HUMAN RIGHTS REALITY IN GAZA SHAMIKH BADRA

By

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February 23, 2015

Shamikh is undertaking postgraduate study at the University of Sydney and will discuss the human rights situation in Gaza (including his experience around restrictions of academic freedom in Gaza) and Palestinian grassroots and international nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation.

He is a member of the Central Committee of the Palestinian People’s Party (founded in 1919) and is responsible for the youth and students portfolio in Gaza and. When he was based in Gaza he was a member of the National Committee for Palestinian Parties.

THURSDAY FEB 26TH TRADES HALL

147 NEW NORTH ROAD PONSONBY 7PM

www.psn.net.nz

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Why Tracey Watkins is wrong and why Labour will sell us out on mass surveillance

By

Martyn Bradbury

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February 23, 2015

9

Tracy Watkins thinks Metiria Turei can’t be on the Intelligence review committee because she has a loud belly laugh.

Welcome to the lowest point in NZ Political Journalism.

I don’t have time to count the ways Tracey is wrong, but I do want to focus on her most appalling claim…

Given that our intelligence agencies have gained an almost comic reputation over the years, most Kiwis probably struggle to picture our spies getting up to anything very sinister, the Dotcom debacle notwithstanding.

…this is Tracey’s worst crime in a column so pandering it makes Fox News look credible. The SIS and GCSB have both been caught acting illegally. The GCSB has been caught illegally spying on over 80 NZers and they went to the NSA and told them secretly that the legislation Key was telling NZers would prevent mass surveillance will actually allow it.

The SIS has been caught colluding with the PMs Office to smear the Leader of the Opposition with falsified information months before the 2011 election.

Both departments have been given vast new powers and budgets and can now spy on anyone for 24 hours without a warrant.

Adding the revelations Edward Snowden has made, the nonchalance that Watkins articulates is so spineless it gives an example of why the NZ electorate are such sleepy hobbits. If this is political opinion from the mainstream, it’s lap dog journalism as opposed to a watch dog journalism.

Watkins does however add some insight with her views on why Labour betrayed the Greens. Now Labour are chasing the middle, they need to over compensate on national security issues, and placing Shearer in there as opposed to Metiria means the Intelligence Agencies will be given a free ride rather than genuine oversight. Shearer tried to secretly cut a deal with Key on the GCSB legislation. While he was publicly turning up to meetings to denounce the law, he was also privately meeting with Key to try and find a way to vote for it.

Labour won’t protect us from these Intelligence Agencies, they will quietly sell us out so that they can convince the authority worshipping sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind that they are tough on National Security.

If this is how gutless Labour intend to be for American interests, there is little doubt they will roll over on the TPPA as well.

Claiming Metiria’s belly laugh somehow rules her out from providing oversight on an agency that has proven itself corrupt only proves the biased view of the mainstream media are part of the problem.

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Why Queers Against Injustice are right – the depoliticisation of NZ culture

By

Martyn Bradbury

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February 23, 2015

4

Anonymous activist group ‘Queers Against Injustice’ have made a welcome addition to activism in NZ last week with their attack against ANZ pinkwashing and their criticism of the Pride Parade.

We targeted the Ponsonby GAYTM firstly to draw attention to the commercialisation of the Pride Festival. As queer subjects, we object to the representation of queer identity in terms of consumptive and wealthy citizens. Associating queer politics with personal banking within a gentrified area reduces the queer subject to a bourgeois, cis-gender, white, male subject, and in doing so reproduces many of the intersecting injustices by which queer subjects are marginalised. We sought to draw attention to the lack of representation of bodies that counter the racist, classist and cis-biased nature of Pride.

By renaming their ATM a GAYTM, ANZ reproduces the frequent sidelining of queer subjects who fall outside of the ‘gay’ sexual identification, and as a result are further marginalised by the politics of ‘tolerance’ practiced by institutions such as ANZ.

Secondly, we sought to draw attention to the way ANZ is using GAYTMs to distract attention from the treatment of their workers. The recent strikes by ANZ workers occurred in response to ANZ’s attempts to implement demands for ‘flexibility’, in the form of irregular rostering and frequently shifting labour demands. These proposed reforms attack workers’ rights to control their own time outside of their normal work hours, and constitute an assault on precious family time, time in the community, on religious or personal lifestyle choices, and the dignity of autonomy.

Those criticisms were born out by the horrific assault on a Trans Protestor who righteously was protesting against the NZ Police’s appalling record of abuse against Maori, Pacific islanders and the Queer community.

Queers Against Injustice have hit upon the depoliticisation of NZ culture to the point that even the Queer Community who have struggled and fought for civil rights have now succumbed to it. In Sport, Art, Culture, Student Unions, Public Broadcasting, Entertainment – 30 years of neoliberalism has eroded and dismantled any discussion of politics to the point that Key can roll up to a ‘yuff’ station like The Edge without one word of criticism from the hosts.

ANZ treat their workers appallingly yet want to pretend they are progressive with their support of Pride. The Festival itself has stopped being a movement of political progress and celebration of diversity and civil rights by allowing the Police and Israel to pretend they are.

As for agreeing to National Party MPs who actually voted against marriage equality to march in the parade, my god, what does Pride stand for if it allows that?

When a protestor pointing out this pinkwashing can be assaulted so badly they are seriously injured, the Parade has stopped being something to be proud about.

The depoliticisation of NZ Culture leads to a bland corporate vomit with all the creativity bled from it, the very opposite of what a Pride parade should be about.

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Is time up for Bible in Schools? What are your rights as a parent?

