Labour Thus Far....

[blynk]

Could you elaborate a little.

The 1 minute search I did was talking about numbers from Term 2 last year.
I would be interested in more of those stats (which they won't have).

How many were covid related
How many were families going on holiday after been stuck at home for 2 years.
How many were kids just not going to school.

[blynk]

I should add, yes I agree it is getting worse. Especially as the gap widens and families struggle.

[Ab]

Only 46% of students attending regularly, compared to 60% in 2019

13% of students are attending less than 70% of the time, compared to 7% in 2019

Only 33% of Maori And Pacific students attending regularly, and 22% are attending fewer than 70% of the time

Regular attendance for Decile 1 schools is just 30%

https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/...ics/attendance

[blynk]

Thanks. I probably could have done more research myself, but right on that page
"Incidence of COVID-19 in the community continued to be high through much of Term 3 2022, resulting in higher than usual levels of absences for both students and staff. Schools and kura were also impacted by higher levels of typical winter illness, causing additional absences. These are the main drivers of non-attendance in Term 3 2022. The increase in medical absences indicates that students and their parents have chosen to follow Ministry of Health advice i.e. for students to stay home if unwell."

So going into the end of Term 2, NZ was having the large increase in covid cases with whatever was the latest variant at that point.
The holidays helped dampen that, but the number of cases still going into Term 3 was quite high.

[Ab]

Chippie seems to default to “lie” far more often than I’d like.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/cyclon...FJ2Q7EIHWCUYE/

[Lightspeed]

Five Auckland Harbour crossing options unveiled by Transport Minister

I guess this gives us something to bicker about instead of all the more serious and pressing concerns no one is going to do anything about anyway.

[blynk]

Really need a heavy rail option. Imagine going from north to south without even having to change

[Jodi]

Got I hate this. Lived though it in the 90s and now again.

propose harbour crossing - all plans are stupid - ends up costing 400 billion dollars, so gets canned for later - repeat every 25 years.

Just shut a fucking lane on the bridge and let me cycle the 5km to work.

[Ab]

So what you're saying is... cycleway?

[Jodi]

I'm saying don't build a second crossing - just close a lane on the bridge for cycles/mopeds only.

I'll be dead before Auckland can organise a second crossing. NZ cannot build anything big anymore.

[Ab]

Dude NZ can't even build something LITTLE.

[Redneck]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterview_Tunnel

[Ab]

I said “can’t”, not “couldn’t in 2011”.

[Lightspeed]

[blynk]

Originally Posted by Ab

I said “can’t”, not “couldn’t in 2011”.

Well speaking of things we could do in 2011 (or by 2011).

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/sta...KEFRXW3QYILZQ/

Let's bring out plans for a waterfront stadium again.

[Ab]

Yeah but you what would be truly unprecedented? Light rail.

[Cyberbob]

North shore here. Any rail would be nice thnx.

[Lightspeed]

Not especially excited by the latest budget.

Labour's gotten away with a tax raise, but there's a lot that's left unaddressed. Especially effective tax creep on the lower tax bands as inflation bites.

Still plenty of necessary investment being neglected.

[xor]

Inflation is a tax...

[blynk]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Not especially excited by the latest budget.

Labour's gotten away with a tax raise, but there's a lot that's left unaddressed. Especially effective tax creep on the lower tax bands as inflation bites.

Still plenty of necessary investment being neglected.

They couldn't do tax bracket adjustments at the moment with the current inflation, that what not help reduce it.

in 12 months time though, whoever is in government need to do it, and my hope is that they also implement an automatic process to update them.
Maybe not yearly as it might just cause more confusion, but every 3 years, its gets raised by the inflation over that time

[Nothing]

It'd be nice if we could delet GST. It basically just makes shit unaffordable for poor people, rich people own businesses and claim everything as an expense, so basically don't have to pay it. Bullshit tax is bullshit. Drop GST, create wealth tax. 2m starting threshold, @1%, increase by 1% for every 10m of wealth thereafter.

[Ab]

Minister of Education orders staff to bury disastrous attendance stats:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/polit...ouncement.html

[Ab]

Everything normal here

Associate Education Minister Jo Luxton is reportedly looking into the possibility of an independent review of early childhood education funding and the sector’s concerns about the Government’s $1.2 billion expansion to 20-hours-free childcare.

It comes after almost the entire ECE sector signed a letter to Luxton and Education Minister Jan Tinetti, saying Budget 2023′s flagship policy to extend 20-hours free childcare per week to 2-year-olds is completely unworkable and will degrade the quality of childcare, limit the stock of educators and increase the hundreds of services shutting up shop in recent years.


https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politi...NF6BEY3BG27JM/

[Lightspeed]

It is unfortunately.

