Govt pursuing diplomacy over moral outrage in Mid East: Peters
The Foreign Affairs minister says the government is pursuing diplomacy over moral outrage, as he warns against rushing to condemn or support any one actor in the Middle East conflict. Political reporter Giles Dexter has more.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Scoop
40 minutes ago
- Scoop
Surge In NCEA Numeracy & Literacy Results
Minister of Education Thousands more high school students are passing the foundational literacy and numeracy assessments required for NCEA, clear evidence the Government's relentless focus on the basics is delivering results, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. 'The latest NCEA co-requisite assessment results show a marked improvement in student achievement in numeracy and reading, especially in Year 10 for those sitting the assessments for the first time. The Government's $2.2 million investment in 2024 to provide targeted support to students in 141 lower decile schools has resulted in more students achieving assessments,' Ms Stanford says. Numeracy: 57 per cent of students achieved the standard across all year levels - up from 45 per cent in May 2024. 68 per cent of Year 10 students passed the numeracy assessment, 95 per cent of whom were sitting it for the first time. 34 per cent of students in lower decile schools passed the numeracy assessment in May 2025 compared to 19.8 per cent in May 2024. Reading: 61 per cent of students achieved the standard across all year levels – up from 58 per cent in May 2024. 72 per cent of Year 10 students passed the reading assessment, over 95 per cent of were first time participants. 41 per cent of students in lower decile schools passed the reading assessment in May 2025 compared to 34 per cent in May 2024. Writing: 55 per cent of students achieved the standard across all year levels - holding steady from May last year. 66 per cent of Year 10 students passed the writing assessment, 95 per cent of whom were sitting it for the first time. 35 per cent of students in lower decile schools passed the reading assessment in compared to 34 per cent in May 2024. More than half of this year's Year 12 students who did not meet the co-requisite while in Year 11 last year have now achieved it — and around a third of these students will now be awarded NCEA Level 1. This takes the pass rate for NCEA level 1 in 2024 from 71.5 per cent to 79.6 per cent. 'These early improvements are the result of a comprehensive reform package focused on lifting academic achievement. We have introduced a new year-by-year, knowledge-rich and internationally benchmarked English and maths curriculum, restored a focus on structured literacy and structured maths, and provided schools with hundreds of thousands of high-quality resources — including over 830,000 maths textbooks, workbooks and teacher guides. 'We're investing significantly in teacher professional development, mandated an hour a day of reading, writing and maths and banned the use of cell phones in schools to ensure every student gets the focused instruction they deserve. 'While these results are positive, there are still too many students who don't have the fundamental literacy and numeracy skills they need to thrive. That's why this Government is unapologetically reforming the education system to prioritise improving student outcomes. As our back-to-basics approach beds in, more children will be better equipped when taking these assessments in the future,' Ms Stanford says. Notes The co-requisite ensures that all students demonstrate foundational literacy and numeracy skills before being awarded any level of the NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement). From 2024, students must pass three digital assessments—one each in reading, writing, and numeracy—to meet this 20-credit co-requisite requirement.

RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Political commentators Tim Hurdle and Lianne Dalziel
Tim Hurdle is a former National senior adviser, consultant and director of several companies. He is currently the Campaign Director for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Lianne Dalziel is a life member of the Labour Party and a former MP and Cabinet Minister. She ran as an independent for Christchurch's mayoralty in 2013 and was the city's mayor for three terms. She writes a regular column for Tim and Lianne discuss the latest in politics, including the recent Stats NZ milestone where the number of people who moved away from New Zealand was greater than the number who migrated here, in the months of April and May. Photo: 123RF

RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Allan Bird: Punishing offenders must come first to tackle PNG's cycle of violence
Allan Bird Photo: Facobook / Allan Bird RNZ Pacific has been looking at the pervasive levels of violence in Papua New Guinea and how the country might overcome it. According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2024 , violence and conflict over resources have resulted in more than 400 deaths and displaced over 20,000 people since the 2022 general elections. In May, Dr Sinclair Dinnen, a security expert at the Australian National University (ANU), spoke of the fraying of the consent of the community that police used to be able to rely on. He said some of this can be attributed to behaviour on the part of the police force itself, along with the fairly violent context in which many people find themselves living in PNG. The executive director of the Institute of National Affairs, Paul Barker, told us last week that the lawlessness is, at least partly, a reflection of the social and economic plight of the country. He said beefing up the police alone, as the government is planning to do, will not work if it does not take the wider community with it. The governor of East Sepik Province, Allan Bird, told RNZ Pacific that the immediate focus must be on policing, with a hard push to punish the offenders, before there can be talk of jobs and education. (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) ALLAN BIRD: For violence, I think the most important thing is that we need police to actually identify people, prosecute them and put them in jail, as a deterrent. At the moment, one statistic we had some time back was that we get about 18,000 arrests for violent crime, and out of the 18,000 we get something like 200 convictions a year. So, it is almost like a licence for people to continue doing it. Until we get more boots on the ground in terms of policemen, better preparation of case files and better prosecution, these things are not going to get better overnight, unfortunately. DON WISEMAN: I've been speaking with Paul Barker. He says there's a whole series of factors involved in this. There's the lack of opportunity that people have, absolutely lack of jobs, lack of proper education opportunities. This is a problem that's very common around the world right now, and I guess going to become increasingly so. And he also says it's all very well to up the numbers of police, but they've got to be properly resourced. They've got to have plenty of vehicles, and there's got to be a lot more involvement of the community, because these problems are bigger than just lawlessness. It's a breakdown of social values and everything else. AB: I totally agree with that. My thinking is it is a chicken and egg question. Now, what do you do first? Do you go out and try to create the jobs and get people educated and all of that? We have got seven million people in this country that are already victims of these failures in the system. Those people are already there. Education is going to take us 20 years, and of course, we have got to do all those things. We have got a government that is totally inept. It does not know what it is doing, and we are not going to get the jobs that we need in the next six to 12 or even 18 months, unless you have got smarter people running the country making better decisions. So that's the reason why, for me, I am cutting straight to the policing because unless you get smart leadership in Papua New Guinea, I will be dead by the time they sort those things out to be honest with you. I am going for the easy win at the moment, which is, beef up the law and order. And if you do, there might be people who would be interested to come and invest their money that will create jobs and opportunities and all of those sorts of things. In fact, there is been almost zero investments in Papua New Guinea in the last 15 years. We are not doing really great in the jobs area, to be honest. DW: Takes money, of course. AB: It takes confidence. It takes a lot of things for private sector to come and invest their money, not just in Papua New Guinea, but anywhere else in the world. They look for security for their investments. No one is going to come and toss a billion kina, billion dollars in Papua New Guinea to sort of invest in something if, you know, they don't trust the government. They don't trust the systems, if there's no law and order. It comes back to your chicken and egg question.