By

Rachael Goldsmith

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February 23, 2015

32

The issue of Bible lessons in schools was revived again on the weekend, with the case of Jeff McClintock in the Hibiscus Coast, who is seemingly powerless to choose whether or not his child attends Bible in Schools sessions at their primary school. His daughter has repeatedly been forced to attend Bible in Schools classes despite consent being withdrawn by her parents – which goes against the Education Act 1964, recommendations from the Education & Science Select Committee and the Ministry of Education’s policy on these programmes. And all he wants is for this behaviour from Red Beach to stop before his son has to go through the same ridiculous rigmarole and stigma.

From the Select Committee report:

5. For those Boards that wish to offer religious instruction or observances, however, limited discretion is available to do so during periods where classes or the school as a whole are considered closed. The periods where the school is used for religious instruction or observances cannot exceed either 60 minutes in any week or 20 hours in any school year and any instruction can only be led only by volunteer instructors. Any student participation in these activities is voluntary, and students may be given an exemption from participation if a parent requests this in writing.

6. In this way, the aim of educational legislation is to ensure that, if religious instruction and observances are offered they are effectively “fenced off” from the secular life of a school. The Instruction and observances should occur outside normal teaching hours…

So, by law, your child is not actually at school during Bible in Schools. It is therefore an extracurricular activity, and it is entirely up to you and your child whether they attend or not.

Something else worth thinking about as a school community of parents – are you actually ok with your child’s school effectively closing down during official school hours for the purpose of religious instruction?

And also, are you ok with your children being alone in the classroom with an unqualified teacher who can teach religion without any monitoring by staff? Because it’s illegal for teachers to be in the room during Bible in Schools, due to our secular state system. Obviously the vast majority of Christians are harmless, as are most Muslims and people of all faiths, but there is the risk of well-meaning but fundamentalist instructors without supervision being unintentionally harmful. Take the situation raised this weekend – the attitude of the organisation providing Bible in Schools to Red Beach School is more than a bit eyebrow-raising – ‘parents did not need to be notified because the classes were “history lessons” as the Bible was factually correct.’ I could rant on for 1000 words about that alone, but long story short – EEEEEK.

Anecdotal examples of issues that have arisen around Bible in Schools for parents NZ wide include:

Numerous parents who have opted their child out finding their child is in the ‘class’ anyway.
Reports of lollies and prizes being used during Bible in Schools – adding to children’s feelings of exclusion and missing out. Also of children who don’t attend being offered chocolate if they join the class.
Bible in Schools instructors crying and praying over a child because they were afraid for the child’s soul and that the child would not get into heaven.
Children being told they did not come from their parents, but from God – at an age far too young to understand the complexity of that analogy, creating anxiety at a very important emotional developmental period.
Teaching young children about Abraham sacrificing his son – making it seem totally ok for a parent to almost kill/kill their child if God told them to.
The same parent going to court initially became concerned after he arrived at his daughter’s school to find her kneeling facing the wall in the ‘naughty corner’ because she wasn’t participating.

So we have risks to children’s emotional health, a lack of monitoring expected in every other area of the education system and a legal quagmire around religious instruction in NZ state schools.

I can completely understand Jeff’s frustration. He is taking the school’s board of trustees to court, and good on him, because what Red Beach School is doing is illegal.

So it really has me scratching my head that the Board of Trustees of this school, as well as teachers & principals (obviously involved, someone keeps putting her back in the class!) seem to think they can flout legislation and guidelines from the government – let alone claim this court case is a “frustration” and a “distraction from core business”. The solution is simple. Don’t force children who have/whose parents have decided not to participate in religious instruction to attend. Seriously – what on earth is so hard about that?! This school, and others around NZ, are breaching not only the Education Act but the Human Rights Act by forcing children to attend Bible in Schools.

If you are having trouble with your child’s school around religious instruction, I hope the links peppered through this blog give you the understanding and information you need to advocate for your child if you or your child chooses to opt out.

Fortunately at the school my son attended, the staff took opting-out seriously. Kids whose parents did not want them to attend, and/or kids who decided for themselves they did not want to attend (do not underestimate the logic of a child – my son went for one term (I kept my feelings about the program to myself), then declared without any pushing from me that he didn’t want to learn about Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, or God – because none of them were real) were relegated to the school library to spend an hour reading books. This seems to be the norm – excluded kids get sent off to the library for a while.

Obviously, as a tutor, writer, journalism grad and ex-librarian, I put great emphasis on the importance of reading. A half hour of reading is beneficial for every child. But is it the right atmosphere to encourage reading? At a time where I imagine most excluded children wish they could be with their classmates working together on something? I worry that the use of the library as an exclusion zone may produce resentment towards reading books. Result? Stuff reading, it’s boring and dumb and I want chocolate.
The Ministry of Education recommends a mix of activities for children not attending religious instruction, and no doubt some schools do, but with the ever-growing amount of bureaucratic paperwork teachers are loaded with, many spend that precious time out of class working on paperwork rather than supplying a range of enriching activities.

Then there is the issue of our ethnic melting-pot of a country. Is it fair that children from all corners of our wonderful world only study Christianity?
And here is where the crux of the entire issue lies for me. Does a secular school mean an atheist school? No. It’s a shame that the two are understood to be the same, because what the concept of a secular state school actually is, is that it’s a place that is safe for children of all cultural and religious backgrounds. It is not actually about removing religion, morality and belief, but about acknowledging all faiths. Atheist writer Michael Nugent writes about this very well in his blog here. I couldn’t agree more. The Human Rights Commission link above also gives some guidelines around how to encourage understanding of all beliefs and cultures in primary schools, rather than focusing solely on Christianity.

