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Scoop
3 hours ago
- Business
- Scoop
Growing Proportion Of Employment Relations Authority Members With Private Sector Experience
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announces the appointment of four new members to fill vacancies at the Employment Relations Authority [ERA] and the reappointment of two Members. The ERA is an independent body that helps resolve employment relationship problems and facilitates collective bargaining when issues arise. 'Earlier this year I announced I would like to see a greater balance in the backgrounds of ERA members to ensure the experience of members better reflects the proportions of public sector and private sector employment in New Zealand,' says Ms van Velden. 'Today, I'm announcing four new appointments all from the employment law sector collectively bringing in some great legal experience to the ERA. They are: Simon Greening, for a term from 6 October 2025 to 5 October 2029 William Fussey, from 15 November 2025 to 14 November 2029 Alyn Higgins, from 6 October 2025 to 5 October 2029 Robert Davis, from 12 January 2026 to 11 January 2030 'I am really pleased with the progress we are making to better balance a mix of public and private experience amongst members and how this has shifted from the start of the term. 'When I came into the job, only 48 percent of members had private sector experience, while 76 percent had public sector experience. That is not representative of the realities of employment in New Zealand, where around 20 percent of employment is in the public sector and around 80 percent in the private sector. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading 'The ERA's new members will bring new ideas, skills, experience and balance to the ERA. With these appointments the mix of experience will become 60 per cent private and 52 per cent public,' says Ms van Velden. 'I expect the proportions to further shift over time as current ERA members' terms expire and come up for consideration for reappointment or replacement. 'These changes to the ERA membership are complemented by a range of policy changes I am progressing through the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. 'The Employment Relations Amendment Bill currently at Select Committee includes changes to remove rewards for poor employee behaviour when considering personal grievances and clarifying the distinction between employment and contracting arrangements,' says Ms van Velden. Note: Bios for new appointees Simon Greening Simon is a leading employment law expert with his own practice. Previously he was a partner of Gaze Burt and has over 14 years of experience investigating workplace matters across diverse industries. Since 2013 he has served as counsel in numerous cases before the ERA and Employment Court and represented entities responding to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Beyond his legal practice, Simon brings valuable business acumen from running his own firm for five years and shares his expertise through writing and teaching employment relations courses for HR professionals and ERA practitioners. Simon has an LLB from Auckland University and was admitted to the Bar in 2011. Alyn Higgins Alyn is an employment law expert with over two decades of experience, he was admitted to the bar in 2004. As a co-director of ATH Consulting Ltd, a legal firm, he specialises in advising small and medium-sized private sector businesses, with some public sector work. A seasoned legal advisor who regularly conducts workplace investigations, he is known for his expertise in the hospitality industry, having worked for Hospitality NZ as legal advisor. He also provides legal representation to community and not-for-profit organisations. Alyn has an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington and was admitted to the Bar in 2004. Robert Davies Robert is a partner for Norris Ward McKinnon and works as an employment lawyer with ten years of experience, serving as a workplace investigator, mediator and teaching fellow at the University of Waikato's Faculty of Law. He represents both employers and employees across various sectors in employment relationship matters. He is an Associate of the Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute of New Zealand (AAMINZ) who conducts private mediations and facilitates workplace dispute resolutions. Robert has an LLB from the University of Waikato and was admitted to the bar in 2013. William Fussey William is a Senior Associate in the Employment law team with Anderson Lloyd and has been there since 2023. He has a wide range of employment law experience including advising on Holidays Act issues, personal grievances, attending mediations, ERA investigation meetings and Employment Court hearings. He has a detailed knowledge of the employment law framework and systems including legislation, case law, ERA and Employment Court procedures and processes. Prior to this he worked for SBM Legal, Catherine Stewart Barrister and EY Law. William has an LLM with Distinction from Victoria University of Wellington, an LLB and a BA in English with First Class Honours. William was admitted to the bar in 2016.
