title: Symposium insights on use of TDRs

authors: Matheson, Bal

abstract: Bal is a specialist in resource management and environmental law, and is a partner in Russell McVeagh's Environment, Planning, and Natural Resources Group. He provides strategic advice for, and leads, many large scale infrastructure and commercial projects from the conceptual stage through to obtaining consents. This includes applications in the energy sector (hydro-electricity generation), industrial air discharge projects (sulphur, PM10, solvents), manufacturing, infrastructure (gas and electricity transmission, bulk water supply, wastewater, trade waste), mining (quarrying, clean fills and mining), contaminated land (assessment and remediation), dairy (manufacturing sites and dairy farms), residential (retirement villages, aged care facilities, townhouse developments), education facilities, large scale subdivisions, and town centre developments (retail, commercial). Bal has a particular interest in water related topics. He is co-author of the 'Water' chapter of the 4th Ed. and online editions of New Zealand's leading environmental textbook Environmental and Resource Management Law (Ed. Nolan, D.A.), and has been involved in many projects involving water takes and discharges. Most recently this has included acting for TrustPower Limited on its successful application to vary the National Water Conservation Order (Rakaia River) 1988, enabling the development of a comprehensive irrigation and generation scheme on the Canterbury Plains, while ensuring that the outstanding characteristics identified by the Order remained protected.
Bal also has considerable experience in related fields of the Public Works Act 1981 (acting for both those acquiring land and landowners who are subject to Public Works Act procedures), Local Government Act processes (rating, development contributions), law reform, and, under the Resource Management Act 1991, district and regional plan formulation.

text: Symposium insights on use of TDRs Bal is a specialist in resource management and environmental law, and is a partner in Russell McVeagh's Environment, Planning, and Natural Resources Group. He provides strategic advice for, and leads, many large scale infrastructure and commercial projects from the conceptual stage through to obtaining consents. This includes applications in the energy sector (hydro-electricity generation), industrial air discharge projects (sulphur, PM10, solvents), manufacturing, infrastructure (gas and electricity transmission, bulk water supply, wastewater, trade waste), mining (quarrying, clean fills and mining), contaminated land (assessment and remediation), dairy (manufacturing sites and dairy farms), residential (retirement villages, aged care facilities, townhouse developments), education facilities, large scale subdivisions, and town centre developments (retail, commercial). Bal has a particular interest in water related topics. He is co-author of the 'Water' chapter of the 4th Ed. and online editions of New Zealand's leading environmental textbook Environmental and Resource Management Law (Ed. Nolan, D.A.), and has been involved in many projects involving water takes and discharges. Most recently this has included acting for TrustPower Limited on its successful application to vary the National Water Conservation Order (Rakaia River) 1988, enabling the development of a comprehensive irrigation and generation scheme on the Canterbury Plains, while ensuring that the outstanding characteristics identified by the Order remained protected.
Bal also has considerable experience in related fields of the Public Works Act 1981 (acting for both those acquiring land and landowners who are subject to Public Works Act procedures), Local Government Act processes (rating, development contributions), law reform, and, under the Resource Management Act 1991, district and regional plan formulation.

year: 2013

title: Impacts of Early Childhood Education Social Obligations on Families and Whanau

authors: Randall, Judith

subjects: early childhood education

abstract: This thesis explores the impacts of ECE social obligations on affected families and whānau. In 2013 ECE social obligations were introduced through the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. These obligations require beneficiaries to ensure their children are “enrolled in and attending an approved early childhood education programme from the age of three, until they start school” (Work and Income New Zealand, 2013c). 
A qualitative approach was utilised to hear the voices of those affected. Data was gathered through interviews with eight beneficiary families and two ECE centre managers who had knowledge of the impacts of obligations.  Perceived impacts were analysed using thematic analysis. An examination of the discourses underpinning these obligations as represented in policy documents was undertaken utilising Bacchi’s (2000; 1999) “what’s the problem?” framework.
The introduction of the ECE social obligation policy was found to have placed responsibility on beneficiaries but to have failed to adequately address barriers to ECE participation that families face. The study identified many barriers which impede a family’s ability to participate in ECE. These include transportation, cost, and provision of high quality, suitable ECE for their children available in their local community. Mandatory ECE does not provide the infrastructure needed to enable families to access ECE programmes as it does not address the accessibility, structural, and personal barriers that families face. The thesis argues that the context of incorporating ECE policy in Ministry of Social Development (MSD) legislation and the use of sanctions to ensure compliance is likely to lead to negative outcomes for children’s well-being. 
Policy-as-discourse analysis identified that social obligations were conceived in the context of reducing long-term benefit dependency. The three interrelated dominant discourses underpinning this policy, economic rationalisation, the positioning of beneficiaries as job seekers, and the positioning of children as vulnerable, has left the child as citizen invisible. I advocate that redefining the problem through a child as citizen lens could provide a framework for government to support families through barriers and address provision of high quality ECE. 
Three key suggestions are made. Firstly, utilisation of a child’s rights framework could ensure children’s rights are at the forefront of ECE policy.  This would enable the primary emphasis to be on the welfare and best interests of all children. Within this framework this study identified the need for ECE matters to be in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, rather than MSD, in order to ensure consistency and accessibility to quality ECE for all children. Secondly, ECE engagement needs to be promoted through a positive model rather than sanctions. Government financial investment in integrated ECE services within local communities could aid families to overcome participation barriers and provide an ideal model for enabling families to access social services.  Thirdly, government policy and funding needs to support provision of high quality ECE services that are responsive to their local communities. Such services are essential to encouraging ECE participation.

