A reader copies me into a letter to the Minister:

Dear Minister of Internal Affairs Van Velden,

The National library has announced that there will be a closure today of the Molesworth Street library ground floor, from 11:30am to 3pm on Friday 1 August for a private event.

I understand that the closure is because the coffin, complete with body, of a recently deceased deputy chief executive of the Department of Internal Affairs is, on the orders of the Chief Executive, to be put on display in the foyer of the National Library in front of the He Tohu exhibition.

The exhibition is hence closed to the public, who pay for it and who own it, for a private event at short notice during business hours. I do not regard such a  closure – an arbitrary privatisation of public space – as a legitimate use of public resources.

Additionally, our national library is not, in my view, a space appropriately used as a temporary necropolis or morgue for the purposes of expressing private grief. It’s our nation’s public library, for books and exhibitions, for god’s sake! 

Equally, library staff are required to be at work as part of their employment agreements and some – many? – may not feel comfortable or appropriate to share part of their working space with a corpse. Yet they are being given no choice in the matter.

As a society, we have funerals and tangi as appropriate fora for expressions of grief and sadness and churches, halls, private homes and marae as appropriate places for dead people to temporarily be for those social purposes. Again appropriately, staff have the employment right, paid for by the public, to chose to attend such events on the death of a colleague and express their grief for their death in those shared private spaces. Not the National Library!

Could you please respond regarding whether you support or not the decision taken by your Chief Executive to close the library and temporarily install a corpse? (I understand that the short-notice decision from the top has created considerable internal disquiet at all levels within the library)? 

If you do indeed support the decision of your departmental Chief Executive to unilaterally make parts of our public library into a temporary private necropolis at his whim, could you please further indicate who now amongst the staff of our library possesses the posthumous right to to use it as such? 

This is astonishing. Totally inappropriate to turn a workplace into a morgue, let alone the National Library.

Radio NZ reports:

Houses and rents are more affordable as costs fall and consumers benefit from lower interest rates and higher wages, according to new reports from Massey University.

National home affordability improved 8.7 percent in the three months to June, on top of a 9.3 percent improvement in the first quarter of the year.

Report author, Massey Business School senior lecturer Arshad Javed said a combination of lower borrowing costs and wage growth has helped offset affordability pressures in many regions, even where house prices stayed high.

This is good news. Basically the report looks at three factors – house prices, incomes and mortgage rates.

For the quarter, the national median house price was down 1.2 percent to $763,000, while an average two-year fixed mortgage rate was 37 basis points lower to 5.66 percent, and weekly earnings were 1.65 percent higher.

That is the sweet spot – house prices down, mortgage rates down and earnings up.

The Herald reports:

Oranga Tamariki has been ordered to pay more than $100,000 in legal costs over a battle to remove a Māori child from her Pākehā foster parents. 

In her ruling, Justice Helen Cull is also critical of Oranga Tamariki’s ‘egregious’ campaign to discredit the foster parents.

The $108,000 indemnity costs stem from a battle over the long-term care of the girl, given the pseudonym “Moana” under automatic suppression orders for all those involved in the case, according to a High Court ruling. …

“I accept the Smiths’ submission that there was a campaign by OT [Oranga Tamariki] against them to discredit them and this was pursued on appeal.

“The egregious aspect of this approach is that [Oranga Tamariki] continued to discredit and undermine the Smiths on appeal … the Smiths had no other option than to defend themselves in order to continue to care for Moana, to whom they were committed.”

The least that should happen for the poor foster parents who were attacked by OT for basically being the wrong ancestry.

Radio NZ reports:

Several respondents said their schools bankrolled literacy catch-up classes and training from the Kahui Ako scheme that gave some teachers release time for specialist work with other teachers in their school or across groups of schools.

An English teacher from a large, low-decile school who RNZ agreed not to name, said that arrangement allowed her to work with four classes of Year 9 students who could not read.

The fact so many students can’t read after eight years of schooling is a disgrace. The poor secondary schools shouldn’t have to be teaching third formers (showing my age) how to read.

Stuff reports:

The directors of Nanogirl Labs have said the decision to appoint a liquidator for their company last year was devastating.

