Latest from the Policy Commons
Virtual hosting of APEC a bold move
By Rob Scollay - What New Zealand must do to play virtual host to APEC next year is something perhaps never attempted before. The rewards could be big. Virtual hosting of 2021 APEC: a rewarding challenge for NZ New Zealand’s confirmation that it will proceed with...
Covid exposes need for public health agency
By Collin Tukitonga - Dr Collin Tukuitonga draws on New Zealand's response to Covid-19 to argue for a designated population health agency An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed major shortcomings in the funding and...
Covid-19 and clickbait
By Anne Salmond - Michael Woodhouse still can't provide evidence of his apocryphal 'homeless man' staying for free in quarantine. Dame Anne Salmond argues the Opposition and media need to be better in throwing around such claims. It is now 12 days since the...
Watch: Public Policy Forum COVID-19 and the Pacific – Tourism, Trade and Tracing
Recorded 1 July 2020, University of Auckland. As Aotearoa New Zealand began to control its COVID-19 cases, calls began to grow for the creation of a Pacific—and Trans-Tasman—travel bubble. The general concept would see tourism and other travel to resume between...
Colonial feel to Māori media plan
Crown options for Māori media have a colonial “feel and smell” to them, writes the University of Auckland's Dr Claire Charters Are the Government’s Options for Māori Media unconstitutional, contrary to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, international Indigenous peoples’ rights...
Imagining a different world and making it happen
How we come out of this crisis will depend on how well we are able to imagine new futures, and turn those visions into reality. In this first part of a two-part series on vision-making, Jess Berentson-Shaw looks at what sets apart an effective vision that can lead...
A vision for workplaces that work for all of us
After the lockdown, it is now clear to many that "work" has been conceptualised and operationalised in a way that excludes many people and causes avoidable stress. So how do we deconstruct those ideas? asks Jess Berentson-Shaw This week public servants in...
Take care with tech used to fight Covid
A type of artificial intelligence is being used to research Covid-19, but the experts behind it must consider the social implications of their work - and participation from diverse voices Machine learning is a kind of artificial intelligence where algorithms are...
NZ’s ugly inequities laid bare
Being in lockdown revealed, worsened or even created inequities that we now must address, writes Dr Karen V. Fernandez And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and...
SUSTAINING AND INVESTING IN LOCALLY-LED WELLBEING EFFORTS: GOING BEYOND SERVICES
Angie Tangaere & Penny Hagen This blog is the second in a series of reflections and projections from the Lab and the teams that we work with about equity, systems health and systems change in the context of COVID-19. Originally published by The Auckland...
Burning with rage – America’s been here before
By Jennifer Frost - Systemic white violence against black Americans is alive and well, and it's white violence that sustains white supremacy Current scenes from the United States are both familiar and shocking. George Floyd’s life being brutally snuffed out by...
In our welfare system, it’s ‘us or them’
Dr Louise Humpage was hoping Covid would help Kiwis better understand how tough it is to live off the benefit, but the newly unemployed are not being treated like main beneficiaries at all Foolishly, I had thought one serendipitous outcome of the Covid-19 crisis...
Don’t drop the ball on this one Jacinda
Anomalies in the policy for superannuitants with overseas pensions are an indictment on the justice process in New Zealand, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale Along with many others, the Retirement Policy and Research Centre has worked assiduously for more...
We’ll need that red tape if we want to beat Covid
By Gehan Gunasekara - Kiwis have a natural aversion to following strict rules day in, day out, but when it comes to Covid, we need those rules Clearly, the Kiwi attitude of 'she’ll be right', individualism and aversion to following strict bureaucratic requirements...
High trade hopes between old allies
The NZ-UK trade talks that launched recently offer renewed hope and optimism for an agreement that benefits these historical allies, writes Dr Asha Sundaram The UK’s entry into the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union (EU) in 1973...
Health system changes no small task
By Associate Professor Tim Tenbensel - Implementing recommendations from a major review of the health and disability system will require the Government to bring its A Game, writes Dr Tim Tenbensel The long-awaited Final Report of the Health and Disability Sector...
A crisis of public spaces
Diane Brand asks what the post-pandemic city will look like and how do we adjust our concept of urbanism to accommodate it? *Originally published in Newsroom. Republished with permission Public spaces where people are able congregate, streets, squares, parks and...
NZ-Pacific bubble should come first
Dr Collin Tukuitonga Dr Collin Tukuitonga is the inaugural Associate Dean Pacific at the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. *Originally published in Newsroom. Republished with permission. Quarantine-free travel between NZ and Pacific...
What the Budget means for women
The Budget's investment in physical infrastructure is necessary for economic recovery, but it must be recognised that the number of women in those jobs is much lower than in social infrastructure like heath services and education. The Government should consider...
Watch: Gender Impact Analysis Policy Forum: Women workers and COVID-19 in Aotearoa
This is the first of a number of Gender Impact Analysis Policy Forums we are hosting over the coming six months. Subscribe for updates. Speakers: • Saunoamaali’i Kararina Sumeo (Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, Human Rights Commission) • Traci Houpapa...
