Open Journal Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington Library
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Peace, Action, and Anarchist Organising for Aotearoa
Get PDFValerie Morse has been a central figure in organising anarchist spaces, organisations, and actions in Aotearoa New Zealand for the past two decades. A core part of that work was the establishment of nationwide peace-action groups, in particular, Peace Action Wellington and Auckland Peace Action. Morse was the author of Against Freedom: The War on Terrorism in Everyday New Zealand Life (2007) and was the principal writer of Profiting from War: New Zealand’s Weapons and Military-Related Industry (2015). She is perhaps best-known to a wider audience in Aotearoa New Zealand in connection to the Operation Eight case, for which she was never put on trial, and the trial for burning a flag on Anzac Day, for which she was eventually acquitted. Trained as a historian, employed as a librarian, and based in Tāmaki Makaurau, she sat down at Rebel Press in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington with Murdoch Stephens to discuss organising in Aotearoa New Zealand. From that discussion came these questions and answers.
 
An ecosystem services approach to choosing environmental indicators for state of environment reports
Get PDFState of environment (SOE) reports aim to give people a summa-ry of the environment through indicators. When an SOE report is associated with specific environmental goals, it is straightforward to develop indicators from the goals. However, it is difficult when there are no specific goals. We explore the use of an ecosystem services framework to develop a general set of indicators for the land/water environment by considering a full range of benefits humans gain from the environment. This analysis shows that the national SOE report, Environment Aotearoa, is missing many indicators required for a broader picture. Many of the missing impact indicators relate to human health and are highly relevant. Our sparse networks of data collection reflect the low population of New Zealand and the limited resources that can be reasonably applied to data collection. An encouraging area of improvement is the use of more targeted indicators developed from the ground up in collaboration with stakeholders. While the analysis presented here is focussed on New Zealand, other countries are also data-sparse and face similar issues, and would benefit from a gap analysis of environmental indicators based on ecosystem services
Current land-based farming systems research and future challenges
Get PDFThe Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has released a report by Sapere Research Group identifying global trends likely to affect the future of food and farming, and the implications for New Zealand’s science and innovation system.The report identified three international trends:
1. Enhanced environmental consciousness: Global consumers are increasingly demanding products that fulfil a growing range of environmental demands.
2. New technological developments and transformational science: These developments include advances in the science of genomics, plant-based proteins and cellular agriculture.
3. Changing consumer preferences and other trends: In addition to environmental and animal welfare concerns, consumers will continue to raise demand for quality, food safety, health benefits, provenance,ethics, and biosecurity.
MBIE commissioned this report to better understand the role of science and innovation in responding to potentially disruptive and transformative changes in agriculture and food production
Māori Councils Act 1900: suspending floors
No full textA recent review of the evolution of sub-floor moisture management (Isaacs "Evolution of Sub-Floor Moisture Management Requirements" pp. 366-394) found the first New Zealand legislative requirement for raised floors was in 1902 in by-laws made under the Māori Councils Act 1900. No similar requirements have been found in contemporaneous European building by-laws until those recommended by the Department of Public Health, Hospitals and Charitable Aid in 1912, which dealt with suspended floor durability.
Although the use of well-made, well-drained earth floors used in Māori housing in pre-European times was in some sectors of Māori society looked back on with nostalgia, the use of suspended timber floors provided a drier, if airier, and healthier option. The Young Māori Party, with the support of the government, created a model by-law with two approaches to raise sitting and/or sleeping above ground. These required either the construction of suspended floor, or the use of a couch or bedstead at least 1 ft (0.3m) above the ground. As well as the ability to fix a time limit for compliance, it also provided the ability to levy fines if the household refused or neglected to comply with the notice. There was little variation in the implementation of the model by-law in the 24 districts established under the Act over nine years (1901 to 1910), except for the raised floor requirement (and associated penalty for non-compliance) which was not implemented in seven (30%) districts. It is concluded that unlike the durability concern of European suspended floor building by-laws, the Māori District by-laws were solely concerned with improvement of the health of the occupants
Foreword to the special issue in honour of Professor Gordon Anderson
No full textThis is the foreword to a special issue in honour of Professor Gordon Anderson to celebrate his 40 years as Victoria University of Wellington
The Right to Strike and the "Deadweight" of the Common Law
Get PDFThe hostility of the common law in respect of collective action by workers in the form of strikes is notorious. To provide workers with a right to strike, legislative intervention is necessary. In New Zealand and Australia, legislative enactment of the right to strike has taken the form of the "immunity approach" whereby strike action which meets the prerequisites for protection under the relevant statute receives immunity from common law action, while that which does not remains subject to potential liability at common law.This article analyses the adoption of the immunity approach in Australia under the relevant federal industrial relations statutes that have operated since 1993. Commencing with discussion of the hostility of the common law to collective action and the principle of legality, a presumption of statutory interpretation that presumes Parliament would not have abrogated common law rights without an express intention to do so, this article examines how the scope of protected industrial action in Australia has been consistently narrowed through hostile judicial interpretation. Such interpretation has been grounded in an approach which narrows the extent that common law rights are restricted by the statute and construes the statutory enactment of a right to strike as conferring a "privilege" on those industrial actors who remain "worthy" enough to access it.Considering the progressively negative impact on the right to strike of this approach, the argument in this article echoes calls made by Gordon Anderson in 1987 to reject the continued role of the common law in the regulation of industrial action. It is argued that the law of strikes in Australia should be codified. Such an approach should assist in downplaying judicial tendencies to interpret the right to strike as a privilege rather than as a necessary component of a functioning system of voluntary collective bargaining
Kelsen Before Kelsen – Reflections on Hans Kelsen's Die Staatslehre des Dante Alighieri
Get PDFIn this article, I reflect on Hans Kelsen's first work, Die Staatslehre des Dante Alighieri, which was written in 1905 while he was still a student. There is no English translation of Die Staatslehre. These "reflections" based on the Italian edition of the book are dedicated to the honour of a scholar and a gentleman, Gordon Anderson
Third Parties and the Insolvent Insured: Enforcement of the Statutory Charge Created by Section 9 of the Law Reform Act 1936.
Get PDFWith its ancestry based in the early Workers' Compensation Acts, s 9 of the Law Reform Act 1936 was intended to be a general rule to provide that where there is a wrong perpetrated by a person who is insured, the injured person can have a lien on the insurance moneys. This article discusses the scope and functions of s 9, identifies some problems and suggests that, after 60 years, it is time to review this piece of legislation
Climate Change Adaptation in the Environment Court: Revisiting the 2010 Holt Case
Get PDFCommon law precedents for some resource consent approvals in Aotearoa New Zealand are out of date due to the rapid increase in the science and understanding of the effects of climate change. This article considers one 2010 Environment Court case on a resource consent for building in the coastal area. It examines how the case would be decided if it arose today, with the benefit of the relevant law, policies and guidance now available to decision-makers. It suggests that the option taken by the Court in 2010, whereby the owners assumed the relevant inundation risks, would not be so available to a court today. This case is thus no longer good law
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