Founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, PJR also published for five years at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji before moving on to AUT’s Pacific Media Centre (PMC). It is currently being published by the Auckland-based Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).
Founding editor Dr David Robie, formerly director of the PMC before he retired from academic life three years ago, said: “This is a huge milestone — three decades of Pacific media research, more than 1000 peer-reviewed articles and an open access database thanks to Tuwhera.
“These days the global research publishing model often denies people access to research if they don’t have access to libraries, so open access is critically important in a Pacific context.”
Current editor Dr Philip Cass told Asia Pacific Report: “For us to return to USP will be like coming home.
“For 30 years PJR has been the only journal focusing exclusively on media and journalism in the Pacific region.
“Our next edition will feature articles on the Pacific, New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia.
“We are maintaining our commitment to the Islands while expanding our coverage of the region.”
Both Dr Cass and Dr Robie are former academic staff at USP; Dr Cass was one of the founding lecturers of the degree journalism programme and launched the student journalist newspaper Wansolwara and Dr Robie was head of journalism 1998-2002.
The 20th anniversary of the journal was celebrated with a conference at AUT University. At the time, an Indonesian-New Zealand television student, Sasya Wreksono, made a short documentary about PJR and Dr Lee Duffield of Queensland University of Technology wrote an article about the journal’s history.
The Life of Pacific Journalism Review. Video: PMC/Sasya Wreksono
Many journalism researchers from the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and other networks have been strong contributors to PJR, including professors Chris Nash and Wendy Bacon, who pioneered the Frontline section devoted to investigative journalism and innovative research.
The launch of the 30th anniversary edition of PJR will be held at the conference on July 4-6 with Professor Vijay Naidu, who is adjunct professor in the disciplines of development studies and governance at USP’s School of Law and Social Sciences.
Several of the PJR team will be present at USP, including longtime designer Del Abcede.
A panel on research journalism publication will also be held at the conference with several editors and former editors taking part, including former editor Professor Mark Pearson of the Australian Journalism Review. This is being sponsored by the APMN, one of the conference partners.
Conference chair Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at USP, is also on the editorial board of PJR and a key contributor.
Three PJR covers and three countries . . . volume 4 (1997, PNG), volume 8 (2002, Fiji), and volume 29 (2023, NZ). Montage: PJR
Tui Rererangi Walsh O’Sullivan, 4 July 1940 — 20 May 2023
Kia ora koutau katoa. Kia ora mo o koutou haerenga i te ahiahi nei. Kia ora mo o koutou aroha, o koutou karakia mo Tui i te wa o tona harenga ki te rangi.
I whanau mai a Tui, kei Kaitaia, hei uri o Te Rarawa, i te tau kotahi mano, iwa rau, wha tekau.
Tui was born in Kaitaia in 1940 — exactly 100 years after her great-great grandfather, Te Riipi, signed the Treaty of Waitangi. She was descended, too, from a Scotsman, John Borrowdale who named his boat Half Caste — after his children. Such was the mystery of race, life and family in 19th century Northland.
Tui was the last born child of Jack and Maata Walsh, and sister of John, Pat, Rose and Michael. Maata was Te Rarawa, from Pukepoto. Tui lies alongside her at Rangihoukaha Urupa in Pukepoto. She was named Tui Rererangi, the flying bird in the sky, in honour of her uncle Billy Busby — a World War II fighter pilot.
Maata died when Tui was two years old. She and Rose and their brothers were raised by their father, Jack Walsh, his mother Maud and his sister Lil. Maud was born in Townsville. Her father was a lacemaker from Nottingham who emigrated, with his wife, firstly to Australia and then to the far North of New Zealand.
Jack was born in Houhora and died when Tui was 23. Jack’s father emigrated from Limerick.
Early in the next century, the writer Frank McCourt described Limerick, just as it had been in Timothy Walsh’s time, “It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
It was a better world these people sought, in and with, Te Rarawa.
Tui’s story — almost 83 years — spans a time of rapid social, political and technological development in New Zealand and the world. Her contribution was transformative for the many, many, people she encountered in her professional, social and family lives.
Tui’s schooling began at Ahipara Native School. Transcending the government’s official purpose of the Native School, of “lead[ing] the lad to be a good farmer and the girl to be a good farmer’s wife” — Tui left primary school with a Ngarimu VC and 28th Maori Battalion Scholarship to St Mary’s College in Ponsonby.
Some of her friends from St Mary’s are here today, and her granddaughter, named in her honour, started at the school this year.
Disrupting social orthodoxy was Tui’s life. On leaving school, she enrolled at the University of Auckland, completing a degree in English and anthropology part-time over the next 20 years. During these years she trained as a primary school teacher, working in Auckland, Wellington, Cambridge, Athens and London.
In the past week, we took a phone call from somebody Tui had taught at Kelburn Normal School in the 1960s. Such was Tui’s impact.
I was born in Hamilton in 1970. Deirdre in Cambridge in 1973. We moved to Northcote Point in 1975 and, in 1977, Tui became the first woman and the first Māori appointed to a permanent position at what was then the Auckland Technical Institute. I remember her telling me she was going for a job interview and coming into this Church to pray that she would be successful. Deirdre and I did our primary schooling here at St Mary’s.
Being a working single parent in the 1970s and 80s was hard work. It didn’t reflect social norms, but the Auckland University of Technology, as it’s become, provided Tui, Deirdre and me with security and a home – a home that has been Tui’s since 1978.
At AUT, she developed the first Women on Campus group. She helped establish the newspaper Password, a publication introducing new English speakers to New Zealand society and culture.
She taught courses on the Treaty of Waitangi when the treaty was a subversive idea. She contributed to the change in social and political thought that has brought the treaty — that her tupuna signed — to greater public influence. The justice it promises was a major theme in Tui’s working life.
Tui was interested in justice more broadly, inspired by her Catholic faith, love of people and profound compassion. These values stood out in the memories of Tui that people shared during her tangihanga earlier in the week at Te Uri o Hina Marae.
On Twitter, like them all, a social media that Tui never mastered, a former student, some 40 years later, recalled “the sage advice” given to a “young fella from Kawerau”. As Tui remembered, for a Māori kid from the country, moving to town can be moving to a different world.
In a media interview on her retirement, she said: “Coming from a town where you didn’t know names, but everyone was Aunty or Uncle, Auckland was by far a change of scenery”.
In Auckland, Tui knew everybody. Always the last to leave a social function, and always the first to help people in need.
Tui helped establish the university’s marae in 1997. She would delight in sharing the marae with students and colleagues. Just as she delighted in her family — especially her grandchildren, Lucy, Xavier, Joey, Tui and Delphi.
She remembered Sarah Therese. Her grandchildren tell of their special times with her, and her deep interest in their lives. Last year, Deirdre and Malcolm and their children moved from Wellington to be close by. Joey and I came from Canberra for the year.
We talked and helped as we could. My job was to buy the smokes. I remember saying one day, “I’m going to the supermarket, what would you like for dinner” — “a packet of cigarettes and a bottle of wine”. That was Tui’s diet and she loved it. And it was only in the last few months that she stopped going out.
At the wake for her brother John’s wife, Maka, in November, she was still going at three in the morning. I worried that three bottles of wine mightn’t have been the best idea at that stage in life, but she was well enough to do it, and loved the company of her family as we loved being with her.
In December, she took Joey and Tui to mark their birthdays at the revolving restaurant at the Sky Tower, where she also joined in the celebration of Lucy’s 18th birthday a couple of months ago. Delphi liked to take her out for a pancake. She loved Xavier’s fishing and rugby stories.
Over the last year, she wasn’t well enough to watch her grandchildren’s sport as she would have liked, take them to the beach as she used to love, or attend important events in our lives. But she did what she could right until the end.
My last conversation with her, the day before she died, was slow and tired but cogent and interesting. We discussed the politics of the day, as we often did. She asked after Joey and Lucy, and after Cara — always concerned that they were doing well. She didn’t speak for long, which was out of character, but gave no reason to think that this would be the last time we spoke.
Her copy of my book, Indigeneity, Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, published last month, is still in the post. She didn’t know that it was dedicated to her and that I had explained, in the acknowledgements, that the reasons needed more words than the book itself.
That was supposed to have been for her to read, and for her to learn, that the dedication was also from her grandchildren. She was the immediate and unanimous choice when I asked them, “to whom should I dedicate this book”.
No reira, ka nui te mihi ki tena ki tena o koutou. Kia ora mo o koutou manaaki me te aroha.
Kia ora huihui tatau katoa!
Dr Dominic O’Sullivan, Tui’s son and professor of political science at Charles Sturt University, delivered this eulogy at her memorial mass at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Northcote, on 27 May 2023. It is republished here with the whanau’s permission. Tui O’Sullivan was also a foundation Advisory Board member of the Pacific Media Centre in 2007 and was a feisty advocate for the centre and its research publication, Pacific Journalism Review, until she retired in 2018.
Late last year, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) initiated a process to eliminate 170 academic jobs to cut costs. The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found AUT’s approach breached its collective employment agreement with staff and their union and ordered it to withdraw the termination notices.
Tertiary education runs on an insecure labour force in New Zealand and elsewhere. The AUT decision illustrates that even traditionally secure positions are becoming less so.
Tenure is the traditional protection for academics in the tertiary sector, but New Zealand does not have tenure at its universities.
A common argument against tenure is that it leads to a complacent, under-motivated university professor. These concerns are hypothetical — evidence that tenure causes productivity differences is lacking.
In fact, one of few large studies on the subject found the opposite. Good administrators should be able to manage any actual productivity issues as they do in all other workplaces.
On the other hand, lack of tenure creates risks for free societies. Tenure is common practice in other liberal democracies. UNESCO says:
Security of employment in the profession, including tenure […] should be safeguarded as it is essential to the interests of higher education.
Tenure is important, if not indispensable, for academic freedom. Academic freedom is essential to a university’s mission, and this mission is a characteristic of a democracy. As University of Regina professor Marc Spoonerput it:
A country’s institutional commitment to academic freedom is a key indicator of whether its democracy is in good health.
The Employment Relations Authority has issued a compliance order to the university, requiring it to withdraw its notices of termination. https://t.co/NUvBfqS6ad
Scholarship is not piecework
The ERA said AUT misunderstood terminology in the collective employment agreement.
The clash term was “specific position”. AUT’s position was that specific positions are identified by professional ranks (from lecturer to professor) and the numbers of each role across four particular faculties.
The ERA did not agree and concluded an essential component for identifying specific positions is the employee, being the person who is the current position holder or appointee to a position.
AUT’s assertion would be like the air force using the rank of “captain” to adjust its number of pilots. The number of captains does not tell you what each captain does, be it to fly planes or fix them.
Without tenure, a standard less than this minimum established by the ERA can be used to eliminate academics who have legitimate priorities that do not align with the administrative staff of the day, or are the victims of any other concealed discrimination. The ERA clarification makes it more difficult to inhibit intramural criticism, the right to criticise the actions taken by managers and leaders of the university.
It […] reflects the distinctive relationship of academic staff and universities, a relationship not able to be defined by reference to the ordinary law of employer and employee relationships.
The ERA clarification helps to prevent the firing of academics who are teaching, researching or questioning things administrators, funders or governments don’t want them to. But it is a finger in a leaking dyke. Tenure is a tried and tested general solution.
Health of the democracy We only need to observe the events in the United States to recognise the importance of tenure. This benchmark country has a proud tradition of tenure. Nevertheless state governments are dismantling tenure to impose political control on curriculums. Our liberal democracy is not immune to this.
