The idea of a level playing field is certainly not new. It just does not mention that in the 3 dimensional it is slanted towards poverty lane for many.
There are 3 articles today in Staff that catches the eye:
1/ A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too.
This has been pointed out more than 20 years ago by University Lecturers, the estimated that some 30% of entry students are functionally illiterate. Why? Any answers?
2/ Where did the wage subsidy really go?
Well we know that the rich just made a grab for money that is now missing to remedy poverty, infrastructure etc. I am still in utter disbelieve that a finance minister can approve so much money without thinking through foreseeable consequences. In my view, something does not make sense. But what does make sense is that the blackmailing money class has NZ by the short and curlies.
3/New Zealand is a ridiculous name.
No its not. It reflects the history of this country over the last 380 odd years.
Maori would translate NZ: Nu Tereni. Aotearoa traditionally was used as a name for the North Island. (Land of the long white cloud). It is a beautiful name but it neither of them are inclusive. NZ has a long tradition of immigrants from all over the world. If this is to be seen as a partnership, any new name should reflect this and put to a referendum. Just not the laser kiwi please.
One reason for the increase in the estimates of functional illiteracy might be the increase in volumes of students following the introduction of student loans and opening up of universities to all.
"A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too."(Sic.)
The answer is simple. We need to revolutionise the way things are done in primary schools. Tell you what, we'll have a system to improve standards. It'll be nationwide, schools must use the system.
Since it's about standards and it's nationwide we'll call it 'National Standards.' That has a lovely ring to it. Yes, 'National,' sounds good. It will be brilliant, it will work wonders and it'll keep tabs on teachers, make them accountable. Results will be on the rise.
The results of international testing from about 2015 on should show the results of this great innovative move as the cohorts advantaged by the wisdom move through the schooling system.
I think we should look at teachers and their standard. Weather they understand the subject to start with. True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response. No wonder the kids need to grow additional fingers, (sarc) Reading? Yep… easy, "recognize the word" that will be extremely helpful when reading a manual of all things with some mathematic tables. This method of teaching is just lazy. And to top it all off the number of school breaks is just ridiculous. Unless your child is in a private school, it will be disadvantaged from the start.
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn". Benjamin Franklin
Yes it is, my apologies. Was a bit in the hurry to get the dog reigned in. Weather certainly played a role . And may I add, here is a word that can be easily misspelled, misread and added to the infamous “recognize the word” vocabulary. 🙂
Pretty funny you choose to shoot the messenger, over what could be a result of poor education, rather than engage. Because you know, teachers feelings are far more important than kids achieving
Teachers are part of the equation, and I doubt there are many NZ teachers who want their students to fail. If the profession had higher status then we might make progress, but in NZ the single biggest metric for ranking occupations is not work-life balance, satisfaction and/or contribution to society, but rather how much money you can make. And so it goes.
Finland’s high level of education and expertise is based on high-quality teacher education. Teachers in Finland are highly educated and respected professionals. Teaching is a popular profession and universities can select the most motivated and talented applicants. The profession has high status and teachers are autonomous in their work, as the system is based on trust rather than control.
There is learning mathematics and there is learning how to learn. Both can be taught at the same time – and it's easier to do in maths because a student can see if they are right and wrong. For a 15 year old, researching how to do something should be well within their abilities.
Yep. It is common to think that Teaching is the transfer of knowledge from the Teacher to the student.
If that is all we, as a Teacher are doing, then we have failed.
No one person “knows” enough for a start.
The aim is to Teach students to learn and go beyond our knowledge.
When a student takes off and begins to research for themselves, question, argue and analyse what I've taught them, and delves deeper into the subject. I know I'm winning. I want the student to end up more "educated' than me. Not less!
Yes, this is true but mathematical formula are better not learned by browsing through the internet. Or maybe we can all forget about Pythagoras, Galileo Galilei, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, Paul Erdős, Newton, Albert Einstein etc. We don't need them, we can research this all by ourselves. (sarc) By extension, maybe we don't need teachers at all?
"True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response."
What was the context? What was the teacher trying to get the pupil to achieve with that kid at that time? Did the teacher use that strategy only and with all lessons?
Using that as an example of why our kids don't score well in international tests?
The comment about children being disadvantaged from the start by not being in a private school is nonsense.
No, the teacher was actually calling for a parent evening and in that context it was mentioned that this is what is expected. Now, if a teacher does not want to teach then maybe he/she should do something else? It is for many parents very frustrating to deal with this kind let down. I am not the only one saying this. But naturally, there will be a lot of defensiveness. I also do know that many parents who are able to afford this, send their children to private schools to make sure that they succeed in an every increasing competitive world.
All I am saying is that, if we don't equip the teacher we cant expect the kids to succeed.
Are the Uyghur muslims the first muslims the right wing of New Zealand have paid any attention to?
It would seem the right wing of New Zealand are using the Uyghur muslims for political purposes.
These people might very well be persecuted. But I find it interesting The West has happily trades with, and profited from that trade with China for some decades now despite clear human rights abuses, and now suddenly it's all a big problem.
I think some people have deliberately not been paying attention until it is politically expedient to do so.
According to the right wing Uyghur muslims are suddenly the most important muslims, for some strange reason.
For instance, you wouldn’t find the same right wing of New Zealand advocating for Palestinian muslims, would you?
Suddenly China's human rights abuses are a big problem but in reality we've turned a blind eye for decades. We've worn their cheap goods and happily heated our meals in their cheap microwave ovens for years without a thought to justice.
We've even got rich off their cheap money by allowing their citizens to buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property!
New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Amendment Bill came into force in October 2018, officially banning foreigners not intending to live in New Zealand from buying existing homes. The aim was to make residential properties more affordable to locals as the government blamed foreign buyers for driving up home prices beyond the reach of locals.
This spooked Chinese buyers and home transfers to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship, or a resident visa fell by 81 per cent in the March 2019 quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago, according to Statistics New Zealand. The number of sales to Chinese buyers also plunged by 80 per cent.1
In the past before the ban, New Zealand was a hotspot for Chinese home buyers.
Thanks, but that doesn’t state what you think it states. For example, what was the proportion of all sales? The text in (your) bold was simply marketing clickbait.
Aucklanders like to brag that Chinese buyers will pay more for their property. For the first time leaked sales figures suggest they may be right.
It seems everyone in Auckland has a story to tell about Chinese buyers wanting their house.
One elderly Takapuna man was startled to hear a Chinese syndicate was interested in buying his well-established family home.
His place wasn't even on the market when a real estate agent door-knocked the 82-year-old last month, said a relative.
"A Chinese syndicate was wanting to buy a series of sections to build a block of apartments. The hard-sell was on apparently, but thankfully he resisted the temptation."
Thanks again, but not compelling. Mostly urban legend stuff, and Phil Twyford’s infamous surname ‘analysis’, based on a small sample from “one unidentified real estate company from February to April”. You’re just continuing the propaganda BS and flawed factoids from the past 🙁
That was Twyford at his zenith. It brought about real change when the government of the time sought to ignore the issue. The last decent thing he did. It's all been downhill from there.
You asked for links to mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property. I have provided that. A simple thank you would suffice.
You asked for links to mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property. I have provided that.
You’re sadly misguided and misinformed. I can now understand better your assertion, which is based on your misconception and ignorance. However, not everybody likes to spread BS and some even push back on it. Maybe it was too much to ask you for a proper analysis with facts, e.g. from Stat NZ, but you took the piece of rope and showed yourself to be a spreader of populist memes instead of a critical independent thinker and commenter.
This comment shows you didn't read the link I posted at 5.1.1.1.1 because the information in the StatsNZ link is the same.
But on top of that your criticism tries to say that a drop in offshore ownership means that there was not a problem in the first place???
I can't work this one out.
Back to the original point at 5 which was to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the West engaging with China the way we have for 3 decades now despite obvious and ongoing human rights and worker rights breaches.
I watched Tiananmen Square as a 19 year old and was shocked like everyone else. What censure or punishment for China? Nothing. There was no punishment, only reward. The reward was a huge increase in trade, and a proliferation of sweatshops and dodgy manufacturers with which a few players in the West got rich and we all got nice shoes.
I find it gross that some people cry about Uyghur muslims now while for years they conveniently ignored years of China's abuses, because they benefitted from those same abuses.