There is, in my mind, definitely a place for schools to teach children about beliefs, morals and the history of religion. Our education curriculum expects schools to teach values. This part of our state curriculum includes tackling issues by teaching and modelling acceptance of all people and faiths, such as:

excellence, by aiming high and by persevering in the face of difficulties
innovation, inquiry, and curiosity, by thinking critically, creatively, and reflectively
diversity, as found in our different cultures, languages, and heritage’s
Equity, through fairness and social justice
community and participation for the common good
ecological sustainability, which includes care for the environment
integrity, which involves being honest, responsible, and accountable and acting ethically
And to respect themselves, others, and human rights.

Instead of Bible in Schools, I would like to see every school in NZ put huge emphasis on the values component of the NZ school curriculum. As a mum looking for a primary school for my son 8 years ago in still-growing-in-diversity Invercargill, my checklist included finding a school where my son would grow up with values like accepting and understanding differences in ethnicity and disability. Where discrimination and bullying was challenged. Where everyone was taught that we are one big community made up of lots of different people and to respect each other’s beliefs and abilities.

Luckily, I found just the school. His classmates during primary school came from Muslim, Hindu, atheist, Christian (and no doubt other religions) families from many ethnicities. In big cities, the mix of beliefs is even more obvious and diverse. Yet only Christianity has 20 hours a year of access to the full attention of our children in state schools.

Alongside this culture of acceptance and understanding for all, what would be the cherry on the cake for me as a mother is (alongside the dumping of National Standards) a turn away from the relentless focus on numeracy & literacy alone in our primary schools, and more resources put into social & integrated studies – including a social studies program for primary school students where they learn about the different belief systems around the world as part of their journey to social & cultural understanding.

From that point on, I truly feel that it is up to parents to engage with their child during this program and talk one on one about their family’s belief system. That way, no matter what any of us believe in, every parent can ensure that their child receives exactly the desired information about their belief system. And our kids will get an hour’s more education in the subjects we all send them to school for.
Win-win.

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NZ to assist Cuban medical programme in the Pacific

By

Keith Locke

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February 23, 2015

10

Passing beneath the radar this month was the signing of a formal agreement whereby New Zealand will assist the work of Cuban doctors in Pacific island nations.

New Zealand has agreed to provide an 18-week English language training course for up to 15 Cuban doctors who’ll be practicing in the South Pacific. New Zealand will also pay for the airfares of the doctors from Cuba to New Zealand, and onwards to the islands when they have finished the training course.

New Zealand/Cuban cooperation in the health area was something I promoted when I was a Green MP, and it’s heartening to see success, in what the Foreign Ministry’s acting head Craig Hawke calls “a practical, tangible piece of cooperation”.

Cuba is a super-power in the medical aid field, with 50,000 health professionals serving in 66 countries and 20,000 students from developing countries enrolled in medical programmes in Cuba.

Cuba has a few dozen doctors practicing in the Solomons, Vanuatu, Kiribati, and Tuvalu. They have had a particularly big programme in Timor Leste, where in 2012 there were 300 Cuban doctors.

About 200 students from the Solomons, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Nauru, Tuvalu, Tonga, Palau and Fiji are currently studying medicine in Cuba. Visiting Cuba in early 2011, I met with students from Fiji and the Solomons at one of the bigger medical colleges, the Latin American School of Medicine. They were happy with their progress, and having a great time in a multi-national environment.

One of the problems with the training of indigenous medical professionals in the Pacific is that it’s hard to hold them. Many go off to richer countries, with their bigger salaries. Those trained in Cuba will tend to have a more ingrained sense of moral duty and be more likely to hang around. A Solomon Island community leader, Roger Tannick, is confident of this after seeing the dedication of Cuban doctors practicing in his Red Beach community. He expects that the Solomon Islander graduates coming back from Cuba will have “the Cuban mentality in their blood system – that is, to go out and deliver services to the people.”

The arrival of Cuban doctors in the South Pacific initially drew a hostile response from Australia. In 2007 the then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that “bringing in Cuban doctors could contribute to destablished security in the Pacific.” The subsequent Australian Labor government took a more sympathetic line, but Tony Abbott’s government has backed off any support.

Obama’s improvement of relations with Cuba has been accompanied by some positive noises about Cuba’s international medical programme. Last October US Secretary of State John Kerry praised Cuba as “a country of just 11 million people, [which] has sent 165 health professionals [to combat Ebola in West Africa] and it plans to send nearly 300 more.” I note that one US university, Northwestern, now encourages its students to attend courses on development medicine in Havana and has them credited to their Northwestern degrees.

The priority Cuba gives such work is a testimony to its internationalism, particularly when the country is not well off, and the Cuban economy is still suffering from the American economic blockade. New Zealand covering the cost of expensive airfares from Havana and to the islands, as well as the and English-language training for the doctors, will help a lot.

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Why the latest poll is no cause for celebration

By

Martyn Bradbury

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February 23, 2015

13

New poll points to big boost for Labour

The TVNZ/Colmar Brunton poll puts Labour on 31 per cent. That’s a climb from the 25 per cent rating in the broadcaster’s last poll, in the days before the election. They got a 24.7 per cent party vote share on the night, a woeful result that saw leader Cunliffe eventually step down. The party haven’t managed to nudge above 30 per cent in a year, and the poll is likely to lift caucus morale.

