Full video: Christopher Luxon speaks at post-Cabinet briefing
Last week was a busy one in politics, with road-user charges foreshadowed for all light vehicles to replace petrol tax and criticism of the Government over unemployment figures.
This afternoon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced the Government was weighing up its position on the recognition of Palestine as a state.
At the weekend, Luxon also met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Queenstown. The two leaders spoke about "geopolitical tensions, issues of trade and economic relationships, and conflict in the world", Albanese said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
21 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
NCEA's demise is a lesson in failed educational policy
New Zealand students ranked above the OECD average in maths, reading and science literacy in the 2022 Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) report. But there has been a decline in scores across all three subjects in the last 20 years. We should not move on from the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) without asking how it happened and why we persisted with a scheme so obviously flawed. If I tell you Trevor Mallard was the Minister of Education in 2002 when the NCEA was implemented, you may think no further explanation is needed. When he was Speaker of the House, Mallard responded to protesters coming to Parliament by turning on the sprinklers and playing Barry Manilow songs over the public address system. But, in fairness, the NCEA was not his idea. I was in Parliament when it was promoted. It was his associate minister, Steve Maharey, by profession a sociology lecturer, who drove it through. Maharey was a true believer in 'cognitive learning', what he called 'personalised learning', more commonly known as 'pupil-led learning': the notion that children learn by discovering knowledge for themselves rather than being directly taught. We do learn from experience and finding out information is an important skill. But to master any worthwhile subject, we must first be taught essential foundation knowledge. A simple example: to write coherently, one must know grammar. You cannot do chemistry without being taught the periodic table, or mathematics without learning times tables. The NCEA allowed pupils to choose to skip learning challenging content essential for subject knowledge in favour of collecting soft credits. It is also unfair to blame only Maharey. In the British comedy Yes Minister, politicians come and go while the real power lies with senior civil servants. So too in New Zealand. The NCEA was the creation of senior bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education. It is a department that has promoted a string of fads, from open-plan classrooms, 'look-and-guess' reading and that built schools so badly designed they have had to be demolished. The ministry has created a school system where absenteeism is rife. Really big mistakes are usually made by clever people. Stupid people are rarely able to make a big mistake. Those promoting pupil-led learning were clever, articulate and convinced that they knew best. What they claimed is superficially attractive. Rote learning can crush creativity, but the alternative they imposed was worse. Act MP Deborah Coddington summed up our view at the time: 'One of the most dangerous experiments ever foisted on New Zealand children.' John Morris, Auckland Grammar headmaster, correctly predicted that the NCEA would mean 'the dumbing-down of academic standards'. Some New Zealand schools have never adopted pupil-led learning, opting for the Cambridge exam instead. National's then education spokesman Sir Bill English warned that if problems weren't fixed, 'NCEA will lose credibility'. This belief that it just needed a few tweaks led the Key Government into continuing with a system that was flawed. The flaws were visible from the start. Students and schools gamed the system. In 2004, Cambridge High School claimed a 100% NCEA pass rate by giving pupils credits for picking up litter. In 2013, nearly 25% of internal assessments were marked incorrectly, yet the credits still counted toward NCEA grades. In 2017 then Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced a review of the NCEA. The Government launched a trial of of new NCEA literacy and numeracy tests in 2022. The results were shocking. More than 40% of students failed at least one test in the June 2023 exams. The Herald has reported that Labour's current education spokeswoman, Willow-Jean Prime, didn't respond to NCEA meeting offers. By contrast, in just 18 months, Education Minister Erica Stanford has announced the end of the NCEA and its replacement with externally marked exams. Critics complain this will mean teachers 'teaching to the test'. Exactly. Exams will result in teacher-led learning. Pupils being taught reading, writing and arithmetic, essential for passing exams. For two decades, NCEA's designers insisted their system was the future. The future has arrived, and it has failed. The real lesson is not just that the NCEA must go, but that the political class must never again be permitted to impose unproven ideology-driven experiments on our children.
