Catherine Donaldson
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catherinemidwif.bsky.social
Catherine Donaldson
@catherinemidwif.bsky.social
270 followers 240 following 57 posts
Retired & living her best life, wife, cat lover, Kiwi living in QLD.
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catherinemidwif.bsky.social
‘National and ACT blew up building wealth for low income New Zealanders. Today the PM and Willis have no idea how to raise funds to pay for the health care and retirement of Kiwis over the age of 65. They did so in the name of libertarianism and classical liberalism’. 😳
franciscoblaha.bsky.social Francisco Blaha @franciscoblaha.bsky.social · Feb 11
This current group of National-ACT politicians lacks imagination. They're devotees of an impractical, pre-reformation, philosophical, religious, and doctrinal approach to economics - one that nobody who studies the modern subject can relate to.
www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3605...
The core reason why the coalition is failing
OPINION: Given the mess Labour left, why aren't National and ACT light years ahead in the polls?
www.thepost.co.nz
February 11, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
kenzime.bsky.social
This is the future of AoNZ if we allow privatisation of our healthcare system.
January 27, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
kats-garden.nz
"It is well known that in coalition negotiations ACT secured a select committee process for one constitutional Bill. However, they also secured the enactment of a second constitutional Bill entrenching their libertarian ideals and removing the place of te Tiriti in our lawmaking." - Prof Jane Kelsey
The Overshadowed Bill Poised to Rewrite New Zealand’s Legal System
While Attention is Fixed on the Treaty Principles Bill, Another Bill Threatens Sweeping Change
substack.com
December 28, 2024 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
sarahhbickerton.bsky.social
Hey ... Aotearoa New Zealand iPhone users:
www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3605...
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
December 19, 2024 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
writagal.bsky.social
“The power he gives himself is extraordinary in its scope and potential.”

One of the scariest, accurate and bluntly clear articles written to date about David Seymour, in my opinion.

This needs to be widely read - and the content widely reported in the media.

open.substack.com/pub/mountain...
8% ACT Party Creates One Ring To Rule Them All
A Quick Read
open.substack.com
December 17, 2024 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
lyndonhood.bsky.social
It's honestly a bit coherent that: Act maintain regulation is stopping people doing things so they put a layer of regulation on the government
publicaddress.bsky.social Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · Dec 15
Building a national EV charging network was basically National's only climate policy. So what's happened is that they've actually cut funding left by Labour for the same purpose and the whole thing is now hamstrung with a layer of red tape demanded by Act. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3605...
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
December 15, 2024 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
mshooper.bsky.social
“Broken toilets, sinks and lights are a regular nightmare on the largest ward of the creaking Dunedin Hospital, medical staff say”
#nzpol
Ward staff tell of ‘low-income nation’ conditions
Broken toilets, sinks and lights are a regular nightmare on the largest ward of the creaking Dunedin Hospital, medical staff say. The 46-bed ward,...
www.odt.co.nz
December 14, 2024 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
mountaintui.bsky.social
When Luxon says he has invested record amounts in health, he is being deceptive.

