New Zealanders returning from overseas: how their experiences of xenophobia could help us respond to superdiversity

ABSTRACT

This article draws on qualitative interview data with 42 New Zealanders returning to New Zealand after living overseas, finding they feel more like a ‘migrant’ than someone coming ‘home’. This is in part because New Zealand people and institutions demonstrate an intolerance to difference, theorised here as a form of xenophobia that inhibits the economic, social and political integration of participants. However, the same experiences and ideas that lead many New Zealanders to frame returnees as an ‘out-group’ can be regarded as a national resource. The article concludes that we should embrace – not ignore or disparage – returnees' awareness of integration issues, transnational networks and cross-cultural experiences as we attempt to maintain social cohesion in an increasingly superdiverse world.     

Changing policy,changing attitudes? Public opinion on employment relations in New Zealand, 1990–2008

Abstract

Did significant policy shifts in employment relations in the 1990s lead to equally large changes in the attitudes of New Zealanders towards employment relations? Have policy modifications made since 1999 further shaped public perceptions? This paper explores the role of policy feedback in influencing public opinion towards employers and unions and towards government responsibility for jobs and wages. Using data from New Zealand public opinion surveys, most notably the New Zealand Election Study (1990–2008), the paper finds some evidence that policy feedback has occurred in the employment relations arena, but the impact is not as strong or consistent as we might expect. As such, New Zealanders do not completely endorse the ‘there is no alternative’ arguments of neoliberalism, but they do not have an overwhelming desire to return to Keynesian demand-management employment policies.     

Applying the international wellbeing index to investigate subjective wellbeing of New Zealanders with European and with Maori heritage

Abstract

The International Wellbeing Index (IWI), a global measure for investigating subjective wellbeing, consists of a Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and a National Wellbeing Index (NWI). The index is applied to the two largest ethnic populations in New Zealand—New Zealanders with European heritage and New Zealanders with Maori heritage. Psychometric characteristics of the IWI for both subsamples compare favourably to those found in other countries. However, for both subsamples, the absolute value of reported subjective wellbeing is lower than expected. Consistent with other social indicators, New Zealanders with Maori heritage show even lower values of PWI and NWI than New Zealanders with European heritage.     

The dynamic,complex and diverse living and care arrangements of young New Zealanders: implications for policy

The living arrangements of young people in New Zealand are diverse and often complex. In this article we report the range of care and living arrangements of 209 15-year-old New Zealanders, 47 of whom identified as Māori. These young people were participants in the second generation of a cohort study. Data were collected from their parents via a life history calendar and analysed for variety and consistency of care arrangements, household membership and transitions. Few participants had a consistent pattern of parental care arrangements and most had experienced multiple changes in household composition and frequent changes of address. We conclude that the whānau/family lives of many young New Zealanders are complex and dynamic. These observations contrast with the conventional notions of family life that form the basis for New Zealand’s family policies. We argue that social policies and services impacting on young people need to reflect the lived reality of young people if they are to meet young people’s needs.     

An inconvenient truth: why evidence-based policies on obesity are failing Māori,Pasifika and the Anglo working class

Public health initiatives around obesity have generally worked well for middle class Australians and New Zealanders. This message has not had the same impact in Anglo working class areas and certain CALD communities, especially Māori and Pasifika, where obesity rates remain highest. This paper employs qualitative data from interviews with eighty-five Māori and Pasifika migrants to Australia to explore attitudes to food purchasing and consumption behaviours and associated health risks. It is evident the individual, medicalised approach to improving obesity rates has not been effective and there needs to be a new culturally responsive structural approach. This would require governments to prioritise population health over existing relationships with commercial food manufacturers – especially in relation to spatial domination of commercialised fast food outlets in low socio-economic status districts and in the areas of sports and education sponsorship. We also explore the assumptions of evidence-based health policy more generally, providing a critique of who is represented and served by the commercial solicitation and management of health research. This includes what constitutes ‘evidence’, who is conducting and funding the research, who appraises and compares the data and how is it interpreted and employed.     

