Maxim Institute
Real
Issues
No. 133, 21 OCTOBER 2004
Did you know that...
MPs get a pay rise today with the basic salary of a
backbench MP increasing by 3 percent to $113,300, while Prime Minister
Helen Clark is set to get a 4 percent rise that takes her basic salary
to $317,200.
Last year school's received $347 million in funding
from parental contributions and school fundraising - this excludes
another $112 million from overseas students.
We still have a Minister for the America's Cup - Hon.
Trevor Mallard.
We also have a Minister for Disarmament and Arms
Control - Hon. Marion Hobbs.
Not only that, New Zealand recently contributed $1
million towards a cooperative project in Russia to dispose of weapons
of mass destruction.
New Zealand ranks first equal in the world with
Iceland for the amount spent on compulsory education relative to the
size of our economy.
97 percent New Zealand school student attend the
state school system - including 11 percent in the state/integrated
schools.
2004 is the 30th anniversary of the lowering of the
voting age in New Zealand from 20 to 18 years.
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article in our on-line discussion forum
UNCROC down under
The debate over whether or not teenage girls should
be able to have access to abortion without parental knowledge or
approval is an issue that has recently put children's rights in the
spotlight. Last week Maxim researcher Dr Michael Reid delivered a paper
to the World Congress of Families in Kuala Lumpur outlining the New
Zealand experience with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child (UNCROC) which was ratified by the then National Government
in March 1993. In 'UNCROC Down Under' he argued that the Convention has
helped create a view of children as 'a separate constituency within the
body politic' and its outworking has shaped the way we understand and
debate wider family issues in New Zealand.
To read the full speech visit: http://www.maxim.org.nz/ri/uncroc.htm
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article in our on-line discussion forum
Spring Evidence out now - A cuckoo
in the childcare nest
On 8 October Helen Clark said "...we are very
committed to getting more under-fives into top quality early childhood
education. We see this as a high priority". Not surprisingly the
Ministry of Women's Affairs, in their Action Plan for New Zealand
Women aims to "improve and increase women's participation in
employment through extensions to paid parental leave and improved
access to early childhood education and care". In the spring edition of
Evidence out now, Christchurch writer Alexis Stuart
takes a closer look at the dominance of the Ministry of Education in
the lives of our children, and the engineering of women's choices.
To read the article visit http://www.maxim.org.nz/ri/cuckoointhechildcarenest.pdf
You will need the free Acrobat reader programme to view
this article: you can download it from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
A complimentary copy of Evidence is sent to
all Maxim partners. To become a Maxim partner visit: http://www.maxim.org.nz/main_pages/act_page/act_support.html#member
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article in our on-line discussion forum
Change Agent workshops
Maxim Change Agent Workshops will be held in
Masterton on Tuesday 9 November and in Auckland on Tuesday 16 November.
For more information about these informative and inspiring events
visit: www.maxim.org.nz/main_pages/whatson_page/whatson.html
Prostitution referendum - final countdown
Visit www.stoptheabuse.org.nz to find out more about the
referendum campaign. Securing the 310,000 signatures on the petition
will ensure a referendum question at the next election that will ask
every voter: "Should the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 be repealed?"
Signed petition forms must be posted by 5pm Wednesday
27 October to: PO Box 14209, Tauranga. People signing must be on the
electoral roll (NZ citizens or permanent residents) for their signature
to be valid. Please make sure that you have signed the petition and
encourage as many other people as you can to also sign.
The petition form can be downloaded at: www.stoptheabuse.org.nz/downloads
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THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
- Eugene Ionesco
Ideologies separate us. Dreams
and anguish bring us together.
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