Kerre Woodham: The road toll still needs reducing

You'll have heard it in our news, since Monday the 20th of April, 18 people have been killed in 14 separate crashes on our roads. As of this morning, 12 more lives have been lost on New Zealand roads so far this year compared to the same point last year. To give some context though, our road tolls today are nothing like the bad old days. Back in 1973, long before many of you were born, when we had a much smaller population and fewer cars on the road, the road toll was around 850 deaths. And you can only imagine the injuries involved in those as well. In 1975 seatbelts in cars became compulsory and the road toll began to decline. It was around about 625 in 1975 – that was considered cause for celebration. And over time, it's come down to fewer than 300 deaths on the road thanks to seatbelts, thanks to better engineering of cars, thanks to improved medical outcomes and rigorous enforcement of traffic rules.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 23/12/24

Be water wise and drive safely – but where’s the guidance on which swimming spots are best avoided?

If we all heed the advice given by earnest ministers of the Crown in the two most recent statements posted on the government’s website, the pressure will be eased – just a tad – for beleaguered Health Minister Shane Reti. In the only other statement we found in our latest monitoring of what ministers have been announcing, Reti brought us up to speed on what is being done to recruit more doctors.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: All schools in this country should have lower speed limits

I think the hardest news story to read today is of the kindergarten teacher in Victoria who died yesterday afternoon saving children from a truck that smashed into the kindy.  

The truck driver lost control, the truck ploughed into the kindy, the teacher pushed the kids out of the way, but died herself. 

The speed limit outside that kindergarten was supposed to be dropped from 50 to 40 kph – but hadn’t been.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 17/10/24

Dig deeper into these benefit numbers (as Louise Upston did) and you will find something cheering about job seeking

The tables [below] come from a report just published, titled…

Benefit Fact Sheets

Snapshot

September 2024 Quarter

The Benefit Fact Sheets, which “provide a highlevel view of trends in benefit receipt”, are published quarterly to provide information on income support provided by the Ministry of Social Development.

Point of Order: How the Treaty of Waitangi is determining the direction in which state-funded science will be taken (or dragged back?)

We have come – or gone – a long way, in the past two decades. In which direction is open to discussion.

Writing for The Independent Business Weekly on 22 January 2003, I noted how a localised Māori belief in a taniwha had obliged Transit New Zealand to stop work on a stretch of new expressway near Meremere for several weeks.

The Environmental Risk Management Authority was consulting people about ways to incorporate Māori spiritual values in a revised policy. The authority (according to newspaper reports at the time) might regard Māori spiritual concerns as sufficient reason for rejecting research applications for genetic research approvals, even if there was no physical biological risk.

Garrick Tremain: More Tinkering

That this government spends record amounts of our money on political spin and social engineering is evident from propaganda campaigns to which we are subjected - none more reprehensible than the $5.3m commercial on the government’s 3 Waters intention.

Also frequently aired is a puerile presentation aimed at convincing us that a reduction in speed on our roads will increase our safety.

Our road toll statistics are about as bad, and sometimes worse, than they have ever been - this despite constant bleating to take care, drive to the conditions, etc, etc...