The Herald reports:

From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated.

While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington water pipe (and to be fair, formal update announcements have also commenced).

Consequently, we know of proposed and completed redundancies of some 1000 people to date (give or take), as departments pare their spending in line with reduced and revised Budget allocations, now being finalised for announcement next month. …

But those figures remain eclipsed by the number of staff added through just the second half of last year: 368 additions at MBIE (a 5.9 per cent increase); 405 additions at MSD (a 4.5 per cent increase); 12 additions at MPI (a 0.3 per cent increase); and 77 additions at MoH (a 10.5 per cent increase).

All up, the public service expanded by 4.1 per cent in the last six months for which we have data, which amounted to an addition of 2580 net new employees, as of December 31.

So in the last six months of 2023, the public service grew by around 430 staff a month. The reductions announced to date basically just wind back less than three months of job growth. We have Stuff and Radio NZ doing multiple news bulletins a day about the fact the size of the public sector is going back to the size it was in September 2023, instead of December 2023!

The big picture is that the public service workforce is now 65,699 strong, an increase of 39 per cent (18,447 fulltime equivalent (FTE) employees) since June 30, 2017, just a few months before Labour’s coalition Government was sworn in that October.

So it is around a 1.5% reduction so far.

When Max Rashbrooke is being the voice of reason, that should be a wake up call to others to reduce the hysteria.

The Herald reports:

A Kiwi mother fled New Zealand with her three young children while her husband was at work, to get away from a marriage punctuated by abuse. But she has now been ordered to return her tamariki to their father – despite an Australian judge conceding he had exposed them to family violence.

The order was made under the Hague Convention – an international agreement that helps children return to the country they usually live in if they’re taken or kept overseas, so that parenting arrangements can be made. 

This is not surprising. If one parent unilaterally decides to leave the country with the kids, they almost always end up in the wrong – as they should. Unilaterally deciding that kids should have no contact with their other parent is not a decision for one parent to make. It is a decision for courts to make. And the level of potential harm to kids should be very significant to justify effectively removing one parent from their lives.

Taking the kids to live with her family in Australia seemed like her only option to get away from Ben, who she said subjected her to assaults, financial and emotional abuse and controlling and coercive behaviour.

It wasn’t. You can move out. You can get a protection order. You can move into a refuge. You can get your partner arrested if he has broken the law. None of these are easy, but deciding to flee the country with the kids is not the only option.

Alice outlined the abuse she had been subjected to – giving the judge examples – and raised “a litany of complaints” about his parenting.

She also believed Ben had, throughout the marriage, embarked on “a deliberate campaign to undermine her and her parenting” that included constant criticism and gaslighting.

Umm, criticising parenting styles off even skills is not a valid reason to have your kids stolen from you. And it isn;’t that uncommon parents do disagree on such things.

Ben denied the majority of Alice’s claims, telling the judge that she was “volatile, quick to anger, lacked emotional regulation” and was usually the aggressor in any conflict.

But he “readily made concessions against self-interest, without apparent hesitation” regarding some family harm incidents.

He even told the judge he was willing to foot the bill for the children coming home, and if Alice came with them he would vacate the family home for three months while she got resettled.

Sounded a decent offer.

The judge released her decision five days after the hearing.

“On either parent’s evidence, their relationship was conflictual, punctuated by frequent separations and reconciliations, and marred by acts of family violence,” she said.

“Each parent contends that the other parent was the aggressor, and that they were the victim.”

She said both parents had tried to provide honest and genuine information – but she felt some of Alice’s evidence was “coloured by her desire for her and the children to remain in Australia”.

The judge said it was not for her to decide how the children should be parented or their custody managed – her task was to assess whether they would be exposed to grave risk as defined under the Hague Convention if she ordered their return to New Zealand.

So sounds like fault on both sides.

Alice felt her experience of family violence was “minimised” in court, which was proof the Hague Convention was unfit for purpose in 2024.

“Should it be the discretion of a judge to determine whether or not abuse of any kind is ‘bad enough’?” she said.

