Stuff reports:

The single defining characteristic of teenage sex in 2013 is porn. Graphic, hardcore sex, free for anyone with a smart phone to watch. It’s so ubiquitous that the average age of first exposure to porn is now just 11 years old, warping kids’ ideas of what normal sex is years before they are likely to try it themselves.

“When you put a smart phone in the hands of a teen or tween, you’re basically giving them access to online porn,” says Liz Walker, the national director of Get a Grip Teenz education program.

That’s an unfortunate name for a group campaigning against porn!

Dismal day in Auckland. Coffee machine in office broken. I think it’s time for some pics instead.

As I think we’re a little short of scenic pics this week, here’s one of a local stream first, and then we’ll double up with our very unique kereru.

Mossy Stream

Click for larger, higher res image

Click for larger, higher res image

I’ve also had a revamp of my photo website. Visitors welcome 🙂

News.com.au reports:

Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party made $2.202 million from its surprising strong vote on September 7 after Mr Palmer was believed to have poured millions into his campaign.

Liberal Democratic Party senator-elect David Leyonhjelm scored his predicted $1.033 million, despite admitting some people mixed his name up on the ballot paper with the Liberal Party and opposing public funding of political parties.

The Liberal Party made $23.103 million, the Nationals $3.076 million while the Australian Labor Party made $20.195 million.

The Greens will receive $5.356 million.

South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon will receive $636,127 after his strong polling in the state’s senate race.

Bob Katter’s Australian Party will receive $166,711 and Family First $103,724.

An AEC spokesman said all candidates who score at least 4 per cent of the vote qualified for the $2.48 payment per vote.

This is what the left want to occur in New Zealand. No more reliance on members and supporters for funding. Just rort it all from the taxpayer.

Taxpayers should not be forced to fund political parties through their taxes. Funding a political party should be a voluntary act. It is appropriate the MPs get resources to support their work as MPs, but party organisations should go find their own funding rather than force taxpayers to fund them.

SUBMISSION OF DAVID FARRAR ON THE
REVIEW OF STANDING ORDERS TO THE STANDING ORDERS SELECT COMMITTEE

 About the Submitter

1. This submission is made by David Farrar in a personal capacity. I would like to appear before the Committee to speak to my submission.
2. I am a former Parliamentary staffer from 1996 to 2004, and write reasonably extensively on parliamentary issues on my blog.

Overall View

3. The changes to standing orders made in 2011 were beneficial, and generally Standing Orders are working well. However there are a number of areas where further improvement can be made

Urgency

4. The ability for the House to have an extended sitting, as an alternative to urgency, has worked well. It is pleasing to see the use of urgency has reduced considerably.
5. Urgency is from time to time still necessary when the Government decides (and the House concurs) that it needs to progress legislation more quickly than is possible under an extended sitting. I note with approval that the current Government has almost always granted leave for question time to occur when the House is in urgency.
6. I believe it would be desirable to codify this practice and amend Standing Orders so that question time still occurs under urgency. A future Government could use urgency to avoid the important scrutiny of question time.
7. While it is important the Government has the ability to progress legislation in a timely manner, an hour a day of question time is not a significant detriment from this. It could be stated that only questions to Ministers are allowed under urgency, so that numerous questions to Members can’t occur as a form of filibuster.

NZ Bill of Rights

8. Standing Order 262 provides for the Attorney-General to report to the House if a bill contains a provision which appears to be inconsistent with the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, upon introduction of the bill.
9. Bills can be significantly amended by a select committee or the committee of the whole House which can change a bill’s consistency with the NZBORA.
10. It would be desirable to amend SO 262 so that the Attorney-General report on NZBORA consistency to the House prior to the second and third reading of a bill if the Attorney-General believes changes to a bill warrant a further opinion .