The poll puts National on 49 per cent, up four points. Prime Minister John Key took a small hit, falling two points in the preferred prime minister ratings.

But with the Greens down two points to ten per cent, roughly their election result, and NZ First down two to six per cent, a National-led Government would remain in place.

Some on the Left desperate for any news that can be spun as positive are hailing this latest poll as some sort of positive.

I think that’s being overtly optimistic.

All Labour are doing is mopping up NZ First vote, the bloody Nats went up 4 points for Christ’s sake!

That’s right, even after all the mud thrown at Key recently, National still goes up!

What it will take to change NZers love affair with John Key is still not actually clear. The mythologies of free market neo-liberal cultural values have ended up with this as a voting block…

…and a right wing mainstream media welded to the same corporate interests National champion left voters with little wider perspective so they ended up like this at the 2014 election…

…A Poll that has Labour mopping up NZ First vote and pulling a few undecideds off the fence ignores that National are still going up.

Yes Key lied about re-invading Iraq. Yes the Education Minister is hiding Charter school failings. Yes the SkyCity deal is a dirty scandal. Yes the PMs Office colluded with the Secret Intelligence Service to falsely smear the Leader of the Opposition months before the 2011 election. Yes Bill English kept ACC levies artificially inflated so that National could create the illusion of a surplus. Yes National didn’t tell the electorate they were going to privatise $2billion worth of State Houses. Yes Key has lied about mass surveillance powers and rammed through vast erosions of civil liberties.

But a large percentage of NZers simply don’t care, they would still love to have a beer with Key around a BBQ.

Should they care? Of course they should, they should be horrified and ashamed at the abuses of power this maniac has cooked up since taking office, but wilful ignorance locks into place the subdivided middle classes, All Black photo shoots get the desperately shallow rugby mad fetishists, the depoliticised empty aspiration attracts the equally vacant Edge Radio generation and snarling spite attracts the redneck blame the unions, Maoris and beneficiaries rump of the NZ electorate. Key would need to torture an SPCA rescue pet on youtube before National voters started questioning their devoted support for him.

This isn’t an issue of an argument, this is a cultural wasteland where me me me trumps us us us.

What it also highlights is that Labour will need Coalition partners if they are ever to get to power. Last election the attempt was to use MMP as a means of getting to 51%. With Labour, NZ First and National working together to vote MANA out in Te Tai Tokerau, the reality is Labour’s jump to the centre relies on continued cannibalisation of the left/centre parties while trying to steal off National rather than bringing new disenfranchised voters to the ballot box.

Playing a 51% style strategy in an MMP election is a possibility for National, not Labour.

There’s little to cheer in this poll.

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‘Crip Up’ as bad as blackface

By

Latifa Daud

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February 23, 2015

5

It’s no secret that Hollywood and the film industry have a history and culture of whitewashing, romanticising and glamorising historical events. The lack of diversity in films is still fairly obvious for anyone who is willing to see beyond the glitz and glamour associated with big Hollywood names.

The Theory of Everything is a film based on the life of Stephen Hawking, who we all know suffers from a motor neuron disease. The actor who portrays him in this film is Eddie Redmayne, who is able-bodied. This is only one example of actors who ‘crip up’ to play a role that the person with a disability is perfectly able of portraying and are then admired for their ability to play disabled. You can even go so far as to argue that its another form of blackface, minus the humiliation and obvious ridiculing. Think Forrest Gump as another example.

This reminded me of Maysoon Zayid, a comedian and actress with cerebral palsy. She tells a story about how she was turned down for a role about a woman with CP (which would have been perfect for her) because the director said she wouldn’t be able to do the stunts. Maysoon is a woman with CP – if she can’t do the stunts, neither can the character. Because of course, the issue never really is about what is realistic.

This problem is even worse for whitewashing historical events. In the film Exodus, Christian Bale portrays Moses. Whether you believe in this Biblical event or not, the fact remains that IF this events occurred, it was geographically impossible for Moses to be a white dude. This is just as bad as selling to people a blond haired, blue-eyed Jesus, so how far have we really come?

With the Academy Awards just around the corner and every single actor and actress nominee being white, it’s clear that the lack of diversity has got worse. I know people are going to cry ‘PC gone mad’ but the sad reality is that one of the most influential industries in the world is basically refusing to acknowledge that people and women of colour as well as differently abled can be just as talented as a white man.

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Corruption and the SkyCity Convention Centre Deal? Do we need a Public Inquiry?

By

Simon Prast

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February 23, 2015

4

I googled ‘SkyCity Convention Centre cost-benefit analysis’. The first three findings are ‘Close to Corruption‘ in NBR, ‘SkyCity Convention Centre Short on Seats’ from NZ Herald and ‘SkyCity Deal Doesn’t Add Up: Treasury‘ on Stuff .

In this last piece from July 2013, Andrea Vance reports that “In a briefing paper to cabinet ministers, economic development ministry officials note that Treasury was “not convinced by the cost benefit analysis” for the centre. It said New Zealand already attracts a “disproportionate share” of the convention centre market. International arrivals for conferences have plateaued since 2005 and international research showed a low net public benefit of conference centres. “These considerations lead Treasury to doubt that an expanded conference centre in Auckland will attract significantly more international conference attendees.”The paper also laid out Treasury officials’ concerns about gambling.”Public costs will only go to private gain,” it said, once the initial costs of constructing the centre are paid off. “Treasury has strong concerns that private benefits to SkyCity will exceed public benefits to New Zealanders.”

