Sex education experts slam Mates & Dates $18m plan
New Zealanders are never treated ‘fair dinkum’ in what may as well be the 51st state of America
Let’s get the conclusion of this opinion piece out of the way, up front, and quickly. It’s a myth that we are mates. Australians are no longer our best friends or mates. They have to be watched very carefully in all dealings, whether they are on the rugby field, the cricket field, in the bar or in the boardroom.
It is clear that both cultures have taken a clear steer in totally opposite directions since the late 1970s.
We officially contemplated joining the Australian Federation as a state in 1900. Prime Minister Richard Seddon set up a Royal Commission that rejected being part of the Australian Act of Federation 1901. New Zealand is still nominated in that Act.
We must reflect on the nostalgia around this relationship, where we all started life as colonies of Great Britain. There is no doubt that the flower of our leadership lay squandered on battlefields in foreign lands, and this helped forge the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps — the Anzacs.
We even represented together at the 1908 and 1912 Olympics as Australasians. We fought together in the Boer War, World War I, and World War II. Kiwis fronted with Australians in Korea, the Malayan Confrontation, and Vietnam and latterly in Afghanistan and Iraq. And goodness knows how many sorties have been carried out by our Special Air Services elite troops on engagements elsewhere. A move to extend a sexual education programme to high schools nationwide — at a cost of $18 million — is being slammed by experts as a waste of money.
The Accident Compensation Corporation’s Mates & Dates initiative, which was piloted in eight secondary schools in 2014, is now being taught to up to 180,000 high schoolers all around the country.
The programme came about after the Roast Busters scandal in 2013, in
It is fair to say both nations, on their nationhood journey, forged a view of themselves on the battlefield and under the baptism of fire.
They understood that they talked differently, acted differently, had different social mores and saw the world differently — particularly in regard to not having a class-led system, as the Brits did.
There is no doubt that the camaraderie forged on the battlefield helped craft a very close relationship.
But that relationship changed significantly, and I suspect from the 1970s on. Prime Minister Norm Kirk determined that we would recognise mainland Communist China as the rightful governance of that country. He also explored trade in opening up negotiations with Russia.
He did this because Great Britain had voted to join the European Union and he did this to open up new economies for trade because Great Britain had determined that our preferential right of access to their market would be curtailed over the next 10 years.
We followed this up in the 1980s when David Lange and the Labour Government of the day determined that invitations to nuclear armed ships would no longer be welcomed in New Zealand, while we asserted our Nuclear Free Zone.
Prime Minister Helen
Clark again affirmed our separate which teenage boys were discovered bragging on Facebook about having sex with drunk and underaged girls.
Now, a national group of sexuality and health education experts — made up of teachers, researchers, practitioners and sector leaders — have raised ongoing concerns about the move to extend the programme to all high schools.
“Spending more than $18m on this programme is an outrageous waste of public money.
“That money should go to support teachers and schools to deliver excellent programmes,” a statement said.
Mates & Dates is taught at all year levels, Years 9 to 13, by outside providers such as youth workers and counsellors.
Group spokeswoman and University of Auckland professor Dr Katie Fitzpatrick said a more sustainable and long-term plan was required to address issues of sexual health and consent.
“We absolutely must invest in relationship, consent and sexuality education in every school and it needs to be delivered by teachers. access to health care and education support to New Zealanders.
Their character is shown on full display when they play their greatest national code — Crookit. Their White Australia Policy, which was legislated from 1901-1975, has been dusted off and is back in play.
The way in which New Zealanders, who are New Zealanders solely by accident of birth but who have been bred in Australia, are being exited and vilified is not the way to treat mates.
What about the Greeks, Italians, Lebanese and Croatians? They play up and it’s Ka Pai.
The massive contribution of Kiwis to the Australian economy in a range of industries, where they pay top dollar in tax, is never acknowledged. New Zealanders in Australia are always defined by a very small minority of Kiwis who get up to mischief — and it is overreported, over-hyped, overstated and totally unfair.
The issue of the flag raised by Winston Peters when he was Acting Prime Minister is important, and the silly flag referendum by John Key — which took our minds off a lack of housing and the high growth in the underclass — could have been a worthy conversation with a far worthier outcome.
We need a different flag to show we are definitely not Australian.
And we are definitely not mates, given the fact that Kiwis are never treated “fair dinkum” in the land of the “young and free”.
“It is irresponsible that such a significant sum of money is being used to fund this programme when it is being taught in a way that is inconsistent with effective education practice and education policy.
“This is funding that will not go to teachers or to schools. Instead, it will fund only five lessons for students, delivered — at a huge cost — by outside providers.”
The group acknowledged that a number of schools had reported positive results with the Mates & Dates programme. However, it cited other feedback from health education teachers and Ma¯ori-medium schools that said the programme was not meeting the needs of their students.
The one-size-fits-all approach was also flawed, they said, particularly when it came to teaching the topic to Ma¯ori and Pasifika students.
“The most recent evaluation of Mates & Dates [ACC, 2017] indicated that 36 per cent of students did not rate the course as good, with the evaluation also stating that boys and Pasifika students were most likely to be underserved by the programme.”