To start with a disclaimer, I am not a medical expert. I have no degree in epidemiology, nor can I claim any expertise in public health management. Read more
Travel bans bought New Zealand a little time, nothing more. We hope the Government is using this time well to prepare for the more widespread Covid-19 outbreak that seems likely to arrive, sometime. Read more
Since 2008, a contagion spread through the developed world: people felt that elites and politicians were looking out for each other and forgetting them. With this new coronavirus, murmurings about a travel ban has begun since Christmas as the virus jumped beyond China. Read more
Social norms can persist well past their use-by date because they can be so hard to change. Nobody wants to move first, lest they be considered the weirdo. Read more
New Zealand is vulnerable to the same threats to their freedoms Australia is struggling with – and arguably the risk has already arrived. The worst assault across the ditch comes initially out of US and UK universities where a hybrid utopian movement of the most dangerous aspects of postmodernism and collectivism has been rebooted in the form of social justice, intersectionality and identity politics. Read more
The government has crossed a bright-line rule in its proposed changes to Kiwisaver. Its proposal to require default funds to divest of any fossil fuel stocks is incredibly unlikely to have any direct effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Read more
A paradox exists within the personal grievance provisions of the Employment Relations Act 2000. By prohibiting “unjustified dismissal,” the provisions were designed to guard the jobs of ordinary workers. Read more
One wonders what French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire would have made of the Free Speech Union (FSU). Set up by British journalist Toby Young, the FSU presents itself as a “non-partisan, mass-membership organisation that stands up for the speech rights of its members.” An organisation to promote free speech – what nobler cause could there be? Read more
I skived off last Friday afternoon for the first day of the cricket test at the Basin Reserve. Relaxing on the grass there really is one of the good things. Read more
Like so much of value in life, education is oblique. Unfortunately, NCEA’s reviewers have yet to appreciate this. Read more
It took a little while after the Christchurch earthquakes to wrap our heads around that a lot of the city would never be as it was. We had to adjust to the new normal. Read more
Every now and then, a new word pops up to encapsulate the mood of the time – and the best neologisms make you think “Gee, I should have thought of that.” ‘Westlessness’ is such a word. It was the motto of this year’s Munich Security Conference, the world’s largest conference on international security policy. Read more
The following article was sent to us by retired English teacher Peter Joyce, who wrote it some 20 years ago for the NZ Education Review. The article illustrates effectively many of the problems that still grip education today. Read more
The United Nations is correct to consider New Zealand's housing crisis as a substantial human rights issue. But while the UN is often excellent at seeing problems, it isn't so good at suggesting appropriate solutions. Read more
New Zealand isn’t the only country pondering if, in today’s world, the most dangerous thing of all is that almost everything is made in China. From low-cost manufactured goods and novel coronaviruses, to university budgets and a fair chunk of New Zealand’s gross domestic product, China is responsible for an outsized slice of the Kiwi pie. Read more