Yes. Who else would decide? Any abuse is bad, but for one parent to lose all parenting rights, it needs to be substantial.

Stuff reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ordered his senior MP Peeni Henare to remove posts on social media ridiculing government ministers including a cartoon image of ACT Leader David Seymour with faeces coming out of his eyes and an anus for a mouth.

It says something about the judgment of the former Minister that he would think it was appropriate to post such a cartoon.

Just imagine the outcry if a National MP had posted such an image of Jacinda Ardern or James Shaw?

It follows Labour MP Willie Jackson, on Thursday, calling Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee “stupid” …

Labour seem to want to live up their reputation as the nasty party.

The sentiment was echoed by Seymour, “ACT’s a free speech party and he’s got every right to post what he wants, but everyone has the right to decide what they think of it, too.”

“My biggest worry is democracy needs a competent opposition, I just hope this post isn’t the best they can do,” said Seymour.

Labour seem to like polling in the 20s.

News.com.au reports:

Four people are dead and many more injured after a mass stabbing inside a packed Westfield at Sydney’s Bondi Junction, with shocking footage emerging of families fleeing for their lives.

The horror unfolded at 4pm on Saturday afternoon when a man began stabbing shoppers at random, including a woman and her nine-month-old baby, before being shot dead by police.

Terrible for those at the scene, plus their families and friends.

Stories are already emerging of heroic Australians battling to take down the knifeman, with some throwing tables and chairs at him and astonishing footage emerging of one man taking him on with a bollard. 

Good on ya cobbers.

The Attorney General said there is no information that proves the attack is terror-related, but the AFP are consulting with NSW Police are will activate a joint counter terrorism team if necessary.

When the attacker is stabbing babies, it is highly likely to be terror-related.

UPDATE: Now five dead sadly, and nine stabbed.

Kudos to the senior female officer who confronted him and shot him. She saved many more lives, by not waiting for backup.

Looks like she is an Inspector.

NPR is the US public broadcaster. Uri Berliner has worked for them for 25 years and has written a thoughtful piece on how they lost their way. There are lessons here for other broadcasters.

• In 2011 their listeners were 37% liberal and 26% conservative, in 2023 it is 67% liberal and 11% conservative
• Was unbalanced on Russiagate interviewing Adam Schiff 25 times, and not covering well the conclusion there was no collusion
• Ignored the Hunter Biden laptop story as it could help Trump
• Dismissed the possibility that Covid-19 was a lab leak, now deemed likely
• Decided that America is systemically racist their mission was to change it
• Diversity became the “North Star” for NPR
• Union contract requires journalists to follow language and style guide of journalism affinity groups such as MGIPOC (Marginalized Genders and Intersex People of Color mentorship program) and Gender-Expansive, and Transgender People in Technology Throughout Public Media
• Have been instructed to avoid the term “biological sex”
• With the Israel-Hamas war, highlighting the suffering of Palestinians at almost every turn while downplaying the atrocities of October 7 and overlooking how Hamas intentionally puts Palestinian civilians in peril
• At NPR HQ they have 87 registered democrats on staff and 0 registered republicans
• Despite the diversity push, no increase in black or hispanic listeners. Has become media for urban white progressives

He ends with some good advice for the new CEO:

Her first rule could be simple enough: don’t tell people how to think. It could even be the new North Star.

As I said, many things in his article have relevance for NZ media.

Many will recall this Yes Minister episode about how there was a very good hospital with only one problem – no patients.

Well Radio NZ reports:

A brand new surgical building the size of a provincial hospital is sitting empty on the grounds of North Shore Hospital, its opening delayed and no new date set.

There are lights on and hospital beds in place in the four storey, 150-bed Tōtara Haumaru building, but it could be months before there are patients.

You would have thought that during the many years of construction for the new surgical building, someone would have been recruiting staff so it would not just sit there empty for the best part of a year!