Using environmental imperatives to reduce meat consumption: perspectives from New Zealand

Sustainable food consumption is an important issue globally, that will intensify if current projections of population growth, urbanisation and the growing ‘middle-classes’ in developing countries continues. Reducing meat consumption is one approach that can help with food sustainability and security, while helping to address the problematic environmental outcomes associated with agricultural production – assuming that a reduction in meat consumption will at some point be reflected in production practices. Currently, sensory perception, health, convenience and price are more immediately influential than environmental concerns in determining meat consumption practices. Moreover, consumer culture under neoliberalism and the context of New Zealand as an agricultural nation are significant underpinning factors in lifestyle practices including food choice. In this paper, I share the perspectives of New Zealanders on meat (and meat-like) consumption and production practices in order to find out (a) what factors are prominent influences in meat consumption and (b) how these factors might be utilised to reduce meat consumption by applying them to meat-less/reduced foods. I argue that these environmental factors need to be promoted alongside known influential determinants of purchase decisions in order to make the idea of reduced-meat consumption a more attractive option for consumers.     

‘It’s who we are’: eco-nationalism and place in contesting deep-sea oil in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Given near consensus among the scientific community about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there is pressing concern about how to mobilise enough people to care and demand wider socio-political change. In this article we explore this urgent issue, drawing on recent conflicts over deep-sea oil exploration and drilling in Aotearoa New Zealand. We explore how some activist groups are attempting to mobilise care and concern around deep-sea oil drilling and climate change through the use of narratives that entwine aspects of national identity with the non-human world. We suggest that these activist groups are not concerned about a retreat of the state, but rather, are in direct conflict with the state, and state interventionism, over fossil fuel development trajectories in Aotearoa New Zealand. In drawing upon eco-nationalism, and particularly a way of life related to place, activists have called into question the common sense of business as usual and thereby sought to expand space for ‘ordinary’ Aotearoa New Zealanders to care about climate change.     

PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT IN THE HOME IN NEW ZEALAND

Results are reported for a national opinion poll of 1,000 adult New Zealanders which focussed on two questions: what are New Zealand parents currently doing to discipline their children, and what are the current attitudes of New Zealanders towards physical punishment in the home? Changes appear to be occurring in the attitudes and behaviour of New Zealanders toward physical punishment in the home. Although smacking with the hand is still both approved and used as a common parental response to the misbehaviour of children of all ages, anything more severe is no longer part of the repertoire of most parents or the experience of most children. Further evidence of change is provided by data on difference among the groups in the sample. Younger parents, current parents and the more highly educated are less likely to report using and endorsing the more severe forms of physical punishment that those who are older, have never had children or who have less education. Unlike the reported child-rearing practices of 30 years ago, parents today appear to be making use of a range of non-physical responses to misbehaviour and are more frequently explaining or discussing matters with their children.     

Talking about citizenship in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper fleshes out the rather sparse empirical literature on citizenship with data collected from seven focus groups involving a wide range of New Zealanders. Results indicate that the term “citizenship” is relatively unimportant to identity and belonging compared to “family” and “community”. Yet there is considerable agreement about the key elements of citizenship and what makes a “good citizen”. Knowledge about citizenship, however, is not evenly distributed or experienced in the same way by different groups of New Zealanders, with Maori participants offering notably more negative perspectives on citizenship, and benefit recipients most likely to feel like “second‐class citizens”. Against predictions, the findings further suggest that neo‐liberal reforms have not eliminated a belief in community spirit and collective solutions to social problems. Although New Zealanders do believe that individuals should be responsible for themselves, they also expect government to ensure the social and economic conditions that make this possible.     

