Every January I find myself saying the phrase “new year, new me” any time I do anything remotely healthy or out of the ordinary. Ate a salad: new year, new me. Went to the gym: new year, new me. Read … Continue reading →
Fear and humour increasingly drive the TV news. What was the most radical thing you did at school? Some Rangitoto College year 13 girls are upset they're being told to dress more modestly.Students and parents are accusing the school of encouraging "rape culture".A senior staff member from the school is said to have told Year 13 girls that what they're wearing is proving a distraction to their male teachers. Western Springs College which is also in Auckland has been mufti since the 1980s their principal Ivan Davis talks about their attitude to dress code. Displaced residents of Merivale Retirement village in Christchurch were told that they need to move out by April 1. A new facility that has replaced the earthquake damaged one won't have enough beds for everyone. The CEO of Age Concern Canterbury Simon Templeton talks about what measures are in place to look after these vulnerable elderly people. Thirty-six per cent of 16-24 year-olds in full-time education in the UK are not touching booze. They're joining teetotal clubs and opting for alcohol-free accomodation. High levels of debt and the pressure to do well means that students are going out less. Will alchol go completely out of fashion one day? The Nest security alarm system has a microphone in it. Although you probably wouldn't know that because it's not stated on the gadget's specifications. It's a Google product and the company says it never meant to keep the listening devices a secret. UK privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch says it's deceptive and it's normalising the disturbing notion of tech giants constant listening within the privacy of our homes.
Its budget may have blown out by almost a third more than the original figure, but this weekend the doors to the Christchurch Town Hall will re-open for the first time since the 2011 earthquakes. It was touch and go whether the 47 year-old building would even be repaired after the 6.2 quake eight years ago today. 167-million-dollars later and the city is finally getting its town hall back. Conan Young was allowed inside for a sneak peak ahead of Saturday's official opening.
One of the biggest sporting occasions for NZ's Nepalese community takes place this weekend. Nepali-based soccer teams from all around the country are vying for the big prize in the annual Tenzing Hillary Cup Football Tournament . Seven teams took part in Christchurch in 2017. This year it's Auckland's turn to host eight teams, with over 700 spectators expected over the next 2 days. It's organised by local Nepalese Associations, who are also involved in raising cash for earthquake recovery projects back home. Lynn Freeman speaks with organiser Ramesh Gurung and Peter Gibbs, from the Office of the Nepalese Consulate in NZ.
The November 2016 MW 7.8 Kaikōura Earthquake initiated beneath the North Culverden basin on The Humps fault and propagated north-eastwards, rupturing at least 17 faults along a cumulative length of ~180 km. The geomorphic expression of The Humps Fault across the Emu Plains, along the NW margin of Culverden basin, comprises a series of near-parallel strands separated by up to 3 km across strike. The various strands strike east to east-northeast and have been projected to mainly dip steeply to the south in seismic data (~80°). In this area, the fault predominantly accommodates right-lateral slip, with uplift and subsidence confined to releasing and restraining bends and step-overs at a range of scales. The Kaikōura event ruptured pre-existing fault scarps along the Emu Plains, which had been partly identified prior to the earthquake. Geomorphology and faulting expression of The Humps Fault on The Emu Plains was mapped, along with faulting related structures which did not rupture in the 2016 earthquake. Fault ruptures strands are combined into sections and the kinematic deformation of sections analysed to provide a moment tensor fault plane solution. This fault plane solution is consistent with the regional principal horizontal shortening direction (PHS) of ~115°, similar to seismic focal mechanism solutions of some of the nearby aftershocks of the Kaikōura earthquake, and similar to the adjacent Hope Fault. To constrain the timing of paleoseismic events, a trench was excavated across the fault where it crossed a late Quaternary alluvial fan. Mapping of stratigraphy exposed in the trench walls, and dating of variably deformed strata, constrains the pre-historic earthquake event history at the trench site. The available data provides evidence for at least three paleo-earthquakes within the last 15.1 ka, with a possible fourth (penultimate) event. These events are estimated to have occurred at 7.7-10.3 ka, 10.3-14.8 ka, and one or more events that are older than ~15.1 ka. Some evidence suggests an additional penultimate event between 1850 C.E and 7.7 ka. Time-integrated slip-rates at three locations on the fault are measured using paleo-channels as piercing points. These sites give horizontal slip rates of 0.57 ± 0.1 mm/year, 0.49 ± 0.1 mm/year and one site constrains a minimum of between 0.1 - 0.4 mm/year. Two vertical slip-rates are calculated to be constrained to a maximum of 0.2 ± 0.02 mm/year at one site and between 0.02 and 0.1 mm/year at another site. Prior to this study, The Humps fault had only been partially documented in reconnaissance level mapping in the district, and no previous paleoseismic or slip rate data had been reported. This project has provided a detailed fault zone tectonic geomorphic map and established new slip-rate and paleoseismic data. The results highlight that The Humps fault plays an important role in regional seismicity and in accommodating plate boundary deformation across the North Canterbury region.
