Great to see David Parker’s announcement that leave provisions across the core public service are to be standardised. This covers not just annual leave provisions but also other types of leave, including sickness, parental and tangi/bereavement leave. In terms of annual leave the effect is that all staff not already receiving five weeks leave will do so after five years service. Â
This is not just good news for those public servants who will get additional leave, but also because it will make movement easier between different Ministries and Departments. It is also a sign of the government acting as a leader in good employment practice.
I strongly believe that one of the things that will improve public services in New Zealand is to facilitate movement between agencies.  Breaking down the silos between different agencies is the key to provide effective and efficient services for New Zealanders. I think we are well served by public servants in New Zealand, but the rigidity inherent in the structure of the public service can at times stymie the cooperative initatives that will provide for innovative service delivery.
Congratulations also to the PSA for their on-going work on the Partnership for Quality with government. This approach has helped provide for a settled framework for making positive differences in the public sector.
Posted in Social Justice and Wellington. |
The PM and Judith Tizard announced the National Library re-development earlier in the week. The proposal looks impressive and will give a much needed boost to this storehouse of our national identity, and further interesting developments in the Parliamentary precinct to go with the Supreme Court.   This link has a video by the architects that gives a really good feel as to how the National Library building will look.
Posted in Wellington and Uncategorized. |
There is a school of thought that the public will not buy the “National has a hidden agenda” line because John Key appears as a believable kind of guy. I have covered this before, but I think Gordon Campbell has absolutely nailed what is going on in this piece, in the wake of Kategate.
The media do seem to be getting as frustrated as the rest of us about the absence of National Party policy, but what lies behind that absence is what I am really worried about. As Campbell says
So much for transparency, and fully informed electoral choice. The public is being required to buy a pig in a poke. National is proceeding on a deliberate course to hide from public scrutiny and debate - for as long as it possibly can - what it intends to do on tax, on Kiwisaver and much else besides. When taken together with its intention to re-open the case for FPP, it is a reminder of the party’s fundamentally undemocratic instincts.
I totally agree. Kate Wilkinson’s answer was about what National really want to do, but realising that the public actually do not support much of that they really want to do, they are grudgingly signing up to Labour policies that are successful and popular.Â
I have said it before but as John Key does this it is with all the committment of a teenage boy tidying his bedroom, hoping no one notices what he has stuffed in the wardrobe. Kate Wilkinson’s comments were about what is in the wardrobe, the same National agenda that just like 1990 will be rolled out after they are elected.Â
I was there when Lockwood Smith signed his pledge about abolishing tertiary fees. The tactics are the same- tell the public what they want to hear, hide away what you want to do.
Posted in Uncategorized. |
I had an enjoyable evening at the Victoria Uni Debating Society event last night, as part of the negative team on whether NZ should have a system of education vouchers.  I thought all the participants spoke well, and made interesting and entertaining contributions. I was not on the winning side, but as that was decided on a show of hands and I think most of the audience came in with fairly well set views on the topic, I am not too upset 
One of the aspects of the debate that did concern me was the extent to which people do not seem to want to know or accept how incredibly innovative our education system actually is. I have visited a number of schools over recent months, and spoken with educators around the country, and our state schools are truly at the cutting edge of pedagogy, curriculum and assessment.Â
To me it is on these issues-the nature of what actually happens in our classrooms- that we should be focusing, rather than a tired debate from last century about the privatisation of education.
Here are the notes I prepared for the debate, though such is the nature of these things that it changed a bit in delivery, it does not include my rebuttal and the frantic waving of the timekeeper truncated things at the end.  Here is also a link to a video of my speech,  though I understand the battery on the camera died so you lose the last few minutes.
Posted in Education. |
When I said in my post on Friday that there were some things that I had wanted to see in the Budget that were not there- this is what I was talking about. Excellent.
Posted in Social Justice. |
