Dorothy – 16/10/97 Why was $300,000 of public money allocated to this programme? When it was first proposed by Communicado in 1995 it was refused funding by New Zealand on Air. After a strong protest letter from Neil Roberts, at that time working with Communicado, NZOA granted $300,000 as funding and TVNZ assisted with the…
Conrad – 9/10/97 The vote for a change of electoral system to MMP in 1995 was fuelled as much as anything by public disillusionment with politicians, and frustration at the difficulty in having any impact on Government policy. We have limited options when it comes to expressing this: we can sign petitions, we can march…
Dorothy – 9/10/97 Canterbury Dialogues Building Social Cohesion – based on an interview with Mark Prain, the General Manager of Sustainable Cities Social Capital “While no-one has yet produced the definitive answer to the question of how a nation goes about accumulating social capital, there are four characteristics which are found in communities that have…
Dorothy – 2/10/97 Will proposed changes to benefits BENEFIT beneficiaries? Is the real problem dependency or poverty? Two Conferences look at the situation of beneficiaries and benefits in New Zealand, one emphasising dependency and possible patterns for change, the other looking at the real face of poverty in this country. You will probably want to…
Dorothy – 25/9/97 An interview with Brenda Lowe, manager of Emergency Relief at the Christchurch Methodist Mission and advocate for beneficiaries. “I’m not talking about poverty and hardship as someone who has never experienced them”, said Brenda as we began to talk. Brenda’s life story She was the older of two girls in a family…
– Dagny – 18/9/97 Now that the incredible public and media outpouring that has surrounded Diana’s death has subsided a little, perhaps we can hope to examine the issue with a bit more clarity and judgement. In the days following her death and leading up to the funeral there was such a hysterical fervour to…
– Conrad – 11/9/97 No one would deny that Christchurch, New Zealand, has a problem with smog in the Winter. It’s an asthmatics nightmare and can, at times, exceed the World Health Organisations standards. That the Canterbury Regional Council is serious in its desire to tackle the problem is admirable, but the community is divided…
– Conrad – 4/9/97 A recent report, by retired High Court judge Sir Thomas Thorp, recommends that military-style semi-automatic weapons should be banned and that the New Zealand Government should buy back currently owned ones at market prices. This is a move similar to that made recently by the Australian Government, which has spent an…
– Lynda – 21/8/97 We all complain about politicians’ dishonesty and greed, and we’ve brought about some changes – the change to MMP for starters. But I wonder if a little “civil disobedience” mightn’t get them listening more carefully. Civil disobedience isn’t violence, it doen’t involve damaging property or endangering people in any way. But…
– Dorothy – 21/8/97 In Part I there was an indication that moves by the Government had changed long-established institutions in New Zealand. In Part 2 we will look at more major changes. Between 1984 and the present time the government has restructured the government departments and shed most of its business operations. Subsidies have…