LIGHT BLUE = Luxon Health funding: Lowest in A CENTURY

Health privatisation will give them a temporary bump in wait list KPIs and budget, but will cost Kiwis more in money terms, avoidable deaths and patient care.
NZ Real Terms Average Annual Health Spend Change Per Person Underneath it says "Lowest govt health funding this century. Light blue = Luxon Government / Dark blue = Key Government"
December 14, 2024 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
mabc.bsky.social
Submissions are open until 13 January at consultation.regulation.govt.nz/rsb/have-you...
December 14, 2024 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
biggsky.bsky.social
There is no possible way the ferries will be cheaper, without making them smaller and less capable. The end goal here is to privatise the only link between our two islands and destroy rail, because investment property owners are the oligarchs in our country now newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/06/f...
Ferry fiasco will echo for decades with private public partnership
Opinion: Putting a private, for-profit gatekeeper at the heart of our national freight system will increase costs to freight customers, see profits go offshore, and cost us much much more than spendin...
newsroom.co.nz
December 13, 2024 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
froggie24.bsky.social
Rents in NZ rise to whatever people can pay. So increases to the Accomodation Supplement are pointless - just a giant wealth transfer to landlords.
musicalchairs.bsky.social Musical Chairs @musicalchairs.bsky.social · Dec 10
I don't want to labour the point (I do really) but look how stupidly tight the relationship is here. Income and rents are basically inseparable.
Rents in NZ rise to whatever people can afford to pay.
Rents in NZ rise to whatever people can afford to pay.
Rents in NZ rise to whatever people... [3/n]
December 10, 2024 at 5:34 PM
catherinemidwif.bsky.social
#midwives
December 9, 2024 at 11:57 PM
catherinemidwif.bsky.social
‘In the late 19C Gilbert and Sullivan wrote ‘Utopia, Limited’. In it, the fictional king of a south seas island called Utopia decrees that the kingdom and each of its inhabitants become a limited liability company!
It was regarded as absurd, but now it is not far from what we are becoming!
mshooper.bsky.social Ms Hooper @mshooper.bsky.social · Dec 9
To call this voodoo economics is an insult to voodoo
Trying to retrospectively graft an economic theory onto the coalition Government’s economic policy is equally simplistic
To call this voodoo economics is an insult to voodoo
Comment: Trying to retrospectively graft an economic theory onto the coalition Government’s economic policy is equally simplistic, write Rob Campbell.
newsroom.co.nz
December 9, 2024 at 11:51 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
andrewr4.womcats.com
In the realm of The Onion - but it’s all too real.
December 8, 2024 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
slanecartoon.bsky.social
“The government would have grown the economy in much the same way my dog chases planes away when they fly over her yard“ #nzpol
Danyl McLauchlan Barking at planes The strategy for 2024 was merely to be in government while interest rates came down. Shortly after the Reserve Bank announced it was lowering the official cash rate by 50 basis points, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis called a press conference where they congratulated themselves for the move. Of course, they had nothing to do with it, as the salient feature of an independent central bank is its independence, but their line was that they deserved credit because their government is "a good partner on monetary policy". It's hard to see any evidence of this in the crown accounts: the projected deficit for this year is larger than in Labour's last year in power. Ah, but National's spending is sensible and moderate while Labour's was profligate and wasteful. Also, Luxon and Willis think Labour would have spent even more if it had stayed in power. They're probably right, but this is very thin stuff. They're a year into their term, there's a wave of business failures under way and gathering speed, the surplus the coalition promised is wallowing in a sea of heavy borrowing and crushing national debt receding into the 22nd century, and they have so little to say for themselves that they're trying to eat the Reserve Bank's lunch. It's not quite true that they have no economic plan - there are other ministers doing work across a range of portfolios - but it's now obvious that the strategy for 2024 was merely to be in government while interest rates came down, and the plan for 2025 is to just remain in government while they stay down, and hope that increased consumer and business confidence leads to more spending, higher house prices and a fall in unemployment. The government would have grown the economy in much the same way my dog chases planes away when they fly over her yard. But even those hopes of a robust post-recession recovery are fading.
December 7, 2024 at 12:23 AM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
joannakidman.bsky.social
"...they’re cutting funding to the very disciplines where Māori and Pasifika researchers are most strongly represented. This isn’t just about disciplines – it’s about who gets to research, whose knowledge counts, whose stories matter": Selina Tusitala Marsh
newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/09/a...
Arts don’t just decorate knowledge, they deepen it
Former poet laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh on funding cuts to arts and social sciences ... "Some discoveries shake the earth. While others whisper of their worth"
newsroom.co.nz
December 8, 2024 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
tairawhitidoc.bsky.social
Only this current coalition could take an anti-science approach to ACTUAL science.
Funding research with a specific outcome qualification is NOT research, it's market testing.
Leave the science to the scientists, in ALL fields, including humanities.
e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-...
We dismiss the 'fluffy' stuff at our peril | E-Tangata
“Science can show us the ‘how’, but the humanities give us the ‘what’ and ‘why’. Funding one without the other is like sailing without a compass: you can move forward, but without direction or purpose...
e-tangata.co.nz
December 7, 2024 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
andrewr4.womcats.com
This is an excellent read from @bernardchickey.bsky.social - recommend!