“We poured our hearts and souls into our business, we believed profoundly in the mission (and still do), and having that ultimately fail was incredibly difficult,” co-founders Joe Davis and Michelle Dickinson said in a statement to Stuff.

“Over the years [Nanogirl Labs] inspired thousands of New Zealanders – particularly young people – to embrace science, technology, engineering and maths. … We are incredibly proud of what the business achieved.“

The business went into liquidation in November last year owing Inland Revenue more than $265,000 in unpaid GST and PAYE, and nearly $200,000 to other unsecured creditors.

I was very sad to read that Nanogirl Labs went into liquidation – both for the principals, and the creditors. It is easy to say from afar that one should have closed down a business the moment it becomes unprofitable, but the reality is that many businesses have cashflow challenges and are constantly having to juggle creditors. Some make it through, but others do not. Being unable to pay your PAYE though should ring warning bells though, as that is money held in trust on behalf of employees.

“We are deeply saddened by this outcome, and understand the impact it has had on creditors and others connected with the business,” Davis and Dickinson said.

That’s good to have acknowledged. I know Michelle and Joe, and they are good people. That is not to say you can’t be critical of their business decisions, but I don’t think either were motivated by money in this business venture. Sir Ian Taylor has a nice take on it:

I’ve known Michelle for years. I’ve seen her walk into rooms full of young kids, many of whom had never met a scientist, and light up their imaginations with science made simple, fun, and real.

On her, a lab coat looked different. It wasn’t a symbol of authority; it was an invitation. It told kids that science wasn’t something to fear, it was something to play with, to explore, to enjoy. She didn’t need a whiteboard or a lecture hall. Just a box of household items, a bit of curiosity, and her unshakeable belief that every child, no matter their background, deserves access to the tools of discovery.

With her partner Joe Davis she built Nanogirl Labs to make that belief real.

From theatre shows and school assemblies to hands-on STEM kits, Michelle has shown up for our tamariki. Not once or twice, but relentlessly, for nearly a decade. She’s given thousands of kids their first experience of science. For many, she was the first person who told them, “Yes, you can be a scientist too.”

And for young girls, she offered something even more powerful: representation. Someone who looked like them, spoke like them, and showed them they didn’t have to change to belong in science. That matters more than most people realise.

Role models don’t just inspire, they shift what kids believe is possible. Michelle made science human. And fun. And possible.

Michelle is a brilliant scientist. She could have worked commercially for a massive salary for science entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, but her passion was bringing science to kids.

Sir Ian notes:

Even with the revenue gone and bookings cancelled, she paid her staff using personal reserves. She and her partner Joe didn’t take salaries. They sold what they could. They held on. But when there was nothing left to hold on with, she was forced to make the decision that so many others had to make because of covid.

The failure of Nanogirl Labs is painful – for the principals, staff and creditors. I do hope though that it doesn’t mark the end of Michelle’s contribution to science in New Zealand.

I have been writing curriculum in NZ since I started teaching in 1991. This developed into writing a full curriculum– all core subjects and 32 cross-curricula projects – for Year 7 – 10 in 2002. I have adapted that every year since and appreciated the much greater scope & freedom of the 2007 NZ curriculum. My curriculum has been applied to great effect in three schools that I have founded – across a very wide range of demographics and developed abilities.

1. The first major problem with the new curriculum proposed is the implication that schools have not had the ability (or knowledge) to create great English learning opportunities for students.

