Luxon sets "nine ambitious Government Targets"; Most return measures back to pre-Covid era; None improve housing affordability, child poverty or cut emissions faster; Accountability by 2032 elections
Blame your poor and disenfranchised population for all that is wrong with your bad policies. Tell those who have the least that it is they who must work harder and do better. Reward yourself handsomely.
Do away with treasury reports. Do away with all evidence.
Implement policies based on your "very strong consultation period [with your donors] through the election period"
And lastly, and this is the crucial part, criminalise those who have the least, even the parents- especially the parents. And troll citizens on social media, children too. Nothing is off limits.
Pretend, spin, abuse and ignore.
So much for evidence based reforms.
Evidence. Evidence. Evidence.
Taxes. Taxes. Taxes.
And in case it's still not patently obvious to some....
Regarding school attendance, listened to an interesting podcast this week, plain english by Derek Thompson talking to Nat Malkus from American Enterprise Institute ( I haven't done an research on them so don't come at me if they are crazy on other things). Anywho, interesting research they are doing on chronic absenteeism in schooling over there. language they use is a bit more understanding, as Malkus says: "Chronic absenteeism may prove the harder problem to fix, as it reflects a cultural shift that stems from habits lost and priorities that changed during the pandemic."
In my mind Truancy is when your child is absent from school without parent or school permission, what they are really needing to focus is on rebuilding culture of attendance, not yelling about fining people.
I was so impressed with our rangatahi who gathered at Parliament. They were articulate and spoke with impressive clarity of ideas.
Seymour would like us to believe that 'children' are incapable of complex thinking / critical thinking.
When Seymour has children of his own I will be interested in his opinion.
Our rangatahi are being dismissed by politicians in very public ways - no shows at School Strike 4 Climate and publicly bagging them on media and social media platforms. Didn't Peter's criticise politicians for not engaging with anti-mandate protesters?
This government has locked in assessment driven education targets for our tamariki and rangatahi, and parents it seems, without any evidenced based data to back it up [donors don't count]
When my kids were going through the public school system assessments were the bain of teachers lives - a waste of learning time.
A steady diet of assessments also seemed to cause anxiety in children who were given gimmicky graphs to illustrate their achievements - comparing them to their peers - not helpful information for parents to share, unless all you are worried about is that your kid is the "smartest".
In my experience, the rediculous number of assessments carried out by classroom teachers wasted time, added unnecessary workload and stress to both teacher and student, and did nothing that was obvious to inform or improve educational outcomes.
Teachers pick up, with minimal need for entire classroom assessments, on students abilities, strengths and weaknesses.
What those teachers need is more support for their gifted and struggling students - not more beurocratic forms to fill out.
Improve teacher student ratios.
Improve classroom comfort for all students not just those with no overly specific requirements.
Resource classrooms with additional skilled teachers and the already urgently required (being denied) teaching and teachers' aids. That's what government should be focused on.
And for the love of God, feed hungry children, and let THEM tell you how they are.
Show children the unconditional care and respect they deserve. The care and respect that will make them more inclined to want to be at school.
None of us knew who we were when we were young, or what we wanted to be "when we grow up", we just needed to be accepted, and free to exist without judgement or ridicule. Free to explore and discover our own thruth.
Nothing is more harmful to a child than adults and peers shaming them for expressing themselves honestly.
This government needs to stop fueling the conservative obsession over OTHER people's children. They need to stop criticising our rangatahi, stop criticising parents, and start taking responsibility themselves for the quality education that is the GOVERNMENT'S responsibility to provide.
This government needs to go back into the classroom and read the relevant literature, listen to the relevant evidence, and make a genuine effort to listen to those who have a better understanding of what is actually happening for our tamariki and rangatahi.
Then they need to come up with a plan that puts government at the centre of responsibility for every childs meaningful participation in education
If this government is unwilling or incapable of achieving that, then in my opinion, they have already sunk their own target.