And love how Substack now has a share to 🦋 option. And no sign of the bad place 🤣

open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/...
My Saturday Soliloquy for Dec 7
Six things that mattered this week: Luxon's austerity strategy; Reneging on Paris; Evidence-light NZ Inc; 'Break up the gentailers'; 'We won't borrow to build'; Homelessness worsens.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2024 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
casmudde.bsky.social
The attack on Humanities and Social Sciences truly is global. Extremely short-sighted decision by the New Zealand Government.

The “science with a purpose” framing is where neoliberalism and populism find each other.

www.beehive.govt.nz/release/mars...
Marsden Fund refocused for science with a purpose
Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins today announced the Government has updated the Marsden Fund to focus on core scientific research that helps lift our economic growth and c...
www.beehive.govt.nz
December 4, 2024 at 4:42 AM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
heiheikakariki.bsky.social
So THIS is really flying under the radar! They want to remove all public input into conservation estate and allow development! SHARE AND SUBMIT!! We have until 28 February #nzpol www.doc.govt.nz/modernising-...
Proposals to modernise the conservation system
Have your say on the two discussion documents by 28 February 2025.
www.doc.govt.nz
December 5, 2024 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
bmhayward.bsky.social
Depressingly accurate (below)
NZ will be ‘overtaken’ by this old fashioned action to choose what counts as ‘Science ’ which then also limits the ability of a generation of researchers to work in this country and to have make a real difference here
bennosaurus.com Ben Bowman @bennosaurus.com · Dec 4
The real world is interdisciplinary. For example, climate change is a natural science problem with social science causes. There's no real distinction between "core science" vs "humanities and social science". Forcing one through policy is always a step backwards, and always means you'll be overtaken
bmhayward.bsky.social Bronwyn Hayward @bmhayward.bsky.social · Dec 4
I do not yet have a comment on this but I ask all New Zealand researchers and businesses read this and consider the full impact of this signal #nzpol www.beehive.govt.nz/release/mars...
December 4, 2024 at 10:48 AM
catherinemidwif.bsky.social
“This in turn will encourage even more young New Zealanders to leave the country to live and study and work elsewhere, since their own universities can no longer offer internationally credible degrees across a wide range of subjects. This will have real economic impacts.”
stephenclarkenz.bsky.social Stephen Clarke @stephenclarkenz.bsky.social · Dec 4
"Well, it's official. The word has come down from on high. According to the Beehive, cabinet ministers don’t need evidence-based insights into the needs and experiences of New Zealanders, or the lives of human beings in general."

— Dame Anne Salmond ONZ DBE FRSNZ

newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/05/a...
December 4, 2024 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Catherine Donaldson
nihilcurtis.bsky.social
In the most direct statement yet that NZ's hard right government is totally opposed to any research that might challenge the social order they support, they have stripped the Humanities & Social Science panels from the largest fund for innovative research in the country.
Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins today announced the Government has updated the Marsden Fund to focus on core scientific research that helps lift our economic growth and contributes to science with a purpose. “The Government has been clear in its mandate to rebuild our economy. We are focused on a system that supports growth, and a science sector that drives high-tech, high-productivity, high-value businesses and jobs,” Ms Collins says “I have updated the Marsden Fund Investment Plan and Terms of Reference to ensure that future funding is going to science that helps to meet this goal.” The new Investment Plan focuses on supporting research that can be of economic, environmental or health benefit to New Zealand. The new Terms of Reference outline that approximately 50 per cent of funds will go towards supporting proposals with economic benefits to New Zealand. “The Marsden Fund will continue to support blue-skies research, the type that advances new ideas and encourages innovation and creativity and where the benefit may not be immediately apparent. It is important that we support new ideas which lead to developing new technologies and products, boosting economic growth, and enhancing New Zealand's quality of life,” Ms Collins says. “The focus of the Fund will shift to core science, with the humanities and social sciences panels disbanded and no longer supported. Real impact on our economy will come from areas such as physics, chemistry, maths, engineering and biomedical sciences.
December 4, 2024 at 1:14 AM