Question Time

11. I propose that Tuesday’s question time to Ministers and Members be replaced with a half hour question time to the Prime Minister, as occurs in the UK House of Commons.
12. We have almost ended up with a de facto PM’s question time with wide ranging questions to the PM along the lines of “Does he have confidence in all his Ministers” which allows almost any issue to be a supplementary. We also have a tradition that the PM is always present on a Tuesday, normally on a Wednesday and rarely on a Thursday.
13. I believe a House of Commons type PMs question time would be a good opportunity for the House to question the PM on his or her Government, without the requirement to lay specific primary questions. It would be challenging to a PM, but I am sure recent PMs would be up to the challenge.

General Debate

14. I believe the General Debate serve little useful parliamentary purpose, if one accepts the purpose of the House is to debate laws, hold the Government to account, debate topical issues or policies or highlight matters of importance.
15. General Debate is generally a slagfest between MPs, that generates an occasional Jane Clifton column, but generally does little to advance the purposes of the House.
16. I note, through listening to Channel’s 4 Today in Parliament, that the House of Commons (and Lords) regularly debate specific issues, unrelated to legislation under consideration. In contrast to the NZ General Debates, their more focused debates often provide very interesting and useful insights into issues.
17. I propose that we retain General Debate every second sitting week (say when it is a Member’s Bills week) and that every other week the time slot be allocated to a debate on a specific issue or policy area.
18. One would need to establish a mechanism for determining the policy topics, but this should not be overly difficult. It could be done by the Business Committee, or topics allocated proportionally to each party, or have each Select Committee determine in turn a topic.

Financial Procedures Debates

19. Many of the Financial Procedures debates also become little more than slagfests after the first dozen or so speeches. They take up days and days of House time when MPs make speeches with little relevance to the financial bills in questions. That time could be spent more productively debating legislation.

20. I propose that the Budget debate reduce from 14 hours (up to 84 speeches) to seven hours (up to 42 speeches, or more likely 26 – 30 speeches).

21. I also propose the Estimates debate reduce from eight hours to four hours.

Non-Legislative Procedures

22. The Address in Reply and PM’s statement also have the same issue, in which after the first few speeches, there are few contributions that introduce new material, or advance the interest of the House.

23. However I recognize the Address in Reply does provide an opportunity for new MPs to make maiden speeches.

24. I propose the Address in Reply reduce from 19 hours to 15 hours. This would provide three hours for specified party leaders, eight hours for say 32 maiden speeches and four hours for other MPs.

25. For the debate on the PM’s statement, I would propose a reduction from 15 hours to six hours, allowing two hours for party leaders and four hours for other MPs.

26. These reductions in total would free up 24 hours of House time, which is almost two extra weeks of sitting time.

Thank you for considering this submission. I would like to make an oral submission in support, and look forward to appearing.

David Farrar

The Herald reported:

A report into the oil and gas sector says the “rubber’s finally hitting the road” with $2.2 billion about to be spent exploring around New Zealand.

The 2013 Edison Yearbook update finds that the exploration and production sector is embarking on its most intensive and expensive campaign ever and says heavyweights not already here, but known to be interested in New Zealand, include Chevron and Woodside.

During the next 12 months there are 98 wells to be sunk, 27 of them offshore.

Superb. Do we want to say no to $2.2 billion of economic activity? I know some political parties do, but I don’t.

Anadarko and Origin’s pending drilling of the Caravel prospect in the Canterbury Basin could be “transformational” for the New Zealand exploration and production sector.

“If, as Anadarko’s analysis suggests, a discovery is gas-rich, the implications for the South Island in particular would likely be game-changing.”

We have one of the largest EEZ’s in the world. It it called an exclusive economic zone for a reason – to utilise it for economic development.

Steven Joyce announced last week:

A total of 43,700 domestic students completed bachelors degrees or higher qualifications in 2012, with bachelors degrees accounting for more than half of that total.

The number of domestic students who completed a bachelors degree in 2012 is the highest ever at 25,400, up 4,790 since 2010 – an increase of 23 per cent.

“Right through the 2000s the number of degree graduates flat-lined, despite big increases in tertiary funding by the previous government.  This Government’s focus on performance and not just bums on seats, has led to much better results for students and taxpayers,” Mr Joyce says.

A 23% increase in two years is significant.