Given this and the extraordinary events of last week, should there be a public inquiry into the Government’s dealings with the Casino giant, the integrity of the original tender process and the role played by the Prime Minister (described in last Saturday’s NZ Herald by Fran O’Sullivan as “shamelessly bypassing good governance procedures”) negotiating a deal that has delivered ‘private benefits to SkyCity that exceed public benefits to New Zealanders’?

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Malcolm Evans – United Future?

By

Malcolm Evans

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February 23, 2015

1

Malcolm Evans – United Future?

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Charter schools scandal – no special needs children enrolled

By

John Minto

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February 22, 2015

78

Remember the PR hype about charter schools and how they were being set up to target children currently failing in the education system – and in particular children with special education needs?

Education Minister Hekia Parata repeated this claim time and again as she defended charter schools and their gold-plated funding arrangements.

Catharine Isaacs, former ACT President and appointed by the government to head the committee establishing and monitoring these charter schools, made the same claim endlessly as she travelled the country trying to drum up support from uninterested communities.

I attended several of these meetings where again and again Isaacs was specifically asked about children with special education needs because the overseas experience is that charter schools discourage children with special needs from enrolling because those schools don’t want kids who will “pollute” their exam pass rates.

Isaacs responded that she’d expect a much higher proportion of children with special education needs to be enrolled in charter schools compared with public schools because this was a target group of children.

It was a key selling point for an unpopular policy to a dubious public.

Then late last week in Parliament we had Hekia Parata, under questioning from Green MP Catharine Delahunty, finally admit that not a single child who would qualify for ORRS funding (special targeted funding for children with special needs) is enrolled in any of the nine charter schools so far established.

New Zealand charter schools are repeating the pattern set by the same privatised schools overseas. Cream off the kids you want and leave the most difficult kids for the public schools. Then crow about your success as you slag off the public schools to which you have discarded kids with behaviour issues and/or those of lower academic ability.

In the US the “most successful” charter schools according to Hekia Parata and ACT are the KIPP schools (Knowledge is Power Programme) and yet research shows KIPP schools weed out 30% of kids before they get to Grade 8 (our Year 9). The figure climbs to a staggering 40% for African-American boys. Children with special needs feature in the long lists of discarded kids.

Meanwhile here in New Zealand children with special needs don’t even get inside the front door. What a scandal.

Finding a better example of the cynical abuse of New Zealand children for ideological reasons would be hard to find.

Meanwhile the most significant group of children failing in our schools are transient children (kids who shift schools frequently because of poverty-related issues) and we can be sure none of these children are enrolled in any charter schools either.

Charter schools were always a con. Last week Hekia Parata underlined the point.

—

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Charter Schools: When no news is not good news

By

Dianne Khan

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February 22, 2015

4

It’s been six months since I first asked Why has it all gone quiet on Charter Schools? In that article, I posed some questions for those pushing the charter school agenda, hoping to open a dialogue with some of its fiercest proponents. What I got was nigh on radio silence, so now I want to revisit those questions and see how much we have learned since they were posed…

Question: Dis all five 2014 charter schools have at least the minimum number of students they must have according to their contracts?

Answer: No, they did not. Some were wavering around the guaranteed minimum for which they were paid, but most were below. Remember, charter schools are paid for their guaranteed minimum number of pupils, whether they enrol that many or not (unlike state schools, which are paid per student head, revised throughout the year).

It’s also intriguing to note that a November OIA request regarding minimum rolls was delayed… does Ministry not have this information immediately to hand?

Question: How many students has each charter school lost over the 2014 school year?

Answer: We now know that the Northland charter school’s roll dropped significantly during the year and was never anywhere near the guaranteed minimum.

Vanguard’s roll also dropped notably: Roll returns obtained from the Ministry of Education’s School Directory database indicate actual student 2014 roll numbers as follows: 104 as at 1 March; 93 as at 1 July and 79 in October.

Only 2 schools passed their guaranteed minimum, and one of those, South Auckland Middle School, still lost students. Source

Question: Have any of the current schools had ERO there to do readiness reviews, yet, and if so, what did ERO say?

Answer: Well, we now know the silence on this one was because Whangaruru (now named Te Pumanawa O Te Wairua in a rather embarrassing attempt to rebrand) was in such a dire situation. But there was only so long this could be kept under wraps, and the school is now subject to an order to improve.

Question: Are the initial problems at Whangaruru resolved now?

Answer: Not even close.

Question: Do the schools lose per-pupil funding if a student leaves, like state schools do?

Answer: No. They just keep on getting paid to their guaranteed minimum roll, even if they are not meeting that minimum. So much for the free market model ACT is so keen to promote.

Question: How many ORS funded students (students with significant special educational needs) do the charters cater for?

Answer: Again, no wonder there was a loud silence on this one, since the answer is none. Not a single one.

And if one current charter school head is running a private school that apparently let down an autistic student, then who knows what’s going on.

Question: Whatever happened to Catherine Isaac’s working group – where’s the report they surely did after all of their unbiased research?

Answer: Still waiting, waiting, waiting….

Meanwhile charter schools in Chile are being taken back within the state system after failing students for decades, and the latest exam results from England show their version of charter schools (Academies) have performed below state schools. And don’t even get me started on the farces playing out in the USA…

Question: Given charters are so costly compared with other forms of education in New Zealand, are they providing good value for our tax money?

Answer:

Question: Why has it gone quiet on the new charter schools due to start next year?

We eventually heard that four more schools were to open. Alwyn Poole managed to snag another one, which opened in the middle of an unfortunate saga not of their making and then faced another embarrassing blow shortly after.