We need more than tenure-secured academic freedom to enable universities to do the sometimes dreary and at other times risky work of providing societies alternatives to populist, nationalist or autocratic movements. But as the Douglas Dillon chair in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, Darrell M. West, wrote, academic freedom is a problem for these movements.
Recognizing the moral authority of independent experts, when despots come to power, one of the first things they do is discredit authoritative institutions who hold leaders accountable and encourage an informed citizenry.
In a system with tenure, a university would have a defined stand-down period preventing reappointment to vacated positions. For example, if an academic program and associated tenured staff that teach it were eliminated at the University of Arkansas for financial reasons, the program could not be reactivated for at least five years. The stand-down inhibits whimsical or agenda-fuelled restructuring as a lazy option to manage staff.
If a similar trade-off were to be applied to how AUT defined specific positions, then no academics could be hired there for five years. It is very different to be prevented from hiring academics than it is to, say, not re-establishing a financially struggling department or program.
Herein lies the true value of tenure. It is greater than a protection of the individual. It protects society from wasteful or ideologically motivated restructuring as an alternative to poor management. Tenure is security of the public trust in our universities.
An award-winning professor of sport, leadership and governance has criticised her university’s handling of recent redundancies of 170 academic staff, saying a “rethink” is needed.
Professor Lesley Ferkins, director of Auckland University of Technology’s Sports Performance Research Institute and professor of sport, leadership and governance, told RNZ Nine to Noon that AUT’s senior management had lost the trust of staff.
Interviewed by Kathryn Ryan, Professor Ferkins said that if AUT continued on its current path it would “end in absolute disaster’.
Professor Lesley Ferkins . . . current path will “end in absolute disaster”.
She said the university needed to draw on the “collective wisdom” of the academic staff.
Professor Ferkins has kept her job in the restructure, but has written an impassioned letter to vice chancellor professor Damon Salesa and the leadership team denouncing the redundancy process as lacking in transparency sound leadership values.
Last month, Professor Ferkins was named the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand (SMAANZ) Distinguished Service Award winner.
Returning to ERA
AUT returned to the Employment Relations Authority today as part of its plans to make 170 academic staff redundant.
Yesterday, after a legal bid by the union representing teaching staff, the authority found the university’s process for issuing redundancy notices was flawed and breached the collective agreement.
It found that volunteers for redundancy should have been called for once specific positions were identified as surplus, but this did not happen.
In a letter to staff yesterday, AUT’s group director of people and culture Beth Bundy said AUT’s view of the findings differed from that of the Tertiary Education Union (TEU).
She said the university would return to the ERA today to seek clarification and hoped to have that by tomorrow.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has knocked-back an attempt by one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest universities to axe more than 100 staff.
The Auckland University of Technology planned to make 170 academic staff redundant, but the ERA has now ruled that its process was flawed and breached the collective agreement.
Now the school may need to walk back its dismissals, and start all over again.
ERA said AUT had called for voluntary redundancies too early, before the institution had even decided which positions to cull.
The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) is celebrating the ruling as a win. However, AUT says the union and the university have interpreted the decision differently and it would be seeking clarification.
Lawyer Peter Cranney, in an email to members of the TEU yesterday, said the ERA was considering a compliance order that would require AUT to withdraw all the notices it had already issued.
“Although a compliance order is discretionary, the [ERA] authority has indicated it will not decline the granting of the order it needed,” he wrote.
“The parties will now have three days to consider the matter; and if a compliance order is necessary, the AUT will need to comply within five days.”
Cranney said any compliance order would be issued by Friday.
Trust difficult to rebuild, says union organiser TEU organiser Jill Jones said the decision meant people at risk of losing their jobs no longer were.
“It’s great because what it does show is our collective agreement has been respected by the Employment Relations Authority,” Jones told RNZ Morning Report.
But although staff members were “absolutely” thrilled with the decision of the ERA, there was a breakdown of trust with their employer and it would be difficult to rebuild it.
“Its been a long, hard road for these staff members. They’ve paid a very large price.
“These are members that really, really care about their students and the high price that they’ve paid for this bungled redundancy is that lots of things have happened.
“It’s felt as if, to them, it’s been a very callous and uncaring process and it’s going to be difficult to come back from that.”
Frances* was one of the unlucky 170 to receive a redundancy letter.
“This level of disruption and instability in our lives is just crippling,” she said.
The ERA decision had not brought much comfort.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” she said. “I’m really happy that we’ve seen some justice be recognised through the court system, but I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Frances expected AUT to withdraw her notice of dismissal, but did not expect a happy ending.
“I’m not deluded, they’re still going to come for me I’m sure, but they’ll have to start from scratch and do it properly,” she said.
“That’s all we ask, that this is done properly.”
Poor handling of the situation had destroyed staff morale, she said.
“For three months, I’ve been feeling disengaged, demotivated, angry, upset, waiting, waiting, waiting for this letter,” she said.
“This whole process has been about targeting, humiliating, and bullying people.”
AUT seeks clarification of ‘complex findings’ An AUT spokesperson said the findings were legally complex and it regretted that a “procedural issue” highlighted had made staff more uncertain.
“Although the ERA has published its findings, it has not issued orders.
“AUT’s view of these findings differs from that of the TEU. AUT is endeavouring to clarify and resolve the issue promptly.
“Given the differing views between the parties it will therefore be necessary to return to the ERA tomorrow for clarification on some aspects.”
AUT said ERA’s findings found no bad faith in how it had acted — and AUT had formed a differing view of the collective agreement.
“The ERA has noted that AUT should have identified the specific positions potentially declared surplus and, at this point, written to offer voluntary redundancy to the people in these specified positions.
“Following clarification of the procedural issue we will write to those impacted by the decision to confirm the way forward.”
* Name changed to protect identity. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The launch of a New Zealand project to produce more Pacific news and provide a “voice for the voiceless” on the islands has highlighted the neglect of that field by Australia and New Zealand — and also problems in universities.
The new development is the non-government, non-university Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), a research base and publishing platform.
Its opening followed the cleaning-out of a centre within the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) — in an exercise exemplifying the kind of micro infighting that goes on hardly glimpsed from outside the academic world.
Cleaning out media centre The story features an unannounced move by university staff to vacate the offices of an active journalism teaching and publishing base, the Pacific Media Centre, in early February 2021.
Seven weeks after the retirement of that centre’s foundation director, Professor David Robie, staff of AUT’s School of Communication Studies turned up and stripped it, taking out the archives and Pacific taonga — valued artifacts from across the region.
Staff still based there did not know of this move until later.
The centre had been in operation for 13 years — it was popular with Pasifika students, especially postgrads who would go on reporting ventures for practice-led research around the Pacific; it was a base for online news, for example prolific outlets including a regular Pacific Media Watch; it had international standing especially through the well-rated (“SCOPUS-listed”) academic journal Pacific Journalism Review; and it was a cultural hub, where guests might receive a sung greeting from the staff, Pacific-style, or see fascinating art works and craft.
Its uptake across the “Blue Continent” showed up gaps in mainstream media services and in Australia’s case famously the backlog in promoting economic and cultural ties.
The PMC Project — a short documentary about the centre by Alistar Kata in 2016. Video: Pacific Media Centre
Human rights and media freedom The centre was founded in 2007, in a troubled era following a rogue military coup d’etat in Fiji, civil disturbances in Papua New Guinea, violent attacks on journalists in several parts, and endemic gender violence listed as a priority problem for the Pacific Islands Forum.
Through its publishing and conference activity it would take a stand on human rights and media freedom issues, social justice, economic and media domination from outside.
The actual physical evacuation was on the orders of the communications head of school at AUT, Dr Rosser Johnson, a recently appointed associate professor with a history of management service in several acting roles since 2005. He told the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) in response to its formal complaint to AUT that it was “gutting” the centre that the university planned to keep a centre called the PMC and co-locate its offices with other centres — but that never happened.
His intervention caused predictable critical responses, as with this comment by a former New Zealand Heraldeditor-in-chief, Dr Gavin Ellis, on dealing with corporatised universities, in “neo-liberal” times:
“For many years I thought universities were the ideal place to establish centres of investigative journalism excellence … My views have been shaken to the core by the Auckland University of Technology gutting the Pacific Media Centre.”
Conflicts over truth-telling The “PMC affair” has stirred conflicts that should worry observers who place value on truth-finding and truth-telling in university research, preparation for the professions, and academic freedom.
The Independent Australia report on the fate of the PMC last weekend. Image: Asia Pacific Report
The centre along with its counterpart at the University of Technology Sydney, called the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), worked in the area of journalism as research, applying journalistic skills and methods, especially exercises in investigative journalism.
The ACIJ produced among many investigations, work on the reporting of climate policy and climate science, and the News of the World phone hacking scandal. It also was peremptorily shut-down, three years ahead of the PMC.
Both centres were placed in the journalism academic discipline, a “professional” and “teaching” discipline that traditionally draws in high achieving students interested in its practice-led approach.
All of which is decried by line academics in disciplines without professional linkages but a professional interest in the hierarchical arrangements and power relations within the confined space of their universities.
There the interest is in theoretical teaching and research outputs, often-enough called “Marxist”, “postmodern”, “communications” or “cultural studies”, angled at a de-legitimisation of “Western-liberal” mass media. Not that journalism education itself shies away from media criticism, as Dr Robie told Independent Australia:
“The Pacific Media Centre frequently challenged ‘ethnocentric journalistic practice’ and placed Māori, Pacific and indigenous and cultural diversity at the heart of the centre’s experiential knowledge and critical-thinking news narratives.”
Yet it can be seen how conflict may arise, especially where smaller journalism departments come under “takeover” pressure. It is a handy option for academic managers to subsume “journalism”, and get the staff positions that can be filled with non-journalists; the contribution the journalists may make to research earnings (through the Australian Excellence in Research process, or NZ Performance Based Research Fund), and especially government funding for student places.
There, better students likely to excel and complete their programmes can be induced to do more generalised courses with a specialist “journalism” label.
Any such conflict in the AUT case cannot be measured but must be at least lurking in the background.
What is ‘ideology’? Another problem exists, where a centre like the former PMC will commit to defined values, even officially sanctioned ones like inclusivity and rejection of discrimination.
Undertakings like the PMC’s “Bearing Witness” projects, where students would deploy classic journalism techniques for investigations on a nuclear-free Pacific or climate change, can irritate conservative interests.
The derogatory expression for any connection with social movements is “ideological”. This time it is an unknown, but a School moving against an “ideological” unit, might get at least tacit support from higher-ups supposing that eviscerating it might help the institution’s “good name”.
What implications for future journalism, freedom and quality of media? Hostility towards specific professional education for journalism exists fairly widely. The rough-housing of the journalism centre at AUT is indicative, where efforts by the out-going director to organise succession after his retirement, five years in advance, received no response.
The position statement was changed to take away a requirement for actual Pacific media identity or expertise, and the job left vacant, in part a covid effect. The centre performed well on its key performance indicators, if small in size, which brought in limited research grants but good returns for academic publications:
“On 18 December 2020 – the day I officially retired – I wrote to the [then] Vice-Chancellor, Derek McCormack … expressing my concern about the future of the centre, saying the situation was “unconscionable and inexplicable”. I never received an acknowledgement or reply.”
Pacific futures Journalism education has persisted through an adverse climate, where the number of journalists in mainstream media has declined, in New Zealand almost halved to 2061, (2006 – 2018). AUT celebrated 50 years of journalism teaching this week.
The latest Pacific Journalism Review . . . published for 28 years. Image: PJR
However new media are expanding, new demands exist for media competency across the exploding world “mediascape”, schools cultivating conscionable practices are providing an antidote to floods of bigotry and lies in social media.