• The participation rate of Māori aged 18-24 years in bachelors and higher qualifications increased from 11 per cent in 2011 to 12 per cent in 2012

• The participation rate of Pasifika aged 18-24 years in bachelors and higher qualifications increased from 14 per cent in 2011 to 15 per cent in 2012

• The proportion of people aged 15 years and over with a bachelors degree or higher qualification increased from 11 per cent in 2002 to 18 per cent in 2012.

• The proportion of industry trainees gaining between 40 and 59 credits increased to 13 per cent in 2012, up from 8.3 per cent in 2008.

The full reports is here.

An interesting piece by Lindiz van Zilla in the Weekend Argus:

I am South African and I support the Springboks. And I will shout for the Springboks when they line up against the All Blacks at Ellis Park today. But this wasn’t always the case. …

My heroes, our heroes, were Jeff Wilson, Andrew Mehrtens, Josh Kronfeld and Sean Fitzpatrick. Those with Maori or other South Sea island heritage were held in even greater esteem. Glen Osborne, Jonah Lomu, the centre pairing of Frank Bunce and Walter Little, Graeme Bachop, Ian Jones and Zinzan Brooke were idolised like no Springbok star ever could be.

We were being represented by men from New Zealand. In them lay our pride, our dreams, our resistance to the racist dinosaur that was South African rugby.

All we could think of was how apartheid had denied our greatest talents like Eric Majola, Millin Petersen, Cassiem Jabaar, Peter Makata, Charlie Davids and Salie Fredericks the opportunity to play for the country of their birth. Simply because of the colour of their skin.

For years, nay generations, the All Blacks had been our chosen ones. Our instrument of opposition. Ask any long-standing South African All Black supporter and the answer will invariably be “for as long as I can remember”.

And this carried on for a long time:

A sizeable contingent of these New Zealand-supporting fans and like-minded fan groupings, mainly from Port Elizabeth, therefore make it their business every year to follow the All Blacks to whichever Test venue in South Africa the team is playing at. Last year it was the FNB Stadium, today Ellis Park.

The uniqueness and peculiarity of this phenomenon is something that even the All Black players and management have over the years found a little odd. Where else in the world do you find a people, be they indigenous or from a colonial background, who so vociferously support a team from another country?

Most South Africans find this anomaly disturbing and perhaps it is this extreme notion of nationality and patriotism that exacerbates the levels of ill-feeling between local Springbok and All Blacks supporters.

And why does this anti-Springbok sentiment run so deep in large sections of the coloured community and not in the black African rugby fraternity, which also boasted a wonderful and rich history in the heartland of the Eastern Cape and which also suffered – and still suffers – the ravages of apartheid?

And why only rugby? Surely cricket has as racially divisive a past as the 15-man sports code.

More than two decades on from unification in cricket and Cricket South Africa is considering anew quotas for black African players in domestic cricket. Why then is there no such fervent support in the Cape for cricket teams from other countries?

It has been an interesting phenomenon.

Brian Fallow at NZ Herald reports:

New Zealand will rank among the strongest-growing of the advanced economies this year and next year, according to the International Monetary Fund’s annual World Economic Outlook.

It forecasts New Zealand’s growth rate this year to be 2.5 per cent, bettered among the 35 advanced economies only by Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. The average for advanced economies in 2013 is just 1.2 per cent.

4th in the developed world isn’t bad.

New Zealand also looked relatively good on the fiscal front, with a general government deficit of 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product over 2014, compared with an average deficit of 3.5 per cent for the advanced economies as a whole.

That will change if the Government changes.

Next year’s unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent was not as bad as the 12.2 per cent projected for the euro area, 7.4 per cent for the United States or even Australia’s 6 per cent.

Still too high, but if under Australia that is good.

But the failing grade on the report card was the current account balance: a bottom-of-the-class deficit of 4.2 per cent of GDP this year and next year, worsening to 6.1 per cent by 2018.

The current account deficit is a challenge, but it is less important that the fiscal deficit.

The Dom Post has asked the Mayoral candidates for their favourite movies, books etc.