The good news is that there will not be another round of charter schools this year, so for now at least there is a pause and, perhaps, time to evaluate just how the ones already open are doing.

Question: How does having charter schools starting at preschool age (as indicated by the Minister may happen) help with the mythical 20%?

Answer: Pffft, why let little things like contradictions, evidence and research stand in the way of a good privatisation opportunity?!

Question: Jamie Whyte said charter schools are the answer to issues of bullying that LGBTI students face – how?

Answer: Jamie has left the building. David Seymour did attend the Big Gay Out 2015, but that’s as far as this one’s gone.

Question: Leading Maori educationalists signed an open letter to government opposing charter schools; have their concerns been dealt with?

Answer: Good question… it seems not.

Question: Given charters were set up to help with the mythical “1 in 5″ who do not get NCEA 2, is there any evidence that this group’s achievement is rising?

Answer: Vanguard Military School has posted what seem to be good NCEA results, however there are some unanswered questions around them. For example, how did those students who dropped out over the course of the year do? Are the released results for all that ever enrolled or only for those who stayed? (It’s a very important difference, as charter schools have been well documented for easing out those students they felt might bring their pass marks down, and such behaviour is not in the interests of students.) And as Literacy and Numeracy were rightly a focus according the Hekia Parata, what subjects were Vanguard’s students passes in? Were they related to literacy and numeracy or not?

Question: Charter schools have not improved educational success in USA, England or Sweden, and in fact all have dropped significantly in PISA tables. So what has been put in place to ensure the same does not happen in New Zealand?

Answer: We are yet to hear what is in place regarding this.

Meanwhile, charter school results in England just took another blow, and Chilean students have forced the government to overturn charter schools and bring them back within the state system due to them leading to a two-tier system that promoted cherry-picking of students, exclusion of special needs or other high needs students, and underfunding of state schools.

So where are we now?

It seems that since last October we have had more bad news on charter schools than good.

They say no news is good news, but experience tells us that in the weird world of education reformers, silence is more indicative of a cover up than of good news.

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While Evils Are Sufferable: What would it take to rouse New Zealanders to revolt?

By

Chris Trotter

-

February 21, 2015

32

WHAT DOES A GOVERNMENT have to do before it forfeits all legitimacy in the eyes of its people? It’s a question many people have asked down the centuries. In the modern era, no person has set forth the conditions under which all government legitimacy may be considered lost more eloquently than Thomas Jefferson. Author of the American Declaration of Independence (1776) Jefferson set forth in the rolling cadences of the Eighteenth Century exactly why governments are created, and exactly when they may, justifiably, be destroyed:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Were Jefferson, transported through time to Barack Obama’s America, to publicly assert “The Spirit of ‘76”, it is highly likely that he would find himself under investigation by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, or both. For openly proclaiming the right of the American people “to alter or to abolish” their system of government – should it become destructive to their “unalienable rights” – he would, almost certainly, find himself placed on what Edward Snowden calls the “cast-iron watch-list” of the National Security Agency. There he would be subjected to “a long train of abuses and usurpations” considerably more despotic than anything contemplated by the loyal servants of King George III.

We New Zealanders, though lacking entirely the revolutionary tradition of a United States or a France, are able to boast the longest, continuous exercise of fully democratic government on the planet. Governments elected by universal suffrage have ruled New Zealanders since 1893 – much longer than is the case in the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Germany.

This long, unbroken stretch of government with the consent of the governed has instilled in New Zealanders a possibly over-large measure of the “prudence” which Jefferson cites as the explanation for human-beings’ disposition to “suffer, while evils are sufferable”. Rather than secure our rights by abolishing the form of government to which we have become accustomed – and which has, up until the late-1980s, at least, served us extremely well – we have been willing to cut our political masters an awful lot of slack.

Not being natural ideologues, we struggle to make the connections between the neoliberal policies imposed upon this country by successive governments since 1984 (none of which have ever had the courage to seek an explicit electoral mandate for the entirety of the neoliberal programme they intended to pursue) and the appalling social consequences to which those policies have given rise.

Although the cause-and-effect relationship between cuts to mental health services and successful suicide attempts is indisputable, very few New Zealanders would consider it fair or appropriate to lay those deaths at the door of the responsible Cabinet Minister. Similarly, most Kiwis would feel uncomfortable about sheeting home the blame for child abuse and domestic violence to a government’s failure to pursue policies of full-employment and the provision of public housing. Many of us regard such ills as the unavoidable “collateral damage” of responsible public administration.

Where most New Zealanders would draw the line, I suspect, is at the suggestion that their government might be willing to sacrifice the life, or lives, of a New Zealand citizen, or citizens, in the pursuit of purely partisan political objectives.

The protection of its citizens, both at home and abroad, is the first and most fundamental duty of any government. To abrogate that duty, for whatever reason (other than to ward-off an imminent and deadly threat to the whole population) would not be accepted by the vast majority of New Zealanders.

Were it to be proved that the government had been willing to allow one or more of its citizens to be reduced to a mere pawn and then ruthlessly sacrificed in some partisan political chess game, that might just be enough to see Kiwi “prudence” thrust angrily aside.

Such a government would have forfeited all claim to moral and political legitimacy. Channelling the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, many thousands of New Zealanders might even conclude that, in the face of such insufferable evil, it was their right – and their duty – to throw off such a Government, and provide new guards for their future security.

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Basic Basic Income

By

Keith Rankin

-

February 21, 2015

3

Last week I suggested that, if a basic income policy was adopted (and marketed well) by Labour, an alternative basic income policy could be National’s best political response. Indeed I am happy to advise the National Party on this matter.

