.
"Teanau Tuiono's Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, which would correct one of the great historical crimes of the Muldoon era. National will likely vote that down too, out of racism. "
ACT are supporting the bill!
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2024/04/members-day.html
Question Time on Demand today seems stuck on 28 March. Anyone else get it?
It is stuck. Can't understand why that might be.
Most likely one of Nicola's 'wasteful spending' cut backs…….
Or a reduction of transparency?
The Parliament website has changed it's format, and you're probabaly looking at a cached version.
Go to home page – New Zealand Parliament (www.parliament.nz).
Click 'Watch'.
Select 'On Demand' from the top banner bar.
Under "Selected Video" you will see a date that is currently playing, or you can select a date from the filtering dialogue box on the right hand side.
The site no longer allows you to choose a particular question form a list of questions. On the right there is a scrolling list of speakers. You will need to scroll down to the name of the person asking the first question, or the particular question you are interested in, click on the name and the video will begin.
I'm finding it very clunky, but it does work. Hope that helps.
Thanks Traveller. It is downright difficult to manage. Clunky? Yep.