Reason reports:

In August of 2018, the Widner kids—then ages 13, 11, nine, and seven—were members of a swim team at their local YMCA, which was about two blocks from their house. One day, after swim practice, the 7-year-old, Jackson, lagged behind while the rest of his siblings walked home, and stopped by the grocery for a free cookie.

A store employee thought it was so unusual to see an unaccompanied 7-year-old that a store employee called 911. Then, instead of letting him leave, the employee told Jackson he had to wait for the police to arrive.

This became part of a pattern; indeed, Jackson’s semi-independence attracted police attention on no fewer than three occasions, leading to two investigations by Child Protective Services (CPS). …

After the police finally brought Jackson home, they informed his father, Glenn, that it wasn’t safe to let a child his age wander around outside.

“You just can’t raise kids like that anymore—it isn’t safe,” said the cops.

Glenn begged to differ, reciting statistics that kids today face no greater risk from stranger danger than previous generations. Nevertheless, the police summoned child protective services.

Soon thereafter, Beth got a call from Jackson, using the new watch phone his parents had gotten him after the August incident. He said the police wanted to speak to her. Once again, cops had detained Jackson for being outside unsupervised.

Beth got to the grocery parking lot within a couple of minutes. She found Jackson seated like a suspect in the backseat of a cruiser. The complaining witness watched as the police let Beth take her son home. Beth wasn’t told what to expect further, and she didn’t hear from child services. But she later learned that child services had been informed about Jackson’s flagrant act of unaccompanied bike riding. …

One of the police officers accused Glenn of “breaking the law” by letting Jackson go out alone. “What law is that?” Glenn inquired.  The officer replied, “You can Google it.” The most senior officer accused him of neglect and “contributing to delinquency of the minor,” and told him not only could he be arrested, but he might face felony charges and spend time in jail.

This is awful over-reach. I live near a playground and sometimes I let my kids to go to it a few minutes ahead of me, while I clean up the dishes.

I’m actually pretty cautious and won’t let my seven year old walk or scoot around the neighbourhood alone, but will sometimes say yes if he has a similar aged friend with him. At some stage I’ll loosen the strings more.

These are decisions for parents to make, based on how well we know our kids, and our neighbourhoods. There is no role for the Police except where a child is manifestly too young to be outside alone, or is lost.

This takes climate hysteria to a new level. It’s like a return to the Dark Ages.

When the school attendance crisis became fully evident the, then, Minister of Education (Hipkins), blamed parents and said it was up to them to get kids to school. He dared not blame the schools.

In opposition Seymour was fierce and inspiring. Parents were to be given enough money each year so as to be able to choose their ECE and school. Schools had to improve or shut down. The Ministry of education was going to go from 4,400 staff back to the pre 2018 number of 2,700 – which was already bizarrely inflated with seat warmers.

In government that lion has turned 180 degrees (baaa). The Ministry of Education has not yet shed an employee and are one of Seeks best customers. None of the disastrous top 12 have been sent to Ukraine. There is nothing yet about parents having their choices enhanced. And – Seymour’s solution to the attend crisis is more quickly publishing system wide data – when it needs to be school by school every week – and he is going to fine parents.

David suddenly seems afraid of the unions and the schools. ACT is the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers. They used to stand for small government. They used to stand for families and not against them. I took my three children to Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan when they were at primary school. They missed some school but learned a year’s worth of experience. I would not be paying a fine and neither will anyone else.

NZ schools and teachers have lost a big segment of the room. We have 2,600 schools and a large portion of those I would not be advising any parent to simply send their kids along without a lot of due diligence and complete assurance that their child will be taught well and be free from bullying from the BoT, Principal, teachers and other children.

Forcing children back into school is no solution. As a good friend states – the school is often the source of a child’s trauma. If the only reason a child is at school is that the parent has been fined … how do you think that will turn out?

The solution is almost all school based.

The bottom lines:

• teachers need to become people the vast majority of young people (and their parents) want to learn from. They need to be well qualified and, primary teachers (by their own admission) are not confident in Math and Science they need to do NCEA L2 in both.