That money funnelled into the New Zealand residential property market by mainland Chinese and new resident property purchases was tainted with corruption, poor justice, and the abused rights of manual workers.
Over 30 years of civil rights abuse was ignored by us because it was convenient. So for some on the political right to suddenly have newfound sympathy for a group of muslims sticks in the craw.
I did read the link and it did not answer my question and thus it did not support your assertion that Chinese citizens “buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property”.
If you had actually bother to delve into the NZ Stats link I provided you would have known that the percentage of overseas buyers is actually very low. For example, in the March-2019 Quarter, only 0.6% (i.e. 204 from a total of 31,728) so-called Home transfers involved buyers who were not NZ citizens or NZ resident visa holders. Only 90 buyers in that period had the PRC as Country of tax residence (which is not the same as nationality!).
If you had said that there is no NZ register of property owned by overseas people, you’d be 100% correct, which is also mentioned in the NZ Stats link.
I understand your views on PRC but these should not cloud your views on the few Chinese buyers in the NZ housing market, IMO, which you used to support your anti-China narrative and sentiments.
As to whether the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 addressed a problem, which may have been overblown for a number of reasons, remains to be seen. The worsening situation since its introduction and even more so since Covid, when overseas buyers cannot even enter into NZ, suggests that it was a red herring and possibly more of a political stunt.
You've picked numbers post Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018. It did what it was designed to do.
That house prices have increased this year is not proof that offshore investors, including those from China, did not have a significant effect on our housing market.
Back to my original point, that we've so long been happy for cheap and tainted foreign cash to prop up our economy, so getting upset for persecuted peoples in China now is more than a little ironic.
You didn’t click on the NZ Stats link because it contains a nice wee bar graph with before and after Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 came into place. Overseas buyers came from a high (!) of 3.3%, a whopping 3.3% and that includes more than just Chinese buyers.
Getting back to my original point, your assertion is piss-poor and you have no evidence to support it other than your belief. Such a shame that you don’t want to face the facts 🙁
And even that is not the true story because trusts are included as NZ citizens if just one trustee is a NZ citizen.
As always with housing data in this country, this is not a complete picture.
It also shows in March 2018, 7.8% of Auckland homes were sold to people with no NZ citizenship or residency. Not even including the above points, that is significant.
Imagine how much worse the situation would be right now if we hadn't put a stop to it.
Inquiries from Chinese buyers looking at New Zealand real estate have increased 32 per cent since the outbreak of coronavirus, property website Juwai's executive chairman says.
The website offers international property listings to Chinese purchasers.
Executive chairman Georg Chmiel said only Vietnam had seen a bigger increase in activity, up 43 per cent.
But he said in-person activity was likely to remain subdued because Chinese consumers were restricting their travel.
The piece is based on increased interest, i.e. literally just clicks on a website. As such, it does not support your assertion at all.
I do question whether you actually read it before you copied & pasted it here!?
New Zealand's foreign buyer restrictions mean people who are not ordinarily resident can only buy new build properties in large developments.
"Most so-called 'Chinese' buyers in New Zealand today actually are either legal residents or have even become citizens. We don't have the data, but we do believe that most of these inquiries are from Chinese speakers with legal residence in New Zealand who intend to buy for their own use."
In other words, just speculation about speculation.
NZ is not the only property market to have been affected by Chinese buyers. Being a relatively small market, such groups can have disproportionate influence. This from Vancouver:
@Incognito – you are, without contrary facts, trying to dismiss Muttonbird's thesis, that Chinese property accumulation has become a problem.
We know the Key government declined to collect such statistics, most probably because it would embarrass the group concerned, who were major funders.
You have dismissed the Chinese names data – but I am, among other things, in linguistics. It is quite possible, and perfectly proper to obtain meaningful data from names in that fashion.
Stuart talked about Vancouver and I asked about NZ, just as I’ve asked you about NZ. But nothing useful so far. Meanwhile, “mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property” according to you @ 3:35 pm and seemingly also according to Stuart!? But you now claim there are no data to back this up!? So, did you pluck that assertion out of your orifice just as Phil Twyford did?
It wasn't dismissed because it was crap, but because the usual media suspects weren't up to understanding how it worked. The failure was political, not factual.
In a field where data is scarce, imperfect data is better than none. It may well be corrected by subsequent full data, if it were collected. But what can be learned from partial data doesn't go away just because the Chinese speculators howled 'racism!' Just as the Indian prospective husbands, denied the end-run allowed under the Key administration, made similar claims of oppression, but went silent as the trope surfaced.
Our property register has (irresponsibly) not been collecting the data. Comparative data sets like behaviours of the same expatriate community in other countries form a reasonable estimate of their activity here, in the absence of the figures any responsible administration would collect as a matter of course. As do name frequency analyses, which revealed a disproportionate activity level among Chinese purchasers.
Phil Twyford’s ‘data analysis’ was crap. Crap data in, crap ‘conclusions’ out. Pretty much what happened 🙁
Blablablah, irrelevant diversion.
As do name frequency analyses, which revealed a disproportionate activity level among Chinese purchasers.
Did they now? So, a “name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis? Shame that they, which or whatever they (any links besides to Twyford’s crap one?), seem to be inconsistent with Stats NZ data. You didn’t read my comment @ 10:11 pm, did you? Or you didn’t understand it, or wilfully ignored it.
The data it generated is consistent with market behaviour, which is not even discernable from Stats' failure to measure.
“name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis?
Yes, in fact. Ethnicity is reasonably correlated with names, which are linguistic data. We can predict Irish ancestry from names with an O patronymic, or Georgian from a -shvili, or Chinese from a surname like Zhou. Though the match is not perfect, as people change their names, emigrate, or intermarry, the correlation is strong enough to use for some purposes, such as determining whether the NZ property market has enjoyed an inexplicable immunity from the problems created by an inflow of Chinese real estate investment in comparable communities like Vancouver.
Mainland Chinese purchased $1.5 billion of residential real estate in New Zealand last year, according to a real estate website for Chinese investors.
Juwai.com said that was an increase of US$130 million (NZ$197.2m) on the year before, although there was a lack of reliable data in 2016.
Carrie Law, chief executive and director of Juwai.com said the $1.5b estimate was based on official data which showed mainland Chinese buyers made nearly 1600 purchases in New Zealand last year, not including corporations.
This is getting tedious. The only ‘hard’ number is “nearly 1600” but it does not state where that figure came from and what fraction of the total number it represents. The piece also suggests that the number was what it was because “a desire to beat New Zealand's new partial foreign buyers ban buoyed the local market”.
Data released by Labour suggests impact of Chinese buyers on Auckland property market much bigger than expected, the party's housing spokeman says.
While ethnic Chinese make up 9% of Auckland's population, 39.5% of Auckland houses sold from February to April this year were to buyers with Chinese surnames, according to figures from one large real estate firm that represent a significant minority of all Auckland sales, Phil Twyford says.
To be honest, the crocodile tears shed by the right about what is happening in Xinjiang province seem to happen when the Chinese government is starting to:
1) slow its privatisation and market reform programs
Mediaworks are in trouble again. They have failed to recognise an abuser in their ranks, probably one which delivers some sort of profit to them.
Staff have gone to directly to social media to out this predator such is their power and now the bigwigs are scrambling to cover their tracks.
I'm reminded of the popularity of such 'boys will be boys' behaviour at radio stations such as this which were so very popular with the serial pony-tail puller, Sir John Key.
What the Key government did when it came to not fully acknowledging though ACC the damage (not addressing the full impact) which a schedule 3 event can cause showed me how out of touch Key was when it came to a sexual offence causing a mental injury.
I am going to call out the Ardern government for not addressing the damage and impact which a person who has PTSD is not covered unless they have a physical injury.
Little should not have been given the job to implement changes due to 15 March 2019. How can Little be impartial when he is the Minister of the SIS and GCSB?
Fair go,Treetop, how the fuck was Little supposed to know what the arsehole was up to when his own mother and other people he lived with didn’t have a clue?
You are just sniping for snipings sake.
Anker you or I could go into the city highly intoxicated and fall over and smash our face in and ACC will cover you.
