Posts by Julie Fairey
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You have a cat named "Colin".....?
And I've got a cat named Phil. Want to make something of it?
Yes! Some kind of drummer and lead singer for a soft MOR band.
Something (coming) in the air tonight?
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Does Holmes' return means he has to give all those retirement parties back?
And anyone looking for to put a bit of faxy faxy action in their Friday may wish to join the Pay Equity Faxathon heading Tony Ryall's way today.
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My concern is how much National will truly listen, and whose words they will privilege when they do that listening.
It seems bizarre to me that despite the fact that a large chunk of the NZ population voted for Labour, just a few months ago, they have been deliberately shut out of the summit. They governed for the last 9 years, and they may have some useful insights to offer on how to weld the ideas that arise to the machinery of government. Labour invited National to the Knowledge Wave conference after all.
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I agree that there are some real issues around the way that education funding is delivered to children with special needs. One example I came across through my work once was a school where the child had ACC funding for a teacher aide, but the ACC money per hour was less than the lowest pay rate you could pay a teacher aide under their collective agreement. So the school had to stretch to fund the shortfall, and they did that partly by cutting the number of hours the teacher aide was actively with that child.
And thanks Lucy :-)
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We've been talking about this pay equity thing quite a bit at The Hand Mirror and have set up a to keep track of the coverage and discussion, and any collective activity around the issue. And we've got a pay equity faxathon going on too.
The impact of the changes coming through the introduction of standards don't seem to have been very well thought through. If teachers' pay is linked to these standards, and don't think that isn't the long term plan, then there will be a huge disincentive for teachers to take on the children with additional needs. Those who do will be poorly rewarded for their efforts.
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I second Idiot Savant's wohoo! (Or third, or fourth, or fifth, if I have hit post too late!)
Great work to all those who put pressure on over this. Now we just need to follow-it through and make sure it happens the way we need it to.
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Phew, I'm relieved that we can get out of black, it was starting to be depressing.
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Very interesting post Russell, I didn't know that stuff about NZ Day etc either.
There's was a bit of a discussion over at The Hand Mirror about the lack of acknowledgement of the gender issue in the whole "Key did Waitangi better than Clark" thing.
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We've been talking about this at The Hand Mirror too, including also wishing Greg O'Connor would STFU. It is possible to find a balance between advocating for the workers you represent and always agressively and offensively maintaining their innocence. O'Connor needs to find it.
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Apparently the Ferrit staff were redeployed elsewhere in Telecom, but I imagine there were some contract workers who weren't. I went there once, didn't understand the point, and never went back. It'll certainly leave some holes in the TV stations advertising budgets.