School travel is a major aspect of a young person’s everyday activity. The relationship between the built environment that youth experience on their way to and from school, influences a number of factors including their development, health and wellbeing. This is especially important in low income areas where the built environment is often poorer, but the need for it to be high quality and accessible is greater. This study focusses on the community of Aranui, a relatively low income suburb in Christchurch, New Zealand. It pays particular attention to Haeata Community Campus, a state school of just under 800 pupils from year one through to year thirteen (ages 5-18). The campus opened in 2017 following the closure of four local schools (three primary and one secondary), as part of the New Zealand Government’s Education Renewal scheme following the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010/11. Dedicated effort toward understanding the local built environment, and subsequent travel patterns has been argued to be insufficiently considered. The key focus of this research was to understand the importance of the local environment in encouraging active school travel. The present study combines geospatial analysis, quantitative survey software Maptionnaire, and statistical models to explore the features of the local environment that influence school travel behaviour. Key findings suggest that distance to school and parental control are the most significant predictors of active transport in the study sample. Almost 75% of students live within two kilometres of the school, yet less than 40% utilise active transport. Parental control may be the key contributing factor to the disproportionate private vehicle use. However, active school travel is acknowledged as a complex process that is the product of many individual, household, and local environment factors. To see increased active transport uptake, the local environment needs to be of greater quality. Meaning that the built environment should be improved to be youth friendly, with greater walkability and safe, accessible cycling infrastructure.
KIRITAPU ALLAN to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he seen on the New Zealand economy? Hon PAULA BENNETT to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government’s statements, policies, and actions? Hon AMY ADAMS to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all of the Government’s decisions, statements, and actions in relation to his portfolio? Hon RUTH DYSON to the Minister for Courts: What recent announcements has he made about settling long-standing insurance disputes following the Canterbury earthquakes? Hon JUDITH COLLINS to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Is the KiwiBuild programme delivering good value for money for New Zealand taxpayers? Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH to the Minister of Transport: Does he stand by all his statements, policies, and actions? GINNY ANDERSEN to the Minister of Police: What recent announcements has he made about the firearms buy-back scheme? Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE to the Minister of Health: How is the wellbeing of cancer patients in New Zealand affected by the Government’s policies and actions in health? TAMATI COFFEY to the Minister for Whānau Ora: What recent announcements has he made about Whānau Ora? MARK PATTERSON to the Minister of Internal Affairs: What recent announcement has she made regarding recognition of Fire and Emergency New Zealand volunteers? Hon NIKKI KAYE to the Associate Minister of Education: How many of the 600 learning support coordinators she promised does she estimate will be working in schools by the beginning of term 1 of the 2020 school year? ANDREW BAYLY to the Minister of Revenue: What concerns, if any, does he have regarding the operation of the latest phased rollout of the IRD Business Transformation Programme, especially in relation to KiwiSaver PIE tax arrangements?
This article explores the scope of small-scale radio to create an auditory geography of place. It focuses on the short-term art radio project The Stadium Broadcast, which was staged in November 2014 in an earthquake-damaged sports stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand. Thousands of buildings and homes in Christchurch have been demolished since the February 22, 2011, earthquake, and by the time of the broadcast the stadium at Lancaster Park had been unused for three years and nine months, and its future was uncertain. The Stadium Broadcast constructed a radio memorial to the Park’s 130-year history through archival recordings, the memories of local people, observation of its current state, and a performed site-specificity. The Stadium Broadcast reflected on the spatiality of radio sounds and transmissions, memory, postdisaster transitionality, and the impermanence of place.
This thesis examines the closing of Aranui High School in 2016, a low socio-economic secondary school in eastern Christchurch, New Zealand, and reflects on its history through the major themes of innovation and the impact of central government intervention. The history is explored through the leadership of the school principals, and the necessity for constant adaptation by staff to new ways of teaching and learning, driven by the need to accommodate a more varied student population – academically, behaviourally and culturally – than most other schools in wider Christchurch. Several extreme changes, following a neoliberal approach to education policies at a national government level, impacted severely on the school’s ability to thrive and even survive over the 57 years of its existence, with the final impact of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes leading indirectly to Aranui High’s closure. The earthquakes provided the National government with the impetus to advocate for change to education in Christchurch; changes which impacted negatively on many schools in Christchurch, including Aranui High School. The announcement of the closure of Aranui High shocked many staff and students, who were devastated that the school would no longer exist. Aranui High School, Aranui Primary School, Wainoni Primary School and Avondale Primary School were all closed to make way for Haeata Community Campus, a year 1 to 13 school, which was built on the Aranui High site. Aranui High School served the communities of eastern Christchurch for 57 years from 1960 and deserves acknowledgment and remembrance, and my hope is that this thesis will provide a fair representation of the school’s story, including its successes and challenges, while also explaining the reasons behind the eventual closure. This thesis contributes to New Zealand public history and uses mixed research methods to examine Aranui High School’s role as a secondary school in eastern Christchurch. I argue that the closure of Aranui High School in 2016 was an unjustified act by the Ministry of Education.
The world experiences a number of disasters each year. Following a disaster, the affected area moves to a phase of recovery which involves multiple stakeholders. An important element of recovery is planning the rebuild of the affected environment guided by the legislative framework to which planning is bound to (March & Kornakova, 2017). Yet, there appears to be little research that has investigated the role of planners in a recovery setting and the implications of recovery legislative planning frameworks. This study was conducted to explore the role of the planner in the Canterbury earthquake recovery process in New Zealand and the impact of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011 (CER Act) on planners’ roles and how they operated. The methodology comprised a combination of document analysis of legislation and related recovery material and 21 semi-structured interviews with key planners, politicians and professionals involved in the recovery. The results suggest that the majority of planners interviewed were affected by the CER Act in their role and how they operated, although institutional context, especially political constraints, was a key factor in determining the degree of impact. It is argued that planners played a key role in recovery and were generally equipped in terms of skills needed in a recovery setting. In order to better utilise planners in post-disaster recovery or disaster risk management, two suggestions are proposed. Firstly, better promote planners and their capabilities to improve awareness of what planners can do. Secondly, educate and build an understanding between central government politicians and planners over each others role to produce better planning outcomes.