Out of the six responses for each category, the item I prefer the most is:

• Film – The Shawshank Redemption (John Morrison)
• TV – The West Wing (Nicola Young)
• Music – Elton John (John Morrison)
• Website – Kiwiblog (Nicola Young) 🙂
• Hobby – Road trips (Jack Yan)
• Author/Book – Biographies (John Morrison)
• Game – Five Hundred (Nicola Young)
• Sport – Kayaking (Celia Wade-Brown) to do, Rugby (Rob Goulden) to watch

The Dominion Post has a story on items banned for sale on Trade Me.

The full list of banned or restricted items is here. It includes:

• CCTV footage
• Cigarette or nicotine replacements
• Copyright and other intellectual property rights
• Courier tickets
• Digital media
• Event tickets
• Fireworks
• Flights
• Foreign plugs
• Frequent flyer points
• Gang paraphernalia/memorabilia
• Human bodies or body parts
• Lottery and raffle tickets
• Magnetic and smart card readers
• Medicines and supplements
• Menacing dogs
• Offensive memorabilia and propaganda
• Offensive weapons
• Recreational drugs
• Software that interfaces with the Trade Me website
• Spray paint cans
• Tobacco
• Uniforms for NZ emergency services
• VCDs
• Veterinary medicines
• Wholesale lists

The ban on flight tickets seems strange, as it applies to even transferable tickets.

The human parts ban is:

You may not list a human body or body parts on the site. This includes such items as sperm, eggs, excrement, and bone. 

People have tried to sell human excrement on Trade Me? 🙂

Sarah Harvey at Stuff reports:

Up to 6000 new homes will be built in 10 areas of Auckland in the first step by the Government and Auckland Council to try to solve Auckland’s housing crisis.

The announcement today of the Special Housing Areas, by Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Housing Minister Nick Smith, comes after the Government and council this year signed an accord to run through until 2016 to increase the number of quality affordable homes in Auckland.

Smith said today land supply was the most “critical issue” when it came to addressing housing supply and affordability in Auckland. The first batch of land was a “significant step towards the Auckland Housing Accord’s target of consenting for 39,000 new homes over three years”.

The special housing areas announced today are in Papakura, East Tamaki, Pukekohe, Hobsonville, Kumeu, West Harbour and Orakei.

Excellent. Freeing up land and making it easier for new houses to be built is badly needed.

Applications for subdivisions would be considered by council under fast-tracked mechanisms. These aimed to deliver approvals within six months for greenfield developments, compared to the current average of three years, and three months for brownfield developments, compared to the current average of one year.

This will help allow supply to match demand, rather than lag behind it.

The Bankers’ Association said today’s announcement was a positive step in addressing the housing supply issue in Auckland.

Association chief executive Kirk Hope said the big issue in the Auckland housing market was a lack of supply.

“Freeing up land for housing is a move in the right direction to help improve supply where it’s needed and alleviate pressure on house prices.”

All the independent analysis of the housing cost issue has concluded that the major increase in cost has been the land.

Michael Fox at Stuff reports:

The Government’s lowest-paid workers are being promised a $10,000-a-year pay rise under a Labour government.

Why stop at $10,000? Why not $15,000?

However, the expected cost to the taxpayer of its proposed living wage remains unclear, with Labour claiming extending it to the core public service would cost $30 million a year and National putting it at $68m.

Labour have not made clear if their policy will apply to contractors such as cleaners? They constantly highlight how the cleaners at Parliament should get the living wage. But the cleaners are not employed by Parliament, plys Parliamentary Service is not core public service. So will Labour’s policy mean a “living wage” for Parliament’s cleaners? If not, then how cynical to use them as the poster childs for your campaign – and not deliver a policy that applies to them.

Based on a 40-hour working week on the living wage, an employee would earn $38,272 before tax, compared with $28,600 on the current minimum wage.

Insane. No 16 year old in the public sector on less than $38,000 a year full-time.

The Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income has made 16 recommendations around future superannuation. Some of the more significant are:

That a new method of indexation of New Zealand Superannuation, based on the average of percentage change in consumer prices and earnings but no less than price inflation in any year

This change is highly desirable, and important.It would do more to make superannuation sustainable than adjusting the age. All other benefits are inflation adjusted only. Superannuation also has a floor linking it to the average wage and as wages rise faster than inflation this means the gap between NZ Superannuation and other benefits will continue to increase. It also means that as the population ages, the cost of superannuation will increase as a share of the economy.

That as soon as fiscally prudent, an  auto-enrolment day be held for employees who are not currently members of KiwiSaver, with retention of the right to opt out

I believe this is planned.

That in line with a recommendation of the Savings Working Group, the Government remove tax on the inflation component of interest on simple savings products such as bank deposits and bonds

Does any other country do this? Might cost a bit, but worth considering.

That the proportion of life over the age of 20 in receipt of New Zealand Superannuation be kept at a minimum of 32 per cent

This is code for saying have the age increase over time, which I also support.

They key for me is that we should not tinker with just one aspect in isolation.  We should give certainty to everyone aged 50 or over and pass entrenched legislation guaranteeing the current scheme for those born before 1963. This would then allow a proper debate over the appropriate scheme to have in place for those yet to retire.

Radio NZ reports:

The Labour Party leader David Cunliffe has told a meeting of Council of Trade Unions that a Labour government would introduce a living wage rate for core public sector employees as matter of priority if elected.

The union movement has been running a campaign for a living wage with a minimum hourly rate of $18.40.

David Cunliffe has also said scrapping the youth wage rate would also be one of the first things a Labour government would do.

So it will be illegal for a state agency to pay a 16 year old anything less than $18.40 an hour.

The stupidity of taking a calculation that is based on w couple with two kids and saying it must apply to all employees is massive.

Equally ridiculous is the outsourcing of your wages policy to some Anglican church minister in Lower Hutt. They  are basically saying that whatever Rev Waldegrave declares to be the correct level of the living wage – they will force the state sector to pay it!

The unions get their entire wishlist as payback for voting for Cunliffe according to the Herald:

Mr Cunliffe, who received strong support from unions during the recent leadership contest, underlined the commitments he made while campaigning for the job.

That included raising the minimum wage immediately to $15 an hour if Labour was elected next year, supporting the “Living Wage” campaign, putting it in place immediately for public sector workers, and extending paid parental leave from 14 to 26 weeks.

Mr Cunliffe also pledged to “scrap National’s unfair employment law changes in the first 100 days”.

He took aim at the “fire at will” legislation, “attacks on collective bargaining”, the undermining of health and safety, and moves “taking away smoko breaks”.

So Labour will return us to being the only country in the OECD without a grievance free trial period.

David Leyonhjelm has been elected to the Australian Senate representing the libertarian leaning Liberal Democratic Party. Blake Crayton-Brown has interviewed him and written a profile of him:

Having received over 9.5% of the Senate vote in New South Wales, the Liberal Democratic Party’s David Leyonhjelm has won election to the Australian Senate, with his six year term to begin next July. The 61-year-old agribusiness consultant and former vet has at different times in his life been a member of both the Labor and Liberal parties and doesn’t hesitate in identifying himself as a libertarian. I spoke recently to David and he was candid about his expectations of the new Parliament and the difficulties he has faced getting the party’s message out.

With the balance of power in the Senate swinging from The Greens to a disparate group of minor parties (including three Senators from the Palmer United Party), David recognises that he and his fellow crossbenchers will have a significant degree of leverage. Although he feels that the Liberals ‘are still in denial’ about needing his vote, he imagines that the Coalition will want to keep as much of the crossbench on side as possible. He won’t rule out wandering off and supporting Labor and The Greens from time to time, arguing that as one person, the best way for him to make a difference is by leveraging the fact that the Government needs his vote.

David is optimistic about being able to work constructively with his fellow crossbenchers and has already spoken with SA independent Nick Xenophon. He hopes that the crossbench can be reasonably pragmatic so that even if they have to take small steps back at times, they’ll ‘take big steps forward’. Unlike many libertarians I’ve encountered in New Zealand and Australia, he clearly understands the need to pick his battles, understands practical politics and has himself vowed to be practical.