I would rather have a good centre-right government than a bad one. I would even rather have a good centre-right government than a bad left-wing government. Like the Green Party, it is to the left that I naturally look to for progressive coalition politics. But I think that the Green Party could contribute more than it does to policymaking by being more willing than it is to ‘centrify’ right-wing governments.

I think the left can be bold, and go for a 35/200 flat tax and basic income policy (35% tax, $200+ per week publicly-sourced income), as described last December. If feeling less brave in the face of media sceptics, then Labour could go for the 33/175 alternative. 33/175 is really very much like what we have at present (mainly an accounting change), but with some unconditional support for the insecurely-employed precariat.

Before offering advice to National, it is worth mentioning a tweak to the 33/175 option that would raise another $200m in revenue. ACC employee levies are currently set essentially as a flat tax of 1.45% on top of normal income taxes. It’s not widely appreciated though, that people don’t pay the levy on earnings over $118,000 per year. So Labour could advocate a nifty little tax increase, raising the present top rate to 34.5%, commencing at around $120,000 per year. If we then consider income tax inclusive of ACC levies, then Labour’s policy would become a simple 34.5/175 instead of 33/75.

In the 2009 Budget National did a little trick. It introduced a very basic unconditional payment of $10 per week for ‘independent earners’ earning between $24,000 ($462pw) and $44,000 ($846pw) for the year. (It is called an ‘Independent Earner Tax Credit’ – IETC.)

I have found a way of extending this by providing $100 per week to short-term unemployed people who really do not need the hassle of reapplying for unemployment (‘job-seeker’) benefits every time they are between jobs. The $100 per week would also be available to students who do not quality for an allowance, meaning they would be able to reduce their student loan living allowance by upto $100 per week. (The exact amount would depend on whether they have part-time earnings.)

So what I am about to describe could be called a basic basic income (BBI), a National basic income (NBI), or an independent person’s unconditional income. It could be a good policy for a good centre-right government. Essentially an unconditional income would be payable to any person over 18 (or even 16?) who presently receives no government cash benefit other than an accommodation supplement.

There are two ways this, once implemented, could be interpreted. Scenario 1 uses present accounting terminology.

The first way (Scenario 1) is that the $100pw (for someone earning $0 in any given week) would be abated by 22.5 cents for each dollar of earnings up to $269, and 15.5 cents for subsequent dollars of earnings up to $462. In addition they would face tax of 10.5 cents on the first $269pw, and 17.5 cents on subsequent earnings up to $462. The result would be that people earning $462pw would receive their present $10pw very basic tax credit, and they would continue to receive this $10pw credit in full until they reached the still modest income of $846pw. Essentially, only those people precariously earning less than $24,000 per year would gain anything.

The second way (Scenario 2) to see this would be that everyone pays 33 cents tax on every dollar earned. People earning less than $462pw would gain a basic income of $100pw. For people earning between $462 and $1,346 per week, that basic income would rise progressively from $100pw to $175pw. For people earning over $1,346 per week, their basic income would be $175pw.

Which was easier to follow, Scenario 1 or Scenario 2? Actually both scenarios are identical in terms of what people get. The only difference is in the description. Further, both scenarios are identical to the present tax scale for ‘independent earners’, except for those earning less than $462pw.

Which description is simpler? Scenario 2, clearly!

Scenario 2 is a better description in another way. It suggests that low earners get a poor deal. Why should they get lower benefits – lower returns on their equity in NZ Inc – than higher earners? (Low income Meridian shareholders don’t get lower dividends per share than high income Meridian shareholders.)

So if we had this very basic basic income in place, at minimal cost to the tax payer (probably zero net cost), next time the government says we should have tax cuts it is not obliged to give tax cuts that include the rich. The government would now have a built-in mechanism for giving ‘tax cuts’ only to the poor, by raising the $100pw BBI to something that better reflects the public equity of the poor.

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Improving Pacific media freedom record … but let’s get real

By

Dr David Robie

-

February 20, 2015

1

world press freedom image afp 560wide — Pacific press freedom … maybe not as bloody as elsewhere in the world, but vigilance still needed. Image: AFP/RSF

David Robie also blogs at Café Pacific.

IT’S GREAT to get some bouquets on media freedom issues instead of brickbacks in the Pacific for a change. But let’s not get carried away. Instead of all the backslapping, what is needed is more vigilance because really it is all about more than watching this space.

Tonga did best in the latest Reporters Sans Frontières World Press Freedom Index, climbing some 19 places to 44th (yes, actually above the United States, but still below the best-paced Pacific island Samoa at 40th).

You would expect a healthy climb during the year, especially with former school teacher and public broadcaster (not to mention publisher of the pro-democracy Koe Kele’a) ‘Akilisi Pohiva finally becoming prime minister of Tonga.

This was an encouraging result in the November 2014 election following the first “democratic” election in 2010.

And it was expected that Fiji would also improve in the rankings after the “return to democracy” election in September – first since the 2006 military coup – flawed though that might be.

Fiji rose 14 places to 93rd.

But the RSF report was gloomy reading about much of the rest of the world:

“The 2015 World Press Freedom Index highlights the worldwide deterioration in freedom of information in 2014. Beset by wars, the growing threat from non-state operatives, violence during demonstrations and the economic crisis, media freedom is in retreat on all five continents.”