text: Impacts of Early Childhood Education Social Obligations on Families and Whanau This thesis explores the impacts of ECE social obligations on affected families and whānau. In 2013 ECE social obligations were introduced through the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. These obligations require beneficiaries to ensure their children are “enrolled in and attending an approved early childhood education programme from the age of three, until they start school” (Work and Income New Zealand, 2013c). 
A qualitative approach was utilised to hear the voices of those affected. Data was gathered through interviews with eight beneficiary families and two ECE centre managers who had knowledge of the impacts of obligations.  Perceived impacts were analysed using thematic analysis. An examination of the discourses underpinning these obligations as represented in policy documents was undertaken utilising Bacchi’s (2000; 1999) “what’s the problem?” framework.
The introduction of the ECE social obligation policy was found to have placed responsibility on beneficiaries but to have failed to adequately address barriers to ECE participation that families face. The study identified many barriers which impede a family’s ability to participate in ECE. These include transportation, cost, and provision of high quality, suitable ECE for their children available in their local community. Mandatory ECE does not provide the infrastructure needed to enable families to access ECE programmes as it does not address the accessibility, structural, and personal barriers that families face. The thesis argues that the context of incorporating ECE policy in Ministry of Social Development (MSD) legislation and the use of sanctions to ensure compliance is likely to lead to negative outcomes for children’s well-being. 
Policy-as-discourse analysis identified that social obligations were conceived in the context of reducing long-term benefit dependency. The three interrelated dominant discourses underpinning this policy, economic rationalisation, the positioning of beneficiaries as job seekers, and the positioning of children as vulnerable, has left the child as citizen invisible. I advocate that redefining the problem through a child as citizen lens could provide a framework for government to support families through barriers and address provision of high quality ECE. 
Three key suggestions are made. Firstly, utilisation of a child’s rights framework could ensure children’s rights are at the forefront of ECE policy.  This would enable the primary emphasis to be on the welfare and best interests of all children. Within this framework this study identified the need for ECE matters to be in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, rather than MSD, in order to ensure consistency and accessibility to quality ECE for all children. Secondly, ECE engagement needs to be promoted through a positive model rather than sanctions. Government financial investment in integrated ECE services within local communities could aid families to overcome participation barriers and provide an ideal model for enabling families to access social services.  Thirdly, government policy and funding needs to support provision of high quality ECE services that are responsive to their local communities. Such services are essential to encouraging ECE participation.

year: 2014

title: Contextualizing Indigenous people and the state of exception: New Zealand's Waikeria Prison protest

authors: Martin, Jessica

abstract: On Tuesday, December 29, 2020, 16 protesters at Waikeria Prison, one of New Zealand's largest male prisons, engaged in a six-day standoff with prison guards to protest inhumane prison conditions. The Department of Corrections framed the event as an aimless riot, delegitimizing the intentional demonstration of resistance against state violence. Imprisoned intellectuals, specifically Imprisoned Black Radical tradition, have long examined and centered the prison as the harshest instrument of the state linked to the struggles of the collective. However, voices from imprisoned intellectuals are rarely considered in academic scholarship despite acute analysis of the state and liberation. This article employs the state of exception to contextualize the Waikeria protest. Particular attention is devoted to the ‘state of continuity,’ which allows for a broader understanding of a permanent state of racialized oppression and marginalization faced by Indigenous and Black communities in racialized-settler-colonial contexts. Populations designated as the exception are thus framed as a threat targeted for militaristic police intervention. This article concludes by extending the discussion of the state of continuity to include how expressions of rage and dissent by Indigenous and Black people are viewed as a direct threat to the sovereign order but are necessary for revolutionary change.

text: Contextualizing Indigenous people and the state of exception: New Zealand's Waikeria Prison protest On Tuesday, December 29, 2020, 16 protesters at Waikeria Prison, one of New Zealand's largest male prisons, engaged in a six-day standoff with prison guards to protest inhumane prison conditions. The Department of Corrections framed the event as an aimless riot, delegitimizing the intentional demonstration of resistance against state violence. Imprisoned intellectuals, specifically Imprisoned Black Radical tradition, have long examined and centered the prison as the harshest instrument of the state linked to the struggles of the collective. However, voices from imprisoned intellectuals are rarely considered in academic scholarship despite acute analysis of the state and liberation. This article employs the state of exception to contextualize the Waikeria protest. Particular attention is devoted to the ‘state of continuity,’ which allows for a broader understanding of a permanent state of racialized oppression and marginalization faced by Indigenous and Black communities in racialized-settler-colonial contexts. Populations designated as the exception are thus framed as a threat targeted for militaristic police intervention. This article concludes by extending the discussion of the state of continuity to include how expressions of rage and dissent by Indigenous and Black people are viewed as a direct threat to the sovereign order but are necessary for revolutionary change.

year: 2024-05-16