The new NGO in Auckland, the APMN, has found a good base of support across the Pacific communities, limbering up for a future free of interference, outside of the former university base.
It will be bidding for a share of NZ government grants intended to assist public journalism, ethnic broadcasting and outreach to the region. While several products of the former centre have closed, the successful 28-year-old research journal Pacific Journalism Review has continued, producing two editions under its new management.
The operation is also keeping its production-side media strengths, such as with the online title Asia Pacific Report.
Independent Australia media editor Dr Lee Duffield is a former ABC correspondent and academic. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of Pacific Journalism Review. This article is republished with the author’s permission.
The university has announced that 170 academic positions are being cut, but there are concerns about whether the criteria by which staff were selected to lose their jobs was fair.
Legal proceedings have been launched by the Tertiary Education Union (TEU), which says the university has truncated the processes for dismissal set out in the collective agreement.
AUT planned to cut 170 academic positions — those affected had until last Thursday to take voluntary redundancy or face a compulsory layoff.
The petition states the criteria for selecting which staff would go was based on “unjust” and “flawed” performance criteria — something backed by the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) which is taking legal action against AUT on similar grounds.
The criteria included “teaching” and “research” on disputed grounds, but ignored “supervision” and “community service”, vital components of academic workloads.
The petition says that it is “to reinstate AUT academic staff who have been made redundant based on unjust and flawed performance criteria.
“This decision heavily impacts [on] postgraduate and undergraduate students who were not considered in this process. Numerous academic staff members who are integral to the success of students and the university have been made redundant and we urge the AUT senior leadership team to reinstate them.”
RNZ’s Susie Ferguson talks to TEU organiser Jill Jones, and two PhD students: “Sarah”, and Melanie Welfare, who have both signed the petition requesting AUT reinstate staff.
Pacific Media Watch reports that the journalism programme, which celebrates 50 years of teaching media tomorrow, is among those sectors hit by the AUT layoffs.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A Fiji-based academic challenged the Pacific region’s media and policymakers today over climate crisis coverage, asking whether the discriminatory style of reporting was a case of climate injustice.
Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific, said climate press conferences and meetings were too focused on providing coverage of “privileged elite viewpoints”.
“Elites have their say, but communities facing the brunt of climate change have their voices muted,” he told the Look at the Evidence: Climate Journalism and Open Science webinar panel exploring the role of journalism in raising climate awareness in the week-long Open Access Australasia virtual conference.
Dr Singh, who is also on the editorial board of Pacific Journalism Review and was speaking for the recently formed Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), threw open several questions to the participants about what appeared to be “discriminatory reporting”.
“Is slanted media coverage marginalising grassroots voices? Is this a form of climate injustice?” he asked.
“Are news media unknowingly perpetuating climate injustice?”
He cited many of the hurdles impacting on the ability of Pacific news media to cover the climate crisis effectively, such as lack of resources in small media organisations and lack of reporting expertise.
‘Jack-of-all-trades’
“We are unable to have specialist climate reporters as in some other countries; our journalists tend to be a jack-of-all-trades, and master of none,” he said.
He did not mean this in a “disparaging manner”, saying “it’s just our reality” given limited resources.
Key Pacific media handicaps included:
• The smallness of Pacific media systems;
• Limited revenue and small profit margins;
• A high attrition rate among journalists (mostly due to uncompetitive salaries);
• Pacific journalists “don’t have the luxury” of specialising in one area; and
• No media economies of scale.
“Our journalists don’t build sufficient knowledge in any one topic for consistent or in-depth reporting,” he said. “And this is more deeply felt in areas such as climate reporting.”
He cited recent research on Pacific climate reporting by Samoan climate change journalist Lagipoiva Dr Cherelle Jackson, saying such Pacific media research was “scarce”.
‘Staying afloat in Paradise’
A research fellow with the Reuters Institute and Oxford University, Dr Jackson carried out research on how media in her homeland and six other Pacific countries were covering climate change. The report was titled Staying Afloat in Paradise: Reporting Climate Change in the Pacific.
Pacific journalists and editors “have a responsibility to inform readers on how climatic changes can affect them, she argued. But this did not translate into the pages of their newspapers.
“Climate change is simply not as high a priority for Pacific newsrooms as issues such as health, education and politics which all take precedence over even general environment reporting,” Dr Jackson wrote.
“For a region mainly classified by the United Nations as ‘least developed’ and ‘developing’ countries, it is apparent that there are more pressing issues than climate change.
“But the fact that the islands of the Pacific are already at the bottom end of the scale in regards to wealth and infrastructure, and the fact that climate change is also threatening the mere existence of some islands, should make it a big story. But it isn’t.”
Newsroom’s Marc Daalder . . . “we need this [open access] to happen for climate reporting”. Image: Open Access Week 2022 screenshot APR
The Open Access Australasia media panel today also included Newsroom’sMarc Daalder, The Conversation’s New Zealand science editor Veronica Meduna, and Guardian columnist Dr Jeff Sparrow of the University of Melbourne.
Critical of paywalls
Daalder spoke about how open access to scientific papers was vitally important for journalists who needed to read complete papers, not just abstracts. He was critical of the paywalls on many scientific research papers.
Open access enabled journalists to do their job better and this was clearly shown during the covid-19 pandemic — “and we need this to happen for climate reporting”.
Meduna said it took far too long for research, such as on climate change, to filter through into public debate. Open access helped to reduce that gap.
She also said the success of The Conversation model showed that there was a growing demand for scientists communicating directly with the public with the help of journalists.
Dr Sparrow called for a social movement for meaningful action on the climate crisis and more scientific literacy was needed to enable this.
Highly critical of the “dysfunctional” academic publishing industry, he said open access would contribute to “radically accessible” science for the public.
Thousands of New Zealand tertiary union members will go on strike at eight universities tomorrow over a cost of living pay demand.
The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) said its members were walking off the job for part of the day at the eight universities in the country.
Union members at Auckland University of Technology initially planned to refuse to enter students’ marks from October 6 to 21, the union said.
However, after the AUT management warned that striking staff would face suspension and loss of pay for two weeks, TEU withdrew the action so that staff would join the Thursday strike instead, a later union statement said today.
The TEU, which has 7000 members, is demanding an 8 percent pay rise needed to keep up with the cost of living.
Each university was negotiating its own collective agreements with the union, but the agreements expired at about the same time enabling a co-ordinated industrial action.
The action announced includes full stoppage between 1pm and 5pm at University of Auckland, University of Waikato and AUT; from 12pm to 4.30pm at Victoria University of Wellington and for shorter periods at three other universities.
There will be rallies at each university and marches and pickets at Waikato and Massey universities.
On its website, the University of Auckland stated it had explained to the unions that it had made an offer that was fair and reasonable and rewarded staff, while retaining fiscal responsibility.
“The university has made a best offer of a 5 percent and 4 percent general revision offer over two years, subject to certain conditions,” the statement said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A union representing New Zealand tertiary sector staff says a proposal which could lead to massive job cuts at the Auckland University of Technology came completely out of the blue and was a major shock.
Around 230 jobs could be axed as the university suffers a significant drop in international student enrolments, due to the covid-19 pandemic.
AUT yesterday announced it would review administration and support roles and a small number of courses with low enrolments.
Programmes included in the university’s proposal included Bachelor’s degrees in Social Sciences, Conflict Resolution, Japanese Studies, and English and New Media.
The faculty with the highest number of proposed cuts is Design and Creative Technologies, with 50 jobs being axed.
Tertiary Education Union national secretary Tina Smith told RNZ Checkpoint she was shocked and horrified by the depth of the cuts.
“The thing that’s horrific, really horrific, is the numbers of staff that they’re talking about – they’re talking about 150 academic and about 80 general professional staff and that’s full time equivalent, in real numbers, in real people numbers, that could be a lot more.”
Smith said a member who had worked there for more than 20 years told her they had never before seen cuts of this magnitude.
Significant international student drop
Costs had increased, international student numbers had dropped significantly, and it had fewer New Zealand students than last year because more people, including school leavers, were choosing to work instead of study, AUT said.
AUT vice-chancellor Toeolesulusulu Professor Damon Salesa said the proposed staff cuts would reduce spending by $21 million a year.
Smith acknowledged that student numbers would be down next year because students had had a tough time due to covid and there was a workforce shortage.
“So there’s that option for students to go and earn some money instead of study,” she said.
“But what we need to do is encourage people into the long-term futures that will do the best for them and their whānau, which is gaining the real skills that they need to rebuild our economy, this country and for businesses.”
Cutting courses and students was “short-term thinking” and not the right approach, she said.
Smith acknowledged that some courses did have low student numbers but said it was important to keep those staff on board and look at alternatives for them.
Faulty ‘benchmarking’
“One of the things they’re [AUT] using for their rationale is that the percentage of staff of our operating expenses is above the benchmarking of other universities.”
But AUT was a comparatively new university so had higher debt and less reserves than some of the more established universities, she said.
AUT had had a high percentage of lower decile students and had been a good employer in the past, Smith said.
“So why change a formula that worked really well? Yes, it’s going to be a bit of a rocky time – but what you do in a rocky time is you stand together, you hold tight and you say, ‘we’re going to take the long view’.”
It was essential not to lose what made your institution valuable, Smith said.
AUT made a $12.9 million surplus in 2021, after a $12.3 million surplus in 2020. It has a policy of being the “university of choice” for Māori and Pacific students.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Guest speakers are invited to discuss topics with students about West Papua and they host language classes as well.
Ikinia is a Masters of Communication postgraduate student at the Auckland University of Technology and said that living in New Zealand had been a good experience.
“We are studying and living in a country that has a diverse community where indigenous people and non-indigenous people live together,” he said.
Auckland University of Technology’s new vice-chancellor — the country’s first Pasifika educator in the top role at a university — is determined to break down inequalities among students in the sector.
Professor Damon Salesa, formerly at the University of Auckland, started in his new role this week.
“The reason I want to be a vice-chancellor is because I don’t think universities have made this the priority it needs to be,” he said.
“We will measure ourselves by how our Māori students do, how our working class students do, how our Pacific students do, and how they feel, because actually a positive outcome isn’t just a qualification.”
He said the covid-19 pandemic illuminated inequities in education, with online learning hindering many students’ ability to participate.
“That mode of teaching had an inequality in it … the digital divide is a real thing.”
Professor Salesa said universities needed to be held to a higher standard of fair outcomes for all students.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Time is running out for a group of West Papuan students in New Zealand whose scholarships were cut — out of the blue — by the Indonesian government
The sudden removal of government funding for the Papuan students has left many of them in financial dire straits on visas that are running out.
Forty two students learned of the termination of their scholarships at the beginning of this year. With deadlines approaching they have appealed to both the Indonesian government and MPs in New Zealand to see if they can fix their dashed hopes of a completed education.
Green Party MPs Ricardo Menendez March, Golriz Ghahraman and Teanau Tuiono penned a letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta requesting government to support for the students before they are deported.
They are calling for a scholarship fund to support the impacted students, a residency pathway for West Papuan students whose welfare has been affected, and an assurance that the students will have access to safe housing in affordable accommodation.
But according to Menendez March, the most urgent issue is the students’ visas — he is calling on the government to extend them due to special circumstances, such as those for Ukrainian nationals.
“What the situation in Ukraine taught us is that when there is political will, our immigration system can move relatively fast to provide solutions for people who are facing uncertainty,” he said. “The special visa that was created to support Ukrainian families show we could have an intervention to support these students.”