Agreed, why do we think focusing on punitive negative measures will help in the least? To give an alternative perspective, my son has attend NZ and UK primary schools, he (and we) have loved both but they have very different approaches to attendance. Every British school has an engagement coordinator who records children’s attendance %, and sends letters out to everyone each term. They have a certain % of attendance which if the child falls under, the parents will be called in to talk constructively about how they/their child can be helped to attend school more regularly. They also celebrate attendance rates in a huge way, with certificates, prizes, special lunches, a weekly competition chart etc - I was a bit shocked at the obsession to be honest when he first arrived at the school but here’s the thing; it works! The average attendance is around late 80s - 90% over all kids. And it is all very positive, no punishments or making people feel like shit in the process (there are fines for taking them out for holidays 5 days or more in a row - which is a bit controversial here but can understand it’s purpose). The only downside I can see, the kids are constantly getting sick as parents will rigorously send them in no matter what, to spread around to their mates 😳
More worrying are the more important things not being targeted: reducing inequality, making real climate changes rather than trying to fudge the agricultural emissions.
With his declared targets you cannot argue most of the outcomes would be welcome but magical thinking with reduced manpower and budgets. However, if overseas and NZ experience is a guide meeting the target becomes more important than actual genuine outcome changes.
Laser focused. Yeah right. Setting the targets to be measured when he is not a politician any longer but away in some fancy boardroom with a fat pay package and the title Sir before his name. Where have we seen this before?
It is one of my pet peeves that targets are set for something like "... by 2030". As you say those who are setting this target will be gone by then (well, maybe except for Winston and Judith) and never held to account.
Also, I've noticed over the years that a lot of this "by [date]" ends up being nothing done until the date when suddenly those who should be doing something actually start doing what should have started years before.
an extremely serious problem in NZ is the high cost and unaffordability of housing which is causing many social problems.
$924,734 the average cost of a dwelling (apartment, house, etc) (latest QV house price index)
$49,560 the average gross individual income in NZ (IRD statistics (not Statistics NZ bs))
(and always remember the median/middle gross income is much less than the average because the obscenely large/massive incomes of a few greatly distort the average figure)
therefore the average price of a home is 18.5 times the average gross income which is a colossal diabolical amount/multiple and the cause of much crime, health problems and suicides in NZ.
The current government has now enacted new legislation that will greatly exacerbate crime and health problems in New Zealand.
Average includes students, part timers etc so not the right number to use when talking house prices. It will always be low. Average household income is more useful?
I totally and vehemently disagree with using household incomes.
when I was a student the large majority of households in New Zealand were single income and that was sufficient for the large majority of households to live on; to pay the rent or mortgage and house insurance and rates, and the electricity accounts etc.
successive NZ governments have continually made housing increasingly unaffordable and driven/plunged ever increasing numbers of New Zealanders into poverty and despair.
household electricity used to be affordable but Max Bragfart and the National government destroyed the Electricity Department and created electricity companies.
chief executive incomes of those companies are disgusting obscenities: for example:
Contact Energy ceo Mike Fuge 2023 income $2,127,214
Mercury ceo Vince Hawksworth 2023 income $3,357,961
Meridian Energy ceo Neal Barclay 2023 income $1,874,667
published in the Weekend Herald on Saturday 06 April 2024
While touting its business approach to running the government, I look forward to the exciting new product relaunch of education. If students (the customers) are not buying into attendance then it's a sign that a product update is in order along with a revamped sales and marketing program. Otherwise we will have an "Under New Management" sign with the same old menu
You can not tell customers what to buy, you must sell them, as any trainee businessperson knows.
Agree, make school a place students/customers want to attend & learn for current & future life. Make it relevant to all not just overpaid politicians who will mot even ensure the infrastructure is up to standard.
Ironically I am about to attend a hui at our kids' primary school regarding attendance. There's a team travelling around doing qualitative interviews with parents and students (separately) to look into the different components of "why" attendance is good/bad/variable. But given current responses to evidence, I'm sure their findings (whenever that comes out) won't make a huge impact on actual policy 🤦🏻♀️
A gutless self serving government going after the old easy targets to deflect us from the fact they are without the intelligence or imagination to grasp the real issues that are coming our way. My only hope came from hearing the wisdom, commitment and compassion for others and the planet from our wonderful students at the recent climate strike, and knowing that many of them will be turning 18 before the next election.