ACC give cover using the 1961 Crimes Act, which they refer to as a schedule 3 injury for mental injury cover. Some physical accidents also have a mental injury component such as pain and they are assessed for this. A lot of interpretation goes on. Is this what parliament intended when they deny cover for a no fault accident?
In 1992 the then National government took cover away for a mental injury which did not have a physical cause.
Most people are not aware of what PTSD can do to the body. The physical effects need to be acknowledged such as autoimmune conditions and the effects that the trauma has on the central nervous system. This is what exposure to a high magnitude event will do.
This is WA, the opportunity to tell the eastern states, and especially Federal Government / Canberra to go forth and multiply is electoral gold for any incumbent politician. A complete separation / secession would be just fine with most of the State's residents.
That is a big stretch for you to think that I hold Little responsible for the actions of a deranged gunman. Little is the face of the government on the direction of the matter.
The President of the Islamic Council of NZ on The Nation yesterday everything she said I agree with.
Little cannot drag his heels when it comes to not looking into the future of those who have PTSD but are not covered because they do not have a so called physical injury. It needs to be fully acknowledged that the PTSD was caused by a high magnitude event which government agencies were unprepared for.
Hi Treetop, just remember that right now there are voices asking for extended cover for those who are contributing to the system. ACC is funded by taxpayers under a model of user pay, i.e. payroll deduction, employer contribution, car rego. etc. Do not confuse any welfare provision that is being paid by setting aside a fund from general taxation with this self funding mechanism.
Also remember, in NZ medical services and not even the Ambulance service is being fully funded by the tax allocations. ACC is NOT part of that at all.
Interesting interview with an old school diplomate re; China/USA (ie the rest of the western world)..
Biden’s China Policy: A More Polite Trump – Amb. Chas Freeman
"Retired Ambassador Chas Freeman, Nixon's translator during his 1972 trip to China, says U.S. policy to China remains a desire to hold on to primacy globally and regionally. Biden's approach so far is not much different than the aggressive posture of Trump."
Their chosen instrument: the Covid restrictions (which weren't actually being violated till the flatfoots themselves invaded the bandstand where the organisers were). I suppose it’s at least different from the usual "fire regulations" catch-all.
Worth noting because the same sort of crap might be tried on by our own boys in blue at some point when they see something going down that offends their ideas of order.
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Anna Källén, Stockholm University and Daniel Strand, Uppsala University A middle-aged white man raises his sword to the skies and roars to the gods. The results of his genetic ancestry test have just arrived in his suburban mailbox. His eyes fill with tears as he learns that he is “0.012% ...
March 2021 The housing crisis right now in New Zealand is one of our biggest contributors to income and wealth inequality. “With the explosive increase in sales and prices, those with houses have their income and/or wealth rapidly increasing, and those who are not on the property ladder are falling ...
Samoans went to the polls on Friday, and delivered a stinging blow to Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi one-party state. Pre-election Malielegaoi's Human Rights Protection Party had controlled 44 of 49 seats in Parliament, while using restrictive standing orders to prevent there from even being a recognised opposition in ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly consider a new Report from a European think tank that aims to identify an optimal COVID-19 response strategy. It considers mortality data, GDP impacts, and mobility data and suggests that COVID-19 elimination appears to be superior ...
Something I missed on Friday: the Māori Party has been referred to police over failure to disclose donations over $30,000. Looking at the updated return of large donations, this is about $320,000 donated to them by three donors - John Tamihere, the National Urban Māori Authority, and Aotearoa Te Kahu ...
Stormy Seas: Will Jacinda Ardern's Labour Government stand behind the revolutionary proposals contained in He Puapua – the 20-year plan devised by a government appointed working group to realise the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand?“GETTING AHEAD of the story” is one of the most ...
We have not been fans of the Climate Change Commission’s draft report. New Zealand has an Emissions Trading Scheme with a binding cap, and a declining path for net emissions in the covered sector. Measures taken within the covered sector cannot reduce net emissions. NZU not purchased by one sector get ...
For several decades under Labour and National-led governments New Zealand has claimed to have an independent (and sometimes autonomous) foreign policy. This foreign policy independence is said to be gained by having a “principled but pragmatic” approach to international relations: principled when possible, pragmatic when necessary. More recently NZ foreign ...
This video produced in Seattle looks at the gender identity curriculum used in schools in the US. A thin veneer of pseudoscience is being used to indoctrinate children with an ideology based on scientific and medical inaccuracies. ...
For once, I have written my submission on a bill with enough time to spare to both enocurage any of you who wants to make a submission to do so as well, and to give you time to spot the typos in mine.Louisa Wall's Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate ...
A friend found a concerning FB post (see below – this is a public post & so I have not redacted the name) & – as you do – immediately queried it with Southern Cross Life & Health Insurance as well as sending the screenshot to me¹. We both read ...
Judith Collins’ National Party leadership is under more scrutiny, with increased talk in the media of her being replaced by brand new MP Christopher Luxon. For many commentators it’s just a question of “when” rather than “if” Collins is replaced. While others ponder whether Luxon really has what it takes ...
‘Tis the season for unearthing the rarest gems in Tolkien adaptation – which, considering that the fandom has been dominated by Peter Jackson for nigh on two decades, is a positively heart-warming development. It is why I have devoted so much blog space to the obscure and weirdly wonderful ...
Whatever the damage, especially to the British economy, Brexit has done us a service by illustrating the complexity of trade.Brexit is the only example we have of two closely integrated sophisticated economies severing trading ties. The European Union and Britain still do not have tariffs or import quotas between them ...
The Palmerston North City Council has voted for Māori wards: Palmerston North Māori will be guaranteed one or two seats on the city council from 2022, and this time, there is nothing opponents can do about it. The council decided by an 11-5 vote at its monthly meeting this ...
Kids are striking for the climate today, demanding a decent, liveable future. Meanwhile, the National Party, the reliable servant of the farm lobby and other polluting businesses, is calling for action to be delayed: National has written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw calling for him to extend the ...
Today tens of thousands of schoolkids have walked out of school to strike for a future free from climate change. And tens of thousands of older New Zealanders have joined them. Their demands are clear: eliminate fossil fuels, implement 100% renewable energy with a just transition, and support our Pacific ...
The Gods That Failed.We studied the dialecticRead the whole of ‘Capital’So we could follow youSo we could follow youHow we shoutedHow we scrawledPainted slogans on city wallsOn prison wallsProof we had followed youBut, we still didn’t find what we’re looking forAnd we still haven’t found what we’re looking forWhen they ...
Conventional Wisdom? The Republican Right is convinced that to “go woke” is to “go broke”. It simply does not believe sufficient Americans feel strongly enough about social justice to make any kind of boycott remotely effective. Clearly, the Boards of Directors of more and more American corporations disagree. RECENT MOVES by ...
On November 25, 2020 Skeptical Science Inc. became a registered nonprofit organization and on March 17, 2021 our application to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status was approved. In this blog post, we’ll explain why we went down this path and what will come next. Since its ...
Blowing Hot And Cold: Mike Hosking’s bosses should, perhaps, ask themselves what message Newstalk-ZB (and NZME) is sending to the people of New Zealand if Mike Hosking, their self-appointed “People’s Prosecutor”, is accorded bragging rights for “cancelling” the democratically-elected Prime Minister of New Zealand. Especially when said Prime Minister’s only ...
Ali Boyle, University of CambridgeIf you ask people to list the most intelligent animals, they’ll name a few usual suspects. Chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants are often mentioned, as are crows, dogs and occasionally pigs. Horses don’t usually get a look in. So it might come as a surprise that ...
Selwyn Manning and I dedicated this week’s video podcast to the potential emergence of rival blocs within the transitional process involved in the move from a unipolar to a multipolar international system currently underway. However one characterises the phenomenon–autocracies versus democracies, East versus West, colonial versus post-colonial–the global order is ...
With the rediscovery of the lost Soviet Lord of the Rings, the time has come for the important things in life. Specifically, compiling the Tom Bombadil scenes from the three known screen adaptations that feature him: This is a collection of scenes from:– Sagan om Ringen (1971: ...
Back in February the Climate Change Commission recommended a ban on new coal-fired boilers, and a phase out of existing ones by 2037. And today, the government has said they will implement that policy, and backed it up with funding to help transition some of our large pollution sources: ...
