Open Journal Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington Library
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The Official Information Act: Maori with Lived Experience of Disability, and New Zealand Disability Data: a case study
Get PDFThis article presents a case study of the use of the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA), for research commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal in 2018 into disability-related issues for Mäori. The responses of Crown organisations to OIA requests examined in this research highlight both issues with inconsistent application of the OIA, and limited access to information held and made available by Crown agencies for Mäori with lived experience of disability.1 The statutory time frame for responses to OIA requests was rarely met. Organisations also resisted providing information, while crucial information for ensuring equity for Mäori with lived experience of disability was often not able to be released because it was not collected at all. The impact of these limitations is discussed, particularly pertaining to core government roles of performance monitoring and ensuring accountability. In addition to querying who benefits from, and is privileged by, the OIA and its application, questions are raised around the necessary components of a legislation rewrite in order to deliver on a modern approach to official information that ensures equitable, high-performing and truly democratic public administration
What is a vested interest?
Get PDFThe term ‘vested interest’ is often used with a negative connotation, with regard to powerful and wealthy firms or groups who exploit their insider position or block policy changes that others believe would benefit the social interest, the latter potentially including future generations. But the term vested interests also covers members of the public who have rights to participate in public debate. So, how should we understand ‘vested interests’ for the purpose of improving and democratising policymaking processes
Professional Skepticism and Audit Quality in an Emerging Economy
Get PDFPurpose – Motivated by the increasing questioning of audit quality and the suspected non-application of sufficient professional skepticism by auditors to drive audit quality, the study sought to examine the relationship between professional skepticism and audit quality in an emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a cross-sectional survey methodology using a close-ended data collection instrument containing tested measures of audit quality and professional skepticism to generate quantitative data from a randomly selected sample of 201 accountants in practice and business in Uganda. Quantitative data was analyzed with the aid of a quantitative data analysis tool SPSS 22©.
Findings – Underpinned by Mindset theory, the study has revealed that both types of professional skepticism i.e. Situational/contextual and inherent personality traits professional skepticism, are significant and positive determinants of audit quality. The two types of professional skepticism explain 51.4% of the variance in audit quality. The study has further shown that with the exception of a questioning mind (which is not significant), all the other five inherent personality traits of professional skepticism are significant and positive determinants of audit quality, revelaed in order of importance as Self-determining, Interpersonal understanding, Self-confidence, Search for knowledge and Suspension of judgement. It has also been established that there are no marked differences between accountants in practice and those in employment on professional skepticism and audit quality.
Originality/Value - The study illuminates the underpinnings of professional skepticism and audit quality. It has shown the situational and inherent trait factors that enhance professional skepticism which practitioners ought to emphasize to audit staff in order to improve audit quality. The study has shown regulators of auditors a basis of evaluating auditor’s application of professional skepticism so as to improve audit quality in emerging economies
Marion Steven and the Logie Collection
Get PDFMarion Kerr Steven (1912–1999), founder of the James Logie Memorial Collection at the University of Canterbury, has been a significant and yet elusive figure in the university’s history. A recent oral history project in the Department of Classics has built up a vivid impression of Steven’s character and personal influence on her students. Prior to this, Steven’s travel diary from 30 November 1958 to 13 July 1959 was donated to the Logie Collection and transcribed in 2017. This article, resulting from research in relation to the transcription, situates Steven in context as a woman in the then male-dominated academic world, and explores her role in reshaping classics as a discipline at the University of Canterbury. The diary records her journeys to London, Rome, and various sites across Greece as she conducted research for teaching purposes, scouted out new objects for the Collection, and participated in meetings of academic organisations. While the period was perceived by many in the field as a time of crisis for classics, Steven appears to have instead seized the opportunity to extend the potential of the discipline
The Resistance of New Zealand POWs in Asia during the Second World War
Get PDFThis article examines the New Zealand prisoner of war experience in Asia during the Second World War. Even though conditions were deplorable, POWs engaged in acts of resistance. While some accounts described overt actions that realigned experiences with traditional narratives of wartime contribution, this paper analyses the impact of subtler actions, such as stoicism in response to physical punishment, a refusal to accept the bleakness of their surrounds, and taking their survival into their own hands by instituting basic medical practices. These acts of resistance helped prisoners to imbue their ordeal with meaning by combating the enemy in the only terms available to them
Kalimpong Kids: The New Zealand story, in pictures
Get PDFKalimpong Kids is a rare book. Written by historian, Jane McCabe, this book recounts the history of a scheme which managed the emigration of mixed-race children from Kalimpong and North-Eastern India to New Zealand. The scheme, which began in 1908 at the insistence of Dr John Anderson Graham, went on till 1939, the view across this time being that ‘mixed-race people ... were “undesirable”’. The plan, however, did not go on continuously and was halted from 1929-1938 due to numerous governmental and geo-political reasons. The Anglo-Indian children were shifted from St. Andrews Colonial Homes which was later renamed into Dr Graham’s Homes. The first two graduates who found their way to Dunedin were Leonard and Sydney Williams. Although Dr Graham’s initial wish was to settle these children across the British Empire, New Zealand proved to be the only country where the Kalimpong Kids could settle down. 
Time To Make A Song And Dance: Cultural Revolt in Auckland in the 1960s
Get PDF‘The Terrible Screaming’ is a short story by the New Zealand writer Janet Frame, in which a city is awakened in the night by a terrible screaming which everyone ignores, fearing that if they admit to hearing it they will be labelled insane. The ‘city’, Murray Edmond suggests, can be read as New Zealand, or more specifically Auckland, where Frame - who might be claimed as ‘our writer of the 60s’ - spent 15 months in Oakley psychiatric hospital
"The Elderly": A discriminatory term that is misunderstood
Get PDFOlder people in Aotearoa New Zealand too often experience negative attitudes or behaviours towards them based on their age. A pertinent example of this is the term “the elderly.” The objective of this research was to understand how stereotypes of “the elderly” are portrayed in the online arena in social and public spaces. Within Aotearoa New Zealand, 155 online media items using terms like “the elderly” and “elderly” were tracked, recorded and analysed during 2019 to determine stereotypical meanings of “the elderly.” Results revealed use of the term “the elderly” reflected various stereotyping and ageist discourses in the message. Labelling older people as “the elderly” may perpetuate social exclusion and discrimination faced by older people. As educators, we have a responsibility to create opportunities for meaningful intergenerational exchanges and relationship building within our teaching and learning activities
From the rākau to the ngākau: In pursuit of authentic and reliable research partnerships, experiences, and findings
Get PDFThe Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in Aotearoa New Zealand has funded 11 National Science Challenges (NSC), which aim to tackle a series of big questions affecting wellbeing in society. One Challenge, A Better Start: E Tipu E Rea, is investigating four key focus areas that children encounter in their early development and is seeking to identify the factors that contribute to forming a solid foundation for fostering wellbeing and lifelong success. Central to the principles of this Challenge is the Treaty of Waitangi in that the Treaty provides a framework to guide whānau engagement, policy change, and praxis. This article describes how a ‘ngākau’ rather than a ‘rākau’ approach to shaping research inquiry within this Challenge facilitates more authentic and mana-enhancing whānau engagement in research interactions (Macfarlane, 2019). The development of a whānau questionnaire is drawn on to illustrate the ngākau approach in practice
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