Best in the Pacific Islands Forum region was New Zealand on sixth, a rise of 3 places, but still below the Scandinavian countries Finland (1), Norway (2), Denmark (3), Sweden (5) and the Netherlands (4) as usual. However, New Zealand’s position is deceptively higher than it really deserves.

Why so much better than Australia? Frankly, it is Australia’s tougher use of draconian anti-terrorism laws that keeps it at a modest 25th, but still way ahead of the United States at 49th (also above France at 38th) which has a far worse track record.

Papua New Guinea dropped 12 places to 56th, lower than Haiti (53), for example. Fiji at 93rd is lower than Kuwait (90), Greece (91) and Peru (92).

In spite of the encouraging improvement in Fiji, it will not be lasting until the draconian Media Industry Development Decree is repealed.

Just a few months ago, Reporters Without Borders and the Pacific Media Centre filed a submission with the United Nations Human Rights Council calling for the repeal of the law. It isn’t so widely known that the defunct Fiji Media Council Limited, which oversaw self-regulation in the country before the 2006 coup and made a reasonable job of it for many years, also called for a repeal.

At the time, FMC put out a statement clarifying its position and it is worth reflecting on this:

During the 10 or so years that the Fiji Media Council was active members, were guided by a published code of ethics and practice. The codes had been prepared by the Thomson Foundation and were unanimously accepted by all the main media organisations.

The council’s complaint procedures used the codes as a guide and in cases where complaints were upheld the media organisation concerned was committed to publishing the decision of the complaint committee.

The decisions were published but on many occasions the injured party was not satisfied and demanded some form of punishment. The council did not have the ability to punish and as a result was labelled a “toothless tiger” as well as other less complimentary terms. Most of the loudest complaints came from politicians.

Prior to the implementation of the Media Decree, government called a meeting of media stakeholders and explained what was proposed. The decree used almost word for word the Council’s code of ethics and practice the main difference was the replacing of the word “should” with the word “must”. In addition it made provision for offenders to be fined.

The fines were excessive but they were the answer to those critics of the Media Council. Many of those who had loudly criticised the failure of the Council to punish now complained just as loudly at the decrees ability to punish.

The main offender during this period was without doubt The Fiji Times; while they played lip service to the media codes, they offended regularly and only issued limited retractions after a lot of pressure.

It should be borne in mind that Fiji was not alone in facing problems with the Murdoch press. It was felt in some quarters that the lack of media freedom in Fiji stemmed from the intransigence of the old Fiji Times and it was believed that once the ownership changed the pressure on the media would be relaxed; this however has proved not to be the case.

The Media Decree in its current form should be removed from the statute books. However, the Media Council’s codes of ethics and practice should be reintroduced and a self-regulatory body set up to ensure the codes are adhered to.

RSF World Press Freedom Index 2015 – ‘a decline on all fronts’

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Five AA Australia – NZ Report – Controversy Over Govt’s Handling of David Bain Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Claim

By

Selwyn Manning

-

February 20, 2015

11

New Zealand Report: Recorded live on 20/02/15

ITEM ONE:

Controversy continues to surround one of New Zealand’s most disturbing multiple-murder cases even after almost twenty years since a High Court jury initially found David Bain guilty of the murders of his mother, father, two sisters and his brother.

The New Zealand Government has been struggling to objectively consider whether David Bain ought to be given compensation for being wrongfully imprisoned for the murders of his family:

this even after the Police case was found wanting
forensic evidence was corrupted
a plea to the Privy Council was supported and a new trial was ordered
that on retrial in 2009, Bain was found not guilty after 13 years imprisonment
that after an impartial review, ordered by NZ Government, was considered by retired Canadian High Court judge Justice Ian Binnie, who found Bain was, on the balance of probabilities, innocent of the murders and ought to be compensated for this injustice.

Even after that saga, last year the then Justice Minister Judith ‘Crusher’ Collins did not feel satisfied with the impartial judge’s report. Collins ordered another legal peer review of Justice Binnie’s report be conducted by a lawyer, of her choosing, who found Binnie over-stepped his terms of reference and found fault in the Judge’s reasoning.

Now… almost twenty years since Bain was wrongfully convicted, the new Justice Minister Amy Adams said yesterday neither the impartial judge’s report, nor the critical legal peer review, can be relied on.

The minister will now order a new impartial reassessment of Bain’s case for compensation, and that this will cost over $400,000 to $1million.

For the record, David Bain has always maintained his innocence, insisting that he was out delivering newspapers at around dawn when his parents and siblings were murdered in their home, shot while they slept… That is, apart from his father who was fatally shot while kneeling in the study.

There was a note on the family’s computer, allegedly written by the father Robin for his son David, stating ‘you were the only one who deserved to live.

See the Minister of Justice’s statement here.

ITEM TWO:
This one is rather odd. We all know New Zealand has a sizeable agriculture sector, but Waikato drivers were still surprised to see the Police bowling along a rural highway driving a tractor! See TVNZ report.

The tractor was all decked out in Police car livery and colours. There was a cop at the wheel in full uniform and police cap. However, it’s unclear whether the tractor was fitted with a siren and flashing lights.

Apparently the Police tractor was heading to Field days agricultural show in Te Awamutu as part of an official Police publicity stunt. The Police said last night it was “… all about, promoting discussions – things like rural road deaths, drug activity on farms, personal safety, stock thefts and illegal hunting.”

New Zealand Report is broadcast live on FiveAA.com.au and webcast on LiveNews.co.nz and ForeignAffairs.co.nz.

—

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Five AA Australia – NZ Report – Controversy Over Govt’s Handling of David Bain Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Claim

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