• schools need to be seen as being highly purposeful, and safe – good places to be EVERY day.

• schools and teachers need to win back credibility by being open every day. No teacher only days (especially on the Thursday before Good Friday), strikes, or parent teacher interviews in school time after sending the kids home (a really weird development).

• NCEA/NZQA needs to regain full credibility as a qualification worth striving for. Postponing improvement for a few years is kicking the can down the road. Seymour and Stanford need to employ the very best people and have everything flying in 2026 … it is not that hard!

• much of our emphasis needs to be different. I love sport but some of it has gone well over the top. The high quality boys school – St Peters in Epsom has their leavers graduating with UE at 93% (Auckland Grammar at 74%)  The provincial boys schools who call themselves the Super 8 have a low of 14.3% Rotorua Boys and a high of 42% Napier Boys. But if their 1st XV has had a good year all is chipper.

Seymour’s hair colour may differ from that of Hipkins but, so far, it is a NCEA style “Not Achieved” for the Associate Minister.

Alwyn Poole
Innovative Education Consultants
www.innovativeeducation.co.nz
alwynpoole.substack.com
www.linkedin.com/in/alwyn-poole-16b02151/

This is so scathing. The Auckland Light Rail fiasco:

• Blew out costs by 700% to 1100% in five years
• Promoted transport options which bear no resemblance to the cost envelopes
• Did not rule out the tunnel option even after costs doubled then doubled again

What a gigantic waste of money it all was.

The NZ Jewish Council has analysed the hate crime data from the NZ Police. His executive summary:

• Police reported hate crimes targeting Jews in New Zealand increased 583% from 2022 to 2023. 
• Jewish New Zealanders are disproportionately targeted for hate crimes. Despite making up only 0.2% of the population, NZ Police Oct-Dec 2023 data shows that:
  • 13% of all reported hate crimes in the Auckland Region were against Jews;10% of all reported hate crimes in the Wellington Region were against Jews; and
  • 10% of all reported hate crimes in the Tasman Region were against Jews.
• Jewish New Zealanders are 160 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than a European New Zealander.
• Jewish New Zealanders are 18 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than a Maori New Zealander.
• Jewish New Zealanders are 1.7 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than a Middle Eastern New Zealander.
• Hate crimes against Jewish New Zealanders are increasing at a rate more than 5 times higher than the next group of victims, Middle Eastern New Zealanders. 

It is disappointing that NZ media doesn’t seem to consider this is newsworthy.

Also of interest:

Data on the offenders of hate crime^[1] shows that Māori are more likely to commit a hate crime per capita than any other group (approx 1.4 incidents per 1,000 population compared to 0.4 for Pasifika, 0.3 for Europeans, 0.2 for Indians, and 0.05 for Asians).

You can see the huge increase since 2022. If this had happened against any other ethnic minority, I suspect it would be the subject of many ongoing stories.

The full analysis is here:

Radio NZ report:

The team behind Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement (CCRL) says its costs have significantly increased, and the project may be mothballed if the funds cannot be found.

The landmark cathedral in Christchurch’s city centre was badly damaged in the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

The cost of restoration was in 2017 estimated at $104 million. That rose to $154m in 2020, but a full project review has now priced it at $248m.

That’s not at public sector levels of blowout, but still a lot.

Stewart said they were confident of fundraising another $26m, and the Anglican Church had offered $16m, “leaving a funding gap of $114 million”.

“Philanthropy alone will not provide sufficient funds to complete the project.”

Then sadly it won’t be completed as taxpayers and ratepayers should not pay.

The city has actually done very well in the 13 years without it. It’s a nice to have, not a must have.

I’m delighted to see the Government announce nice Better Public Services targets, as meeting those targets can improve life for so many New Zealanders. We have first hand experience that they can work – the last National-led Government saw immunisations rates for Maori skyrocket to the same level as non-Maori, saw hundreds or thousands of lives saved due to faster service at emergency departments.