NZ Herald
10-08-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Long division: Danyl McLauchlan on NCEA and a second neoliberal wave
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Erica Stanford: confronting malevolence and incompetence everywhere. Photo / Getty Images NCEA was doomed anyway. No educational framework so dependent on internal assessment could remain viable in the age of artificial intelligence. Schools the world over are going back to end-of-year exams. But Education Minister Erica Stanford's unilateral decision to scrap the entire system – a multi-decade debacle in which students were graded on skills like making coffee, learning to juggle and picking up rubbish while our scores in international education comparisons relentlessly declined – makes a sharp break with the culture of New Zealand politics. Ministers do not replace core components of the education system merely because they've failed hundreds of thousands of students and inflicted profound damage on the nation's long-term prosperity. It is simply not done. Consider the agonising decades of inaction about other known problems like the broken tax system, the broken energy sector, the inertia over fixing grocery markets. Consider the 30-plus inquiries into Oranga Tamariki during the past three decades – an organisation that remains horribly defective. The unspoken role of ministers is to minimise media risk, follow official advice to conduct reviews, and oversee departmental mergers, reorganisations and rebrands: to create the illusion of change while leaving everything intact. If Stanford successfully reforms the public education system she will join a very short list of recent ministers – among them Labour's David Cunliffe, who fixed telecommunications, and National's Steven Joyce and Amy Adams (the ultrafast broadband rollout) – who drove meaningful change in their portfolios. Why Stanford? Why now? In her time in government she's had her nose pressed hard against the glass of institutional failure – in education, in her other major portfolio of immigration (where the accredited work visa fiasco led to widespread exploitation of migrant workers) and in the Abuse in Care enquiry. It's easier to push back against the mandarins of the public service when confronted with their malevolence and incompetence on a daily basis. Cracks in the ice But perhaps there's also a deeper shift in our politics. There have been other signals – Nicola Willis's decision to capitalise Kiwibank to promote competition in the banking sector; Chris Bishop's declared intention to lower the cost of housing – that suggest a thawing of the status quo; a slow warming of the politically possible; cracks in the frozen pack-ice that has locked the nation into a state of dysfunction for the past three decades. Many social scientists divide the post-war political order into two distinct eras: the Keynesian years of low unemployment, protected economies, powerful trade unions, extensive government ownership and high rates of progressive taxation; followed by the neoliberal order of free markets, free trade, low inflation and low taxes. A political order is never advanced by a single party, it must enjoy widespread legitimacy across the political spectrum. The NCEA was forged by National in the 1990s. It was an artefact of the neoliberal consensus reimagining students as consumers of bespoke curricula. Subjects were fragmented into modular components, assessments decentralised. Education was reinvented as earning credits rather than acquiring knowledge. Labour ministers Steve Maharey and Trevor Mallard rebranded it as a means of promoting equity in education, but there was never any reason to believe this was true, and it wasn't. We now have one of the least equal education systems in the OECD. (The Green Party's rage at Stanford's decision illustrates how this theoretically radical party has been captured by Wellington's bias towards the status quo. Labour – more cannily – has adopted a wait-and-see approach.) Looking to the past When a political order is at the height of its power, government and its institutions become fixed and almost impossible to change. But, like clay, they become malleable during periods of transition when the old order breaks down and the new is still forming. A few days before Stanford's announcement, the Trump administration imposed blanket 15% tariffs on New Zealand imports, a protectionist policy that was standard during the Keynesian years; unthinkable under the neoliberal hegemony. Stanford's outline for the replacement of NCEA also looks to the past: a standardised, centralised examinations regime. Contrast this with David Seymour's more radical vision for education: the public provision of independently run charter schools. New Zealand's intellectual right correctly senses the mood for transformation. It points to the success of Argentina's Milei government in reducing inflation and growing the economy after cutting government spending by 30%. The right cites this as a case for a second, more radical neoliberal revolution. Where is the left in this contest of ideas? In New Zealand, mostly nowhere. In the US, UK and now Australia there is much debate in left-wing circles about the Abundance Agenda, an argument for progressive governments to solve problems of housing, transport, energy and healthcare scarcity via improved state capacity and supply – delivering more houses, infrastructure and green energy projects rather than more welfare. But the closest thing to an Abundance politician in New Zealand is Chris Bishop. Labour is still litigating its tax policy, leaning away from a wealth tax towards a capital gains tax – an important component of most neoliberal economic regimes. Maybe we'll get there 40 years after everyone else. The recent Green budget draws heavily on Keynesian ideas: high taxes, price controls, a Green Ministry of Works, free GPs, free dental care and a dramatic expansion of the welfare state – none of which will work if the state's productive capacity and the supply of essential goods and services remain constrained. Stanford can roll back to an earlier education policy model with some confidence that it will work, but many components of Keynesianism failed for a reason. Left-wing political parties that repeat old mistakes – or simply cling to the prevailing order as it falls apart around them – will find the aspiring architects of a second neoliberal revolution ready and waiting to profit from their failures.
