newsletter #48 - Hipkins’ concession speech reiterates the ideology that lost Labour the election

newsletter #48 for Tuesday, October 17th, 2023

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Only Health care-related workers granted group vaccine exemptions during COVID

During COVID, the Ministry of Health approved 11,000+ Significant Service Disruption (SSD) exemptions, allowing workers to remain unvaccinated. Meanwhile, all SSD exemption applications from other eligible groups were denied. It is not clear who, within the health sector, received the exemptions. NZ First’s Winston Peters says it’s evidence of “deception and discrimination” and not just a conspiracy theory.

Hipkins’ concession speech reiterates the ideology that lost Labour the election

Chris Hipkins chose to list, as Labour’s “accomplishments”, many policies that seem to have sunk them in the election. Working people, whom Labour purports to defend, rejected these policies at the polls amid failing the basics: education, healthcare, crime, living costs. It’s odd Hipkins is “incredibly proud” of co-governance policies, which he tried repeatedly to obfuscate, deny, and downplay.

New Zealand is studying central bank digital currencies

A CBDC can have many subtleties, but is more likely to be an account with the government instead of at your bank. CBDCs always raise privacy concerns, but most transactions are already traceable. How would CBDCs be that much different for the average person, especially if they are optional? Despite declining use overall, cash is still king in a crisis.

Stuff withdraws from X citing mis- and dis-information

Stuff’s aim is telling stories “that make Aotearoa New Zealand a better place”, which implies aligning with their partisan views. They cite “mis- and dis-information” on X, but don’t give examples other than vagaries about COVID and US elections. Perhaps the tide is going out on their preferred narratives and they’re disengaging from platforms where they’ll likely be challenged.

NZ universities facing multiple challenges

Drops in enrollment and rising costs are leaving most NZ universities with budget shortfalls. Some in the tens of millions of dollars. The problem is exacerbated by a shrinking number of students able to qualify for university in the first place. Who decides how the universities market themselves overseas?

How the “science” of government administration became racist

Karl Marx is considered foundational in some theories of public administration, where academics define government in communist terms. The same ideology Marx used to talk about class struggle was expanded to talk about race, where whiteness is oppression and some minorities are its victims. This racist ideology is popular in NZ social sciences and left-wing politics.

"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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