In terms of English during the four years in the curriculum I have applied students will have studied the vast majority of:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Novel), Chicken Run (Film), Don Quixote Mulan (FILM), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers  (FILM and book excerpts), Woman in Gold (FILM), The Monument Men (Film), Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (Novel), and other Road Dahl texts, The Bee Movie, Real, Raw and Relatable (Humans of South Auckland Book), A Game of Cards, Fire on Greenstone, and Gathering the Whakapapa – Short Story Trilogy (Witi Ihimaera), Charlotte’s Web (Novel) or Jungle Book (Novel & FILM), Cats (Musical/Film) & The Lion King, Drallion (Cirque FILM), The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar (Novel), The Highwayman (Poem), Rabbit Proof Fence (Film), Swan Lake (FILM), Joseph (FILM), The Odyssey (Book), The World’s Fastest Indian (FILM), The Silent One (Novel), The Orator (FILM), October Sky (FILM), Apollo 13 (Film) or The Right Stuff (Film), The Fat Man (Novel) and Other Maurice Gee texts for extension readers, A Fitting Tribute – Short Story (CK Stead), A Great Day – Short Story (Frank Sargeson), The Whale Rider (Novel & Film), Mao’s Last Dancer (Film), The Silver Sword (Novel), The Snow Goose (Novella), Schindler’s List (FILM), Dunkirk (FILM), Avatar (Film), Ender’s Game, Amistad (Film),Amazing Grace (Film), The King’s Speech (FILM), Speeches of: Martin Luther King, Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, King George V, David Ben Gurion, Chariots of Fire (FILM), Invictus (Film), A Beautiful Mind (FILM), Shakespearean plays (likely Romeo and Juliet – including Baz Luhrman’s film, Much Ado About Nothing, Mid-Summer Night’s Dream), Brother in the Land (Novel), I Am Legend (FILM), The Matrix (FILM), What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (FILM), The Great Gatsby (Novel & FILM), To Kill a Mocking Bird (Novel & FILM), Hurricane (FILM).

Writing now I am also considering David Walliams, and others, as engaging texts for children. I would definitely include The Overstory by Richard Powers.

The students will also have attended live performances where possible – Shakespeare at the pop-up-globe, CATS, Cirque du Soliel, etc.

There are also likely to have had books read out loud to them by great authors such and George MacDonald, Frederick Buechner, Douglas Adams.

Having a significant amount of content and at a good level has always been possible and, importantly, schools have been able to adapt to students, staff strengths and geographical locations.

2. Keeping in mind that the above texts/films/etc cover Year 7 – 10 – the “suggested” texts of the proposed curriculum (Year 7 – 13) show that those involved are significantly out off touch with young people within the NZ system. This can be added to the situation where OIA’s have shown that there is much confusion as to what a “knowledge rich” curriculum is.

A few of the texts are quite bizarre. The movie of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox is recommended for Year 9 & 10 – but is more at a 7 year old level. Whereas – MacBeth at Year 9 is a tough ask and there are much more accessible options if you have Shakespeare at that level.

The Crucible – by Arthur Miller is recommended. Surely, he has done his dash … but at least it is not Death of a Salesman.

I would think that even the 2019 film version of Little Women – is unlikely to lift all of the young men in need of inspiration in our schools.

1984 and The Lord of the Flies have also had their time. The themes are still relevant but better takes on those themes have been written since 1949 and 1954 (respectively) that are not likely to kill passion for literature in the same way.

There has also been some very good poetry since Shakespeare’s sonnets.

It is also true that there are a lot of engaging plays since A Streetcar Named Desire was first performed in 1947.

I nearly fell over to see Othello as the Year 13 Shakespeare suggestion. If students have survived until then – this might be the straw that breaks them.

And – to close out – how on earth does the writing group see Dubliners by James Joyce as having any relevance to young people in NZ in 2025. When that is added to Pride and Prejudice you really have to wonder if the writers have any awareness that these texts would have no appeal what-so-ever to the NZ teen cultural mix.

Now – I know that these texts are “suggestions” – but they set a theme. A theme that is narrow and completely out of touch with today’s young people. It smacks of a group of detached people sitting around a table and reminiscing about their youth.

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I did an update to my article on Fale Andrew Lesa, noting Stuff reported that he said he said he is resigning from all his roles. I remember reading that and thinking he didn’t say he had resigned, but that he had “decided to resign from everything”. My caution in not reporting it as him having resigned was justified, because a further Stuff story reports:

In an email to a Stuff editor, Lesā said he would like to “retract” the story about his resignations.

So he has not resigned from a single thing?

In his statement, Lesā appears to have changed his mind again — back to his original position that he will resign after all.

“Public service has been the highlight of my life,” he wrote, “but it’s time to close the door on this chapter of my story.

So he said he is resigning. Then he said he is not. Then he implies he is again. Unless an actual resignation is received, I think one should assume he is not.

Stuff reports:

With a new trial for court bailiffs to seize cars if their owners haven’t paid fines, the Labour Party says innocent families could be left “stranded”.