A ballot for three members bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Income Tax (Adjustment of Taxable Income Ranges) Amendment Bill (Simon Bridges) Regulatory Standards Bill (David Seymour) Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill (Ricardo Menéndez March) The first two ...
Back in 2014, the police raided and searched journalist Nicky Hager's home over his book Dirty Politics, seizing his journalistic work in an effort to identify his sources to please their political masters in the National party. The raid - and much of the police's related investigative work - was ...
By Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Tim Wilson, Luke Thorburn and Professor Nathan Grills, University of MelbourneA new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.See here for an associated explanatory ...
The Greens welcome $6.6 million from the Government’s $455 million programme to increase access to mental health and addiction services for our Pasifika communities in Auckland and Wellington. ...
The Green Party is putting a Member’s Bill into the ballot today which will be a significant step towards overhauling the Social Security Act by embedding a tikanga Māori framework into the welfare system. ...
The Green Party have reaffirmed their strong commitment to the union movement in Aotearoa New Zealand by renewing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with E Tū. ...
Soon, more kids in Aotearoa will have access to the in-school mental health support that has boosted the resilience of tamariki and whānau in Canterbury. ...
The Green Party supports the open letter released today by a cross-sector coalition calling for the Government to treat all drug use as a health issue, to repeal and replace the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. ...
Small businesses are not only the heart of our economy – they’re also the heart of our communities. They provide important goods and services, as well as great employment opportunities. They know and love their locals. And after a tough year, they need our support! ...
Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples Teanau Tuiono MP, supports the demand from Pasifika communities fighting for climate action as their homelands are more at risk in the Pacific region. ...
The Green Party supports the six demands for climate action put forward by School Strike for Climate NZ, who are striking across the country today. ...
The Ministry of Justice Māori victimisation report, released today, reinforces what we already know about the impact of systemic racism in Aotearoa and that urgent action is needed. ...
Ricardo Menéndez March’s Members Bill to ensure that disabled New Zealanders do not face discrimination for having a disability assist dog was today pulled from the biscuit tin to be debated in Parliament. ...
More than one million people will be better off from today, thanks to our Government’s changes to the minimum wage, main benefits and superannuation. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to do more for New Zealanders who continue to miss out, as main benefits are set to rise by less than $8 a week tomorrow, Thursday 1 April (at the start of the financial year). ...
Sunday 28th March 70 Rongomaiwahine descendants welcomed members of the Green Party’s Māori Caucus, Te Mātāwaka, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere and Teanau Tuiono, to discuss concerns about RocketLab’s operations on the Mahia Peninsula. ...
New Zealand is providing further support to Timor-Leste following severe flooding and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “Our thoughts are with the people of Timor-Leste who have been impacted by the severe flooding and landslides at a time when the country is ...
A ceremony has been held today in Gisborne where the unclaimed medals of 28 (Māori) Battalion C Company soldiers were presented to their families. After the Second World War, returning service personnel needed to apply for their medals and then they would be posted out to them. While most medals ...
New Zealand has today added its voice to the international condemnation of the malicious compromise and exploitation of the SolarWinds Orion platform. The Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau, Andrew Little, says that New Zealand's international partners have analysed the compromise of the SolarWinds Orion platform and attributed ...
An expert consenting panel has approved the Queenstown Arterials Project, which will significantly improve transport links and reduce congestion for locals and visitors in the tourism hotspot. Environment Minister David Parker welcomed the approval for the project that will construct, operate and maintain a new urban road around Queenstown’s town ...
Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash says a landmark deal has been agreed with Amazon for The Lord of the Rings TV series, currently being filmed in New Zealand. Mr Nash says the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) secures multi-year economic and tourism benefits to New Zealand, outside the screen ...
The Government welcomes the findings from a rapid review into the health system response to lead contamination in Waikouaiti’s drinking water supply. Sample results from the town’s drinking-water supply showed intermittent spikes in lead levels above the maximum acceptable value. The source of the contamination is still under investigation by ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood today marked the start of construction on the New Zealand Upgrade Programme’s Papakura to Drury South project on Auckland’s Southern Motorway, which will create hundreds of jobs and support Auckland’s economic recovery. The SH1 Papakura to Drury South project will give more transport choices by providing ...
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karanga maha o te wa, tēnā koutou, tēna koutou, tēna tātou katoa. Ki ngā mana whenua, ko Ngāi Tahu, ko Waitaha, ko Kāti Māmoe anō nei aku mihi ki a koutou. Nōku te hōnore kia haere mai ki te ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood today marked the completion of upgrades to State Highway 20B which will give Aucklanders quick electric bus trips to and from the airport. The State Highway 20B Early Improvements project has added new lanes in each direction between Pukaki Creek Bridge and SH20 for buses and ...
The Government is putting in place a review of the work being done on animal welfare and safety in the greyhound racing industry, Grant Robertson announced today. “While Greyhound Racing NZ has reported some progress in implementing the recommendations of the Hansen Report, recent incidents show the industry still has ...
The infringement fee for using a mobile phone while driving will increase from $80 to $150 from 30 April 2021 to encourage safer driving, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said too many people are still picking up the phone while driving. “Police issued over 40,000 infringement notices ...
Pacific people in New Zealand will be better supported with new mental health and addiction services rolling out across the Auckland and Wellington regions, says Aupito William Sio. “One size does not fit all when it comes to supporting the mental wellbeing of our Pacific peoples. We need a by ...
New measures are being proposed to accelerate progress towards becoming a smokefree nation by 2025, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced. “Smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke kills around 12 people a day in New Zealand. Recent data tells us New Zealand’s smoking rates continue to decrease, but ...
More children will be able to access mental wellbeing support with the Government expansion of Mana Ake services to five new District Health Board areas, Health Minister Andrew Little says. The Health Minister made the announcement while visiting Homai School in Counties Manukau alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate ...
The Government’s COVID-19 response has meant a record number of people moved off a Benefit and into employment in the March Quarter, with 32,880 moving into work in the first three months of 2021. “More people moved into work last quarter than any time since the Ministry of Social Development ...
A stocktake undertaken by France and New Zealand shows significant global progress under the Christchurch Call towards its goal to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. The findings of the report released today reinforce the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach, with countries, companies and civil society working together to ...
Racing Minister Grant Robertson has announced he is appointing Elizabeth Dawson (Liz) as the Chair of the interim TAB NZ Board. Liz Dawson is an existing Board Director of the interim TAB NZ Board and Chair of the TAB NZ Board Selection Panel and will continue in her role as ...
The Government has announced that the export of livestock by sea will cease following a transition period of up to two years, said Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “At the heart of our decision is upholding New Zealand’s reputation for high standards of animal welfare. We must stay ahead of the ...
WORKSHOP ON LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS Wednesday 14 April 2021 MINISTER FOR DISARMAMENT AND ARMS CONTROL OPENING REMARKS Good morning, I am so pleased to be able to join you for part of this workshop, which I’m confident will help us along the path to developing New Zealand’s national policy on ...
For the first time, all 18 prisons in New Zealand will be invited to participate in an inter-prison kapa haka competition, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The 2021 Hōkai Rangi Whakataetae Kapa Haka will see groups prepare and perform kapa haka for experienced judges who visit each prison and ...
The Government has introduced the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill, designed to boost New Zealand's ability to respond to a wider range of terrorist activities. The Bill strengthens New Zealand’s counter-terrorism legislation and ensures that the right legislative tools are available to intervene early and prevent harm. “This is the Government’s first ...
Coal boiler replacements at a further ten schools, saving an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Fossil fuel boiler replacements at Southern Institute of Technology and Taranaki DHB, saving nearly 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Projects to achieve a total ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of Cassie Nicholson as Chief Parliamentary Counsel for a term of five years. The Chief Parliamentary Counsel is the principal advisor and Chief Executive of the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO). She is responsible for ensuring PCO, which drafts most of New Zealand’s legislation, provides ...
Every part of Government will need to take urgent action to bring down emissions, the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw said today in response to the recent rise in New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions. The latest annual inventory of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions shows that both gross and net ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says Aotearoa New Zealand has become the first country in the world to introduce a law that requires the financial sector to disclose the impacts of climate change on their business and explain how they will manage climate-related risks and opportunities. The Financial ...