Creating Treaty-based local governance in New Zealand: Māori and Pākehā views

This article explores the need for Treaty-based local governance, raised to national prominence by the 2014 outrage against New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd, who advocated a Māori ward for 2016. The Treaty of Waitangi influenced the creation of Māori seats in Parliament in the nineteenth century, and a provision for Māori seats in local councils in 2001. There has been limited uptake of the latter and Māori remain significantly under-represented. Innovations in governing arrangements have allowed non-elected Māori to take up advisory roles and, in some cases, decision-making roles. We argue that these do not ensure fair and effective Māori representation. Ad hoc and unpredictable structures have failed to deliver fair and effective representation to all New Zealanders. There is a pressing need for a New Zealand constitutional debate – a conversation among Māori and non-Māori – to devise a governance model that addresses the Treaty of Waitangi as New Zealand’s founding document.     

Towards a critical discourse analysis of New Zealand security policy in Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

Rather than ask why New Zealand supported the intervention, this paper focuses on how representations of New Zealand and the international terrorist threat resulted in public acquiescence to a pre-emptive strike by the world's sole superpower against one of the poorest, most war-torn countries in the world. The paper concludes that legitimacy was achieved through the blending of themes of terrorism and war, national interest and democracy, rule of law and human rights, to produce an ambiguous ‘international campaign against terrorism’ that allowed for picking and choosing of the most convenient position on different matters. The alternative—to refuse moral and material support for the United States-led ‘war on terror’—was to risk New Zealand's membership of the United States-led international community and a ‘seat at the table’ in future international trade and security negotiations. As such, any campaign benefits appear to have accrued to New Zealand rather than Afghanistan or the Afghan people, especially given the parlous state of that country in 2018. A wide-ranging debate within New Zealand on the purpose of such interventions is needed before similar commitments are made in the future.     

A Matter of Conscience? The Democratic Significance of 'Conscience Votes' in Legislating Bioethics in Australia

In Australia, members of a political party are expected to vote as a block on the instructions of their party. Occasionally a ‘conscience vote’ (or ‘free vote’) is allowed, which releases parliamentarians from the obligation to maintain party discipline and permits them to vote according to their ‘conscience.’ In recent years Australia has had a number of conscience votes in federal Parliament, many of which have focused on bioethical issues (e.g., euthanasia, abortion, RU486, and embryonic/stem cell research and cloning). This paper examines the use of conscience votes in six key case studies in these contested areas of policy‐making, with particular attention to their implications for promoting democratic values and the significance of women's Parliamentary participation.     

New procreative technologies, donor gametes and the law's response: developments in Australia

The availability of artificial insemination by donor (AID) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) has generated considerable ethical, moral, social and legal discussion. Commonwealth and state government inquiries all recommend legislation regulating the experimental and clinical application of new procreative technologies and Victoria and South Australia have passed such laws, A central aspect of the debate regards donated gametes and the status of children. The paper argues that much of the concern over donated sperm and ova is premised on the assumption that ‘true’ parentage has a biological base and that a person's ‘true’ identity is determined genetically. This asocial conception of the family de-emphasizes both the social influences on personality formation and the relationships which constitute kinship as a social institution.     

Abortion costs, sexual behavior, and pregnancy rates

This paper empirically examines the question: Do the direct (price) and indirect (restrictive abortion laws) costs of obtaining an abortion have an impact on the likelihood of women becoming pregnant? Using the economic model of fertility control, the empirical results find that increases in the real price of obtaining an abortion cause a statistically and numerically significant decrease in the pregnancy rate of all women of childbearing age (15–44 years) and teens (ages 15–19). A state parental involvement law is also found to decrease the pregnancy rate of all women of childbearing age and an even numerically larger decrease for teens. A state Medicaid funding restriction of abortion, waiting period law, and mandatory counseling law do not have a statistically significant impact on the pregnancy rate of either group. Taken together the empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that women's sexual behavior is influenced by the direct and indirect cost of obtaining an abortion.     