Quick move for Ukraine
Immigration moved quickly to ensure Ukrainians with family in New Zealand had an easier avenue to a two-year work visa as a part of the humanitarian support developed in response to the refugee crisis.
“Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said last week when the details were unveiled: ‘This is the largest special visa category we have established in decades to support an international humanitarian effort and, alongside the additional $4 million in humanitarian funding also announced today, it adds to a number of measures we’ve already implemented to respond to the worsening situation in Ukraine.’”
West Papuan masters student Laurens Ikinia … “It is really heartbreaking for us as the central government of Indonesia and the provincial government have not given any positive responses.” Image: MTS screenshot APR
The Ukraine policy is expected to benefit around 4000 people, with Immigration streamlining processes to make sure they are supported sooner rather than later.
With just 42 West Papuan students now in this visa crisis, Menendez March said it would be easy enough for the Government to create a special category.
And more than that, it would be an opportunity for New Zealand to stand up for a Pacific neighbour.
“As a Pacific nation we do have a responsibility to support West Papuans,” he said. “I think this is a small but really tangible way that we could supporting the West Papuan community.”
For some of the students, returning home isn’t just a matter of giving up on whatever ambitions lay past graduation day – but also a safety risk.
Openly communicated
“The students have openly communicated in the past some of them may not necessarily face safe living conditions back at home,” Menendez March said, who met with the students last week along with Greens spokesperson for Pacific people Teanau Tuiono to discuss possible solutions.
Tuiono said there were multiple reasons why the New Zealand government should step in and offer support to the students.
“First, there’s the consistency thing — if we’re going to do this for people from the Ukraine, why not for West Papuans,” he said. “Also, we are part of the Pacific and we have signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The declaration, first adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, establishes a framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.
“West Papuans are indigenous peoples who have been occupied by Indonesia, so there’s that recognition of a responsibility on an international level that we have signed up to,” Tuiono said.
The letter signed by the Green MPs was sent to Mahuta at the beginning of this month, but they say there has been no meaningful response. Meanwhile, some of the students are potentially just a matter of weeks away from deportation.
The decision to rescind the scholarship funds came as a shock to West Papuan students in New Zealand like Laurens Ikinia, who is in the final year of his Master of Communication at AUT. He hopes he will be allowed in the country until his upcoming graduation.
“It is really heartbreaking for us as the central government of Indonesia and the provincial government have not given any positive responses to us,” Ikinia said. “The government still stick to their decision.”
Matthew Scott is a journalist writing for Newsroom on inequality, MIQ and border issues. Republished with permission.
Incoming new vice-chancellor for Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Toelesulusulu Dr Damon Ieremia Salesa is keenly aware that he has broken through another glass ceiling.
The son of a factory worker made New Zealand history last week, as the first Pacific person to be appointed to the eminent leadership position in academia at a New Zealand university.
“I’m really excited to be the AUT vice-chancellor and with that excitement comes a sense of its significance with the sector which I work in and have given much of my life to, actually looking like the people it serves. So I’m really excited to be part of that story,” Toelesulusulu told Asia-Pacific Report.
“AUT is a place where talent can find opportunity and I would hope that lots of other people would want to express that excitement by wanting to come to AUT,” he says.
“What matters more is the work of the whole institution, that the university itself embraces its many different communities, its Māori students, its Pacific students and already AUT is a little bit known for that and what we can do is to build even more deeply on that.”
Professor Steven Ratuva, director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, says Dr Salesa’s appointment is a significant milestone for the Pacific.
“It is something he richly deserves, and he has been working hard for and it is a good career choice, it is good for the Pacific academic community, and I congratulate him for his contribution to Pacific education.”
South Auckland priority
Currently pro-vice-chancellor Pacific at the University of Auckland (UOA), Dr Salesa takes up his new role as vice-chancellor at AUT in March.
From just up the hill at UOA, he has observed AUT, and likes what he saw.
“I’ve really admired the way AUT prioritised and served its students, particularly the students of South Auckland and mature students, and that is one of reasons I was really interested in the job,” he says.
“Just because those communities of learners for whom education really matters, AUT has really embraced them and that is part of what is exciting about AUT — that is why I wanted to come across and join AUT.
“There is no question that the campus down south and campus on the shore bring universities into the communities that they serve and as well as being global institutions they are local institutions.
“If you have heart to service and you keep the students at the very centre of the decisions you make, you get great results like you see AUT deliver in South Auckland and the North Shore,” he says.
Strengthening Māori and Pacific research
Pacific and Māori research is one area he wants to strengthen as well as build relationships with other institutions in the Pacific.
“Certainly, one of the things I have as a priority is to make sure that AUT is in all of the partnerships that it needs to be in, that we are serving our communities and our partners as well in a reciprocal relationship from which everyone grows.
“That will mean we have to be a little bit selective, but it will also mean that Pacific partnerships and other partnerships are critical to the very centre of the university, and they are not seen as being marginal because we’re a university in the middle of the South Pacific.
“We need to honour that and be connected to our whanau around the Pacific.
Toeolesulusulu Dr Damon Salesa … ““We need to honour … and be connected to our whanau around the Pacific.” Image: RNZ
“It is absolutely important that we are having those conversations, we need to understand how we can support the University of the South Pacific (USP) and their work, how we can find benefit and value for New Zealand and AUT students and staff from those relationships, so certainly we will be taking that seriously.
“But certainly, USP is a special institution in our region, so we need to be strategic in how we support and partner with them.”
Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at USP, says “as many have pointed out, the appointment is well deserved. He was not given any preference as a Pacific Islander. He was picked on merit.
A Pacific ‘trailblazer’
“As a trailblazer, he will inspire many Pacific Islanders and Pacific people beyond New Zealand as the vice-chancellor of one of the finest universities in our region.
“Through my association with the Pacific Media Centre (PMC), I have participated in AUT journalism-related workshops, seminars, and conferences.
“I have a high regard for the AUT and the PMC, long a flagship of the university for its cutting-edge research and publications in Pacific journalism.
“I hope the PMC is revived as journalism in the region has been struggling due to economic and political factors. Pacific journalism needs support and leadership and AUT can become the beacon it was,” Associate Professor Singh says.
Dr Salesa was in the dark about the PMC which has now been in hiatus for almost a year for unknown reasons.
“I’d have to learn more about that, I don’t know the ins and outs of that situation, but these are things that have to be collaborative, they have to be built with the kind of collective will and expertise of the university especially.
“There is no question that AUT will be prioritising Māori research and Pacific research among its other amazing specialisations,” Dr Salesa says.
AUT ‘anchored in Pacific’
“AUT will always be anchored in the Pacific region and obviously has a long history of educating people from the Pacific region and we hope to continue and deepen that.
“Those partnerships will speak directly to AUT’s future, and this is a period in time where everyone is just hoping for the best possible outcome for USP, and we will be looking to support in ways that make sense for them and AUT.”
Dr Salesa is testament to the fact that people of a Pacific background or ethnicity can succeed and excel — not just in sport, but in every facet of society.
“I think we’ve always known, as the saying goes, talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t — and what AUT is the story of, is making opportunity available to diverse groups of talented people.
“We know if you make opportunities available to those who have been denied them, they will flourish if they are supported in the right way.
“I have no doubt what people will see in my own story is that the kinds of diverse talent we have in New Zealand that too often we haven’t made the most of, can come to AUT and thrive.
“I hope that people see in that all kinds of stories because I am also the son of a factory worker, and I am also a first-generation university attendee people can understand that when talent gets opportunity and support it drives them and that’s what I am hoping you’ll see and that is what success at AUT is all about and its story,” the Auckland suburb of Glen Innes-raised Dr Salesa says.
Education pathway
A strong advocate for education, he wanted young Māori and Pasifika people to pursue that pathway rather than young school leavers joining the workforce.
“We know that education is one of the proven pathways to wellbeing and prosperity for families, and that at the same time we know that many families need their young people to go out and work.
“So, it is absolutely critical that we find ways to get talented young Pacific, Māori and other students into high value employment and education is one of the ways of doing that.
“What we need is for them to be ambitious, to have high expectations of themselves and their families and it is for AUT and other universities to deliver that transformational learning which is the secret to those strong and prosperous futures,” Dr Salesa says.
Transformative learning allowed people to change and have more than one career.
“We know all of us are living in the most uncertain and highly changeable times. In the old days everyone imagined they would have just one career and many people now are realising they might not only change jobs but change careers and they have also come to realise that in many, many of our jobs technology sits at the centre of opportunity and the ability to be effective.
“AUT is the kind of institution that is built for these times, it offers all sorts of flexible learning offerings and a truly diverse student body and it is New Zealand’s tech university.
Transformative learning
“So transformative learning is the kind of learning that actually transforms individual students lives where you can see outcomes writ large and that’s what I’m hoping to support further development at AUT so that people understand AUT is a great place to go, to study and get a great job but also prepare themselves for a great future,” Dr Salesa says.
Then there was the inevitable vexed question, whether it was time for another university, namely AUT, to start a new medical school? To which he played with a straight bat.
“At the moment AUT is one of the great providers of the health workforce in New Zealand and certainly for the short term we will be focusing on doing an even better job of doing that.
“Delivering a health workforce and the health researchers that New Zealand needs. That is obviously a critical contribution in the age of the pandemic, but again that will be built collaboratively with my colleagues at AUT.
“I think it is a very challenging time for universities across the board and particularly where next year is going to be where students have had two years of lockdown learning in Auckland so we have to make sure that the university can support them in their ambitions to be successful at AUT.
“That is going to be one of the great challenges, not just facing AUT, but all the tertiary providers that have suffered lockdowns in Auckland.”
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Sri Krishnamurthi.
Dr Robie opened the conference with his topic “Journalism education ‘truth ’ challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation” while Gloria spoke about the difficulties of doing investigative journalism amid this covid-19 pandemic.
Founding director of the Pacific Media Centre, Dr Robie began with a tribute “to two extraordinary and inspirational journalists, who have shed light on dark places and given the rest of us hope”.
The first of these was to Maria Ressa, chief executive of the Filipino investigative website Rappler, who, along with Russian editor Dimitry Muratov, was named a Nobel Peace prize laureate last month for safeguarding “freedom of expression”.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee described them as “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions”.
Julie Posetti, global director of research at the International Centre for Journalists (ICJ), said the choice had been very timely and she pointed to the fact that it had been 85 years since the first working journalist had won the Nobel prize.
German investigative editor Carl von Ossietsky won the Nobel prize for his “burning love for freedom and expression”’
Award in jail
Ossietsky, was incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp at the time he won the award and later died in jail.
As Gloria told the conference hosted at Auckland University of Technology, the Nobel prize put a “global spotlight on the extraordinary dangers that we journalists face today”.
“You and I are no stranger to threats to media freedom – from repressive laws to libel suits to imprisonment to death threats,” she said.
Rappler chief executive and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa … safeguarding “freedom of expression”. Image: NurPhoto/Rappler/IFEX
“To many of us in the Global South, journalism has always been considered a dangerous profession long before media watchdogs started ranking countries around the world according to the freedoms enjoyed by their press.
“And yet, despite all that we have seen and experienced, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most challenging period for journalism. At stake today is our very existence, our relevance, and our ability to speak truth to power.
“Not only are journalists under attack. Truth is under attack,” Gloria said.
Optimism for Rappler
She gave three reasons for the Filipino publication Rappler to be optimistic in spite of dealing with 11 lawsuits aimed at silencing the website.
“Every crisis is an opportunity. In the last two years, we at Rappler managed to bounce back and continue holding power to account and exposing wrongdoing,” she said.