Unworkable for the current lot, so they'll leave, a new lot able and willing to operate in the new status quo will replace them.

Any fallout will be obfuscated by the long term, but today we're a responsible neolib government managing the budget, minimising any burdens on wealth.

[Ab]

Presumably this is Luxton's problem because Jan Tinetti, the actual Minister of Education, is busy being investigated by the Privileges Committee for misleading Parliament about the disastrous attendance stats.

[Lightspeed]

Labour and National aren't working against each other, they just fight to take turns.

They still make sure they don't go too hard on the other.

Everything is working as it's supposed.

[xor]

The 20hours free was always a scam. ECE centres colluded together to force parents to sign up for a min number of days/hours when the govt initially announced this subsidy. A win/win for the owner of ECE centres.

The education system suuuucks so hard. I can teach my 8 year old more about maths in an hour or two than what he would at school in a week.

[blynk]

Originally Posted by xor

The 20hours free was always a scam. ECE centres colluded together to force parents to sign up for a min number of days/hours when the govt initially announced this subsidy. A win/win for the owner of ECE centres.

The education system suuuucks so hard. I can teach my 8 year old more about maths in an hour or two than what he would at school in a week.

I see that they were also able to ask for voluntary donations. Which I assume were about as voluntary as school donations.

[xor]

Yeah, it is a good money spinner.
* The ECE centers game the 20hours free and make it impossible for parents to use ONLY 20hours. They'll make up some shit like 'part time is from Mon-Thurs 08h00 - 17h00' so they can squeeze both the govt and the parents. Then, the ratios are always fucked.

Subsidies don't work.

[Ab]

Turns out the Minister of Transport and his wife are shareholders in Auckland Airport. Not a good look.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politi...KQCNBJJAKXNA4/

[Ab]

Originally Posted by xor

The education system suuuucks so hard. I can teach my 8 year old more about maths in an hour or two than what he would at school in a week.

The Education sector is falling apart at the university end too;

https://www.thepress.co.nz/a/nz-news...r-universities

[StN]

I can't talk to the Victoria one, but similar stuff is happening at Otago. They built a heap of new halls for first years, and now don't have paying customers to cover that cost. So they decide pulling back on courses and laying off staff will fix it.

Daughter has now moved back to ChCh to finish off at Canterbury.

Nice to have a young person around again.

[Lightspeed]

Universities are businesses now, they exist to generate revenue. If they fail, that's business. 🤷

[xor]

Originally Posted by Ab

The Education sector is falling apart at the university end too;

https://www.thepress.co.nz/a/nz-news...r-universities

Dude, i experienced it first hand! I completed a master of info sec about 6 years ago. It required students to already have a solid understanding of OS, Windows internals, coding, networking, cryptography etc. Things I saw:

Student doing a digital forensics class didn't know what powershell was or cmd.exe.

Blatant plagiarism by international students. They copied screenshots of each others work but forgot that cmd prompt shows the directory of where the screenshot was taken. e.g. Jimmy submitted his report which contained a cmd screeny of c:\users\%NOTJIMMY%\Downloads\Fuckmyshitup.dll. The uni wouldn't discipline/kick him out. The teacher assistant who reported the plagiarism was silenced by his boss.

Students couldn't solve missing X when doing basic risk calculations.

Students didn't know how to reference.

[Ab]

Here in Adelaide, a city smaller than Auckland, there are four universities, two of them with medical schools. That's not counting non-university tertiary institutions at the polytech level.

[Lightspeed]

Neoliberalism working like a charm in NZ.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Neoliberalism working like a charm in NZ.

I read this bit in the article:

... it is now clear that the New Zealand universities sector has been living on borrowed time.

The tipping point for Victoria University came this year when actual student enrolments plunged well below the level needed to sustain an acceptable deficit, let alone return a profit which it is required to do.

...and just thought "but why?"

[Lightspeed]

Waikato University has paid former cabinet minister Steven Joyce nearly $1 million

Waikato University has paid nearly $1 million to an advisory firm run by former National Party cabinet minister Steven Joyce.

RNZ obtained records detailing dozens of invoices from Joyce Advisory Ltd to Waikato University between December 2019 and December 2022, totaling $966,000.

Everything working as it should.

[Ab]

Jesus fucking christ.

[Ab]

Suspended transport minister Michael Wood has resigned as a Cabinet minister, after it was revealed his family trust held shares in Chorus, Spark, and the National Australia Bank that he did not declare.