The promises look so grand, but, given the Coalition primary focus which we know is not these areas, for credibility we need to see this broken down time and strategy-wise. Many of the measures are already evaluated at least annually. Re the fast-tracking decisions, without usual consultation processes and assessments Sydney would have mined into its drinking water catchment area. The Coalition unchecked is terrible for all of us, including them and their voters ironically, but would not be obvious immediately. There may even be some Coalition politicians who would like means of rejecting such pressure, and enforceable regs would provide that. Regardless of that, lack of proper assessment is obscene nonsense, which this, you may have seen, helps elucidate, regarding some primary issues. Excuse my reiterating. https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/fast-track-bill-puts-nz-wrong-track-threatening-public-health
This dismissal by Minister Seymour of covid as a reason for not attending school (e.g. we are pretty much past covid now) does raise the question is he aware of long covid.
Hey Andrew, yes comes across as pretty flippant. Sickness in general with kids is common but more parents will hold kids home if they are not well compared to the pre COVID world. Also I think there is an expectation from teachers and other parents that if you kid is sick you should keep them home. For parents who flexi work from home this is less of an issue than previously… I think I am going to dig into the stats on MOE and see if I can figure what’s going on… SToRm the Decision GateS!!
Also, it's recently been in the news that teachers are the profession at greatest risk of long covid 😕 as a primary teacher and parent, I've been grateful for the increased focus on staying home when you're sick, even though it can be a heck of a juggle for families to do so!
If parents are going to get fined for keeping kids home and they can’t get an appointment at a GP to prove their kid is sick, then we can expect more sick kids and therefore more absences. Teachers will be sick and absent more too.
How am I going to judge whether this government has been any good or not:
- Meaningful action to reduce gross emissions (not just planting a bunch of pine trees).
- Teacher/ nurse/police/prison staff retention. These are vital members of our workforce who have put up with a lot of shit but remain passionate and committed. People leaving these professions/ moving overseas should be a black mark against any government
- Houses built annually in our fastest growing centres
- Numbers of children in poverty. Don't care what parents do, no kid should start life disadvantaged. We don't get to choose our parents.
It is only fair to judge performance for the relevant period (I.e. the next three years). If you turkeys think we're going to vote you in twice more, you've been sniffing Sharpies while whiteboarding your big rocks.
I think you hit on a key point there - retention of these key roles. I know turnover in nursing is extremely high and understand teaching is similar, unsure about the others.
People reading the Kaka probably understand why my point is there is often a lot of political focus on ‘more teachers/police/nurses’ etc and not on keeping the people we have.
The sad part is that a significant part of NZ population will swallow this BS hook line and sinker! Goals with no consideration of a realistic pathway to achieve the desired outcome is electioneering but wont be presented as such by NZ media. It's a depressing outlook for the future of NZ. No wonder our brightest young people are departing in exchange for unskilled workers. NZ could be so much better.
Just four more likes and this goes wide. By the way. I’m thrilled with the quality of comments on our articles. A real pleasure to read the care and thought that has done into them.
I have now opened this up for public reading, listening and sharing after getting over the 100 likes threshold from paying subscribers giving permission and support to make it public. Thanks again.
Wholesale destruction of the future for most, for the self-benefit of some... 🤬
Definitely worth a read. Thanks.
Blame your poor and disenfranchised population for all that is wrong with your bad policies. Tell those who have the least that it is they who must work harder and do better. Reward yourself handsomely.
Do away with treasury reports. Do away with all evidence.
Implement policies based on your "very strong consultation period [with your donors] through the election period"
And lastly, and this is the crucial part, criminalise those who have the least, even the parents- especially the parents. And troll citizens on social media, children too. Nothing is off limits.
Pretend, spin, abuse and ignore.