“Part of the reason is how our ownership structure was set up. Rappler is the only journalist-owned and journalist-led media company in the Philippines. We make decisions for the public interest even if it’s bad for business.
“Second reason to be hopeful is — for journalism to matter, the community must be a part of it. In our crisis years, our community stayed with us.
“We realised that we had a core base of audience that, while not massive, shared the same value that we believe in, which is the public’s need for transparency and accountability on the part of those who lead and government them.
“At Rappler, we learned that when the going gets tough, hold the line, stick to your core, and have faith in your community of readers.
“The third reason to be hopeful is that crisis challenges our mindsets. The attacks on Rappler scared away advertisers but also compelled us to diversify our revenue stream so that today, our revenues come not just from advertising but business research, grants, membership, programmatic ads, and special projects.
Postive net income
“We have not paywalled our site but we have content and activities exclusive to paying subscribers. Thankfully, we are now entering our third year of positive net income,” Gloria said.
Conference moderator Dino Cantal with Pacific Media Centre founding professor David Robie … fielding questions about covid-19 and the “disinfodemic”. Image: ACMC
Dr Robie’s second tribute was to Max Stahl whom he described as a “courageous journalist and filmmaker who sadly died at the age of 66 from cancer”.
From Timor-Leste, he made the controversial film footage of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in the capital Dili which eventually led to Timorese independence.
Filmmaker Max Stahl speaking to the 20th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review in Auckland in 2014. Image: Del Abcede/APR
British-born Stahl returned to East Timor in 1999 and made the documentary In Cold Blood: Massacre of East Timor, for which he was decorated with the Order of Timor-Leste, the country’s highest honour and he was awarded Timor-Leste citizenship in 2019.
“The common thread linking all four of these media communicators – Maria Ressa, Dimitry Muratov, Carl von Ossietsky and Max Stahl – has been their courageous, determined relentless pursuit of ‘truth and justice’,” Dr Robie told the virtual conference.
“ ‘The truth’ – this supreme goal of journalists in holding power to account is hugely under threat by politicians, demagogues and charlatans peddling fake news and disinformation,” he said.
Dr Robie spoke about covid-19 and the “disinfodemic” – described by UNESCO as “falsehoods fuelling the pandemic”, leading to civil disobedience and attacks on medical staff the world over, including in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Violence pervaded South Pacific
The violence had pervaded the South Pacific and was noticeable in Fiji and Papua New Guinea despite the high number of people being infected.
Dr Robie highlighted PNG where health authorities were forced to cancel vaccinations for fear of attacks, hence the rate is incredibly low this month, sitting at 2.5 percent,
He also addressed the infodemic and the rise of “disinformation” and the challenges it brought to the media.
Dr Robie spoke about climate change “and the disproportionate impact this is having on our Asia-Pacific region”.
A key component of the disinfodemic was the lack of fact-checking and as veteran Pacific journalist and consultant Bob Howarth had asked, why had the basics of fact-checking not “become part of journalism training in our universities and colleges?”.
Dr Robie also spoke about climate change “and the disproportionate impact this is having on our Asia-Pacific region”.
Climate ‘catastrophe’
He outlined the challenges of climate change, preferring to call it climate “catastrophe”.
“I am stressing the word catastrophe rather than merely change, That is because for the microstates of the Pacific it is already viewed as an impending catastrophe,” he told the conference.
Dr Robie said he had developed several theories and models of journalism such as “talanoa journalism”, a concept developed through a Pacific approach.
“My emphasis has been on ‘project journalism’, creating high quality coverage of issues and challenging assignments on university platforms with high standards of journalistic integrity and to foster multi-university collaboration across national boundaries.”
Toeolesulusulu said the past two years of the covid-19 pandemic have been the most difficult for education in a long time.
He said part of the reason he chose to take up the new role was that AUT provides a pathway to education for people of all ages, backgrounds and races, regardless of the life stage or academic credentials.
“The pressures of the pandemic have forced many young people to have to choose between furthering their education or providing for their families, and institutions like AUT can help.
“Now is a great time to just leave school and get a job,” Toeolesulusulu said.
“But in terms of the future that students’ families need, that our city and our communities need, education still remains the single most powerful way to transform the lives of you and your family and through them our communities.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Pacific scholar and senior university sector leader Toeolesulusulu Dr Damon Salesa has been appointed as the next vice-chancellor of Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland University of Technology (AUT), AUT News reports.
The appointment by the University Council at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau AUT was announced today and is the result of a global search after current vice-chancellor Derek McCormack announced his retirement in March 2022 after 18 years at the helm.
Toeolesulusulu is a prizewinning historian and former Rhodes Scholar. After obtaining his MA with first class honours at the University of Auckland, he completed his doctoral studies at Oxford University.
He is the author and editor of many books and academic articles including Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific Futures (BWB, 2017) and Racial Crossings (Oxford University Press, 2011) which won the international Ernest Scott Prize in 2012. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and currently serves on their council.
“For 20 years AUT has been the most remarkable story in Aotearoa New Zealand tertiary education, showing how the pursuit of excellence can be set on a foundation of service, inclusion and close relationships with our communities, businesses and stakeholders,” said Toeolesulusulu.
“AUT is New Zealand’s tech university, a pacesetter in the social, educational and economic transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am excited by the opportunity to lead AUT on the next leg of its journey of excellence, Te Tiriti partnership, equity and service to our city, nation, region and the world.”
His current role is as pro vice-chancellor Pacific at the University of Auckland where he also serves on the executive committee tasked with the strategic leadership and governance of the organisation.
Pacific programme in US
Toeolesulusulu has also served as co-head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies) at the University of Auckland and previously worked at the University of Michigan for 10 years, including in roles as director of the Asian Pacific Islander American Studies Programme and as an associate professor in the History Department and Programme in American Culture.
An Aucklander, Toeolesulusulu was born and bred in Glen Innes, the son of a factory worker from Samoa and a nurse from the Far North. He is married with two teenage daughters.
Toeolesulusulu retains strong connections to many of Auckland’s communities, especially in South Auckland. He has been an innovator at the interface between schools and universities and has been an important leader and supporter of the work of schools, in pedagogy, curriculum and governance.
AUT chancellor Rob Campbell said the council was looking forward to welcoming Toeolesulusulu Dr Salesa to AUT next year.
“We are impressed by Damon’s vision of the critical contribution AUT can make to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific through quality research and teaching, and the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi throughout the work of the university,” he said.
What are the views of Pacific journalists on professional ethical issues and what pressures affect their work? What is the age, experience, qualifications and gender breakdown of the Pacific journalist corps?
These crucial questions are addressed in a recently published research carried out by the University of the South Pacific (USP).
Published in the latest Pacific Journalism Review, the research investigates the journalism culture in the Pacific Islands, with the findings offering insights into possible remedial methods and future directions.
“Watchdogs under Pressure: Pacific Islands Journalists’ Demographic Profiles and Professional Views” is based on a comprehensive survey providing an update on the demographic profiles, professional views, role conceptions, and perceived influence of more than 200 Pacific Islands journalists in nine USP member countries — Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Associate Professor in Pacific Journalism Shailendra Singh at the School of Pacific Arts, Communication, and Education (SPACE) co-authored the paper with Professor Folker Hanusch from the University of Vienna, who is also an international expert on world journalism cultures.
Dr Singh said that while global scholarship on journalists’ professional views had expanded tremendously in recent decades, the Pacific remained a blind spot. For example, the Pacific was not featured in the Worlds of Journalism Study on 76 countries, perhaps the most ambitious undertaking in the field.
He said that USP had financed this critical research in its member countries as journalists provide a valuable public service in the region.
Impact of journalists’ health
“Journalists’ health has an impact on the health of journalism, and journalism’s health has an impact on the health of the countries in the region. As a result, it is incumbent upon us to conduct due diligence on our journalists, on whom we rely for information in making vital judgments,” Dr Singh added.
Professor Folker Hanusch … an authority on world journalism cultures. Image: USP/PINA
“Through such research, we find out many things including the challenges they face.”
He discussed how the data could be used to support media organisations and national governments make better policy decisions.
“Our survey found an improvement in education and experience levels in the current cohort of journalists, compared to 30 years ago, but we are still lagging at the international level. This data may persuade governments, universities, and international donors to provide more fellowships and scholarships to build on the improvements of the last 30 years,” Dr Singh said.
The study also found a parity in female and male journalists overall. However, male journalists tended to hold senior editorial positions, implying that most females required help in obtaining more senior positions in media organisations.
He emphasised the report provided an enhanced understanding of the journalism culture in the Pacific Islands to media organisations, governments, civil society organisations, and aid donors.
“In the face of imminent concerns like climate change, this work can be used to identify future paths and remedial measures,” Dr Singh said.
Fieldwork team
“He acknowledged USP’s journalism teaching assistants Geraldine Panapasa and Eliki Drugunalevu for helping out in the fieldwork, as well as the USP Research Office, for sponsoring the study, along with USP as a whole for supporting the journalism programme. He also praised Professor Pal Ahluwalia, USP vice-chancellor and president (VCP), for his vision, which placed a high value on journalism.
“As well as our co-funders, the US Embassy in Fiji and the Pacific Media Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Special thanks to Professor David Robie, the former USP journalism coordinator and founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review for publishing our work,” Dr Singh added.
Professor Ahluwalia praised the team’s joint work in publishing this study and commended them on the study’s “astounding” findings.
He stressed that journalists played a significant role in the Pacific and that the concerns identified in the report must be addressed.
“We are required to look after their well-being and look into the issues they are encountering,” the VCP added.
Acting deputy vice-chancellor education Professor Jito Vanualailai congratulated Dr Singh and the team for the excellent paper.
He expressed his desire to see more comprehensive studies in the future, which he believed would help the Pacific region.
SPECIAL REPORT: By Sri Krishnamurthi for Asia-Pacific Report
The warning is stark — New Zealand is on the verge of a “tsunami” of dementia cases and the government can ill-afford to merely acknowledge the University of Auckland’s Dementia Economic Impact Report 2020.
And while it may not receive the priority which goes to dealing with the covid-19 pandemic, it is nonetheless a concern.
The report found an estimated 69,713 people — or 1.4 percent of the population — were living with dementia in 2020 and that number is projected to more than double to 167,483 — or 2.7 percent of the population — by 2050.
The alarming statistic is that the number of Māori, Pacific and Asian people with dementia is expected to triple, while the number of Europeans with dementia is expected to double.
“This is the fourth dementia report we’ve written and the last three reports have all talked about the baby boomer generation coming up to retirement age and people living longer,” says Dr Etuine Ma’u, lead author of the report and a Tongan.
“So we have this massive bulge of 65-year-olds coming through since 2011. This report now is saying, look at the tsunami, the surge of cases that is here now,” the senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and consultant psychiatrist at Waikato hospital says, sounded a stark warning.
“It is concerning because at the moment we’re sitting at about 15 percent of the population of people with dementia being Māori, Pasifika and Asian and that is going to rise to a quarter and they are growing a lot quicker because the population is ageing a lot quicker.
Worry that it’s an underestimate
“The worry is that it is an underestimate and that is because we had a paper out earlier this year looking at the risk factors for dementia and what is shown is that, particularly for Māori and Pacific, their risk factor burden is a lot higher than European which means that they are probably at a higher risk of developing dementia anyway,” Dr Ma’u says.
Dr Etuine Ma’u … “This is the fourth dementia report we’ve written.” Image: APR
At the same time that the report was launched, an updated action plan was also presented to Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.
“The plan is really a call to action for the government, the plan is really trying to highlight to the ministry the urgency of addressing dementia,” Dr Ma’u says.
