title: Beyond paternalism and racism in Pacific labour migration

authors: Roy, Rituparna

abstract: Key Insights 
• The operation of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme in its present form reflects and reinforces the unequal relationship between New Zealand and countries in the Pacific that have been shaped by colonial and imperial practices. • Our analysis of policy and strategy documents related to the RSE scheme reveals three key discourses (language and ideas) that underpin the foundation and operation of the RSE. They are: 1) a form of paternalism that is shaped around claims of ‘co-development’, 2) a strong commitment to technocratic managerialism, and 3) the racialisation of Pacific people as ‘good’ candidates for seasonal manual labour. 
• Paternalism is expressed primarily in the notion of benevolence and development aid that reflect and reproduce colonial power relations between New Zealand and its neighbouring Pacific countries. • Managerialism, the idea that ‘orderly migration’ relies on evaluation, monitoring, target setting, and enforcement, is evident in New Zealand’s disproportionate authority over determining the entry numbers as well as the conditions that structure the stay and work experiences of the RSE workers. 
• Pacific people are racialised as the ideal seasonal workforce for physically challenging jobs in the horticultural and viticultural industries – sectors that are characterised by low wages and working conditions. • Our analysis indicates a need to rethink the RSE scheme as a ‘global model’ for circular migration management as it reproduces colonial power relations. We suggest that Pacific migration policies should be revaluated to rectify the existing power imbalance in the administration of RSE and other Pacific focused schemes. A more equitable and fairer outcome can be achieved through mutual dialogue with Pacific countries to enhance the rights and freedoms of migrants and provide pathways to residence should Pacific people desire so. 
• To address the imperialist underpinnings of the RSE scheme and other migration policies focused on the Pacific, the reform efforts should be firmly grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, with substantive involvement of Māori as tangata whenua.

text: Beyond paternalism and racism in Pacific labour migration Key Insights 
• The operation of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme in its present form reflects and reinforces the unequal relationship between New Zealand and countries in the Pacific that have been shaped by colonial and imperial practices. • Our analysis of policy and strategy documents related to the RSE scheme reveals three key discourses (language and ideas) that underpin the foundation and operation of the RSE. They are: 1) a form of paternalism that is shaped around claims of ‘co-development’, 2) a strong commitment to technocratic managerialism, and 3) the racialisation of Pacific people as ‘good’ candidates for seasonal manual labour. 
• Paternalism is expressed primarily in the notion of benevolence and development aid that reflect and reproduce colonial power relations between New Zealand and its neighbouring Pacific countries. • Managerialism, the idea that ‘orderly migration’ relies on evaluation, monitoring, target setting, and enforcement, is evident in New Zealand’s disproportionate authority over determining the entry numbers as well as the conditions that structure the stay and work experiences of the RSE workers. 
• Pacific people are racialised as the ideal seasonal workforce for physically challenging jobs in the horticultural and viticultural industries – sectors that are characterised by low wages and working conditions. • Our analysis indicates a need to rethink the RSE scheme as a ‘global model’ for circular migration management as it reproduces colonial power relations. We suggest that Pacific migration policies should be revaluated to rectify the existing power imbalance in the administration of RSE and other Pacific focused schemes. A more equitable and fairer outcome can be achieved through mutual dialogue with Pacific countries to enhance the rights and freedoms of migrants and provide pathways to residence should Pacific people desire so. 
• To address the imperialist underpinnings of the RSE scheme and other migration policies focused on the Pacific, the reform efforts should be firmly grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, with substantive involvement of Māori as tangata whenua.

year: 2024-06-30

title: Regression modelling of spectroscopic data using lazy learning and deep neural networks

authors: Fraser, Huon

subjects: Regression

abstract: Neural networks show promise in modelling infrared (IR) spectroscopic data, but many of the proposed solutions in the literature are either Multilayer Perceptrons with a single hidden layer or are adapted from successful solutions in other domains such as convolutional networks from image processing.

This thesis investigates the use of Monte Carlo search to build candidate deep neural networks from scratch. As the prediction targets are real numbers and the modelling is prone to error from outliers, lazy, locally weighted methods are also investigated. 

Predictions from the network are compared to predictions made from locally weighting the features extracted from the same network. To measure progress, these results are compared to classical statistical methods commonly used to model spectroscopic data, such as partial least squares (PLS) regression.

Results suggest that deep networks trained via Monte-Carlo search outperform classical approaches. They also show that PLS dimension reduction as a preprocessing technique can improve the quality of search at little cost in predictive ability. Encouraging results using this approach are obtained on the publicly available Mangoes dataset. Finally, a streaming regression solution is investigated in which selected deep neural network models perform well. In this setting, however, locally weighted regression can result in sporadic outlier predictions, so an ensemble solution is proposed as a remedy.

text: Regression modelling of spectroscopic data using lazy learning and deep neural networks Neural networks show promise in modelling infrared (IR) spectroscopic data, but many of the proposed solutions in the literature are either Multilayer Perceptrons with a single hidden layer or are adapted from successful solutions in other domains such as convolutional networks from image processing.

This thesis investigates the use of Monte Carlo search to build candidate deep neural networks from scratch. As the prediction targets are real numbers and the modelling is prone to error from outliers, lazy, locally weighted methods are also investigated. 

Predictions from the network are compared to predictions made from locally weighting the features extracted from the same network. To measure progress, these results are compared to classical statistical methods commonly used to model spectroscopic data, such as partial least squares (PLS) regression.

Results suggest that deep networks trained via Monte-Carlo search outperform classical approaches. They also show that PLS dimension reduction as a preprocessing technique can improve the quality of search at little cost in predictive ability. Encouraging results using this approach are obtained on the publicly available Mangoes dataset. Finally, a streaming regression solution is investigated in which selected deep neural network models perform well. In this setting, however, locally weighted regression can result in sporadic outlier predictions, so an ensemble solution is proposed as a remedy.

year: 2022

title: A literary and linguistic critique of a Māori lullaby

authors: August, Tipene

subjects: waiata Māori

abstract: Māori song poems surviving from pre-colonial times can provide a valuable source of information about the artistic and cultural heritage of Māoridom. However, they present a number of challenges for the contemporary analyst. On the basis of a stylistic analysis of a Māori lullaby, a number of hypotheses about Māori song poems in general, and the lullaby in particular, are put forward and it is suggested that these hypotheses could be tested in relation to a corpus of song poems. It is hoped that the approach to stylistic analysis adopted here will be of use to scholars of Māori song poems and, perhaps, also to others who are interested in indigenous art forms more generally.

text: A literary and linguistic critique of a Māori lullaby Māori song poems surviving from pre-colonial times can provide a valuable source of information about the artistic and cultural heritage of Māoridom. However, they present a number of challenges for the contemporary analyst. On the basis of a stylistic analysis of a Māori lullaby, a number of hypotheses about Māori song poems in general, and the lullaby in particular, are put forward and it is suggested that these hypotheses could be tested in relation to a corpus of song poems. It is hoped that the approach to stylistic analysis adopted here will be of use to scholars of Māori song poems and, perhaps, also to others who are interested in indigenous art forms more generally.

year: 2001-02