So much for evidence based reforms.
Evidence. Evidence. Evidence.
Taxes. Taxes. Taxes.
And in case it's still not patently obvious to some....
Methane. Methane. Methane.
That's all.
oil. oil. oil
plastics. plastics. plastics
https://youtu.be/2DJato7gzKE?si=98IuwgVn0GYVcPbo
thanks for the link
I was a teenager when I first saw that film and was very "moved" by it but I didn't comprehend the plastics advice at that time.
Neither did I. I subsequently heard references to that scene.
Brilliant plan. How did you get hold of this strategy paper?
Regarding school attendance, listened to an interesting podcast this week, plain english by Derek Thompson talking to Nat Malkus from American Enterprise Institute ( I haven't done an research on them so don't come at me if they are crazy on other things). Anywho, interesting research they are doing on chronic absenteeism in schooling over there. language they use is a bit more understanding, as Malkus says: "Chronic absenteeism may prove the harder problem to fix, as it reflects a cultural shift that stems from habits lost and priorities that changed during the pandemic."
https://www.aei.org/articles/the-lasting-effects-of-covid-on-schooling/
In my mind Truancy is when your child is absent from school without parent or school permission, what they are really needing to focus is on rebuilding culture of attendance, not yelling about fining people.
I was so impressed with our rangatahi who gathered at Parliament. They were articulate and spoke with impressive clarity of ideas.
Seymour would like us to believe that 'children' are incapable of complex thinking / critical thinking.
When Seymour has children of his own I will be interested in his opinion.
Our rangatahi are being dismissed by politicians in very public ways - no shows at School Strike 4 Climate and publicly bagging them on media and social media platforms. Didn't Peter's criticise politicians for not engaging with anti-mandate protesters?
This government has locked in assessment driven education targets for our tamariki and rangatahi, and parents it seems, without any evidenced based data to back it up [donors don't count]
When my kids were going through the public school system assessments were the bain of teachers lives - a waste of learning time.
A steady diet of assessments also seemed to cause anxiety in children who were given gimmicky graphs to illustrate their achievements - comparing them to their peers - not helpful information for parents to share, unless all you are worried about is that your kid is the "smartest".
In my experience, the rediculous number of assessments carried out by classroom teachers wasted time, added unnecessary workload and stress to both teacher and student, and did nothing that was obvious to inform or improve educational outcomes.
Teachers pick up, with minimal need for entire classroom assessments, on students abilities, strengths and weaknesses.
What those teachers need is more support for their gifted and struggling students - not more beurocratic forms to fill out.
Improve teacher student ratios.
Improve classroom comfort for all students not just those with no overly specific requirements.
Resource classrooms with additional skilled teachers and the already urgently required (being denied) teaching and teachers' aids. That's what government should be focused on.
And for the love of God, feed hungry children, and let THEM tell you how they are.
Show children the unconditional care and respect they deserve. The care and respect that will make them more inclined to want to be at school.
None of us knew who we were when we were young, or what we wanted to be "when we grow up", we just needed to be accepted, and free to exist without judgement or ridicule. Free to explore and discover our own thruth.
Nothing is more harmful to a child than adults and peers shaming them for expressing themselves honestly.
This government needs to stop fueling the conservative obsession over OTHER people's children. They need to stop criticising our rangatahi, stop criticising parents, and start taking responsibility themselves for the quality education that is the GOVERNMENT'S responsibility to provide.
This government needs to go back into the classroom and read the relevant literature, listen to the relevant evidence, and make a genuine effort to listen to those who have a better understanding of what is actually happening for our tamariki and rangatahi.
Then they need to come up with a plan that puts government at the centre of responsibility for every childs meaningful participation in education
If this government is unwilling or incapable of achieving that, then in my opinion, they have already sunk their own target.
Sarah, you’re amazingly eloquent and I think you should start a substack or blog so more can hear what you have to say. I’d subscribe!