Techday NZ
21 minutes ago
- Techday NZ
ANZ businesses accelerate AI adoption for innovation & growth
Artificial intelligence is becoming a core element in the operational processes of Australian businesses across multiple sectors. SAP has identified the five most widely adopted AI use cases among its customers in Australia and New Zealand, highlighting a shift from the periphery to mainstream business functions. Analysis of SAP customers in the region during the last year indicates that the most common applications of AI include automated expense generation using receipt images, automated invoice processing, expense verification and compliance checks, real-time alerts for supply chain disruptions, and sales demand forecasting powered by predictive analytics. Angela Colantuono, Managing Director, SAP Australia, addressed the growing importance of AI to business leaders. "My conversations with CEOs are increasingly revealing how they are looking to embed AI into some of the most fundamental parts of their business. These applications are helping Australian organisations make faster, smarter decisions, reduce risk and unlock new value. But to fully realise AI's potential, we need to invest just as much in people as we do in technology." Dr Catriona Wallace, AI Ethics Expert and Founder of the Responsible Metaverse Alliance, raised concerns about responsible AI adoption. She stated, "AI is the number one existential risk we face today. Yet only a small fraction of Australian organisations are equipped to use it responsibly. If we want AI to drive innovation, productivity and public trust, we must move beyond ambition to action. That means embedding responsible AI frameworks that are transparent, ethical and human-centred, and doing it now, before the gap between use and governance becomes too wide to close." SAP's customer base in Australia and New Zealand has reported increased momentum in the adoption of AI and cloud technologies, including participants from education, manufacturing and other sectors. Universities and transformation La Trobe University has distinguished itself as the first university in Australia and New Zealand to implement SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as part of its transformation initiative. Through this process, the university has updated its core operations, spanning finance, procurement, logistics, sales, R&D engineering and real estate, enabling further opportunities for future AI-driven developments. Shainal Kavar, Chief Information Officer at La Trobe University, commented, "This transformation is a major step forward in how we operate. It's helping us simplify complexity, streamline processes, improve reporting and decision-making and free up our people to focus on higher-value work. Most importantly, it sets us up to embrace innovation and unlock the potential of AI in the years ahead." Commercial adoption in brewing In the commercial sector, Lion, a major brewer in Australia and New Zealand, is expanding its adoption of cloud-based technologies with SAP solutions. The company has implemented a clean core strategy for its ERP system and utilised SAP's Business Technology Platform to enhance business processes, including improvements to order-to-cash cycles, digital channel scalability, and the provision of real-time insights for teams. Lion's collaboration with SAP also resulted in the development of 'Joey', an AI-powered beer recommendation app, completed in under ten days. Ram Kalyanasundaram, Group Technology and Digital Transformation Director at Lion, said, "AI is helping us move faster, make smarter decisions, and deliver better customer experiences. It's not just about automation, it's about enabling our teams to focus on what matters and giving them the tools to innovate. SAP's AI capabilities have been a game-changer in how we think, operate and grow." Building AI skills and diversity SAP has announced the return of the SAP AI Intrepid Women Tour, scheduled for January 2026. The four-day executive study programme aims to equip female leaders with knowledge, strategic insight and confidence in AI leadership. Following the previous tour's outcomes, the company will again convene senior female technology executives to explore AI innovation across SAP's global hubs. Angela Colantuono addressed the current gender gap in senior AI roles, remarking, "Less than 15% of senior AI executives are women today. Last year's programme proved that when you bring female leaders together to build AI literacy and share experiences, the impact is extraordinary – not just for their businesses, but for the future of innovation in Australia."
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick has no plans to apologise after being barred from House
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has no plans to apologise, after being barred from the House for the rest of the week. During an urgent debate on Tuesday, Swarbrick said government MPs could grow a spine and support her bill imposing sanctions on Israel. The Speaker suspended her from Parliament and said unless she apologised, he will do so again every day this week. On Wednesday, a Green Party spokesperson confirmed Swarbrick was not planning on apologising. Speaking to media after the Speaker's ruling, Swarbrick said the party would follow the correct processes, and would ask the Speaker to reflect on previous language in Parliament. She described the ruling as "ridiculous" and the punishment excessive. "As far as the robust debate goes in that place, I think that was pretty mild in the context of the war crimes that are currently unfolding." She drew a comparison with comments made by former prime minister Sir John Key in 2015, when he challenged the opposition to "get some guts". Swarbrick said she was tired and angry at the massacre of human beings. Swarbrick. Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone "What the hell is the point of everything that we do if the people in my place, in my job don't do their job?" she said. "If we allow other human beings to be just mercilessly slaughtered, to be shot while waiting for food aid, what hope is there for humanity?" Swarbrick was not the only MP to run afoul of the Speaker during Tuesday's debate. Earlier, Labour MP Damien O'Connor was told to either exit the chamber or apologise after interjecting "bloody gutless" while Foreign Minister Winston Peters was speaking. O'Connor stood and left. Brownlee also demanded ACT MP Simon Court say sorry - which he did - after Court accused Swarbrick of "hallucinating outrage". On Morning Report' s political panel, National minister Paul Goldsmith said the government was taking time to discuss Palestinian statehood. Labour's deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said there was no worse injustice than what was happening in Gaza and the silence from National was "deafening". "You saw the frustration explode in the House yesterday. "There are a lot of New Zealanders out there watching the scenes in the Middle East and wondering where the voice of our government is on this, and why its taking so long to make simple decisions." Goldsmith said the decisions weren't simple. The government had always been clear it was in favour of a two-state solution, and was working its way through what it wanted to do, he said. "Australia made a decision on Monday, we don't have to do our decision on Tuesday," he said. Goldsmith said the government was working on a clear position recognising a concern around Hamas and making sure that they were not involved in any future Palestinian state. Australia will move to recognise Palestine at UN meeting in September , and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said New Zealand would make a decision over the next month. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