While the reports have all been acknowledged, nothing further has been done since 2008.
“I don’t think that they have (the past four governments) paid attention to them in any practical sense. They’ve always acknowledged the reports when they have come out and they’ve always acknowledged that the problem is coming,” Dr Ma’u says.
“I think what is urgent about the current report is that it really shows the problem is here right now.”
Closer to home
For report co-author Auckland University of Technology associate professor Dr Rita Krishnamurthi, a stroke and dementia researcher, it is much closer to home.
Associate Professor Rita Krishnamurthi … “That was my motivation to do something about this insidious disease.” Image: AUT
Her father, Venkata Chalam, died in July 2014 from dementia and that proved a spur to her studies into dementia.
“That was my motivation to do something about this insidious disease because in the last years of his life it was particularly bad,” she says.
“Culturally too, we weren’t going to put him in aged residential care (ARC) where he wouldn’t get the comforts of home, like food and company that he was comfortable with.
“My mother (Sita) wouldn’t hear it; she insisted that he was cared for at home.”
Cultural and social norms were the primary reasons Māori, Pasifika and the Asian communities were hesitant to make use of the ARC.
“The other problem is that because Europeans (or Pakeha) make up the overwhelming majority of the population over 65 with dementia, all of the interventions and services are pitched at that group,” Dr Ma’u says.
Not culturally appropriate
“So they are not culturally appropriate, they are not really acceptable particularly to Māori, Pasifika and many Asian populations. They are not using those services and that means that they are carrying the burden of care and the cost associated with it themselves.
“And that is what the report shows quite strongly.
“We need tailored services, we need tailored intervention and what we need the Ministry of Health and the government to wake up to is that if in the next 20 years non-European people with dementia are going to make up a quarter of all the people with dementia then we are going to have to start targeting services and developing services and targeting policy that is acceptable and appropriate to these different groups.
“There is no one size fits all approach,” he says bluntly.
A year ago research into dementia found 12 significant risk factors that brought the onset of dementia into people.
“There was a big paper that came out a year ago with The Lancet which identified 12 potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia and they calculated what is called the population attributable fraction which is effectively the amount of dementia you could potentially prevent if you could completely get rid of those risk factors,” Dr Ma’u says.
“The risk factors broadly speaking fall into two categories — those that increase the risk of damage to the brain like high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, alcohol, physical activity and diet and then there are factors that impact on your competent reserve, which is basically your brain’s ability to cope and to compensate for any damage.
Active social network
“That is around maintaining a healthy and active social network, your level of education because it challenges the brain more.
“Hearing is a massive one because people who have difficulty hearing have a problem with socialising.”
The cost of hearing aids in New Zealand is a major prohibiting factor, he says.
“We’re hearing things like funding hearing aids is going to make a massive difference but in New Zealand, they are horrendously expensive.”
He makes it clear that the health industry is not geared up to deal with the wave of dementia cases that is impending.
“Are we ready, the short answer is ‘no’, it is the message that Alzheimer’s New Zealand wanted to push across when they presented their dementia plan to the Associate Minister for Health,” he says.
“I don’t think we are prepared: based on the dementia report the costs are really high, estimated at $2.5 billion. Because we are looking at an extra 30,000 people with dementia in the next 10 years and an extra 100,000 people in the next 30 years, even based on today’s dollars, the cost per person is around $30,000-$35,000.
“So we are looking at an extra billion dollars that the government is going to have to find in the next 10 years alone just for dementia and I don’t think the health budget can sustain that.
No cure for dementia
“There is no cure for dementia at the moment, and the only way we can reduce cost is by reducing the prevalence, reducing the number of people.”
He says what is more disquieting is that no studies of the disease have been done in the wider Pacific.
“I don’t know,” he says when asked if studies have been done in the Pacific.
“I can only speak from the Tongan point of view and I can say there are no studies and I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any in Samoa and Fiji either,” Dr Ma’u says impassively.
“Based on the work we did earlier on the risk factors for dementia in different populations in New Zealand I suspect the prevalence of dementia in the Pacific is going to be quite high, the risk factor burdens are going to mirror those of the Pacific population in New Zealand so I think it is going to be high.”
While it isn’t getting the daily headlines that covid-19 is, and he acknowledges that the pandemic deserves the attention, as opposed to dementia which is a silent creep.
“Covid-19 is a huge problem, you just have to look at Auckland to see how massive it is, but dementia is an insidious problem that is just going to keep getting bigger if we don’t do anything about it now,” he says.
Costs of healthcare
“The earlier people get diagnosed, the earlier they put interventions in place, the longer they can live well at home and the longer you can delay things like entry to aged residential care (ARC)… and residential care in New Zealand is where most of the costs of healthcare and the cost of dementia sit.
“We have shown in our report over half of the economic costs of dementia is around social care, predominantly paying for residential care and paying for community care. If we can reduce the number of people entering residential care by supporting them better at home then ultimately you will reduce the costs.
“That’s why personally my big push is around dementia prevention and that is ultimately going to be the way we reduce the costs.
“We are also talking about the need for tailored intervention, the tailored services that Māori, Pasifika and Asian populations are actually going to find acceptable.
“I don’t think we provide the level of service and interventions to people with dementia that they need, there is a deficit all the way across and from my point of view there is a difference in uptake that Europeans use compared to Non-Europeans.
“The report shows that Europeans are using $5000-$8000 more of social care which shows that Māori, Pasifika and Asians don’t go into aged care as much as Europeans do.
“Maori, Pasifika and Asians aren’t wanting to put their loved ones into care because they don’t see it as a place that will meet the needs of their loved ones and that has to change,” Dr Ma’u says.
Awareness of dementia is a problem too, how does one discuss a family member suffering from this disease?
Awareness slowly growing
“It is slowly coming to the public’s attention and the awareness is slowly growing,” he says.
“There is a lot of stigma associated with dementia particularly in Pacific cultures, there is a really poor understanding of what dementia is and the names that are used for it.
“The way it is understood varies from being a part of normal ageing and something just happens and you just have to accept it and deal with it.
“Or through it being something of punishment or karma for bad things done in earlier life.
“We need to shift that mentality to reduce that stigma so that people understand that the changes that are happening in someone’s cognition needs to be looked at, needs to be assessed and diagnosed so we can get the interventions early to provide as much support as possible”
The irony is there is no term to describe dementia in the Islands.
“In Tongan, there is no specific term for dementia. In Tonga the psychiatrist (Dr Mapa Puloka) is trying to get a definition as catastrophic decline “Holo Tamaki’’, effectively trying to describe the deterioration in someone, otherwise, it’s called “Loto Ngalongalo” which means forgetful or they call it “Alasaima’.
“General understanding, they call it crazy ‘fakasesele’.”
The stigma is such that people don’t talk about the deterioration in one’s mental capacity once caught in its vice-like grip that there is no escape from.
When it becomes real
Jai Ram Reddy … Fiji’s former Attorney-General and ex-leader if the National Federation Party. Image: APR
This is where it becomes real. Helen Reddy, daughter of the former leader of the National Federation Party, the perennial opposition in Fiji, Jai Ram Reddy comes into focus.
Jai Ram Reddy is currently in Auckland, at an ARC, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Gone is the charisma, the magnetism and the flamboyance of the once-proud politician and lawyer who revelled in reciting verse and chapter the works of Shakespeare.
He served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General in the coup-stricken Dr Timoci Bavadra government in 1987.
Lawyer Helen Reddy with her father Jai Ram Reddy in Auckland. Image: APR
He was the first Indo-Fijian that was accorded the right to address Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs and at the zenith of his powers in 2003, was elected to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania.
Sadly, however, when Helen, herself a lawyer and a senior crown prosecutor in London, endured the MIQ system in Auckland to get to see her father he was a mere shadow of his former self.
That didn’t deter Helen, on one occasion during her visits to see her dad she played a ghazal (old Indian song) from Jagjit Singh.
The lyrics read:
“Hmm hmm hmm … ha ha ha Hmm hmm hmm … ha ha ha Hoshwalon ko khabar kya bekhudi kya cheez hai Mindful people don’t know about senselessness Hoshwalon ko khabar kya bekhudi kya cheez hai Mindful people don’t know about senselessness Ishq kijiye phir samajhiye Fall in love, then you’ll understand… Ishq kijiye phir samajhiye zindagi kya cheez hai…”
As Helen relays wistfully:
“I saw dad again today. Moments of lucidity. I played the first song on this Jagjit Singh track and he stroked my face so lovingly xx”.
A Frontline investigative journalism article on the politics behind the decade-long Bougainville war leading up to the overwhelming vote for independence is among articles in the latest Pacific Journalism Review.
The report, by investigative journalist and former academic Professor Wendy Bacon and Nicole Gooch, poses questions about the “silence” in Australia over the controversial Bougainville documentary Ophir that has won several international film awards in other countries.
Published this week, the journal also features a ground-breaking research special report by academics Shailendra Singh and Folker Hanusch on the current state of journalism across the Pacific – the first such region-wide study in almost three decades.
The cover of the latest Pacific Journalism Review. Image: PJR
Griffith University’s journalism coordinator Kasun Ubayasiri has produced a stunning photo essay, “Manus to Meanjin”, critiquing Australian “imperialist” policies and the plight of refugees in the Pacific.
The main theme of the double edition focuses on a series of articles and commentaries about the major “Pacific crises” — covid-19, climate emergency (including New Zealand aid) and West Papua.
Unthemed topics include journalism and democracy, the journalists’ global digital toolbox, cellphones and Pacific communication, a PNG local community mediascape, and hate speech in Indonesia.
This is the first edition of PJR published since it became independent of AUT University last year after previously being published at the University of Papua New Guinea – where it was launched in 1994 – and the University of the South Pacific.
Lockdowns challenge
“Publishing our current double edition in the face of continued covid-driven lockdowns and restrictions around the world has not been easy, but we made it,” says editor Dr Philip Cass.
“From films to photoessays, from digital democracy to dingoes and disease, the multi-disciplinary, multi-national diversity of our coverage remains a strength in an age when too many journals look the same and have the same type of content.”
“We promise this journal will have a strong focus on Asian media, communication and journalism, as well as our normal focus on the Pacific.”
Founding editor Dr David Robie is quoted in the editorial as saying the journal is at a “critical crossroads for the future” and he contrasts PJR with the “oppressively bland” nature of many journalism publications.
“I believe we have a distinctively different sort of journalism and communication research journal – eclectic and refreshing,” he said.
An Auckland University of Technology (AUT) student who was at a lecture yesterday is among the 10 new cases of covid-19 reported in the community in New Zealand today.
This takes the total to 11 cases of the highly infectious delta variant since the first one was announced yesterday.
There were three new community cases of covid-19 reported this evening by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office. More details on the new cases will be revealed tomorrow.
The AUT student was at a social sciences lecture at the school’s City Campus between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday.
The school has identified 84 other people who were at the lecture.
Speaking to RNZ Checkpoint, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins also confirmed there had been new cases.
“We’re seeing more cases coming through, I don’t have details of those cases. But yes, I can confirm that we have further positive test results since the press conference today.”
Not the index case
Hipkins also said it was “almost certain” the first case announced yesterday, a 58-year-old Devonport man, was not the index case connected to the border.
“Almost certain they were given covid-19 by someone else. What we’re trying to do is identify how many steps in that chain of transmission there are before we got to the Devonport case.”
He added that a decision on vaccinating people under 16 years old for covid-19 would come soon.
“I’m not announcing something on your show tonight but you can expect to hear more very shortly on that.”