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Abuse In Care Survivors Campaign Wins Global Gold Award In London
Press Release – Stuff Abuse in Care – Shattering The Shadows, a Stuff Group content series directed by the survivor advisory group of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, won best Political Programme over entries from international organisations such as … A groundbreaking content series telling the stories of survivors of one of the country's most shameful periods has been awarded a Gold award at the global Native Advertising Awards in London. Abuse in Care – Shattering The Shadows, a Stuff Group content series directed by the survivor advisory group of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, won best Political Programme over entries from international organisations such as the EU. The campaign told the stories of just six of the estimated 200,000 children and young people who were abused while in the care of State and faith-based organisations between 1950 and 1999. With a focus on healing and hope, these heartwrenching accounts of lives devastated by abuse were created and curated by Stuff's Commercial Content team, led by Content Director Simon Smith. Tu Chapman, one of the Survivor Advisory Group Experts said the award was a wonderful acknowledgement of what was a very powerful content series. 'Our (survivors) fight for justice continues,' she said. 'Thank you to Stuff for elevating our voices.' Stuff Group's Commercial Content team also won two bronze awards on the night, for an innovative campaign for Triton Hearing, Get Amongst It, which prompted Kiwis to experience how loss feels through gamification and other channels, including print. Smith, who was in London to receive the awards, said the Shattering the Shadows acknowledgement was particularly poignant. 'We spend our days creating content that moves and engages our large audiences at Stuff and being able to do this for those who spoke out at the Royal Commission of Inquiry was very special,' he said. 'We strive always to create campaigns that resonate through storytelling in all its forms. Sometimes it is the beauty of carefully crafted words and images. Sometimes it is brand-new digital ways to connect. All of this was awarded at the Native Advertising Awards this year, among some of the largest and best media brands in the world.' About Stuff Group Proudly independent and New Zealand-owned, Stuff connects with around 3.4 million Kiwis every month across its major businesses, delivering quality news, content and experiences that help make Aotearoa a better place. Stuff Digital has unrivalled reach across the nation through number one news website and homegrown social network Neighbourly. Stuff Masthead Publishing connects with audiences through subscriber-led digital and printed metropolitan, regional and community publications, as well as a range of much-loved consumer magazines. Stuff Brand Connections arms advertisers and partners with a comprehensive range of cross-media advertising and Stuff Events solutions. Find out more at
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Abuse In Care Survivors Campaign Wins Global Gold Award In London
Press Release – Stuff Abuse in Care – Shattering The Shadows, a Stuff Group content series directed by the survivor advisory group of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, won best Political Programme over entries from international organisations such as … A groundbreaking content series telling the stories of survivors of one of the country's most shameful periods has been awarded a Gold award at the global Native Advertising Awards in London. Abuse in Care – Shattering The Shadows, a Stuff Group content series directed by the survivor advisory group of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, won best Political Programme over entries from international organisations such as the EU. The campaign told the stories of just six of the estimated 200,000 children and young people who were abused while in the care of State and faith-based organisations between 1950 and 1999. With a focus on healing and hope, these heartwrenching accounts of lives devastated by abuse were created and curated by Stuff's Commercial Content team, led by Content Director Simon Smith. Tu Chapman, one of the Survivor Advisory Group Experts said the award was a wonderful acknowledgement of what was a very powerful content series. 'Our (survivors) fight for justice continues,' she said. 