Having seen the difficulties faced by the Act Party following its confidence and supply agreement with National in New Zealand, David wants to avoid the LDP getting into a position where it is limited in its ability to criticise the Government. Vowing to ‘well and truly’ vote against any ‘egregious statist sins’ the Coalition Government may entertain, the LDP is seeking to make it clear that ‘the Government is the Government and that we’re the Liberal Democrats and they’re not the same thing’. Despite wanting to make such a distinction, David feels there is ‘a degree of sympathy’ within the Liberal Party for the LDP’s small government position and thinks they may even be able to set the agenda at times, not unlike the Act Party taking the lead on charter schools.

The LDP advocates for what it terms ‘free immigration agreements’ such as the arrangement between Australia and New Zealand – David explaining that he doesn’t believe that such agreements should have to conform to a ‘cookie cutter formula’ and sees no reason why New Zealanders in Australia shouldn’t be eligible to entitlements that Australians can receive in New Zealand. Although he doesn’t want to see people bleeding in the streets and is in favour of some emergency assistance being available, David’s general principle would see non-citizens ineligible for welfare unless under a free immigration agreement with reciprocal arrangements.

Describing himself as ‘kind of a home grown first principles libertarian’ he says he has resented being told what to do his whole life and that ‘as my wife will attest, the best way to get me to do the opposite is to tell me I have to do something’. Having failed to register for national service, he says he would have been subject to automatic call-up if the Government hadn’t changed in 1972. David says it was ‘just reprehensible that people could be dragged off against their will into the military, even without the fact that they might then get sent off to Vietnam and shot’. It was such a ‘loathsome’ example of government compulsion that he considers it the first real influence on his political philosophy. Although citing John Stuart Mill and more recently, Milton Freidman as influences, it’s evident that it is his own experiences that have most significantly shaped his outlook. David pointed out that he remembers when abortion was illegal and when people he knew had to battle abortion laws to have choice. He’s frustrated that smoking marijuana is still illegal when ‘we all did it when we were youngsters’ and that police are still ‘running around the place pretending that they’re doing something useful for society by arresting people with marijuana in their possession’. It’s absurd he says.

I asked him about the media coverage he and the LDP had received around the election and whether he was concerned about gaining a reputation as ‘the gun-slinging Senator’ given that a significant amount of coverage focused on the firearms policies. David explained that a week or so before the election, the Liberal Party in NSW panicked, thinking the LDP would ‘steal the seat off their guy Arthur Sinodinos’ who was ranked third on the Coalition ticket. He says that the Coalition decided they needed to head off the LDP’s vote, ‘so they went to the media, friendly sources in the media and said we’d like you to do something about this party with the word Liberal in its name’. He says The Daily Telegraph then published photos of him and the party president advocating firearm change laws with the intention of discouraging people from voting for them by accident because they were first on the ticket. David says that after the election, ‘the media was all over me like a rash’ with their agenda already set by the newspaper ‘which said we’re basically gun nuts’. Despite trying to interest the press in the LDP’s policies on low tax, reduced expenditure and fiscal responsibility, what appeared most in the news were invariably his answers to the questions on guns. Although David is a fierce advocate for reform to firearms laws, he equally doesn’t want the LDP to be known only as the party that supports more liberal gun laws.

In an unpredictable looking Senate crossbench, the LDP’s first ever elected federal member looks set to be both a blessing and a curse for the Abbott Government. Having sworn not to vote for measures that will increase taxation or reduce freedom, David has drawn a line in the sand ahead of his dealings with the Coalition. Provided he sticks to his principles and doesn’t gain a reputation as ‘the Senator for guns’, David Leyonhjelm could well be the first homegrown figurehead for a libertarian renaissance in Australia. It no longer seems one can write off the Liberal Democratic Party.

I think it is great Australia has a libertarian Senator (after July 2014). Would be good to have more libertarian-leaning MPs in the New Zealand Parliament.