The Government is trialling new technology for bailiffs to scan number plates as they search for people who have unpaid fines. They will then clamp or seize cars belonging to people with debt owed to the courts.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith was celebrating the new tool on Friday, telling fine dodgers: “You may soon find yourself walking home or needing a lift.”

But Labour Party justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said seizing cars without warning would have unintended consequences, harming the taxpayer and also innocent people. He called it a “sad day” for the Government.

No matter what the issue, Labour can always be relied on to back the crims over victims!

The Herald reports:

The Government has agreed to build a new medical school, costing more than $230 million, at the University of Waikato.

The New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine will offer a four-year graduate programme for students who have completed a three-year undergraduate degree. …

“With $82.85 million in Government funding and over $150 million from the University, supported by philanthropic investment, this is a substantial commitment to education and regional development in the Waikato.

I’m pleased the taxpayer contribution has been scaled back to around $80 million.

The main driver of this has been Waikato University, who have been pushing this since 2016. The main reason, in my opinion, is prestige.

For quite a long period of time, Waikato University was not seen in the same league as the older universities. Otago, Auckland, Canterbury and VUW were all established in the 1800s. Massey followed in 1927 and then Waikato in 1964.

The law school especially was not seen as particularly good. I knew quite a few lawyers who said they would never hire a Waikato Law School graduate as it was seen as more political than legal. Today that is not the case, and instead I suspect AUT Law School is the one that struggles to find jobs for graduates.

Today Waikato is held in higher esteem (partly thanks to their VC, who I do rate highly (NB: He was my monetary economics lecturer at VUW, but I doubt he even remembers me). They are ranked not so bad in global rankings, but still a bit below the five older universities. A medical school would add considerably to their prestige. They are sort of the crown jewels of the university system.

So from Waikato’s point of view, they really want a medical school.

So is it a good idea from a health system point of view? Well I’m not an expert, but my initial position tends to be more choice and competition is good. A third medical school is better than a duopoly. Also Waikato has proposed a far stronger focus on rural health, which is badly needed. Their structure of a four year post graduate degree is different to the current double bachelors MBChB.

Just increasing places in the two current medical schools is certainly an option, and one that is probably cheaper. However considering the massive barriers they place in front of aspiring medical students who don’t fit into one of their quotas (they need a 95% grade average vs 70% for those who are a preferential demographic), I’m not convinced one should put all your eggs in that basket.

The Government has funded increased places at Otago and Auckland, and a new medical school at Waikato. Considering they have significantly reduced the taxpayer contribution from $280 million to $80 million, it looks like a good outcome. As I said, choice and competition is a good thing.

An excellent article by Roger Partridge on an analysis by Emeritus Professor Peter Watts KC on the Supreme Court’s actions in Ellis vs R. I recommend you read the whole thing, but a key extract is:

Before Ellis, tikanga’s role in New Zealand law was clearly defined and limited. As Watts shows, courts recognised tikanga within the common law in only two circumstances: cases involving customary property rights and matters intrinsically connected to Māori affairs, particularly aspects of family law involving Māori. Crucially, courts required a specific Māori connection to the facts before them.

As I have argued elsewhere, until Ellis, the legal framework for incorporating tikanga into the common law was equally specific. As established over a century ago in Public Trustee v Loasby (1908) 27 NZLR 801(SC), tikanga could only be recognised as part of the common law if it met longstanding requirements for recognising customs as law. The required features include certainty, antiquity and reasonableness.

Now there is no certainty and no reasonableness.

• Inflation down from 211% to 27%
• Economic growth from -1.6% to 5.2%
• Unemployment from 6.4% to 7.9%
• Poverty rate from 42% to 37%
• Fiscal deficit from -4.9% to 0.3% of GDP
• Government spending down around 30%

So inflation down, the deficit is now a surplus, a massive increase in economic growth and only a modest increase in unemployment. Pretty amazing.

Worth remembering that over 100 economists including Thomas Piketty warned that electing Milei would devastate the Argentina economy. Remember that when people quote Piketty.

Chloe leans into one of the oldest angti-semitic tropes around, saying Zionist billionaires control the world and are responsible for Israel’s continued existence – something she presumably views as a bad thing.