Exceptional employment practices in the primary industries have been celebrated at the Good Employer Awards, held this evening at Parliament. “Tonight’s awards provided the opportunity to celebrate and thank those employers in the food and fibres sector who have gone beyond business-as-usual in creating productive, safe, supportive, and healthy work ...
Applications are now invited from all councils for a slice of government funding aimed at improving tourism infrastructure, especially in areas under pressure given the size of their rating bases. Tourism Minister Stuart Nash has already signalled that five South Island regions will be given priority to reflect that jobs ...
Tēnā koutou e ngā maata waka Tenā koutou te hau kāinga ngā iwi o Te Whanganui ā TaraTēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te Rā. No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa. It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Graeme (Peters, ENA Chief ...
The Construction Skills Action Plan has delivered early on its overall target of supporting an additional 4,000 people into construction-related education and employment, says Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams. Since the Plan was launched in 2018, more than 9,300 people have taken up education or employment opportunities in ...
An innovative new Youth Justice residence designed in partnership with Māori will provide prevention, healing, and rehabilitation services for both young people and their whānau, Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Whakatakapokai is located in South Auckland and will provide care and support for up to 15 rangatahi remanded or ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today expressed New Zealand’s sorrow at the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. “Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen at this profoundly sad time. On behalf of the New Zealand people and the Government, I would like to express ...
We, the Home Affairs, Interior, Security and Immigration Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (the ‘Five Countries’) met via video conference on 7/8 April 2021, just over a year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Guided by our shared ...
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni has today announced the opening of the first round of Ngā Puninga Toi ā-Ahurea me ngā Kaupapa Cultural Installations and Events. “Creating jobs and helping the arts sector rebuild and recover continues to be a key part of the Government’s COVID-19 response,” Carmel ...
Interim legislation that is already proving to keep people safer from drugs will be made permanent, Health Minister Andrew Little says. Research by Victoria University, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, shows that the Government’s decision in December to make it legal for drug-checking services to operate at festivals ...
Public consultation launched on ways to improve behaviour and reduce damage Tighter rules proposed for either camping vehicles or camping locations Increased penalties proposed, such as $1,000 fines or vehicle confiscation Rental companies may be required to collect fines from campers who hire vehicles Public feedback is sought on proposals ...
The Government is continuing to support Air New Zealand while aviation markets stabilise and the world moves towards more normal border operations. The Crown loan facility made available to Air New Zealand in March 2020 has been extended to a debt facility of up to $1.5 billion (an additional $600 ...
Christchurch’s Richmond suburb will soon have a new community hub, following the gifting of a red-zoned property by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to the Richmond Community Gardens Trust. The Minister for Land Information, Damien O’Connor said that LINZ, on behalf of the Crown, will gift a Vogel Street house ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the reopening of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Languages Funding in 2021 will make sure there is a future for Pacific languages. “Language is the key to the wellbeing for Pacific people. It affirms our identity as Pasifika and ...
It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Cameron for the introduction and thank you for ERANZ for also hosting this event. Last week in fact, we had one of the largest gatherings in our sector, Downstream 2021. I have heard from my officials that the discussion on ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods has today announced the 16 projects that will together get $3.9 million through the 2021 round of Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund, further strengthening the Government’s commitment to Māori knowledge in science and innovation. “We received 78 proposals - the highest ...
Analysis by Bryce Edwards Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. The Labour Government received plaudits this week for its historic announcement that it will ban the live export of animals by sea. It’s said to be a world first. The decision comes after years of pressure, which increased after last year’s ...
The House: Calls to force witnesses to child abuse to speak, reforming adoption law for same-sex couples, and better protections for religious freedoms have been made by petitions to Parliament. ...
Creamerie is a new dystopian comedy about three New Zealand women and the last man on earth. Its co-creator and co-star, Perlina Lau, explains how they made a show about the aftermath of a deadly pandemic, during a pandemic.In 2018, when we sat around a dining table spitballing ideas about ...
James Borrowdale bids farewell to a summer of cricket with his oblivious baby daughter.Made possible thanks to the support of Creative New ZealandOriginal illustrations by Sophie Watson If cricket, at least in its longer forms, can lay claim to something approaching artistic meaning – that is, for its actions to ...
Why are ice core samples and marine algae important for understanding our climate in the future? Dr Holly Winton, a geochemist with the Antarctic Research Centre at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, explains in this short video.Winton is working on a Rutherford Foundation-funded project analysing ...
Sebastian Contreras Rodriguez was an architect in Chile, but after moving to New Zealand he started working as a housekeeper. Federico Magrin speaks to him about architecture being a service for the poor, and the differences between Chile and New Zealand. Sebastian joins me after a tiresome and proving day at ...
University of Otago researchers examine 2000-3000-year-old skulls to uncover why Pacific communities of that era intentionally pulled their teeth Ritual tooth ablation, the intentional removal of teeth, is a highly visible form of body modification that can signal group identity and mark certain life events, such as marriage. In our ...
New Zealand’s favourite autumnal fruit meets a fancy-sounding but super-simple French dessert. The result? Delicious. There is only so much you can do with the fruit that drops (non-stop) from 17 feijoa trees. We’ve had ripe fruit peppering our lawn now for over two weeks. So far I’ve used them to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Hancock, School visitor, Australian National University Andrew Sharp Peacock, for so long “the coming man” of Australian politics, has died in the United States aged 82. Born in 1939, he was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, acquired a law degree at ...
“ A Ministry of Health graph drawn by a graphic designer with no data to inform it is the perfect metaphor for this Government, all spin and no substance,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “Like most things with this government, they present ...
OWell, well, well. New Zealand its expressing its indignation about something the Russians may or may not have been doing. But this expression of the nation’s indignation comes not from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta but from Andrew Little, our Minister of … No, not Health on this occasion. Nor ...
"He pulled down the straps of her tank top with his teeth and bit her neck..Afterwards, she pretended it didn’t happen": a short story by Auckland writer Leanne RadojkovichA teenager riding an e-scooter shot across the intersection towards Patsy, she stepped aside, the front wheel took the ...
Critic's Chair: Guy Somerset watches and listens to two wonderful series on YouTube and Spotify featuring great raconteurs and wits broadcast from their homes during the long UK lockdown This week, the UK started off along the second stage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “cautious but irreversible” roadmap to the ...
What happens when the world’s rarest gull sets up camp in earthquake-damaged buildings in central Christchurch? Frank Film investigates. Christchurch’s population of endangered tarāpuka/black-billed gulls may have a new home. The Christchurch City Council is hoping to fashion a new site for the gulls in what was once part of ...
WATCH: In the heart-wrenching final episode of the Pure As video series, Silver Ferns shooter Maia Wilson reveals the on-court highs and off-court lows she's been through. Maia Wilson's young life has already been an emotional rollercoaster. While her netball career soars to new heights every time she takes the court, away ...
LISTEN: Is 2021 the year the Tactix finally get to lift netball's ANZ Premiership trophy? with the ANZ Premiership starting this weekend, how will the absence of Silver Fern captain Amerliaranne Ekenasio affect the two-time champions Central Pulse? What impact will Australian international Caitlin Bassett have for the Waikato Bay of ...
After a marathon year of droughts and water restrictions, Auckland finally has a goal to reduce its water consumption Water, water everywhere, and most certainly in the news. After a massive public information campaign last year, Aucklanders managed to knock 100 million litres a day off the city’s water consumption. ...
A new initiative is taking on food insecurity and food wastage by encouraging diners to take uneaten food home. And, as chefs taking part of the scheme explain, what you do with those leftovers needn’t be limited to a quick blat in the microwave. It’s hard to know just how much ...
With the council in disarray, former Wellington mayor Justin Lester sat down with The Spinoff to share his thoughts on what’s gone wrong, and what needs to happen from here. Justin Lester is running again. When we meet at the Civic Square cafe Nikau, the former Wellington mayor is breaking in a ...
After months of lockdown, pubs in England were allowed to reopen this week, with outdoor seating only. New Zealander George Fenwick headed out to see how Londoners were welcoming the return of a cornerstone of British social life.Trying to explain what life has been like in the UK for the ...
The government's priorities are being questioned after announcing it will be giving Amazon a more than $100 million boost to film the Lord of the Rings television series here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Keane, Professor of Chinese Digital Media and Culture, Queensland University of Technology China’s state-run anti-monopoly bureau has tightened its regulations on big tech players, as shown by its recent move against the country’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group. Alibaba was hit ...