The NZ Initiative has released the first of three reports on improving teacher quality. The first one is mainly setting out where we are at, and later reports will look at potential improvements. Some highlighted facts:

NZ is a top-performing system

• NZ’s 15-year-olds rank among the top performing countries in reading (7^th), science (7^th) and mathematics (13^th)
• NZ (along with Shanghai and Singapore) has the highest proportion of top readers (one in six)

But the system is not reaching everyone

• NZ has one of the largest gaps in the world between high- and low-performing students
• The 2009 PISA study of 15-year-olds showed NZ has one of the widest ranges of reading scores in the OECD
• Māori and Pasifika students are consistently less successful than Pakeha and Asian students at all three levels of NCEA and they do not perform as well in international tests of achievement

 Teachers are the education system’s most valuable asset

• A meta-analysis of half a million studies found teachers were the most important in-school factor for student achievement
• Teacher salaries make up 61% of the education budget

NZ has good quality teachers, but we can improve in key areas

• Our teachers are highly qualified – 86% hold a bachelor’s degree
• But one-third of year nine mathematics teachers do not have a mathematics qualification
• 18% of schools say a lack of mathematics teachers hinders the ability to teach the subjectThe quality of teacher education is variable – only 57% of schools are satisfied with the quality of teacher graduates
• Low expectations of Māori and Pasifika students are partly to blame for low achievement

 We struggle to attract and retain talent

• Despite the importance of teachers, their status in NZ is low, and has been eroded by top-down changes
• Teacher morale in secondary schools slipped from 70% in 2009 to 57% in 2012
• Teacher appraisal is a ‘tick the box’ exercise. It is rarely used as a tool for development and only 5% of teacher goals are related to student outcomes
• There is a lack of career structure and recognition of excellence. The pay scale sends a signal that teachers have reached their maximum capability after eight years

It’s a good area for focusing on, as teacher quality is almost beyond dispute the most important factor in educational outcomes.

This table comes from a just released Regional expenditure report by the Government.

What is interesting is that less spending by the Government occurs in Auckland than their share of the population. Wellington gets proportionally more direct Government spend, but apart from that most of the country is pretty proportional.

Stuff reports:

If the Government is serious about reversing the obesity epidemic, it must introduce tough new rules on the packaging of children’s treats, Consumer NZ says.

The consumer advocacy group is calling for the control of marketing gimmicks on food packaging – particularly cartoon characters, free toys and on-packet puzzles targeting children.

Consumer chief executive Sue Chetwin said under-13s were particularly susceptible to tricks of the advertising trade. With a person’s lifelong food preferences formed at an early age, if companies rope them in young, they’ll likely be hooked for life, the watchdog’s report says.

American researchers have found children preferred the taste of McDonald’s-branded food over that in plain packaging, even though both were identical – and the same effect was seen with cartoon characters like Dora the Explorer.

Chetwin said licensing kids’ characters from companies like Disney was costly, and companies would not invest the cash unless they knew it would pay off.

Of course, but do you ban marketing just because it is effective?

New World currently has a evil genius promotion where you can buy a toy cupboard store for your kids if you shop there, and then every time you shop there so much spending gets you a toy item for the toy store.

I’ve had reports from mums that their kids are now demanding they only shop at New World, so they can get extra products for their toy stores. They love being able to play shop. They face full scale tantrums should they now shop anywhere but New World. Some marketing executive has earned a very large bonus.

But who is losing out here? It’s Countdown. Families are not generally doing extra grocery shopping to get the toys. They are choosing New World over their competitors.

Do we want a country where the Government approves marketing schemes. I don’t. You can push for measures like plain packaging, and then instead they’ll do promotions like toy stories. So what next? Require a Government agency to approve all promotions for all businesses? It’s a nasty slippery slope.

Consumer was asking the Government to set out a framework specifying what marketing techniques could and could not be used on children’s food packaging.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said the Government had no plans to introduce such regulation.

Good.

Food and Grocery Council head Katherine Rich said many food and beverage companies already regulated themselves, including Mars and Coca-Cola.

But she doubted government regulation would earn public support.

“Do they really want plain-packaged chocolate: no Cookie Bear, Milky Bar Kid or Freddo Frog? Obesity is clearly an issue but banning all childhood fun is not the answer.”

