I've been watching the Paid Placements Aotearoa campaign for a little while, and was relieved to see that the Education and Workforce Committee has FINALLY reported back on the petition of Bex Howells: Pay a stipend to people training in healthcare, education, and social work. 1/ #NZPOL

The committee's response section is non-committal. They do the usual thing of thanking the petitioner for drawing attention to the issue, and agree that something needs to be done. But they can't agree WHAT should be done, and they don't bother to ask the Government to formally respond. 6/

So there you have it. It's a complicated issue, and they don't agree on how to fix it. So in the meantime, our student nurses, doctors and teachers should move to Australia, and our political parties should maybe think about developing a policy about this sort of thing. 7/7. #NZPOL

Yesterday's pay reforms are extremely concerning. For me, the mechanism of implementation is the most concerning trend. Here is a very short list of things being sacrificed on the alter of austerity: 1) Rule of Law 2) Appropriate decision-making 3) Social Stability 4) Collective accountability