David Lillis: Education, Science and the Election

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...” Carl Sagan (1995).

David Lillis: Shakespeare in our Curriculum

The New Curriculum

The ongoing work on education under Erica Stanford has come in for a great deal of criticism over the last few months especially. The new curriculum has received particular censure, and the compulsory inclusion of Shakespeare in the English curriculum seems to have presented issues for some parties (Lillis, 2025). Indeed, New Zealand needs a balanced curriculum that reflects the multicultural nature of our society and therefore of our primary and secondary students, and surely a Eurocentric curriculum for New Zealand would be ill-posed and therefore completely unacceptable.

David Lillis: Holding Chief Executives and Boards to Account

An Article in Stuff

An article in Stuff of 4 September makes compelling reading (Penfold, 2026). So, one Chief Executive has gone, following a suspension. I will refrain from comment here, as I know former and/or current staff at the relevant place of work and I must be discreet. Simply, the public should note that an investigation will examine allegations of bullying, sexual and other harassment and retaliation; a culture of fear and retribution that suppressed staff from raising concerns; the handling of complaints; confidentiality and privacy practices; the use of non-disclosure agreements; and the adequacy of oversight of board and management.

David Lillis: Are Public Service Whistleblowers Safe from Retribution?

Punishment for Speaking Out

The Hāpai Public Newsletter of 25 August discusses the very real dangers of whistleblowing in New Zealand’s public service (Hāpai Public, 2026). The newsletter quotes research from the Office of the Ombudsman, showing that of public servants who made a protected disclosure, 40% claimed to have been bullied or harassed, 29% claimed that they had lost their job, and about 20% claimed to have been demoted (Office of the Ombudsman, 2026).

David Lillis: Holding Free and Fair Elections

A colleague of mine, Professor Zlatko Kovačić, has published a book on election forensics, or work that contributes to holding free and fair national elections. Currently, his book is generating great interest in his home country of Serbia, and he has been interviewed online about this book.

You can download the book here:

https://bit.ly/election-forensics

David Lillis: Employment in University Academic Roles by Gender and Ethnicity: 2016 - 2025

Preamble and Disclaimer 

I offer this report as a contribution to ongoing debates on the future of our universities. In fact I undertook the study that led to this report, both out of curiosity and from a desire to provide information to the general public and to officials and policy-makers. I confirm that I was not funded by any external organization and that the work described here is exclusively my own.

David Lillis: Workplace Bullying and the Education and Workforce Select Committee

Recently I published a submission that I had made on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill and indicated that I had asked to make a related verbal presentation to the Education and Workforce Select Committee (Lillis, 2026). The 5-minute presentation, given on 30 March, covered workplace bullying. See:

David Lillis: Banning Social Media to Younger Teenagers?

New Zealand has a Problem

Recently, Peter Williams has commented on Australia's social media ban for under-16s (Williams, 2025) and Joanna Grey has expressed her own views on the problem in New Zealand (Grey, 2026). Unfortunately, the results of online harassment of young people can be extreme; for example, see Leask (2024). The comments posted on a related website to Leask’s article provide very disturbing but compelling reading (Reddit, 2024), and here I reproduce several of those comments. Please read them in full.

David Lillis: Fighting Online Harassment

Online Harassment in New Zealand

While most social media is relatively benign or even positive in intent, we do encounter not only bad language and slights of public figures, but online attacks on private people (Lillis, 2025).

Recently, in New Zealand, various people have attempted to call out online abuse and possible defamation on Facebook, including attacks on a person’s character, integrity and even physical appearance.

David Lillis: Harassing Others Online

Online Harassment

Online harassment is a growing problem in pretty much every country. Unfortunately, it is readily available here in New Zealand too (Netsafe New Zealand, 2025). Netsafe defines online harassment in the following manner: when someone says or does something unkind or unsafe to someone else. When such activities happen on a device, such as a computer or mobile phone, it is called online bullying or cyberbullying.

David Lillis: The Atlas Network in New Zealand?

The Atlas Network in Our Media

Though well-known beforehand here in New Zealand, the Atlas Network (Atlas, 2025) came into particular prominence when Mihingarangi Forbes talked to David Seymour in an interview produced for Radio New Zealand by the Aotearoa Media Collective (Forbes, 2024).