The fun police!

TVNZ has results of a Te Karere DigiPoll in Waiariki.

The party vote results (and change from the election) are:

• Maori Party 35% (+14%)
• Labour 29% (-6%)
• Greens 8% (-1%)
• Mana 6% (-11%)
• National 4% (-2%)
• NZ First 3% (-8%)

The electorate vote:

• Maori Party 43% (nc)
• Labour 17% (-8%)
• Mana 8% (-25%)

The changes are comparing election vote (with no undecideds) with current preferences (with undecideds) so take that into account. However it is very clear that the Maori Party is benefiting in Waiariki from Flavell’s accession to the co-leadership, and he looks rather safe to retain the seat.

59% of voters said Flavell does an above average or better job as a local MP and only 4% say below average. That’s an incredibly high rating.

The Herald reports:

Sky TV has been issued with a warning that its contracts with telcos were likely to have previously harmed competition, says the Commerce Commission.

However, market developments mean those particular parts of the contracts are unlikely to have that effect now or cause harm in the future, says commission chair Mark Berry.

As such, the commission issued Sky a warning and said the pay-tv provider was on notice that the regulator would continue to monitor its contracts.

The Commission said it will take no further action right now over what it called “historical breaches”.

“We believe that Sky entered into historical agreements with RSPs [retail services providers] that had the purpose, effect, or likely effect of substantially lessening competition,” Berry said.

“However due to market developments, the key commitments Sky has with RSPs are unlikely to continue to have the same effect. For example the new sports pay TV product from Coliseum and the recent exemption granted by Sky to Telecom to market this product,” he said.

“As a consequence, a warning letter and notice that we will continue monitoring Sky’s contracts and conduct was the prudent course of action,” Berry said.

I’m very keen to see market developments that get us more competition and choice.

It also said Sky’s contracts with content providers were not likely to have breached the law.

“There appeared to be sufficient content of all types available outside of Sky’s exlusive contracts to put together an appealing pay TV package,” a statement from the commission said.

My preference is for contracts to be non-exclusive. By this I mean of course a contract for a TV series will exclude another TV channel showing that series – but they shouldn’t restrict other outlets such as DVDs or Quickflix from being able to offer the material in different mediums.

Labour have said:

Sky should consider itself extremely lucky today. The ruling is a cop out from the Commission. A monopoly as powerful as Sky should not be able to get away with uncompetitive behaviour. It is a kick in the guts to consumers.

“The Commission appears to have decided not to take any action because a case would cost too much and take too long. That’s not good enough. It should do its job as a regulator,” said Kris Faafoi.

I do wish Labour would think about the internal consistency of their public positions.

How can you argue that the Government should not second guess the Commerce Commission when it comes to copper broadband pricing, yet jump in yourself and claim they got it wrong in this case and should do what politicians say in this area.

Effectively Labour have now undermined their own arguments on the copper pricing issue. It’s an own goal, and an annoying one, because as people know I’m one of those saying leave the Commerce Commission process on copper pricing alone.

The Press reports:

Outgoing Christchurch City Council chief executive Tony Marryatt racked up nearly $9000 on his ratepayer-funded credit card in the last year, including more than $120 on two visits to the bawdy Hooters restaurant in the United States.

Figures released to The Press under the Official Information Act show Marryatt twice visited the restaurant chain in Phoenix, Arizona, famous for its young busty waitresses. He was there on a council managers’ conference a year ago.

Cr Tim Carter, who chairs the council’s audit and risk committee and often signed off credit card reports from senior staff, said he was “struggling to understand how spending money at a Hooters bar was council business”. Mayoral candidate Lianne Dalziel has also called for more transparency on council spending.

To be fair to Marryatt, you do need to eat while at conferences and Hooters do have absolutely delicious buffalo wings.  Best I’ve had in America.

But it is a pretty dumb move to choose Hooters as an eating establishment, when the ratepayers (or taxpayers) are paying the bills. I would never go to Hooters if I wasn’t paying the bill myself.