Campaign & Petition Launch “Racial INJustice Matters” calling for an immediate independent inquiry into Institutional Racism and Racial Profiling by the Waikato Police. Where we live, work, play should be safe for everyone, no matter ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis Dr Lain Dare discuss the week in politics. This week the pair discuss the evidence given by Christine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University Recently, we have witnessed an uprising of thousands marching in the streets fuelled by outrage against the violence and sexual assault experienced by women. Indigenous women and gender diverse people also marched and shared this ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. India only at Magnitude 4 for reported cases. Chart by Keith Rankin. New Zealand has, for the rest of this month, banned all people who have been in India this month from entry into New Zealand. The decision is based not on the incidence of Covid19 ...
The screen industry – or some of its more well-heeled operators – today learned the government is keen to improve its wellbeing. This followed several blasts of Beehive trumpeting about initiatives to improve the wellbeing and wellness of we Kiwis. The announcements yesterday included the heartening news that the Government’s ...
The new Ministry for Ethnic Communities comes into being on 1 July. It’s important that the views and needs of Aotearoa New Zealand’s many and diverse ethnic communities help set the priorities for the new organisation from day one. We are running a series ...
The National Party need to take a good hard look at themselves, following their Economic Development spokesperson’s endorsement of Kiwi taxpayers stumping up for welfare for the American multi billion dollar corporation, Amazon. Responding to ...
New Zealand is not rejigging its Covid-19 immunisation programme despite predictions people will need a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine within 12 months. ...
Predator Free 2050 Limited has announced new investments in predator free projects around the country. Existing projects in Taranaki, Waiheke and Dunedin, a new project in Te Urewera, and a feasibility study on Aotea Great Barrier Island will benefit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Mitchell, Professor of Nursing, University of Newcastle The Australian public’s infection control literacy continues to expand. We know what PPE is, what “flattening the curve” means, and we are growing increasingly familiar with the term “deep clean”. But what does a ...
The High Court in Auckland this week ordered overseas investors to pay penalties totalling $1.38 million and legal costs for breaching the Overseas Investment Act. The significant penalty follows a family purchasing five forestry blocks totalling ...
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.AUCKLAND1The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage, $38)It’s the book everyone’s talking about – and writing about. ...
A little understanding – and a few simple, easy-to-follow rules – can make a huge difference to our lives, Autistic advocate Rory McCarthy writes.Autistic people have difficult lives: a lot of things that seem trivial or a sign of over-sensitivity to allistic (non-Autistic people) actually affect us quite significantly. There ...
Analysis - A startling revelation shows up cracks in the testing regime just as the vaccine rollout comes under scrutiny, and National faces another bout of leadership speculation, writes Peter Wilson. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is urging ACC to ignore diktats from the Minister of Finance . “ACC should be left to independently manage the hard-earned funds it receives from levy-payers,” says Union spokesman Jordan Williams. “It’s ...
The New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) is not surprised by the government’s decision to ban live exports by sea and believes the two- year transition period is pragmatic for businesses in the sector. We are not surprised by the decision and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cristina Pozo-Gonzalo, Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University Rare-earth metals are critical to the high-tech society we live in as an essential component of mobile phones, computers and many other everyday devices. But increasing demand and limited global supply means we must urgently ...
Looking to buy a unit or apartment? You might need to think twice or even three times, if this Prime documentary is anything to go by, writes Jacqueline Paul.If you are hoping to buy a home built between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s, there is a significant risk that ...
Amid some in-House knitting drama this week, there was more speculation the knives are out for National Party leader Judith Collins. But doesn't National always have its knives out? James Elliott has the news of the week. It was an exciting week for those holding tickets in the “Seymour Sweepstake”, ...
A poem from Mohamed Hassan’s Ockham-shortlisted collection National Anthem.And before that we were starsCan you please look at this poem and tell me if it’s good?it’s for my fiancé she’s really far away I want to say how I feel but my English is limited, can you read it?she works ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Click here to subscribe to Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup and New Zealand Politics Daily. Today’s contentNational Party leadership Matthew Hooton (Herald): My message to National – and how to avoid ...
A new full-time role recording, editing and mixing content for The Spinoff podcast network, based in our Morningside office. We’re looking for an experienced sound engineer. The successful applicant will be responsible for recording, editing and mixing content for The Spinoff podcast network and managing the podcast studio. In addition to ...
Rainbow youth still facing stigma and stress but positive signs: new findings Youth19, the latest in a series of surveys focused on young people in Aotearoa, asked 7,721 secondary school-aged students about their experiences of school, home and community. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rajib Dasgupta, Chairperson, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University India is in the grip of a massive second wave of COVID-19 infections, surpassing even the United States and Brazil in terms of new daily infections. The current spike ...
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The idea of a level playing field is certainly not new. It just does not mention that in the 3 dimensional it is slanted towards poverty lane for many.
There are 3 articles today in Staff that catches the eye:
1/ A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too.
This has been pointed out more than 20 years ago by University Lecturers, the estimated that some 30% of entry students are functionally illiterate. Why? Any answers?
2/ Where did the wage subsidy really go?
Well we know that the rich just made a grab for money that is now missing to remedy poverty, infrastructure etc. I am still in utter disbelieve that a finance minister can approve so much money without thinking through foreseeable consequences. In my view, something does not make sense. But what does make sense is that the blackmailing money class has NZ by the short and curlies.
3/New Zealand is a ridiculous name.
No its not. It reflects the history of this country over the last 380 odd years.
Maori would translate NZ: Nu Tereni. Aotearoa traditionally was used as a name for the North Island. (Land of the long white cloud). It is a beautiful name but it neither of them are inclusive. NZ has a long tradition of immigrants from all over the world. If this is to be seen as a partnership, any new name should reflect this and put to a referendum. Just not the laser kiwi please.
One reason for the increase in the estimates of functional illiteracy might be the increase in volumes of students following the introduction of student loans and opening up of universities to all.
Inclusion matters.
"A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too."(Sic.)
The answer is simple. We need to revolutionise the way things are done in primary schools. Tell you what, we'll have a system to improve standards. It'll be nationwide, schools must use the system.
Since it's about standards and it's nationwide we'll call it 'National Standards.' That has a lovely ring to it. Yes, 'National,' sounds good. It will be brilliant, it will work wonders and it'll keep tabs on teachers, make them accountable. Results will be on the rise.
The results of international testing from about 2015 on should show the results of this great innovative move as the cohorts advantaged by the wisdom move through the schooling system.
Ah…..
Yes Hekia Parata did really well as the Minister of Ed with her 'Learnings'.
I think we should look at teachers and their standard. Weather they understand the subject to start with. True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response. No wonder the kids need to grow additional fingers, (sarc) Reading? Yep… easy, "recognize the word" that will be extremely helpful when reading a manual of all things with some mathematic tables. This method of teaching is just lazy. And to top it all off the number of school breaks is just ridiculous. Unless your child is in a private school, it will be disadvantaged from the start.
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn". Benjamin Franklin
"Weather they understand the subject to start with."
Ironic in a post about declining English surely the word is whether.
Yes it is, my apologies. Was a bit in the hurry to get the dog reigned in. Weather certainly played a role . And may I add, here is a word that can be easily misspelled, misread and added to the infamous “recognize the word” vocabulary. 🙂
"Reigned" is the appropriate word if you're describing how a cat interacts with its hooman.
"Reined" is the appropriate word for a human attempting to control their dog.
“Rained” is the appropriate word when it rains cats and dogs.
Surely the word "surely" commences a new sentence.
Indeed, and sentence adverbs are followed by a comma.
Did I make my point yet? Or has none cottoned on to what this was about? Were you able to "recognize" words?
Pretty funny you choose to shoot the messenger, over what could be a result of poor education, rather than engage. Because you know, teachers feelings are far more important than kids achieving
Teachers are part of the equation, and I doubt there are many NZ teachers who want their students to fail. If the profession had higher status then we might make progress, but in NZ the single biggest metric for ranking occupations is not work-life balance, satisfaction and/or contribution to society, but rather how much money you can make. And so it goes.
And. Only 3% private schools, and no “for profit schools”..