David Lillis: Unpublished Paper on our National Science Curriculum

Nearly a year ago I wrote a piece for a special edition of a journal. It was submitted as a commentary rather than as a research paper, but was roundly rejected. In fact, the journal’s reviews of this piece were scathing in the extreme.

However, here I give this paper for those interested in discussions on New Zealand’s science curriculum. It is essentially the same as the original manuscript but slightly longer because the original limit of 3000 words precluded the inclusion of certain detail. It embodies only a few additional ideas and a light edit here and there for a public audience.

John Raine, Michael Kelly, Bryan Leyland & David Lillis: A Response to Dame Anne Salmond on Climate Change

Climate Change Alarmism Versus Moderation

Dame Anne Salmond (Newsroom, 11th September 2025) [1], argues that New Zealand must ignore the recommendations from David Seymour (Act) and Shane Jones (NZ First) that New Zealand should re-negotiate its commitments under the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. She draws attention to the risk to international trade agreements if New Zealand departs from existing obligations. However, Professor Salmond appears to be guided only by the mainstream politicised narrative on climate change.

David Lillis: Our Unbalanced Media

I have written several times before on New Zealand’s unbalanced media (e.g. Lillis, 2024). However, I feel that there is more to be said. Several recent articles in our mainstream media provoked considerable interest because of their left-leaning and anti-Government orientation, and I consider that they must be challenged, if only because very little countermanding material is allowed to appear in our public-funded media. Here I review very briefly a few of them and give my reactions.

David Lillis: Intertwining Knowledge Systems?

Traditional Beliefs in Science?

Dr. Holly Winton has published a thought-provoking piece in The Conversation of 16 July (Winton, 2025). Evidently, Dr. Winton wishes to see intertwining of traditional knowledge with modern global science. My reaction to her piece is that it discusses some appealing traditional ideas about nature, but over-promises on what traditional knowledge can deliver in the world of today. Here I quote from her article and give my reactions.

David Lillis: Bringing Back the Moa?

De-extinction Nonsense

Our mainstream media does it again! On 9 July we have more nonsense, presented as science (Burr, 2025). Apparently, Colossal Biosciences ( https://colossal.com/ ) believes that it can de-extinct the moa within the next decade and that the moa will be alive and walking by 2035.

David Lillis: Unpublished Letter to the Listener

Recently (on 4 June), I wrote a 300-word letter to the Listener but have received no response. Here it is below, for those who are interested.

“Paul Little and Sarah Frost express concerns that Shakespeare is unduly prominent in our draft English Curriculum (The Listener, 7 June). However, Shakespeare is mentioned only once there, and developers are obliged to prescribe what they consider the best readings for every subject.

David Lillis and Peter Schwerdtfeger - Free Speech and Academic Freedom on Campus: a Manufactured Crisis?

Are Claims of Suppression of Free Speech Not Real?

In the Post of 26 June, Dr. Sereana Naepi and Emeritus Professor Peter Davis inform us that concerns about constraints on free speech on university campuses constitute a manufactured crisis (Naepi and Davis, 2025). The authors claim that the crisis is designed to erode academic freedom while appearing to protect it. This is a very bold claim but how do they evaluate the intent of others in creating a manufactured crisis unless they can see into the minds of those other people?

Dr David Lillis: Farming by the Stars?

Lunar Calendars for Farming?

The New Zealand Herald has just published another piece on farming according to astronomical phenomena (NZ Herald, 2025). We are told that as “Aotearoa” celebrates Matariki weekend, it is a good time to look at how Māori farmers used the Maramataka, the lunar year, to guide farming practices and that the Matariki hākari (feast) is the time to celebrate the kai that comes from the land of Kiwi farms.

Dr David Lillis: On the Quality of Opinion Pieces in Our Media

State Your Case but Leave Out the Ad Hominem

Many of us read with interest a piece by Sir Ian Taylor, published in Stuff of 10 June (Taylor, 2025). This particular article is about Mr. David Seymour, leader of the Act Party and current Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand. Clearly, Sir Ian disagrees with Mr. Seymour on various political and social issues and he is quite at liberty to do so. However, this piece generated a degree of negative reaction amongst many within my own circle of friends and associates, even among those who do not necessarily support the Act Party.