Agreed, why do we think focusing on punitive negative measures will help in the least? To give an alternative perspective, my son has attend NZ and UK primary schools, he (and we) have loved both but they have very different approaches to attendance. Every British school has an engagement coordinator who records children’s attendance %, and sends letters out to everyone each term. They have a certain % of attendance which if the child falls under, the parents will be called in to talk constructively about how they/their child can be helped to attend school more regularly. They also celebrate attendance rates in a huge way, with certificates, prizes, special lunches, a weekly competition chart etc - I was a bit shocked at the obsession to be honest when he first arrived at the school but here’s the thing; it works! The average attendance is around late 80s - 90% over all kids. And it is all very positive, no punishments or making people feel like shit in the process (there are fines for taking them out for holidays 5 days or more in a row - which is a bit controversial here but can understand it’s purpose). The only downside I can see, the kids are constantly getting sick as parents will rigorously send them in no matter what, to spread around to their mates 😳
Thanks Dave. Great link.
More worrying are the more important things not being targeted: reducing inequality, making real climate changes rather than trying to fudge the agricultural emissions.
With his declared targets you cannot argue most of the outcomes would be welcome but magical thinking with reduced manpower and budgets. However, if overseas and NZ experience is a guide meeting the target becomes more important than actual genuine outcome changes.
Magical, delusional, maybe textbook case of task avoidance?
You know what they say about weighing the pig.....
Persistent Task Avoidance.
Laser focused. Yeah right. Setting the targets to be measured when he is not a politician any longer but away in some fancy boardroom with a fat pay package and the title Sir before his name. Where have we seen this before?
Hi Merav
It is one of my pet peeves that targets are set for something like "... by 2030". As you say those who are setting this target will be gone by then (well, maybe except for Winston and Judith) and never held to account.
Also, I've noticed over the years that a lot of this "by [date]" ends up being nothing done until the date when suddenly those who should be doing something actually start doing what should have started years before.
an extremely serious problem in NZ is the high cost and unaffordability of housing which is causing many social problems.
$924,734 the average cost of a dwelling (apartment, house, etc) (latest QV house price index)
$49,560 the average gross individual income in NZ (IRD statistics (not Statistics NZ bs))
(and always remember the median/middle gross income is much less than the average because the obscenely large/massive incomes of a few greatly distort the average figure)
therefore the average price of a home is 18.5 times the average gross income which is a colossal diabolical amount/multiple and the cause of much crime, health problems and suicides in NZ.
The current government has now enacted new legislation that will greatly exacerbate crime and health problems in New Zealand.
Average includes students, part timers etc so not the right number to use when talking house prices. It will always be low. Average household income is more useful?
I totally and vehemently disagree with using household incomes.
when I was a student the large majority of households in New Zealand were single income and that was sufficient for the large majority of households to live on; to pay the rent or mortgage and house insurance and rates, and the electricity accounts etc.
successive NZ governments have continually made housing increasingly unaffordable and driven/plunged ever increasing numbers of New Zealanders into poverty and despair.
household electricity used to be affordable but Max Bragfart and the National government destroyed the Electricity Department and created electricity companies.
chief executive incomes of those companies are disgusting obscenities: for example:
Contact Energy ceo Mike Fuge 2023 income $2,127,214
Mercury ceo Vince Hawksworth 2023 income $3,357,961
Meridian Energy ceo Neal Barclay 2023 income $1,874,667
published in the Weekend Herald on Saturday 06 April 2024
Thanks for sharing this, Robert. I agree that the use of household income hides the true despair.
While touting its business approach to running the government, I look forward to the exciting new product relaunch of education. If students (the customers) are not buying into attendance then it's a sign that a product update is in order along with a revamped sales and marketing program. Otherwise we will have an "Under New Management" sign with the same old menu
You can not tell customers what to buy, you must sell them, as any trainee businessperson knows.
Agree, make school a place students/customers want to attend & learn for current & future life. Make it relevant to all not just overpaid politicians who will mot even ensure the infrastructure is up to standard.