Meanwhile, the Countdown supermarket chain is continuing to limit the amount of some products people can buy in Auckland and the Coromandel, as shelves empty in the latest lockdown.
The supermarket applied a limit of six on some products yesterday evening, which includes toilet paper, flour, bags of rice, dry pasta, UHT milk, frozen vegetables, baby formula and pet food.
It says it will monitor stock levels around the country and will make changes to limits if needed.
Countdown also says it has purchased an extra 2000 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to boost its fresh produce supply.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Professor David Robie, founding director of the AUT Pacific Media Centre, has relaunched Asia Pacific Report as an independent Pacific affairs and analysis portal with many students or recent graduates around the region among the contributors.
Partnering with Selwyn Manning, publisher of Evening Report.nz, he is nurturing young Pacific journalists following the tradition that they started as an industry partnership with Pacific Scoop in 2009.
Asia Pacific Report has a growing audience in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and also in other Pacific nations.
“There is a continuing need for an independent portal of this kind given the dearth of Pacific outlets in the mainstream New Zealand media,” Dr Robie said.
“Apart from RNZ Pacific, Tagata Pasifika, and the Pacific Media Network, which do a fine job, there is little else.”
Asia Pacific Report has community partnerships with the Asia Media Centre, RNZ, In-Depth News, Earth Journalism Network, University of the South Pacific, The Pacific Newsroom, Wansolwara and others.
Dr Robie retired from AUT in December after 18 years at the university – 13 of them as director of the PMC. He was the first journalism PhD (2004) at AUT and also the first associate professor and then professor in journalism (2012), specialising in Asia-Pacific and development media studies.
Previously he had been head of journalism at both the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific for a decade.
Dr David Robie on the AMIC 50th anniversary Communication Award honours board. Image: AMIC
He founded Pacific Journalism Review(PJR) research journal at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994 and the publication is continuing independently with the current editorial team. However, Dr Robie has swapped editorial roles with former associate editor Dr Philip Cass who has become editor.
Auckland University of Technology has denied it is sidelining the Pacific Media Centre in the School of Communication Studies, but it is yet to announce the new leadership following disputes over office space and a succession plan.
The multi-disciplinary research and professional development unit was founded in 2007 by Professor David Robie with a focus on Pacific media research and producing stories of marginalised communities in New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region.
The centre also housed several outlets that provided journalists covering regional issues and Pasifika researchers a space to publish their work, such as the academic journal Pacific Journalism Review and the award-winning Pacific Media Watch.
Dr Robie retired last December as the centre’s director but the position was not filled immediately. There have been no updates from the PMC’s website, YouTube and Soundcloud channels since, while Southern Cross, the weekly radio segment produced by the PMC on 95bFM’s The Wire at Auckland University has not had a new episode since last August.
Only one month after his retirement, Dr Robie was told that the PMC’s office on the 10th floor of the WG Building had been emptied of its awards, theses, books and other memorabilia, with people involved with the centre not being notified or consulted about the move.
The Pacific Newsroom reported that the contents, including a traditional carved Papua New Guinean storyboard presented by then Pacific Island Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban to celebrate the centre’s opening in October 2007, had been removed “with the lack of a coherent explanation from AUT”.
Dr Robie told Debate in April that there was a gap between what was said by AUT and “reality”, saying that the office being cleared out affirmed a lack of commitment by the university for the PMC’s future.
He also said a succession plan drawn up several years ago that had involved “headhunting” possible successors before his sabbatical in 2019 so the candidate could familiarise themselves with the role before formally taking over, but AUT did not follow through on this.
The Pacific Media Centre office in AUT’s Sir Paul Reeves Building … stripped clean in February. Image: PMC
‘Opportunity wasted by the school’
“This opportunity was wasted by the school and by the time I left, nobody had been prepared for continuity and the very able and talented people still working hard for the centre were not given support,” he said.
“This is unconscionable in my view.
“The school needs to listen to the vision of the stakeholders and treat them with respect.”
The move was also criticised by journalists and academics, with the influential Sydney-based Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) advocacy group calling on AUT’s vice-chancellor Derek McCormack in an open letter in February to ensure that the PMC would continue to be developed “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat”.
Meanwhile, Dr Camille Nakhid, the chair of the PMC’s advisory board and an associate professor in AUT’s School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, told The Spinoff that she believed the PMC directorship should be advertised externally to “attract a range of qualified candidates”.
Dr Rosser Johnson, the head of AUT’s School of Communications Studies, told Debate at the end of April that the office “relocation” was due to security reasons and the PMC’s “new space” on the 12th floor of the WG Building has “twice as much office space” for students and affiliate researchers.
The new PMC leadership had been expected to be announced in April, but has been again delayed.
‘Expensive specialist gear’
“There’s one department who uses specialist gear that is very expensive and we have a very high level of risk around that gear,” Dr Johnson said.
“We had to consider the space that the Pacific Media Centre was in because it can be made secure through two sets of security doors.”
The school also scheduled two faculty and school-wide planning days to talk with people who would be affected.
Dr Johnson said the School had opted for an expression of interest approach within the department to fill Dr Robie’s position because the original plan did not follow protocol. An external hiring freeze imposed by AUT last year and the part-time nature of the PMC’s directorship meant the school preferred to look internally.
“David [Robie] was asking if it was possible for us to shoulder-tap two or three people to be co-directors but the School is supposed to have a transparent process where everyone who wants to be considered can be considered.
“If you want to grow and develop a research culture, it makes sense to look internally first.”
Dr Johnson also said he respected the care and commitment Dr Robie had towards the PMC, but insisted the school had no intention to shape the centre’s future direction, as the responsibility would fall on the next director.
Justin Wong is a postgraduate student journalist at AUT. He is also the student news reporter at AUT’s Debate magazine and the presenter of The Wire on student radio station 95bFM at the University of Auckland. This article is republished with permission from Debate.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
COMMENTARY:A postgraduate researcher view by Ena Manuireva
Year 2020 was the annus horribilis worldwide due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Recently the Fiji government expelled University of the South Pacific vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia after his claims in 2020 of financial mismanagement of the university by the former administration, close to the government.
It is still beyond belief that the government should interfere in the matters of an independent academic institution owned by 12 Pacific nations – not just the host country Fiji – and take such draconian and unjustified action against the vice-chancellor.
In New Zealand, across the road at the University of Auckland the management had its fair share of criticism for the purchase of a new house for vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater at an exorbitant amount, prompting the auditor-general to write that Auckland University broke own rule in purchase of $5 million house.
Here, at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), the investigation into allegations of bullying and sexual harassment started in July 2020 and its subsequent Davenport independent review report legitimately highlighted many shortcomings that the first university of the new millennium in 2000 has failed to address in a timely fashion.
It is clear that the main lesson to be learned was “to be kind” to others, as often heard throughout the covid-19 pandemic by “aunty” Prime Minister Jacinda Arden. The reply from AUT’s vice-chancellor Derek McCormack was even more powerful and along the lines of promising to do better.
We all hope that the issues will be dealt with as swiftly and as diplomatically as possible in order to reinstate the reputation of our youngest university in the Pacific.
Those three events are serious setbacks to the academic realm in our part of the world and whether their effects have been felt locally or globally, they have generated seriously unwanted publicity.
AUT and an on-going saga: the future of the PMC
Following the Davenport recommendations, a seminar was organised by the Pacific Media Centre about future directions – and to say their goodbyes to Professor David Robie, director of the PMC for 13 years, who retired in December.
Students and staff at the Pacific Media Centre office – before closure – in AUT’s Sir Paul Reeves building. Image: Asia Pacific Report
A retired University of the South Pacific development studies emeritus professor, Dr Crosbie Walsh, penned a tribute to David, saying he “has lived in the Pacific, been involved in Pacific human rights and media freedom issues, or taught journalism to Pacific Islanders and others for 40 years. He will be a hard man to replace”.
But that tribute didn’t dispel apprehensions about lack of a succession plan in the School of Communication Studies and the continued questions over the future of PMC more than three months later.
A lot has been commented about the issue of the suddenly empty PMC office (Outcry over signs of upheaval at Pacific Media Centre). Comments and questions still pour in on social media from worried students, sympathisers, television presenters, and former colleagues of the PMC about the whereabouts of this vital repository of knowledge, their new “office” and the future of the PMC team.
Here are sample quotes from two former students:
John Pulu (Tagata Pasifika anchor, TV1): “I just want to say mālō ‘aupito/thank you to Professor David, Del and team for the last 13 years of service at the Pacific Media Centre, AUT University. I hope the great legacy of PMC will be continued from here to help the next lot of broadcasters, journalists and academics who will cover or have interest in the Pacific region.”
Matt Scott (a reporter at Newsroom, TV3): “David Robie and the PMC provided me some of my first opportunities to step into the role of a journalist. Without the PMC, I feel that there will be a void not just at AUT but in journalism as a whole in this part of the world. The centre provides a space and platform for journalists covering an under-reported region that is in dire need of people fighting for truth, fairness and transparency. Removing the centre is a big step backwards.”
Social media reactions from Pacific Media Centre stakeholders and colleagues to the centre’s office closure in early February. Image: FB
Is AUT as a platform for Pacific news broadcasts about to lose its audience? An in-depth article from former New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis has magnified many of the issues regarding the relationship that the PMC has with the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies (DCT), or its School of Communication Studies (SCS).
Or maybe the future of PMC should actually be to break away to survive, as Ellis advocates.
Similarly, a newly published article from Spinoff by Teuila Fuatai recounts the genesis of the issue from March 2020 to post Professor Robie’s retirement in December, highlighting the lack of transparency in this matter and the long awaited appointment of a new director.
For my part and based on the students’ outpouring of support, the worrying issues are twofold: First, is the “partnership” issue raised in an answer by Dr Rosser Johnson, head of the SCS, who presented a 100 percent commitment and the exponential work that would now be able to be accomplished in the new era of the partnership PMC-SCS.
What is missing is the idea of continuity that is being engulfed in what Professor Robie quotes as “regime change” with a determined effort to sideline those who had contributed so much to the development of the centre over the past 13 years.
In his view, this means “no continuity, no institutional memory or history and zero opportunities for the students”.
Second, from the students’ perspective: We have witnessed across New Zealand universities carrying out cost-cutting exercises triggered by the pandemic due to the lack of revenue usually brought in by the international students. However, it is not without legitimate suspicion that PMC might be one of those targets of this financial fix.
It is also the question posed by students who are at the centre of this issue: what about developing our Pacific people in media and journalism? Under representation of Pacific people (and Māori for that matter) who are experts in their communities in media spaces is well documented.
What the PMC has created is a pool of students and contributors who have an invaluable relationship to and inside knowledge of the geopolitical issues surrounding the Pacific basin and the Asian region.
This pool of “grassroots” contributors will certainly add a plus value to the overarching entity, be it a university or an independent institution, in terms of reporting facts.
Ena Manuireva, born in Mangareva (Gambier islands) in Ma’ohi Nui (French Polynesia), is a language revitalisation researcher at Auckland University of Technology and is currently completing his doctorate on the Mangarevan language. He is also a campaigner for nuclear reparations justice from France over the 193 tests staged in Polynesia over three decades.
Students and staff at the 1 December 2020 West Papua day seminar organised by the Pacific Media Centre. Ena Manuireva is in the back row third from the right. Image: Asia Pacific Report
A retired university professor and a Tahitian doctoral candidate have appealed to Auckland University of Technology to “listen” to the Asia-Pacific people and stakeholders involved in the Pacific Media Centre when making decisions about its future.
The centre has been embroiled in controversy over its leadership succession since early last month when the 13-year centre’s office was suddenly closed and all its memorabilia, archives and Pacific taonga were packed up and stashed in a locked office.
