spinofflive
New houses in Whangaroa still being built on the side of cliffs (Photo: Nadine Anne Hura)
New houses in Whangaroa still being built on the side of cliffs (Photo: Nadine Anne Hura)

The BulletinMarch 2, 2023

Managed retreat is no one-size fits all solution

New houses in Whangaroa still being built on the side of cliffs (Photo: Nadine Anne Hura)
New houses in Whangaroa still being built on the side of cliffs (Photo: Nadine Anne Hura)

We’ve been told to get used to hearing “managed retreat” over the next few years but for some, the concept is at odds with their reality and their world view, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

 

Managed retreat and adaptation on cyclone recovery task force’s agenda

Yesterday, the government released the Terms of Reference for the Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Task force. Cyclone recovery minister Grant Robertson said the task force’s work will cover issues to do with managed retreat, as well as other adaptation and resilience issues. Sir Brian Roche has been appointed to lead the task force and says repairing state highways and red-zoning uninhabitable communities are “immediate issues” facing the rebuild. Climate change adaptation and managed retreat are terms we’ve been hearing a lot of but they’re also quite bureaucratic, politicised and complicated ideas, and in some instances, conceptually at odds with a range of world views.

“When the government says “managed retreat?” I say, “managed by who?” Managed for who?

In the first in a series of short features by Nadine Anne Hura profiling New Zealanders who are often overlooked in news coverage, Hura visits Whangaroa in the Far North, and shares the words of Nyze Manuel – trustee of Karangahape Marae, kaiwhakahaere of Taitokerau Border Control and business owner employing local whānau. It’s a revealing and vital look at how the concept of “managed retreat” is being received. “When the government says “managed retreat?” I say, “managed by who?” Managed for who? Managed where? We know that Māori will not be a priority in this conversation. The priority will be the flash-as whare that are falling down the cliff,” says Manuel.

Letting owners decide and hiking insurance premiums

The New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton offers a different perspective on managed retreat writing that “higher insurance premiums in risky places would encourage more building in safer places, without anyone having to issue edicts.” Stuff columnist Ben Thomas bridges the gap between Crampton’s thinking and the truths revealed in Hura’s profile with a focus on Wairoa in Hawke’s Bay. “Government bailouts encourage more risk-taking behaviour, so surely owners can decide their own risk profile according to insurance costs. But how would the market signal of increased premiums work in communities like Wairoa, where the majority of residents are low income and without insurance anyway?”

The seductive appeal of saying it’s too late to mitigate climate change

Managed retreat fits into the paradigm of climate change adaptation. This morning on The Spinoff Max Rashbrooke picks up on the appeal of embracing adaptation as a way of solidifying the idea that it’s “too late” to mitigate climate change. Rashbrooke says that the message is “seductive” “for those who wish to leave their lifestyles undisturbed, and an understandable response to the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, an event that concentrates attention on how best to protect vulnerable communities. But it is absolutely the wrong lesson to draw from that disaster.”

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

The BulletinMarch 1, 2023

A new normal beds in for universities

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

Students aren’t returning to lectures on campus, enrolments continue to decline, employment in the sector remains precarious and the financials are grim. Just how much trouble are universities in asks Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

 

Online lectures the “new normal”

It’s been three years since Covid first arrived in New Zealand and one aspect of life looks like it has changed quite permanently as a “new normal” beds in. As Aucklanders brace themselves for “March madness” on the roads, a phenomenon partially attributed to the return of students to the city’s tertiary education campuses, RNZ’s John Gerritsen reports that students aren’t actually returning to lecture halls on campus. Victoria University of Wellington Students Association president Jessica Ye said universities were misguided if they thought students would flock to lectures just because Covid restrictions had changed. Ye describes traditional lectures as “an incredibly passive learning experience” that’s “almost best served” by watching recorded lectures online.

The complex realities of student life

Last year, 3,000 students at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington signed a petition asking the university to make access to lecture recordings universal. The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias reported on it at the time. The need to work to pay bills, illness, disability and family responsibilities were cited as reasons why students want the flexibility online lectures afford. Lecturers describe the emptier lecture halls as demoralising and universities are actively encouraging students to return to campus. There are a lot of reasons to want to maintain a thriving, busy campus, but one of them is financial.

University enrolment figures are continuing to decline

Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington reported a $15.7m deficit for last year and new vice-chancellor Nic Smith says that if students don’t come to the university and be physically present on campus, the university’s losses could grow. Smith describes this year’s lower-than-anticipated student enrolment figures as “confronting”. Auckland University of Technology recently ditched its plans for redundancies after losing a legal challenge and jobs for affected staff have been guaranteed for at least six months. Declining attendance was originally cited as one of the reasons for the redundancies. Unless current trends are miraculously bucked, it’s hard to see how the current environment of precarity for those who work in the sector will stabilise. University of Auckland staff will strike today for 23 hours from 12.30pm with progress on collective agreement negotiations described by the Tertiary Education Union as “slow”.

“Make no mistake, universities are in trouble” 

The passivity of the more traditional tertiary education experience is also cited in discussions about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the sector. It’s another issue Shanti Mathias has covered for The Spinoff recently. “If AI can perform the same basic synthesis that university students are assessed on, then what value does the learning they’re being assessed on provide?” she asks. Former minister of education Steve Maharey is pretty blunt in a recent assessment of the future of universities, with a particular focus on financial sustainability. Headlined “Adapt or wither”, Maharey writes “Make no mistake, universities are in trouble.”