Ironically I am about to attend a hui at our kids' primary school regarding attendance. There's a team travelling around doing qualitative interviews with parents and students (separately) to look into the different components of "why" attendance is good/bad/variable. But given current responses to evidence, I'm sure their findings (whenever that comes out) won't make a huge impact on actual policy 🤦🏻♀️
A gutless self serving government going after the old easy targets to deflect us from the fact they are without the intelligence or imagination to grasp the real issues that are coming our way. My only hope came from hearing the wisdom, commitment and compassion for others and the planet from our wonderful students at the recent climate strike, and knowing that many of them will be turning 18 before the next election.
Everything this wretched government does can be described as shit & derision.
The promises look so grand, but, given the Coalition primary focus which we know is not these areas, for credibility we need to see this broken down time and strategy-wise. Many of the measures are already evaluated at least annually. Re the fast-tracking decisions, without usual consultation processes and assessments Sydney would have mined into its drinking water catchment area. The Coalition unchecked is terrible for all of us, including them and their voters ironically, but would not be obvious immediately. There may even be some Coalition politicians who would like means of rejecting such pressure, and enforceable regs would provide that. Regardless of that, lack of proper assessment is obscene nonsense, which this, you may have seen, helps elucidate, regarding some primary issues. Excuse my reiterating. https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/fast-track-bill-puts-nz-wrong-track-threatening-public-health
This dismissal by Minister Seymour of covid as a reason for not attending school (e.g. we are pretty much past covid now) does raise the question is he aware of long covid.
Long covid is resulting in a recorded reduction in the UK workforce, for example. https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=61652
Has Minister Seymour received any advice on long covid and school attendance? Or are his reckons enough in his view?
Hey Andrew, yes comes across as pretty flippant. Sickness in general with kids is common but more parents will hold kids home if they are not well compared to the pre COVID world. Also I think there is an expectation from teachers and other parents that if you kid is sick you should keep them home. For parents who flexi work from home this is less of an issue than previously… I think I am going to dig into the stats on MOE and see if I can figure what’s going on… SToRm the Decision GateS!!
Also, it's recently been in the news that teachers are the profession at greatest risk of long covid 😕 as a primary teacher and parent, I've been grateful for the increased focus on staying home when you're sick, even though it can be a heck of a juggle for families to do so!
If parents are going to get fined for keeping kids home and they can’t get an appointment at a GP to prove their kid is sick, then we can expect more sick kids and therefore more absences. Teachers will be sick and absent more too.
The Climate Central mapping tool is fascinating/alarming, image most insurance companies have this in their browser favorites...
How am I going to judge whether this government has been any good or not:
- Meaningful action to reduce gross emissions (not just planting a bunch of pine trees).
- Teacher/ nurse/police/prison staff retention. These are vital members of our workforce who have put up with a lot of shit but remain passionate and committed. People leaving these professions/ moving overseas should be a black mark against any government
- Houses built annually in our fastest growing centres
- Numbers of children in poverty. Don't care what parents do, no kid should start life disadvantaged. We don't get to choose our parents.
It is only fair to judge performance for the relevant period (I.e. the next three years). If you turkeys think we're going to vote you in twice more, you've been sniffing Sharpies while whiteboarding your big rocks.
I think you hit on a key point there - retention of these key roles. I know turnover in nursing is extremely high and understand teaching is similar, unsure about the others.
People reading the Kaka probably understand why my point is there is often a lot of political focus on ‘more teachers/police/nurses’ etc and not on keeping the people we have.
The sad part is that a significant part of NZ population will swallow this BS hook line and sinker! Goals with no consideration of a realistic pathway to achieve the desired outcome is electioneering but wont be presented as such by NZ media. It's a depressing outlook for the future of NZ. No wonder our brightest young people are departing in exchange for unskilled workers. NZ could be so much better.
Just four more likes and this goes wide. By the way. I’m thrilled with the quality of comments on our articles. A real pleasure to read the care and thought that has done into them.
The hive mind is buzzing.
I have now opened this up for public reading, listening and sharing after getting over the 100 likes threshold from paying subscribers giving permission and support to make it public. Thanks again.