Alan Brent, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Catherine Iorns, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The major benefit of agrivoltaics is that solar panels shelter crops and animals from the heat, while providing more warmth at night. Soils also retain more moisture and some crops grow better.
Marek Tesar, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Research consistently shows access to early childhood education can effect literacy, schooling and life in general. Its relative absence in a budget supposedly focused on education is baffling.
Martin Brook, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Shane Jones’ draft mining strategy is politically divisive. But New Zealand must face the practical and ethical implications of its own reliance on the critical minerals extracted elsewhere.
Adding vitamin and mineral supplements to the diet of pregnant women with antenatal depression not only reduced their symptoms and improved their functioning – it also benefitted their infants.
In Labor circles there is increasing an expectation a reshuffle as parliamentary sitting have become tenuous with intense focus on Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.
Timothy Welch, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Anna Matheson, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Craig Elliffe, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Dennis Wesselbaum, University of Otago; Hiran Thabrew, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Julia Talbot-Jones, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Mark Barrow, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Finance minister Nicola Willis made good on two promises with her first budget – tax cuts and no surprises. But the belt tightening required to do that will have longer-term consequences.
Public submissions close this week on a bill restoring citizenship to some Samoan immigrants. But despite prime ministerial apologies over the 1970s dawn raids, immigration law is largely unchanged.
A ‘right to repair’ bill before parliament aims to reduce the cost and difficulty of fixing consumer items. Setting minimum acceptable lifespans for common products should be the first step.
An ‘apprenticeship’ system would undermine teaching’s role as a profession, and separate trainees from the evolving research and knowledge that university-based training provides.
Spikes in inflation are often blamed on government borrowing to deliver cash handouts. But it’s more complicated than that. The real issue lies in borrowing without a plan to balance the books.
Finance minister Nicola Willis is promising to chart a ‘middle course’ in her first budget. Her bigger challenge is to bring middle New Zealand along with her.
New Zealand tends to focus on big infrastructural projects such as tunnels or light rail to change cities. But there are cheaper ways to add public spaces to urban design.
Recognition of Palestinian statehood was previously held out as an incentive to completing peace negotiations. But that’s changed now, and New Zealand should consider changing its position too.
The latest census figures are released this week, but the long-term trends are already clear: we will soon be more Māori and more Asian, fertility rates are dropping, and more citizens are leaving.
A former TV reality romance contestant explains what MAFS NZ will have to get right after the recent Australian season’s massive success with New Zealand viewers.
Any decision to authorise offshore drilling and other activities contributing to climate change will now need to be assessed under the law of the sea in addition to international climate agreements.
Timothy Welch, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
A report released next week argues the real problem with New Zealand’s inadequate infrastructure is not money – it’s the three-year political cycle. We need a 30-year, cross-party national plan.
The global trade in data means minor drug dealing by 16-year-olds on social media could hurt their ability to get a job, house or insurance in their 30s.
One in five underage adolescents vape occasionally, and nearly 28% of Māori youth vape regularly. Most get their product by sharing and asking older friends to buy vapes for them.
Alan Renwick, Lincoln University, New Zealand and David Dean, Lincoln University, New Zealand
Fonterra’s plan to sell its consumer brands came as a surprise. But there is logic to the dairy giant focusing on selling to the food industry rather than directly to consumers.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University