'Thank you to Stuff for elevating our voices.' Stuff Group's Commercial Content team also won two bronze awards on the night, for an innovative campaign for Triton Hearing, Get Amongst It, which prompted Kiwis to experience how loss feels through gamification and other channels, including print. Smith, who was in London to receive the awards, said the Shattering the Shadows acknowledgement was particularly poignant. 'We spend our days creating content that moves and engages our large audiences at Stuff and being able to do this for those who spoke out at the Royal Commission of Inquiry was very special,' he said. 'We strive always to create campaigns that resonate through storytelling in all its forms. Sometimes it is the beauty of carefully crafted words and images. Sometimes it is brand-new digital ways to connect. All of this was awarded at the Native Advertising Awards this year, among some of the largest and best media brands in the world.' About Stuff Group Proudly independent and New Zealand-owned, Stuff connects with around 3.4 million Kiwis every month across its major businesses, delivering quality news, content and experiences that help make Aotearoa a better place. Stuff Digital has unrivalled reach across the nation through number one news website and homegrown social network Neighbourly. Stuff Masthead Publishing connects with audiences through subscriber-led digital and printed metropolitan, regional and community publications, as well as a range of much-loved consumer magazines. Stuff Brand Connections arms advertisers and partners with a comprehensive range of cross-media advertising and Stuff Events solutions. Find out more at
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Abuse In Care Survivors Campaign Wins Global Gold Award In London
A groundbreaking content series telling the stories of survivors of one of the country's most shameful periods has been awarded a Gold award at the global Native Advertising Awards in London. Abuse in Care - Shattering The Shadows, a Stuff Group content series directed by the survivor advisory group of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, won best Political Programme over entries from international organisations such as the EU. The campaign told the stories of just six of the estimated 200,000 children and young people who were abused while in the care of State and faith-based organisations between 1950 and 1999. With a focus on healing and hope, these heartwrenching accounts of lives devastated by abuse were created and curated by Stuff's Commercial Content team, led by Content Director Simon Smith. Tu Chapman, one of the Survivor Advisory Group Experts said the award was a wonderful acknowledgement of what was a very powerful content series. 'Our (survivors) fight for justice continues,' she said. 'Thank you to Stuff for elevating our voices.' Stuff Group's Commercial Content team also won two bronze awards on the night, for an innovative campaign for Triton Hearing, Get Amongst It, which prompted Kiwis to experience how loss feels through gamification and other channels, including print. Smith, who was in London to receive the awards, said the Shattering the Shadows acknowledgement was particularly poignant. 'We spend our days creating content that moves and engages our large audiences at Stuff and being able to do this for those who spoke out at the Royal Commission of Inquiry was very special,' he said. 'We strive always to create campaigns that resonate through storytelling in all its forms. Sometimes it is the beauty of carefully crafted words and images. Sometimes it is brand-new digital ways to connect. All of this was awarded at the Native Advertising Awards this year, among some of the largest and best media brands in the world.' About Stuff Group Proudly independent and New Zealand-owned, Stuff connects with around 3.4 million Kiwis every month across its major businesses, delivering quality news, content and experiences that help make Aotearoa a better place. Stuff Digital has unrivalled reach across the nation through number one news website and homegrown social network Neighbourly. Stuff Masthead Publishing connects with audiences through subscriber-led digital and printed metropolitan, regional and community publications, as well as a range of much-loved consumer magazines. Stuff Brand Connections arms advertisers and partners with a comprehensive range of cross-media advertising and Stuff Events solutions. Find out more at