She also claims genocide is woven into the fabric of capitalism and colonisation. So bizarre. She also seems to say NZ company Rocket Lab is responsible for genocide

A reader sent in this screenshot of a Stuff Preferred PM poll. 70% name a left leader and 19% a leader from the right. That would seem to tell its much about who reads Stuff.

Was sad to read Hulk Hogan is dead, aged 71. As a kid and young adult I loved WWF (as it then was) and especially Hulk Hogan. Yes, I know it is all staged, but Hogan had charisma and was almost always a face rather than heel.

A lot of the 80s era are no longer alive. I think it is:

Alive: The Undertaker, Bret Hart, The Honky Tonk Man,Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Triple H, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Jesse Ventura

Dead: Owen Hart, Andre the Giant, Roddy Piper, Macho Man, The Ultimate Warrior, Rick Rude, Miss Elizabeth

Professor Jerry Coyne writes:

Attempts to bring back extinct species are scientifically misguided and mis-reported by the press. He says that the press distorts what has been achieved scientifically, and pretends that an animal with only a few cosmetic gene edits is identical to an extinct species.

Changing a living species by editing a few genes to get something that looks like the extinct creature is not the same thing as re-creating the extinct creature. Professor Coyne tells us that extinct species embodied thousands of genetic differences from related modern species, including genes that affect metabolism and behavior. Control regions of genes, which lie outside protein-coding regions, are involved in differences between extinct species and their relatives, but we do not know where these regions are and so cannot use them for genetic editing.

Basically an Ostrich that looks a bit like a moa, is not a moa. It is just a genetically edited ostrich.

The BBC reports:

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, has issued a decree doubling her salary despite having a historically low approval rating of only 2%.

She will now be paid more than 35,500 soles ($10,000; £7,300) per month.

I thought this was a typo, but it isn’t.

She is on a 2% approval rating and just doubled her salary. It was around 20 times the average income and is now 40 times the average income!

She was, of course, elected to Parliament as a Marxist!

Gregory is a Professor at the University of Auckland. As I have explained many times a Zionist is simply a Jew who believes Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish majority state – a view shared by around 95% of Jews globally. It doesn’t mean they support the war in Gaza, the Netanyahu Government, settlements in a particular area etc. It just means they are Jewish and support Israel existing as a safe homeland for Jews.

So when Gregory says he wants to kick Zionist ass, how would that be taken by any Jewish students at Auckland University? Would they feel safe that one of their professors has said that he wants to kick their ass?

If a Jewish student was in one of his classes, would they feel safe wearing clothing that identifies them as Jewish?

The answer is of course not.

I’m not saying Gregory should face any sort of sanction for his language. What I am saying is that he probably regards himself as one of those tolerant inclusive types, and it would be nice if he considered using language that didn’t make Jews at Auckland University feel unwelcome, or worse.

The FSU announced:

Following a legal battle between Hutt City Council and the Free Speech Union over the Council’s censorship of inserts on Council sites, the parties have agreed to settle. The Council will make several public statements affirming its commitment to free speech, and its role as a gateway for information, not a gatekeeper, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union. 

“It is not the role of local councils to decide what ratepayers do and don’t read. We took Hutt City Council and its Chief Executive, Jo Miller, to court when they refused to resolve the matter with us. Local ratepayers deserve better. 

“The Hutt City Council removed a paid advertisement insert by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research (NZCPR) from newspapers from all council sites. The insert was from ‘Treaty of Waitangi – An Explanation’ by Sir Āpirana Ngata and was published in 31 NZME and Stuff newspapers. 

“However, we now welcome Hutt City Council’s agreement to settle with us and their commitment to free speech and the right to impart and receive information and opinions as a critical part of our society.  They’ve also acknowledged that if similar situations arise in the future, the Council would be likely to adopt a different approach.

The decision to remove the inserts was repugnant. Hutt City Council defended the decision. It is good they no longer do so.

An article at Newsroom states:

Increasing the number of electric vehicles in the fleet reduced the health harms from exhaust air pollution, but there were more injuries because people were driving more because of the cheaper cost of driving electric cars.

So they see people driving more as it is cheaper as a bad thing! How terrible that electric cars have lower running costs than petrol cars.