So the wealthy have an incentive to support a good State system.
As successive Governments refuse to listen to Teachers, or evidence, you can hardly put the blame on Teachers.
There is learning mathematics and there is learning how to learn. Both can be taught at the same time – and it's easier to do in maths because a student can see if they are right and wrong. For a 15 year old, researching how to do something should be well within their abilities.
Yep. It is common to think that Teaching is the transfer of knowledge from the Teacher to the student.
If that is all we, as a Teacher are doing, then we have failed.
No one person “knows” enough for a start.
The aim is to Teach students to learn and go beyond our knowledge.
When a student takes off and begins to research for themselves, question, argue and analyse what I've taught them, and delves deeper into the subject. I know I'm winning. I want the student to end up more "educated' than me. Not less!
Yes, this is true but mathematical formula are better not learned by browsing through the internet. Or maybe we can all forget about Pythagoras, Galileo Galilei, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, Paul Erdős, Newton, Albert Einstein etc. We don't need them, we can research this all by ourselves. (sarc) By extension, maybe we don't need teachers at all?
See above.
This is just yet another effort to step up privatisation of education in this country.
"True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response."
What was the context? What was the teacher trying to get the pupil to achieve with that kid at that time? Did the teacher use that strategy only and with all lessons?
Using that as an example of why our kids don't score well in international tests?
The comment about children being disadvantaged from the start by not being in a private school is nonsense.
No, the teacher was actually calling for a parent evening and in that context it was mentioned that this is what is expected. Now, if a teacher does not want to teach then maybe he/she should do something else? It is for many parents very frustrating to deal with this kind let down. I am not the only one saying this. But naturally, there will be a lot of defensiveness. I also do know that many parents who are able to afford this, send their children to private schools to make sure that they succeed in an every increasing competitive world.
All I am saying is that, if we don't equip the teacher we cant expect the kids to succeed.
Noting that if you control for socio economic background, private schools do not do as well as State schools.
The contacts made and the access to the "old boy network" is, of course, invaluable.
Question:
Are the Uyghur muslims the first muslims the right wing of New Zealand have paid any attention to?
It would seem the right wing of New Zealand are using the Uyghur muslims for political purposes.
These people might very well be persecuted. But I find it interesting The West has happily trades with, and profited from that trade with China for some decades now despite clear human rights abuses, and now suddenly it's all a big problem.
I think some people have deliberately not been paying attention until it is politically expedient to do so.
According to the right wing Uyghur muslims are suddenly the most important muslims, for some strange reason.
For instance, you wouldn’t find the same right wing of New Zealand advocating for Palestinian muslims, would you?
Can you please point to millions Pakistani Muslim’s suffering genocide by a communist government?
Suddenly China's human rights abuses are a big problem but in reality we've turned a blind eye for decades. We've worn their cheap goods and happily heated our meals in their cheap microwave ovens for years without a thought to justice.
We've even got rich off their cheap money by allowing their citizens to buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property!
It's all too convenient to be crying foul now.
Given that you asserted that as a statement of fact, please back it up with a link.
https://list.juwai.com/news/2020/01/chinese-show-interest-new-zealand-properties-despite-ban
Thanks, but that doesn’t state what you think it states. For example, what was the proportion of all sales? The text in (your) bold was simply marketing clickbait.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/weve-got-chinese-buyers/RQR6KUAUKMNJ5VPBAYKCMNIZLI/
Thanks again, but not compelling. Mostly urban legend stuff, and Phil Twyford’s infamous surname ‘analysis’, based on a small sample from “one unidentified real estate company from February to April”. You’re just continuing the propaganda BS and flawed factoids from the past 🙁
That was Twyford at his zenith. It brought about real change when the government of the time sought to ignore the issue. The last decent thing he did. It's all been downhill from there.
You asked for links to mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property. I have provided that. A simple thank you would suffice.
You’re sadly misguided and misinformed. I can now understand better your assertion, which is based on your misconception and ignorance. However, not everybody likes to spread BS and some even push back on it. Maybe it was too much to ask you for a proper analysis with facts, e.g. from Stat NZ, but you took the piece of rope and showed yourself to be a spreader of populist memes instead of a critical independent thinker and commenter.
For your perusal and edification:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/drop-in-home-transfers-to-overseas-buyers
This comment shows you didn't read the link I posted at 5.1.1.1.1 because the information in the StatsNZ link is the same.
But on top of that your criticism tries to say that a drop in offshore ownership means that there was not a problem in the first place???
I can't work this one out.
Back to the original point at 5 which was to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the West engaging with China the way we have for 3 decades now despite obvious and ongoing human rights and worker rights breaches.
I watched Tiananmen Square as a 19 year old and was shocked like everyone else. What censure or punishment for China? Nothing. There was no punishment, only reward. The reward was a huge increase in trade, and a proliferation of sweatshops and dodgy manufacturers with which a few players in the West got rich and we all got nice shoes.
I find it gross that some people cry about Uyghur muslims now while for years they conveniently ignored years of China's abuses, because they benefitted from those same abuses.
That money funnelled into the New Zealand residential property market by mainland Chinese and new resident property purchases was tainted with corruption, poor justice, and the abused rights of manual workers.
Over 30 years of civil rights abuse was ignored by us because it was convenient. So for some on the political right to suddenly have newfound sympathy for a group of muslims sticks in the craw.
I did read the link and it did not answer my question and thus it did not support your assertion that Chinese citizens “buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property”.
If you had actually bother to delve into the NZ Stats link I provided you would have known that the percentage of overseas buyers is actually very low. For example, in the March-2019 Quarter, only 0.6% (i.e. 204 from a total of 31,728) so-called Home transfers involved buyers who were not NZ citizens or NZ resident visa holders. Only 90 buyers in that period had the PRC as Country of tax residence (which is not the same as nationality!).
If you had said that there is no NZ register of property owned by overseas people, you’d be 100% correct, which is also mentioned in the NZ Stats link.
I understand your views on PRC but these should not cloud your views on the few Chinese buyers in the NZ housing market, IMO, which you used to support your anti-China narrative and sentiments.
As to whether the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 addressed a problem, which may have been overblown for a number of reasons, remains to be seen. The worsening situation since its introduction and even more so since Covid, when overseas buyers cannot even enter into NZ, suggests that it was a red herring and possibly more of a political stunt.
You've picked numbers post Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018. It did what it was designed to do.
That house prices have increased this year is not proof that offshore investors, including those from China, did not have a significant effect on our housing market.
Back to my original point, that we've so long been happy for cheap and tainted foreign cash to prop up our economy, so getting upset for persecuted peoples in China now is more than a little ironic.
You didn’t click on the NZ Stats link because it contains a nice wee bar graph with before and after Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 came into place. Overseas buyers came from a high (!) of 3.3%, a whopping 3.3% and that includes more than just Chinese buyers.
Getting back to my original point, your assertion is piss-poor and you have no evidence to support it other than your belief. Such a shame that you don’t want to face the facts 🙁
That bar graphs shows under 80% of NZ houses were sold to Kiwis before the Overseas Investment Act amendment 2018.
Not good enough.
And even that is not the true story because trusts are included as NZ citizens if just one trustee is a NZ citizen.
As always with housing data in this country, this is not a complete picture.
It also shows in March 2018, 7.8% of Auckland homes were sold to people with no NZ citizenship or residency. Not even including the above points, that is significant.
Imagine how much worse the situation would be right now if we hadn't put a stop to it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/residential/119643341/chinese-buyers-seek-boltholes-in-new-zealand-property-market
More variations on the same theme 🙁
The piece is based on increased interest, i.e. literally just clicks on a website. As such, it does not support your assertion at all.
I do question whether you actually read it before you copied & pasted it here!?
In other words, just speculation about speculation.
NZ is not the only property market to have been affected by Chinese buyers. Being a relatively small market, such groups can have disproportionate influence. This from Vancouver:
Why Vancouver's Housing Market Hinges on China's Economy | Smart Cities Dive
Sure, but do you have some solid numbers (AKA stats) for the NZ situation?
Not being a demographer, no. Do you have figures that show the contrary?
You joined this discussion thread and I assumed because you have information to share on NZ.
The contrary of what?? Your Q makes no sense.