The BPS targets are important for numerous reasons:

• They allow results to be measured and Government to be accountaable
• They incentivise agencies to work together to achieve them
• They provide a focus for Ministers and the public
• They generally are focused on outcomes, not inputs or outputs.

The last one is especially important. The difference is:

• Inputs: Action (ie spend $20 million to try and improve school attendance rates)
• Outputs: Result (50 new truancy officers are operating)
• Outcome: Impact (School attendance is up 10%)

So what are the nine targets:

1. Shorter stays in emergency departments: 95 per cent of patients to be admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.
2. Shorter wait times for (elective) treatment: 95 per cent of people wait less than four months for elective treatment.
3. Reduced child and youth offending: 15 per cent reduction in the total number of children and young people with serious and persistent offending behaviour.
4. Reduced violent crime: 20,000 fewer people who are victims of an assault, robbery, or sexual assault.
5. Fewer people on the Jobseeker Support Benefit: 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support Benefit. 
6. Increased student attendance: 80 per cent of students are present for more than 90 per cent of the term. 
7. More students at expected curriculum levels: 80 per cent of Year 8 students at or above the expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030. 
8. Fewer people in emergency housing: 75 per cent reduction of households in emergency housing.  
9. Reduced net greenhouse gas emissions: On track to meet New Zealand’s 2050 net zero climate change targets, with total net emissions of no more than 290 megatonnes from 2022 to 2025 and 305 megatonnes from 2026 to 2030.  

I much prefer a desired outcome of 20,000 fewer crime victims than an output of 25% fewer people in prison.

I think one of the worst things the Ardern/Hipkins Government did was abandon Better Public Services targets. Not only did we see outcomes get so much worse in so many areas, we lost that focus on measuring outcomes, not just how much money we’re spending.

I wouldn’t expect a Labour-led Government to have the same BPS targets as a National-led Government but I would expect them to have their own suite they could be held accountable against.

In an ideal political world all six parliamentary parties would go into an election with their six to ten Better Public Services outcomes so that voters can see what actual impact they want to make, and hold them to account for them. This is very different to just publishing policies.

Radio NZ report:

Whangārei’s acclaimed, but controversial, Hundertwasser Art Centrecould run out of money by October 2025 – which means ratepayers may have to stump up to keep it open.

That is despite an undertaking during the long-running campaign to build the centre that it would pay its own way rather than rely on council funding.

It cost around $33 million and got over half of that from taxpayers as corporate welfare. They said they expected it to attract 450,000 visitors a year.

The trust’s half-yearly report, presented to Whangārei district councillors last month, showed the centre had 19,800 paying visitors in the second half of 2023 – a sharp drop from the 37,000 in the first four months after the doors opened.

So they are likely to get 40,000 visitors over a year, less than 10% of what was claimed. I don’t know why government keeps falling for these fantastical claims of patronage that never eventuate.

Reduced admission fees and shop sales led to a half-year loss by the Hundertwasser Art Centre of $765,000.

So a possible annual loss of $1.5 million. There are 30,000 households in Whangarei so each household will have to subsidise it on average by $50.

Liam Hehir skewers Chloe’s Swarbrick repeated claims she is a reluctant politician. He notes:

Swarbrick was born in the year of Our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-four. She completed university studies in 2016. It was that same year, with great reluctance, that a political career was essentially forced upon her as made a high profile run at the Auckland mayoralty at just 22 years of age. Generating significant media buzz, she placed a very creditable third. …

What followed was an intense contest for Swarbrick’s political loyalties. Both Labour and the Greens courted the very reluctant candidate. Somehow the Greens were able to coax her into a reluctant continuation of her political journey. Swarbrick was no doubt horrified when she received an extremely comfortable list placing that all but assured her reluctant election to Parliament in the 2017 election. 

Success has continued to follow Swarbrick. She won a brilliant if reluctant insurgency for the seat of Auckland Central in 2020, which she won despite a massive shift towards Labour. With great reluctance, she went on to successfully defend it last year. 