Breaking down ideas and institutions: the politics of tax policy in the USA and the UK

As the existing comparative policy literature suggests, both ideational and institutional analyses have clear analytical value in their own terms but, under many circumstances, it is the combination of the two perspectives that allows for a full understanding of policy trajectories. In this article we suggest that, to improve our understanding of how ideas and institutions interact to produce change, it is important to break down these two overly broad concepts. This is because beyond general arguments about how ‘ideas’ and ‘institutions’ interact, students of public policy should itemize ‘ideas’ and ‘institutions’ into more focused, and empirically traceable, subcategories while recognizing the changing and contingent nature of their interaction, over time. To illustrate this, we turn to the politics of tax policy in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, tracking developments from the rise of the New Right and an aggressive income tax cutting agenda, personified by President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher, through to the revived debate about the legitimacy of increasing taxes on those earning the highest incomes that emerged in the era of austerity that followed the Great Recession of 2008.     

Drinking and Driving: Alcohol Association with Traffic Accidents

An analysis of drink-driving research methods and findings with reference to traffic accidents is presented. This analysis is used to challenge some of the conclusions about drinking and driving that have gained wide currency in Australia and New Zealand. The growing acceptance of Scandinavian-type laws is critically evaluated. The demand to ‘criminalize’ drink-driving offences is rejected. The reduction of deat and damage from traffic accidents is presented as the real problem, not the drinking and driving of the population at large.     

Biased abortion counseling laws and abortion demand

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 Casey decision many states have enacted biased abortion counseling laws. These laws mandate that abortion providers furnish to women with unwanted pregnancies state-approved medical information about possible side effects from having an abortion that are false. The most egregious falsehoods are that abortion is linked to mental health problems (e.g., suicide, postabortion traumatic stress syndrome, and depression), breast cancer, infertility and fetal pain. This paper investigates whether these four biased abortion falsehoods have an impact on the demand for abortions in the year 2000. The empirical results find that these four biased abortion falsehoods have no significant impact on the abortion demand of pregnant women of childbearing age (15–44 years), adult pregnant women (18–44 years) or pregnant teen minors (15–17 years). The findings remain robust even after controlling for regional differences in antiabortion attitudes.     

Local therapy facilitators working with children with developmental delay in rural and remote areas of western New South Wales,Australia: the ‘Outback’ service delivery model

Australia's dispersed population in rural areas contributes to poor access to therapy services and the inability of the existing rural therapy workforce to meet demand. As a result, rural children with a developmental delay wait a long time for therapy. This paper describes participant perceptions of a therapy facilitation service model that has worked to improve access to therapy for children in these circumstances. The model, given the pseudonym ‘Outback’, operates in rural and remote areas of western New South Wales. ‘Outback’ employs local people to work under the guidance of therapists based in larger centres to provide preschool children with developmental delays with access to therapy interventions they might not otherwise receive. A two‐stage case study design involving focus groups and interviews with the director, four therapy facilitators, nine therapists, and seven carers was used. Three themes were identified as central to the service model: 1) being part of the local community; 2) developing therapy facilitator knowledge and skills; 3) improving access to therapy intervention for children in rural and remote areas. The ‘Outback’ model demonstrates that appropriately supported, local therapy facilitators provide a flexible workforce adjunct that expands the reach of therapists into rural and remote communities and enhances service access for children and their families.     

When ‘political demand’ meets ‘video-politics’

ABSTRACT

The emergence of a ‘macro-personification of politics’ within the political field of Aotearoa New Zealand alters the manner by which political demand needs to now operate if it is to succeed as a form of tactical strategy in political activism. A particular analytical initiative is identified as being central to success under these conditions, whereby given political demands enlarge from a ‘state of singularity’ to become ‘complex discursive demands’. Key to that initiative is the ‘dialectic of appearances’ and the ‘labour of the negative’ associated with the ideas-work of Hegel. This article identifies how this dynamic was playing out within a key event in the anti-surveillance movement of 2013, the August public rally in the Auckland Town Hall.