Also, the centre’s media website has not been active for the past three months since the founding director retired last December.
While the university’s School of Communication Studies has claimed that the office was being “moved”, staff involved in the centre were said to be unaware where this was located.
Expressions for interest in the leadership were called for a week ago by the school management and a new director (or co-directors) – an internal appointment – is expected to be announced next month.
Radio 531pi Pacific Days Show host Ma’a Brian Sagala today interviewed the founding director of the centre, Professor David Robie, a former head of journalism at both the universities of Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, and a Tahitian doctoral candidate, Ena Manuireva, who played a key role in the centre’s nuclear-free Pacific project last year, about the future of the centre.
Both expressed serious concern about the future direction with Dr Robie saying there was a serious gap between AUT’s promises and the reality and Manuireva saying that any dilution of the PMC’s cross-disciplinary role would have a negative impact on the “space” that the PMC had provided for Asia-Pacific voices marginalised by mainstream media.
Dr Robie said that his experience over the past two years had been that management had “not listened” to key people involved in the centre or the Pacific and diversity stakeholders represented by the PMC advisory board.
He said he was concerned that a “hidden agenda” was being pushed.
Manuireva said that AUT should demonstrate greater commitment to the centre and listen to the people who ought to be leading in the future.
The Radio 531pi interview today by Ma’a Brian Sagala.
A retired university professor and a Tahitian doctoral candidate have appealed to Auckland University of Technology to “listen” to the Asia-Pacific people and stakeholders involved in the Pacific Media Centre when making decisions about its future.
The centre has been embroiled in controversy over its leadership succession since early last month when the 13-year centre’s office was suddenly closed and all its memorabilia, archives and Pacific taonga were packed up and stashed in a locked office.
Also, the centre’s media website has not been active for the past three months since the founding director retired last December.
While the university’s School of Communication Studies has claimed that the office was being “moved”, staff involved in the centre were said to be unaware where this was located.
Expressions for interest in the leadership were called for a week ago by the school management and a new director (or co-directors) – an internal appointment – is expected to be announced next month.
Radio 531pi Pacific Days Show host Ma’a Brian Sagala today interviewed the founding director of the centre, Professor David Robie, a former head of journalism at both the universities of Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, and a Tahitian doctoral candidate, Ena Manuireva, who played a key role in the centre’s nuclear-free Pacific project last year, about the future of the centre.
Both expressed serious concern about the future direction with Dr Robie saying there was a serious gap between AUT’s promises and the reality and Manuireva saying that any dilution of the PMC’s cross-disciplinary role would have a negative impact on the “space” that the PMC had provided for Asia-Pacific voices marginalised by mainstream media.
Dr Robie said that his experience over the past two years had been that management had “not listened” to key people involved in the centre or the Pacific and diversity stakeholders represented by the PMC advisory board.
He said he was concerned that a “hidden agenda” was being pushed.
Manuireva said that AUT should demonstrate greater commitment to the centre and listen to the people who ought to be leading in the future.
The Radio 531pi interview today by Ma’a Brian Sagala.
A retired university professor and a Tahitian doctoral candidate have appealed to Auckland University of Technology to “listen” to the Asia-Pacific people and stakeholders involved in the Pacific Media Centre when making decisions about its future.
The centre has been embroiled in controversy over its leadership succession since early last month when the 13-year centre’s office was suddenly closed and all its memorabilia, archives and Pacific taonga were packed up and stashed in a locked office.
Also, the centre’s media website has not been active for the past three months since the founding director retired last December.
While the university’s School of Communication Studies has claimed that the office was being “moved”, staff involved in the centre were said to be unaware where this was located.
Expressions for interest in the leadership were called for a week ago by the school management and a new director (or co-directors) – an internal appointment – is expected to be announced next month.
Radio 531pi Pacific Days Show host Ma’a Brian Sagala today interviewed the founding director of the centre, Professor David Robie, a former head of journalism at both the universities of Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, and a Tahitian doctoral candidate, Ena Manuireva, who played a key role in the centre’s nuclear-free Pacific project last year, about the future of the centre.
Both expressed serious concern about the future direction with Dr Robie saying there was a serious gap between AUT’s promises and the reality and Manuireva saying that any dilution of the PMC’s cross-disciplinary role would have a negative impact on the “space” that the PMC had provided for Asia-Pacific voices marginalised by mainstream media.
Dr Robie said that his experience over the past two years had been that management had “not listened” to key people involved in the centre or the Pacific and diversity stakeholders represented by the PMC advisory board.
He said he was concerned that a “hidden agenda” was being pushed.
Manuireva said that AUT should demonstrate greater commitment to the centre and listen to the people who ought to be leading in the future.
The Radio 531pi interview today by Ma’a Brian Sagala.
Auckland University of Technology has responded to queries from a media aid watchdog about the future of the regional Pacific Media Centre based at the institution, saying that it remained committed to the centre and would not downplay its importance.
The head of the School of Communication Studies, Dr Rosser Johnson, said in an email to the Australia Asia Pacific Media Centre (AAPMI) on February 26 that “everything that the school is planning will, we believe, enhance its status and increase its visibility”.
He was replying to a letter addressed to university vice-chancellor Derek McCormack on February 16 and made public by The Pacific Newsroom earlier this month which appealed for action to save PMC, saying recent closure of the centre’s physical office came “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific journalism programmes suffer from underfunding”.
The centre, founded in 2007 and described by AAPMI as a “jewel in the AUT crown”, had worked in its Communication Studies office in the Sir Paul Reeves Building at the AUT’s city campus since it opened eight years ago.
The office was abruptly emptied in early February of more than a decade of awards, books, files, publications, picture frames and treasures, including a traditional carved Papua New Guinean storyboard marking the opening of the centre by then Pacific Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban in October 2007.
Dr Johnson replied that the school’s “senior leadership team” had decided that the PMC would be relocated from the tenth floor (WG10) to the twelfth floor (WG12) of the main Sir Paul Reeve’s building to “bring it alongside the Journalism, Radio + Audio, Public Relations, and Critical Media Studies departments, all of which have had staff actively involved in the PMC in recent years”.
“This move will mean a one hundred percent increase in dedicated PMC office space … and guarantees at least as much space for postgraduate students enrolled in research degrees related to Pacific media topics as there was on WG10,” he wrote.
Puzzled over ‘new office’ However, PMC staff challenge this claim and are puzzled where this “new office” is supposed to be located. One staff member who did not wish to be named said: “Four desks have been put together …essentially. There is no notice or signpost to say where PMC is or if that corner is PMC”.
In the letter, Dr Johnson complimented former director Professor David Robie, who retired in December after leading the centre for 13 years, for his “many years of achievements and unrelenting advocacy of the Pacific within and without AUT”.
He applauded the “excellent work conducted in recent years by a number of students and staff”, including PMC’s Bearing Witness environmental project leader senior lecturer Jim Marbrook and cross-cultural affairs and international collaborations senior lecturer Khairiah Rahman.
He wrote a letter to Dr Rosser in response to the AUT reply to AAPMI on March 5, saying that the school’s approach to the PMC had been “characterised in my experience, by a lack of honesty and transparency”.
He said the success of the PMC had been founded on its “autonomy and the contribution by its cross-disciplinary stakeholders as established initially under the faculty’s Creative Industries Research Institute (CIRI) and continued in the school rather than being located in a silo discipline”.
As outlined in the AUT University Mission Theme 3 directions, he said, the institution had “prioritised social, economic and environmental development” and was especially active in … responding to Pacific communities, and ethnic diversity, and playing our part in its development as a world centre”.
He also appealed to the university to ensure that the people “who have worked so hard to make PMC successful” would be given a “rightful place in its future directions – they have earned it.”
Some of the PMC’s flagship publications, notably the 26-year-old research journal Pacific Journalism Review and Asia Pacific Report current affairs website, have opted to publish independently of the PMC umbrella.
RNZ Pacific reported on Monday that Dr Johnson had pledged that the “expressions of interest” in the director’s role would be presented to staff this week – three months after Dr Robie’s retirement.
It will be an internal appointment, not a “global” one, as the AAPMI had urged in its letter to AUT last month.
Auckland University of Technology has responded to queries from a media aid watchdog about the future of the regional Pacific Media Centre based at the institution, saying that it remained committed to the centre and would not downplay its importance.
The head of the School of Communication Studies, Dr Rosser Johnson, said in an email to the Australia Asia Pacific Media Centre (AAPMI) on February 26 that “everything that the school is planning will, we believe, enhance its status and increase its visibility”.
He was replying to a letter addressed to university vice-chancellor Derek McCormack on February 16 and made public by The Pacific Newsroom earlier this month which appealed for action to save PMC, saying recent closure of the centre’s physical office came “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific journalism programmes suffer from underfunding”.
The centre, founded in 2007 and described by AAPMI as a “jewel in the AUT crown”, had worked in its Communication Studies office in the Sir Paul Reeves Building at the AUT’s city campus since it opened eight years ago.
The office was abruptly emptied in early February of more than a decade of awards, books, files, publications, picture frames and treasures, including a traditional carved Papua New Guinean storyboard marking the opening of the centre by then Pacific Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban in October 2007.
Dr Johnson replied that the school’s “senior leadership team” had decided that the PMC would be relocated from the tenth floor (WG10) to the twelfth floor (WG12) of the main Sir Paul Reeve’s building to “bring it alongside the Journalism, Radio + Audio, Public Relations, and Critical Media Studies departments, all of which have had staff actively involved in the PMC in recent years”.
“This move will mean a one hundred percent increase in dedicated PMC office space … and guarantees at least as much space for postgraduate students enrolled in research degrees related to Pacific media topics as there was on WG10,” he wrote.
Puzzled over ‘new office’
However, PMC staff challenge this claim and are puzzled where this “new office” is supposed to be located. One staff member who did not wish to be named said: “Four desks have been put together …essentially. There is no notice or signpost to say where PMC is or if that corner is PMC”.
In the letter, Dr Johnson complimented former director Professor David Robie, who retired in December after leading the centre for 13 years, for his “many years of achievements and unrelenting advocacy of the Pacific within and without AUT”.
He applauded the “excellent work conducted in recent years by a number of students and staff”, including PMC’s Bearing Witness environmental project leader senior lecturer Jim Marbrook and cross-cultural affairs and international collaborations senior lecturer Khairiah Rahman.
He wrote a letter to Dr Rosser in response to the AUT reply to AAPMI on March 5, saying that the school’s approach to the PMC had been “characterised in my experience, by a lack of honesty and transparency”.
He said the success of the PMC had been founded on its “autonomy and the contribution by its cross-disciplinary stakeholders as established initially under the faculty’s Creative Industries Research Institute (CIRI) and continued in the school rather than being located in a silo discipline”.
As outlined in the AUT University Mission Theme 3 directions, he said, the institution had “prioritised social, economic and environmental development” and was especially active in … responding to Pacific communities, and ethnic diversity, and playing our part in its development as a world centre”.
He also appealed to the university to ensure that the people “who have worked so hard to make PMC successful” would be given a “rightful place in its future directions – they have earned it.”
Some of the PMC’s flagship publications, notably the 26-year-old research journal Pacific Journalism Review and Asia Pacific Report current affairs website, have opted to publish independently of the PMC umbrella.
RNZ Pacific reported on Monday that Dr Johnson had pledged that the “expressions of interest” in the director’s role would be presented to staff this week – three months after Dr Robie’s retirement.
It will be an internal appointment, not a “global” one, as the AAPMI had urged in its letter to AUT last month.
