The Wire with Manny

Last week, Education Minister, Erica Stanford, announced that the construction of open-plan classrooms would be halted.

The National Party had previously petitioned for the classroom design in 2011, with the idea of pushing for flexibility in the way students were taught, and to accommodate a shift in how technology is used in educational spaces.

However, the classroom design has received a mixture of responses. 

Some say the classroom design resulted in a noisy and distracting environment.  Despite this,  surveys by the Council for Educational Research showed that most teachers liked open-plan classrooms, adding that students benefitted from the classroom design.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to Blair Dravitski about the government’s move regarding open-plan classrooms.

Dravitski is a spokesperson on the topic for the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, and Tumuaki/Principal of Te Uru Tarata | Lemonwood Grove School in Rolleston.

The government is considering amending the Terrorism Suppression Act, which was enacted in 2002. 

In a copy of the document seen by Newsroom, the Ministry of Justice says the reason for the potential overhaul stems from existing offences in the law not “captur[ing] the full range of behaviours or activities of concern that are part of the contemporary threat from terrorism”.

Some of the proposed amendments include making membership of a terrorist entity a criminal offence, establishing new offences for public support of an assigned terrorist act or designated groups, which would include the display of insignia, and updating definitions for digital forms of support. 

Despite these proposed amendments, concerns have been raised over what would be defined as a ‘terrorist entity,’ and what implications this could have on free speech and political participation, in light of events seen overseas.

News and Editorial Director Joel, spoke to Richard Jackson — a Professor in Peace Studies at the University of Otago, about these potential amendments, and the concerns around this move.

Freshwater quality across Aotearoa has been in decline for some time, with almost 70% of monitored groundwater sites failing to meet drinking water standards for E. coli and almost half of the country’s rivers being unsuitable for recreational activities like swimming due to bacterial contamination.

Many concerns about the future of Aotearoa’s freshwater have been exacerbated by the government’s recent changes to Freshwater National Direction, with experts speculating that many of the proposed policy changes would favour commercial activity and lead to the further contamination and pollution of freshwater sources.

Oto spoke with Marnie Prickett - A research fellow at the department of public health at the University of Otago in Wellington and a member of the Public Health Association about a freshwater policy statement put out by the Public Health Association calling for urgent action to protect freshwater in Aotearoa and outlining freshwater protection as a critical public health priority.

This week Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka spoke in an interview about the potential effect of changes to emergency housing on the rising number of homeless people in New Zealand.

While he proudly announced that the Government had met its target to reduce emergency housing numbers by 75%, he acknowledged that ‘many’ have reported the effect of government policies on increased numbers of people rough sleeping. 

Especially in Auckland, observations and reports of homelessness have increased substantially, with community leaders and Auckland council urging the government to deliver a more effective policy response to alleviating the issue. 

While Potaka was not willing to admit that government policies have been a main contributor to rising homelessness, there has been a clear public callout for meaningful change from the central government