Clear Election Win for National

The November 8th election gave National a strong win and, with United Future and ACT pre-election support, an outright majority.

The outgoing Prime Minister Helen Clark departed the Labour leadership without rancour. Her commitment to New Zealand cannot be doubted - even if we might debate the way she tried to implement it. Michael Cullen can take pride in a solid track record of debt repayment and a series of surpluses in the government accounts.

The new Labour leadership the Goff-King ticket will ensure a strong parliamentary opposition. It also helps Labour to rebuild support among those traditional supporters who opted to stay at home on election day.

For the incoming government the work is ahead of them. John Key has made a great start with assembling a new Ministry in eight days. He has wisely recruited the support of the Maori Party - as well as ACT. With smart strategic decisions we could be seeing a fundamental re-alignment of political loyalties in NZ politics. The challenge for National is to follow through with their policy programme and to build a strong platform for sustained economic growth, social cohesion and responsible stewardship of the environment.

Port Nicholson Settlement - A Major Contribution to Justice

The Port Nicholson Block Claims Team have signed a Deed of Settlement with the Crown settling all the historical Treaty claims of Taranaki Whānui at a ceremony at Wellington’s Pipitea Marae.

Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika is a collective that comprises people from a number of Taranaki iwi whose ancestors migrated to Wellington in the 1820s and 30s and signed the Port Nicholson Block Deed of Purchase in 1839.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Michael Cullen said the signing was an important milestone in the relationship between the Crown and iwi in New Zealand’s capital city.

The settlement package includes:

· an historical account, Crown acknowledgements of historical breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles, a Crown apology, and the innovation of a Statement of forgiveness from Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika to the Crown;

· a cultural redress package featuring the transfer of a number of sites of cultural significance to Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, including the three islands in Wellington Harbour, with public access rights preserved; and

· a quantum of $25.025 million, as well as the opportunity to purchase a number of Crown properties in Wellington city and the surrounding region.


Dr Cullen deserves full credit for settling this claim and for leading the way in beginning a healing process to enable iwi to move forward.

Embracing the Digital Change

Thursday, November 29, 2007

This week over 500 leaders from telecommunications, IT, education, youth, iwi, and government gathered at the Digital Future Summit held at the Hyatt Regency in Auckland to help chart the way forward for ICT in New Zealand.

Among the array of talent presenting were: Barry Vercoe, professor of Music and Media Arts And Sciences at Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and expat from Paeroa; David Cunliffe, Minister of Communications; Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Cullen, Minister of Broadcasting, Trevor Mallard; Sean McDougal, MD of Stakeholder Design; and Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief Wired plus a host of other luminaries from industry, commerce, government and education.

Prof Barry Vercoe discussed the internationally respected One laptop per child programme led by MIT. In brief the programme enables access to the Internet so that creativity and innovation are encouraged rather than stifled. He discussed ways in which laptops costing no more than $100 were made available to schoolchildren in the Solomon Islands. An e-learning community is then built by networking the laptops together.

We saw the responses and enthusiasm for learning as kids got to have their own laptop and to explore the Internet for themselves. In today's world we all need to be familiar with digital technology if we are going to have a say and have a role to play. We need to ensure that there are no pockets of New Zealand where children are left on the wrong side of the digital divide through lack of income or because they happen to live in the wrong part of the country.

Parents can draw real support from access to broadband and good information about parenting resources. Parents also need to be aware of the some of the risks associated with the Internet. Hectors World and other work by groups like Netsafe are all part of the pack of resources with which parents need to be empowered if we are to equip our children with the tools necessary to prosper in the 21st century while at the same time minimising risks from harmful elements in the Internet world. Amidst the many changes and uncertainties created by rapid technological change one thing is certain. To succeed in the 21st century we need to be able to use the power and capacity of the new ICT tools with the ease and confidence that children today are displaying. This applies across generations as well as between socio-economic groups and nation states.

For more details on the summit itself refer to http://www.digitalsummit.org.nz/.

Posted by Roger Ellis at 4:27 PM
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