Things were looking up for Swarbrick when her career looked stymied by the ascent of Marama Davidson as female co-leader of the party. This made it very hard for Swarbrick to advance because, even if James Shaw retired, there would not be another space in the ruling diarchy for another female identifying candidate. 

However, destiny intervened once more. The Greens actually changed their rules in 2022 so that there could be two female co-leaders. That meant, in the event of Shaw’s retirement from the leadership, the path would be open for Swarbrick to reluctantly resume her political ascent. …

And so, with great reluctance, Swarbrick was forced to take climb yet another rung of the ladder. “[We] need everyday people to not leave politics to the politicians,” she reluctantly announced, drawing a firm line between herself as a non-politician politician and the career politicians who treat politics like a career.

Hehir concludes:

The cynics have been quick to point out that that Swarbrick has spent almost all of her of her post-university life either running for office, getting ready for office or holding office. This is a bit misleading, however. Because while political success and glory has pursued Swarbrick relentlessly, that’s not her fault. 

The record is clear, this is a very reluctant politician.

Would be nice if the media adopted the same scepticism to such ridiculous claims.

After I blogged how segregated study areas could lead to serrated tutorials and lectures, a reader alerted me to the fact this has already happened. The Law Faculty AT Canterbury University advised:

This email is to let you know that the Faculty of Law, with our support is piloting a dedicated LAWS206 tutorial group for ākonga Māori who want to be in a like-minded group for the tutorials in this subject.  We are only running one group in the pilot to see how it goes so we are not able to accommodate everyone.  So, sorry if we cannot fit you into the group. The long-term goal is to have such a group operate in all the LAWS 200s, but we are starting with the pilot in Public Law only this year.

This is well intentioned but I think a very bad idea. What does it teach future lawyers if you start by saying, hey do you want to be segregated from other races? It also potentially leads to groupthink, and a filtering of contrary views.

Simeon Brown announced:

The Coalition Government will restore the rights of communities to determine whether to introduce Māori wards, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.

“The Government will introduce a Bill in the coming months that will restore the ability for communities to petition their councils to hold binding polls on Māori ward decisions. This will include holding binding polls on wards that were established without the ability for local referendums to take place.

Residents, not politicians, should determine the constitutional structure of their local council. Introducing race based wards is a constitutional change, just as changing from FPP to STV is. Both types of changes should be ones for voters, not Councillors.

As signalled in our coalition agreements, affected councils will be required to hold a poll alongside the 2025 elections. The results of these polls will be binding on councils and will take effect for the local government term beginning October 2028.

“If councils do not wish to hold a poll, those councils will be given the opportunity to reverse their decision to establish Māori wards or to disestablish those wards prior to the 2025 local body elections.”

There are some Councils who voted for introducing Maori wards purely because they knew there was no ability for a referendum to sustain or veto their decision. If they know the community is against such a change, they can avoid the cost of a referendum by repealing their decision.

This will also allow voters to make informed choices in who they vote for in 2025, as all Council candidates will be on the record about whether or not they support race based wards.

I’ve often blogged on how the media will call numerous people or organisations far right our hard right, but never do so with those on the left.

Take an example – the Fabians are holding an event to discuss abolishing the NZ military. This is as far left or fringe as you can get, but I guarantee you such a term would never be used against them.

The Daily Mail report:

A Jewish woman who confronted a Met Police officer after he said that swastikas ‘need to be taken into context’ when she reported seeing them at a pro-Palestine protest has said the force needs ‘basic education’.

Jocelin Weiss, 30, was blown away after being told by police that the Nazi symbol was ‘not necessarily anti-Semitic or a disruption of public order’ when she saw it being displayed on a poster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Met has sparked a major backlash, including on US news websites, after video emerged of an officer seemingly justifying the use of swastikas to Ms Weiss at Saturday’s march.

Now it shouldn’t be illegal to display a swastika, but the fact the Met Police will arrest someone for peacefully counter protesting a pro-Hamas march, and defend and justify the display of swastikas is telling.