Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Day of drama and disunity for National, hero of Ōhau fire revealed, and what could be done about the digital divide. For the National party, yesterday was one of those campaign days which aren’t at all pleasant. Issues of disunity once again came to the fore. … Read more
Much has been made of digital divide, but as Justin Latif has observed in his role as a board of trustee member of Māngere Central School, schools in the area are making big strides to ensure students aren’t left behind. It’s hard to imagine what lockdown would be like without the limitless time-consuming options provided … Read more
Politicians can’t make us feel less lonely, but they can adopt policies that create conditions for meaningful social interaction to flourish. This article tackles loneliness at the policy level, which is important, but won’t be much immediate help to individuals feeling lonely and isolated right now. If you’re in that situation, Loneliness NZ has some … Read more
Technology has helped Māori assert a strong, independent response to help stop the spread of Covid-19, but the crisis also exposes telecommunications vulnerabilities. The 1918 influenza epidemic hit Māori hard. Around 2,500 died in under two months at a rate of 50 per 1,000 people – eight times that of Europeans. So, when Covid-19 arrived, … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Dire warnings about water levels, tentative good news on Covid-19 case numbers, and local government struggles for funding. The seriousness of this issue has largely gone unnoticed amid everything else, but if we don’t address it now things could get pretty bad. The state of water … Read more
New Zealand leaves Australia for dust on internet speeds and our children are practically born using fibre, but major challenges lie ahead, writes Rohan MacMahon. Congratulations, New Zealand: three quarters of you now have ultra fast broadband (UFB). This week Chorus hosted an event at Parliament to mark the completion of Phase 1 of the … Read more
If the wellbeing budget is going to do something about the long-term productivity of the country, it must address the growing gap between digital haves and have-nots, writes Grant Thornton’s Helen Fortune. Many fear that increasing digitisation and automation will result in the mass loss of jobs. But that’s not what happened when the first … Read more