@Incognito – you are, without contrary facts, trying to dismiss Muttonbird's thesis, that Chinese property accumulation has become a problem.
We know the Key government declined to collect such statistics, most probably because it would embarrass the group concerned, who were major funders.
You have dismissed the Chinese names data – but I am, among other things, in linguistics. It is quite possible, and perfectly proper to obtain meaningful data from names in that fashion.
Nice of you to join the convo again but please have a coffee first before you start talking nonsense.
Muttonbird asserted a fact.
I asked them to back it up.
I’m still waiting but it looks like I’ll be waiting till the cows come up because they’re not playing ball.
Waiting =//= dismissing.
Feel free to apply your linguistics skills and tools to the question. What/which database(s) are you going to use? The same crap one as Phil Twyford?
Further, see my comment @ 10:11 pm (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14-03-2021/#comment-1783274).
This is the New Zealand residential property market, there are no stats.
Have you been in a coma the last 10 years?
Huh?
Stuart talked about Vancouver and I asked about NZ, just as I’ve asked you about NZ. But nothing useful so far. Meanwhile, “mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property” according to you @ 3:35 pm and seemingly also according to Stuart!? But you now claim there are no data to back this up!? So, did you pluck that assertion out of your orifice just as Phil Twyford did?
The same crap one as Phil Twyford?
It wasn't dismissed because it was crap, but because the usual media suspects weren't up to understanding how it worked. The failure was political, not factual.
In a field where data is scarce, imperfect data is better than none. It may well be corrected by subsequent full data, if it were collected. But what can be learned from partial data doesn't go away just because the Chinese speculators howled 'racism!' Just as the Indian prospective husbands, denied the end-run allowed under the Key administration, made similar claims of oppression, but went silent as the trope surfaced.
Our property register has (irresponsibly) not been collecting the data. Comparative data sets like behaviours of the same expatriate community in other countries form a reasonable estimate of their activity here, in the absence of the figures any responsible administration would collect as a matter of course. As do name frequency analyses, which revealed a disproportionate activity level among Chinese purchasers.
Phil Twyford’s ‘data analysis’ was crap. Crap data in, crap ‘conclusions’ out. Pretty much what happened 🙁
Blablablah, irrelevant diversion.
Did they now? So, a “name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis? Shame that they, which or whatever they (any links besides to Twyford’s crap one?), seem to be inconsistent with Stats NZ data. You didn’t read my comment @ 10:11 pm, did you? Or you didn’t understand it, or wilfully ignored it.
The data it generated is consistent with market behaviour, which is not even discernable from Stats' failure to measure.
“name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis?
Yes, in fact. Ethnicity is reasonably correlated with names, which are linguistic data. We can predict Irish ancestry from names with an O patronymic, or Georgian from a -shvili, or Chinese from a surname like Zhou. Though the match is not perfect, as people change their names, emigrate, or intermarry, the correlation is strong enough to use for some purposes, such as determining whether the NZ property market has enjoyed an inexplicable immunity from the problems created by an inflow of Chinese real estate investment in comparable communities like Vancouver.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/106836362/chinese-pour-15-billion-into-nz-housing-market-last-year
This is getting tedious. The only ‘hard’ number is “nearly 1600” but it does not state where that figure came from and what fraction of the total number it represents. The piece also suggests that the number was what it was because “a desire to beat New Zealand's new partial foreign buyers ban buoyed the local market”.
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/leaked-data-shows-chinese-offshore-buyers-fuelling-rampant-auckland-property-speculation
What percentage were sold to wealthy offshore buyers, from places other than China?
No idea. But for the purposes of this argument, were those other offshore buyers from countries with such appalling human rights records as China???
I know several from the country that is currently bombing Syria, and supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia.
As well as starving Venezuala and Iran into submission.
But. They are our "friends".
I know Chinese immigrants, and Chinese Kiwi’s, that are not at all happy with the CCP, BTW.
FFS!
To be honest, the crocodile tears shed by the right about what is happening in Xinjiang province seem to happen when the Chinese government is starting to:
1) slow its privatisation and market reform programs
2) jail corrupt billionaires
3) have SOE's invest in 3rd World nations.
Thanks Millsy – my fave comment so far.
Mediaworks are in trouble again. They have failed to recognise an abuser in their ranks, probably one which delivers some sort of profit to them.
Staff have gone to directly to social media to out this predator such is their power and now the bigwigs are scrambling to cover their tracks.
I'm reminded of the popularity of such 'boys will be boys' behaviour at radio stations such as this which were so very popular with the serial pony-tail puller, Sir John Key.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/radios-prison-rape-joke-with-pm-falls-flat/YZJQMY3CSUKDUSVG4K4UQUC6YY/
Seems The Rock and Mediaworks still haven't cleaned up their act.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/investigation-into-sexual-harassment-allegations-at-the-rock-mediaworks-radio-station/YV5UT4VMNU6DTKS2IW5OVUIRGA/
What the Key government did when it came to not fully acknowledging though ACC the damage (not addressing the full impact) which a schedule 3 event can cause showed me how out of touch Key was when it came to a sexual offence causing a mental injury.
I am going to call out the Ardern government for not addressing the damage and impact which a person who has PTSD is not covered unless they have a physical injury.
Little should not have been given the job to implement changes due to 15 March 2019. How can Little be impartial when he is the Minister of the SIS and GCSB?
Fair go,Treetop, how the fuck was Little supposed to know what the arsehole was up to when his own mother and other people he lived with didn’t have a clue?
You are just sniping for snipings sake.
Anker you or I could go into the city highly intoxicated and fall over and smash our face in and ACC will cover you.
ACC give cover using the 1961 Crimes Act, which they refer to as a schedule 3 injury for mental injury cover. Some physical accidents also have a mental injury component such as pain and they are assessed for this. A lot of interpretation goes on. Is this what parliament intended when they deny cover for a no fault accident?
In 1992 the then National government took cover away for a mental injury which did not have a physical cause.
Most people are not aware of what PTSD can do to the body. The physical effects need to be acknowledged such as autoimmune conditions and the effects that the trauma has on the central nervous system. This is what exposure to a high magnitude event will do.
Surprise surprise, border closures are winning strategy.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/wa-election-bloodbath-as-labor-triumph-historic-landslide-victory/f9575b08-8eb3-447c-8b41-316f334cd896
This is WA, the opportunity to tell the eastern states, and especially Federal Government / Canberra to go forth and multiply is electoral gold for any incumbent politician. A complete separation / secession would be just fine with most of the State's residents.
Poor dear's doing it tough.
/
Reply to Adrian @8
That is a big stretch for you to think that I hold Little responsible for the actions of a deranged gunman. Little is the face of the government on the direction of the matter.
The President of the Islamic Council of NZ on The Nation yesterday everything she said I agree with.
Little cannot drag his heels when it comes to not looking into the future of those who have PTSD but are not covered because they do not have a so called physical injury. It needs to be fully acknowledged that the PTSD was caused by a high magnitude event which government agencies were unprepared for.
Correction Islamic Women's Council of NZ
Hi Treetop, just remember that right now there are voices asking for extended cover for those who are contributing to the system. ACC is funded by taxpayers under a model of user pay, i.e. payroll deduction, employer contribution, car rego. etc. Do not confuse any welfare provision that is being paid by setting aside a fund from general taxation with this self funding mechanism.
Also remember, in NZ medical services and not even the Ambulance service is being fully funded by the tax allocations. ACC is NOT part of that at all.
Interesting interview with an old school diplomate re; China/USA (ie the rest of the western world)..
Biden’s China Policy: A More Polite Trump – Amb. Chas Freeman
"Retired Ambassador Chas Freeman, Nixon's translator during his 1972 trip to China, says U.S. policy to China remains a desire to hold on to primacy globally and regionally. Biden's approach so far is not much different than the aggressive posture of Trump."
UK police trying to shut down publicity for a crime committed by one of their own:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/13/sarah-everard-pressure-for-new-laws-to-curb-violence-against-women
Their chosen instrument: the Covid restrictions (which weren't actually being violated till the flatfoots themselves invaded the bandstand where the organisers were). I suppose it’s at least different from the usual "fire regulations" catch-all.
Worth noting because the same sort of crap might be tried on by our own boys in blue at some point when they see something going down that offends their ideas of order.