Hipkins denies excessive media spin

NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER, Chris Hipkins has defended the increase in the number of Public Service communications staff, following attacks from the Opposition National Party.

Data compiled by National, and verified by Radio New Zealand, showed the number of communications staff in the core Public Service had risen to 532, spread over 31 Departments and Ministries.

This is an increase of 7.5 per cent on the previous year, and a 56.87 per cent increase since Labour took office.

Leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon said the Government had become fixated on largesse, and had lost focus on getting things done.

National’s Public Service Spokesperson, Simeon Brown said the communication staff’s role was to "spin the Government's agenda", which Mr Hipkins (pictured) rejected.

The Prime Minister, who was Minister for the Public Service for the period covered in the report, said the number of staff working with the media had stayed "pretty much the same" since Labour became the Government.

“The growth had come in roles directly engaging with the public,” Mr Hipkins said.

"Citizens, members of the public, make much greater use of social media and online forums to interact with the Public Service. They want to know someone's on the other end, answering those questions they're posing."

National Secretary of the Public Service Association, Kerry Davies said National failed to understand the importance of the Government communicating with the public, and was undermining confidence in the Public Service.

"I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an increase in the numbers of people who are distributing information. What really concerns us is the language that's used to basically denigrate people who are doing what is really important work," Ms Davies said.

“These roles are critical in providing timely and factual information about people's entitlements, dealing with emergency situations, and broadcasting public health messages to a diverse audience, and in a digital age.”

 

Dutch teachers support school phone ban

The majority of Netherlands teachers are in favour of a Government-imposed ban on mobile phones in class, a survey among some 8,400 educators has shown.

While just 54 per cent and 57 per cent of primary and trade school teachers back a ban, 73 per cent of secondary school teachers said they wanted the phones to go.

General Education Union official responsible for secondary education, Jelmer Evers said the membership had made their views crystal clear.

“Our members are saying that mobile phones are having a detrimental effect on pupils’ ability to concentrate. That, in turn, affects the effectiveness of the teaching,” Mr Evers said.

“Of the teachers voting against the ban, 21 per cent said they preferred schools to make their own arrangements about phones in class, while six per cent said they wanted to decide the matter for themselves.”

He said the implementation of any ban would have to be up to the school “for instance banning them throughout the school, or allowing pupils to bring them but to put them in a locker”.

“We are in favour of schools deciding what works best for them, but one thing is clear: Most teachers don’t want them in their classrooms.”

Some schools already have a ban in place, with Alfrink College English teacher, Gert Verbruggen saying the school had had a ‘leave it at home or in the locker’ policy for the past four years.

“The phone stays there all day, including during breaks. Our pupils are actually talking to each other,” Mr Verbruggen said.

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New Agency to tackle Japan's slumping birth-rate

The Japanese Government has established an Agency charged with overseeing child policies as the country’s birth-rate hits a new low.

The Children and Families Agency, under the direct supervision of Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, will tackle a wide range of challenges, including the perilously low birth-rate, child abuse and poverty.

Mr Kishida said it would be the “control tower” in compiling policies, while eliminating sectionalism.

The Agency, the first Government body to be established since the Digital Agency in September 2021, brings together relevant experts from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as well as the Cabinet Office.

 

Combined with people from the private sector and Local Governments, the Agency will have a workforce of around 430.

 

It will be headed by Yumiko Watanabe, a senior bureaucrat in the welfare area of the Ministry.

 

Its launch comes as new statistics show the number of babies born in the country last year fell to below 800,000 for the first time since record-keeping began in 1899.

 

Mr Kishida has warned that Japan is “on the brink” of losing its social function against a backdrop of the falling birth-rate.

 

Aside from tackling the birth-rate problem, the new Agency is also tasked with supporting pregnant women, children with disabilities, and ‘young carers’ — children who routinely look after their family members.

 

Among new measures, the Agency plans to introduce a system requiring a certificate of no criminal record for people assuming jobs linked to children in the wake of a series of sexual abuse cases by babysitters that have come to light in recent years.

 

Although the Agency has been designed to eliminate sectionalism among Government organisations, schooling — a key area related to children — will remain with the Ministry of Education.

 

About ¥4.8 trillion ($A500 million) has been allocated to the Agency for the fiscal year starting April, but critics say it may be difficult to secure a sufficient budget for child policies in a stable manner.

 

Mr Kishida has expressed willingness to double his Government’s spending on child policies, but he has not specified its starting point, or how to secure the increased amount, fuelling speculation the Government will have to increase taxes to finance the costs.

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UK Ministers caught out with false claims

Senior United Kingdom Public Servants and Ministers have been criticised for failing to provide evidence for claims allegedly supported by statistics and not correcting errors once they had been established.

The annual report of fact-checking charity, Full Fact highlighted the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, and officials at the Prime Minister’s Office with calls for change in attitudes to boost the quality of information provided to the public.

Full Fact said that in 2022 as many as 50 Members of Parliament, including two Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and Opposition front benchers, failed to correct false, un-evidenced or misleading claims, despite its requests to do so.

It said 2022 had been a “damaging year for standards in public debate” and urged Permanent Secretaries to take a keener interest in ensuring data and other supporting information was available to evidence claims made by Ministers and their Departments.

High-profile concerns flagged by Full Fact included claims related to migrant-boat crossings of the English Channel made last year by then-Home Secretary, Priti Patel and Minister for Immigration, Robert Jenrick.

The report gave examples that either turned out to have been incorrect or remained unsubstantiated, prompting the Office for Statistics Regulation to intervene.

Full Fact said a September claim made by Ms Patel in Parliament that the majority of arrivals in small boats from France were Albanian nationals had not been backed up by Home Office data and was subsequently shown to be wrong in a Freedom of Information Act response.

It said assertions made by Mr Jenrick (pictured) about the true ages of asylum seekers arriving at one asylum-processing centre had not been supported by any published Home Office figures, and that the situation had not been rectified.

A false claim about employment levels that was made by then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and repeated multiple times was also referenced by Full Fact.

It said the claim that 500,000 more people were in work following the COVID-19 pandemic than had been before, remained uncorrected despite numerous challenges.

In fact, there were 588,000 fewer people in work than there had been two years earlier.

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