Open Journal Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington Library
Not a member yet
6045 research outputs found
Sort by
Evaluation, Science and Pragmatism: practitioner stances towards evidence-based policy
Get PDFIn Aotearoa New Zealand, as elsewhere, the evidence-based policy movement has been one of the most visible recent influences on how policies are described, discussed and debated. It is now commonly taken for granted that good policy work involves using evidence, and that it is important to increase the influence of data and research uptake during policy development. Promoting evidence-based policy has even been used as the raison d’être for the founding of a political party. However, the voices and perspectives of practitioners themselves are often missing from conversations about evidence’s role in policy work. Drawing on my doctoral research, this article presents three stances that frame how policy workers approach evidence in their practice
Magic Weapons and Foreign Interference in New Zealand: how it started, how it’s going
Get PDFIn March 2021, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) launched a remarkable campaign to inform the New Zealand public on the risk of foreign interference. In New Zealand, reference to ‘foreign interference’ almost always relates to the foreign interference activities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government. New Zealand has been severely affected by CCP foreign interference. For the Ardern government it was never a matter of ‘whether’ New Zealand would address this issue, but ‘how’. The SIS’s unprecedented public information campaign is part of a significant readjustment in New Zealand–China relations since 2018. This article documents some of those change
A Just Transition to Climate-resilient Coastal Communities in Aotearoa New Zealand
Get PDFEven if global emissions of greenhouse gases were to fall to zero immediately, still we would expect significant sea level rise over the next half century, along with increased frequency and intensity of inundation events and coastal erosion. While this fact has been widely appreciated by public servants and policymakers, the ethical implications and distributive consequences of our climate adaptation policy decisions have not. Decisions to allow new development in areas likely to become uninhabitable could transfer investment risks from property owners to the public, for example, while decisions to relocate existing at-risk communities could disempower already relatively disadvantaged groups. A just transition to climate-resilient coastal communities will require reduced policy uncertainty and enhanced democratic decision making
Anticipatory Governance for Preventing and Mitigating Catastrophic and Existential Risks
Get PDFThe world faces many large-scale risks. We describe these global catastrophic and existential risks and identify some challenges in governing the prevention and mitigation of such risks. We identify that risk reduction activity in Aotearoa New Zealand has not appropriately addressed these threats. On the basis of the challenges identified, we then deduce the desired features and functions of an entity for effectively governing risk reduction approaches. We argue for an entity that is: anticipatory, central/aggregating, coordinating, apolitical, transparent, adaptive and accountable. We offer structural options for such an entity and outline the merits of several options
The Populist and Institutionalist Logics of Anti-Expressway Campaigns in Aotearoa New Zealand
Get PDFThis article focuses on the opposition to the New Zealand Government’s Roads of National Significance programme to examine the individualistic and collective forms of political engagement that underpin contestation of expressway proposals and the challenges involved in forming an anti-expressway campaign that transcends locally based opposition. Utilising Ernesto Laclau’s notion of populism, it is argued that, in a post-political planning context, a reliance on an individualistic or institutionalist political strategy can restrain collective action and the development of effective supra-local or national campaigns. The populist and institutionalist logics underpinning the campaigns against the Kāpiti expressway proposal reveal the shared interests between activists and local opposition groups and the potential for progressive forms of populist action on environmental issues and transport policy
"Interior view of a hut ...": Stereography and the depiction of an Interior Architecture in 1930
Get PDFThis paper is an exploration of a stereographic photograph taken inside a New Zealand backcountry hut. Matter-of-factly entitled, "Interior view of a hut, with mugs, a bottle, plate and cutlery on a table, looking through door to another hut, location unidentified," the photograph is attributed by the Alexander Turnbull Library to keen amateur photographer Edgar Richard Williams. The image gives little detail away in its depiction of the hut interior, except for a utilitarian table tableau that begins to suggest a nascent New Zealand interior defined by no-nonsense pragmaticism and Lea & Perrins. But, far from being a scene of Depression-era poverty and deprivation, close examination of the photographed situation and its broader context provides a glimpse into a monied amateurism that heralded an emergent leisure class. As a stereoscopic image, the photograph does more than depict a scene. By placing us within a spatial view, we become immersed in questions concerning interiority and exteriority. We are presented with two spatial contrasts: one in the subject of the image, the other in the object of the image. By taking a close reading of both contrasts, this paper is an attempt to make some architectural sense of these dualities
Medical Device Regulation and the Proposed Therapeutic Products Bill: Devising a New Regime
Get PDFDespite medical devices being integral to modern healthcare, New Zealand's regulation of them is decidedly limited, with repeated attempts at reform having been unsuccessful. With the Government now indicating that new therapeutic products legislation may be introduced before the end of the year, the article considers the case for change, including to promote patient safety, before analysing the draft Therapeutic Products Bill previously proposed by the Ministry of Health, and on which any new legislation is expected to be based. It concludes that, while the proposed Bill is a step in the right direction, introducing regulatory oversight where there is currently next to none, there is still significant work to be done. In particular, it identifies a need to clarify whether the regime is indeed to be principles-based and identifies further principles which might be considered for inclusion. It further proposes regulation of cosmetic products which operate similarly to medical devices to promote safety objectives, while finding a need for further analysis around the extent to which New Zealand approval processes should rely on overseas regulators. Finally, it argues that, in an area with such major repercussions for people's health, difficult decisions around how to develop a framework which balances safety with speed to market should not be left almost entirely to an as yet unknown regulator but, rather, more guidance from Parliament is needed
Pushing the Boundaries: A Tentative Taxonomy of Money in New Zealand Private Law
Get PDFThis article seeks to define the boundaries of money in the context of proprietary taxonomy in New Zealand. It suggests that the traditional legal concept of money exclusively based on state issued (fiat) currency is dated, as does not accommodate the near-universal use of bank money in commercial transactions, nor the recent technological changes introduced by virtual currencies. As long as something functions as a means of payment and the holder has the right to exchange it for legal tender, the divide between mutually agreed payment obligations into those made on the base of fiat currencies and those not, becomes artificial. In providing responses to similar commercial arrangements and parties' legitimate expectations, not only coins and banknotes, but also balances held by customers in banking institutions, foreign money, and digital currencies, should qualify as money for private law purposes
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Journal Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington Library? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!