Prime Minister Christopher Luxon booed at ANZ Premiership netball final
The Mainland Tactix claimed their first title in the franchise's 28-year history, beating the Northern Mystics, the two-time defending champions, 58-46 – and Luxon
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NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
Aaron Smale: Why politicians don't take the Māori vote seriously
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Christopher Luxon's indifference reflects the larger issue of the major parties ignoring Māori as a voting bloc. Photo / Getty Images Whoever the press secretary is for Christopher Luxon these days, they might want to have a weekend bootcamp teaching him how to keep his foot out of his mouth. Apart from when he uses corporate gibberish to masquarade as an answer, on the rare occasion Luxon says something pithy, it often turns out to be an absolute clanger. Luxon tossed off one such clanger when he questioned whether the September 6 by-election for the Māori electorate seat of Tāmaki Makaurau would be a real fight or 'a pillow fight'. (Kind of ironic given the real pillow fight is in the Epsom seat, which National hands to Act every three years.) A by-election will be held in Tāmaki Makaurau because the person who held the seat, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, recently died. And she held the seat because the voters of that electorate put her there, unlike some party list mediocrity like, well, take your pick. Luxon's comment was flippant at best and disrespectful to both the late MP and her constituents. So, no, it's not a pillow fight, it's a vote in the largest Polynesian city in the world. But Luxon's indifference to Māori voters in the coming by-election reflects the larger issue of the major parties mostly ignoring Māori as a voting bloc. One of the underlying reasons for this was first pointed out to me by my sixth form history teacher at Edgecumbe College, Gerry Rowlands, an American originally from Florida, a southern state with all the history that entails. Mr Rowlands posed a hypothetical idea that Māori would be better off all going on the general roll and getting rid of the Māori seats altogether. His rationale was that the electorate we were in was often held by National because of the high number of Pākehā farmers. But if Māori all went on the general roll, then National – and Labour, for that matter – would actually have to compete for the Māori vote to win. The then-named Eastern Māori seat went from the Bay of Plenty all the way around the East Coast and down to Wairarapa and Wellington. This area has one of the highest Māori populations in the country and the election campaigns in the general electorate seats would look completely different if all Māori went on the general roll. Mr Rowlands didn't say this but I don't think he'd disagree – the Māori seats are acting as a passive version of what Americans call gerrymandering. That is, Māori are being electorally contained – or at least split – and thereby robbed of their actual voting power by the Māori seats. The Māori vote has been ghettoised; every Māori who goes on the Māori roll is a Māori the candidates and the elected MPs in the general seats can ignore. And they do. Back to Auckland and the present day. One of Luxon's long catalogue of gaffes since taking up National's leadership was encouraging women to have babies to boost the flagging population. He quickly backtracked. Women have fought long and hard to have control over their fertility and some male politician telling them to start banging out babies for the national cause wasn't landing well. But what Luxon dimly recognised was that Pākehā numbers are in the early stages of decline, and this decline will only accelerate as the 34% of the Pākehā population that is over the age of 55 falls off the perch at an increasing rate. Luxon doesn't seem to recognise, even dimly, that Māori and Polynesian populations are rising steadily. Listen to Luxon's political messaging and it's as if Māori don't exist in his calculations. Labour's Chris Hipkins isn't any better, and in some respects he's worse. When Māori became a political target, he, like Helen Clark before him, dropped them like a hot hāngī rock so he could appear non-threatening to old, white people. The coalition government has had a free run in its attack on Māori because Hipkins does little to stand up for them, or articulate in any coherent way why what's good for Māori is good for everyone. He'd rather let Te Pāti Māori take the flak. Te Pāti Māori has become a convenient – and, it must be said, easy – political target. But those who bear the brunt of the political attack are actually their voters. Their interests get drowned out in all the posturing from across the political spectrum. The merits of the Tāmaki Makaurau candidates – Peeni Henare for Labour, Oriini Kaipara for Te Pāti Māori and Hannah Tamaki for Vision New Zealand – are open to serious question. But National, NZ First, Act, and even the Greens, have disqualified themselves from any part in the conversation, because they haven't bothered to put up candidates. Māori are at the pointy end of issues that concern everyone, particularly those of a younger generation: the cost of housing, the cost of living, the environment and the future of employment. The economic and social direction of South Auckland and other regions of the country with high Māori populations is the direction of the country as a whole. It's a bare-knuckle fight for the future of the nation. Mr Luxon is just too scared to even get in the ring.
Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Mixed reaction to NCEA replacement plan
A pair of Dunedin principals say the proposed replacement for NCEA will be an improvement, but a teacher's union representative is concerned there will be a loss in flexibility for students. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the Minister for Education Erica Stanford have announced a proposal to replace the entire NCEA programme with new national qualifications. Year 11 students would be required to sit a foundation test in numeracy and literacy and year 12 and 13 students would receive two new qualifications — the New Zealand Certificate of Education and Advanced Certificate of Education. Students would be required to take five subjects and pass at least four of them to receive a certificate being awarded a mark out of 100 and grades "that make sense to parents like A, B, C, D, E". Otago Secondary Principals' Association chairwoman Jackie Barron, who is a principal at St Hilda's Collegiate School, said her initial thoughts were the curriculum change would give teachers some certainty and schools some clarity around what was expected of them. Despite being positive about the changes, she said the information was new and would take time to process. There was previously some anxiety around what the NCEA was going to look like with recent changes to the qualification made in an attempt to put a stronger focus on literacy and numeracy. "This gives us a really clear timeline," Ms Barron said. There was enough time for teachers to adjust to the new curriculum as major changes to year 12 and 13 courses were not expected until 2028. Ms Barron thought it was the right call to replace NCEA if the new curriculum was inclusive and engaged all students. She said one of NCEA's strengths was its flexibility and it was important not to go back to a narrow form of assessment that only tested certain types of learning. "We need to maintain the openness to valuing all different types of learning." Otago Boys' High School rector Richard Hall said the proposed new curriculum appeared to be an improvement on NCEA. He said the existing NCEA framework faced challenges posed by an "attitude that can favour mediocrity". There were issues with it including excessive credit counting and an over-reliance on internal assessment at the expense of robust external examination opportunities. Otago Boys' had maintained a strong expectation for its students to sit exams even if they had already received all the credits they needed to pass. "We believe that a shift towards a potentially 50/50 model of internal and external assessment [exams] would represent a beneficial step forward," Mr Hall said. PPTA Otago regional chairman Kussi Hurtado-Stuart was concerned the new qualification would lose some of the flexibility NCEA had. He said the loss of flexibility would affect neurodiverse learners the most, especially if exams were heavily weighted. He was worried teachers would not be given enough resource support to transition into the new curriculum. "I think that there was a moment of solidarity and eye rolls this morning across the country both at the change that was proposed and the support they said we were going to get." Teachers' expectations were reasonably low there would be any support. Ms Stanford said the NCEA change programme was already funded and some proposals like the expansion of Vocational Education and Training pathways would require additional funding that would be considered in future budgets. The flexibility NCEA offered in externals and internals would be maintained with the new qualification and special assessment conditions would be, too.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Parents cautiously optimistic about waving goodbye to NCEA
Education Minister Erica Stanford and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announce changes to NCEA. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro A Dunedin mum is hopeful the changes to NCEA will benefit her Year 7 son, but another says she's a "bit scared". The government has pulled the pin on New Zealand's official secondary-school qualification after more than 20 years. The National Certificate of Educational Achievement will be gone by 2030, replaced by a basic literacy and numeracy award at Year 11, and the Certificate of Education and Advanced Certificate of Education at Years 11 and 12. 'Achieved', 'not achieved', 'merit' and 'excellence' will be replaced by marks out of 100 and letter grades A, B, C, D and E. The new certificates would be standards-based, like the NCEA is, meaning every student passes if they demonstrate the required knowledge or skills, but they would have to study at least five complete subjects and pass four of them to get their certificate. A Dunedin mum, who RNZ has agreed not to name to protect the identity of her child, was optimistic about the move . "It will be an advantage to him because it gives that nice, stringent 'I know what I need to head for, I need to study really hard for this'." She called NCEA a "step backwards", saying the change was a return of a more structured way of learning and a focus on core subjects . "As an employer of people coming out of university, I can tell you it kind of sets them up a little bit for failure in real life," she said. "I find that the English levels, the maths levels and science levels coming out for students just isn't quite as good as some of the historical stuff that I've seen coming out of the older styles." Another mum, who has a son just starting university and a daughter in Year 9, said the NCEA system was confusing. "Even I couldn't understand this credit system and achieved system. I always thought 'what is this? Credits? Credits?'. "But one thing I've noticed, if he knows he has got enough credits, then he decides he's not going to work any harder." The new grading system could push them to study harder or discourage them from learning, she said. "As a parent, I am a bit scared, to be honest." She was uncertain how students would respond to the changes, saying it would depend on how they were implemented. A grandmother who lived with her Year 8 grandson said she was on board with the changes if they helped students. "That's what I would be hoping for. Something that makes it easier for the kids to show that they've really, really tried and that they do want to be at school and they want to learn and that they want to get a job when they get away from school, and that they want a better life." But she was worried some students might choose to drop out if they had to pass four of their five subjects to get one of the new certificates. "That does sound a bit tough because if a child or a young adult can't handle exams - to pass four subjects may just be beyond their capability," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
