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Many social commentators have considered that alongside the fiscal transparency enjoined by contemporary New Zealand governments, there should be a complementary social responsibility reporting. This task is usually assigned to social indicator frameworks. However, at present (as the 2017 election looms) there is a faltering in the provision of social indicators which have been in place in New Zealand for almost two decades, with the exception of the recent 2016 survey data from Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development that were made available within a month of writing this article. Having commented on the current status of the New Zealand social indicator system, we present data from the General Social Survey and the Quality of Life survey to at least convey recent trends in subjective social well-being and reported behaviours and experiences. References are also made to the accumulating literature on social well-being in New Zealand, followed by suggestions for more systematic indicator development and underpinning research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the Internet for voting and other related purposes is a key area of discussion worldwide, although only touched on in a few New Zealand publications. It is seen by many as something of a panacea – a ‘technical fix’ – that might repair the falling rates of participation in democratic elections, while others are horrified that it might subvert important aspects of democracy. In order to ascertain interest in e-voting in particular and also the broad pattern of the use of the Internet around elections, this article analyses portions of the data collected by the 2014 and earlier rounds of the New Zealand Election Study, together with data from other studies. As well as a considerable battery of questions relating to e-voting in the last two rounds, the New Zealand Election Study has had a measure of Internet access embedded within a question of Internet use in relation to the preceding election. This goes back to the 1999 survey round and so long-term trends can be documented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our university hosts a diverse student cohort and, in certain discipline areas, international students and domestic students whose first language is not English outnumber their English-speaking peers. On the whole, group projects with these cohorts are challenging, and in particular, the allocation of marks is fraught with difficulty. Awarding the same mark to all group members is often viewed as unfair, and resented by those who feel either disadvantaged or exploited by group members they view as less able or less willing to share the workload. However, the allocation of individual marks to group members is equally difficult and elicits the same cries of injustice. In this study, 165 first-year university students were surveyed before and after the completion of assessed group projects in their different discipline areas. The findings reveal that students wanted some say into how marks were allocated and that students’ attitudes towards the allocation of group marks differed, depending on whether they were first- or second-language speakers of English. In this article, we explore the reasons for these differences and discuss the future of this vexed assessment model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines turnout and voting choices at general elections among Pacific peoples in New Zealand between 1996 and 2011 and investigates this further through a secondary analysis of data from the New Zealand Election Study. It finds that turnout is lower among Pacific peoples compared to other electors, but that this is mainly accounted for by political-psychological and socio-demographic factors. It finds strong support for the Labour Party among Pacific peoples, who were twice as likely as other electors to vote Labour. Reasons for the strong attachment to Labour are explored, and the implications of lower turnout among Pacific peoples are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The way in which children are questioned in forensic contexts can impact on the accuracy of their responses. Past studies have shown that children were often questioned in the New Zealand courts in ways that profoundly contradict best practice. This study analyses the questions posed to 18 child witnesses by forensic interviewers, prosecutors, and defence lawyers during criminal trials held in New Zealand courts in 2008. The results suggest that, as was found in earlier studies, many of the questions posed to children during cross-examination in particular were inconsistent with best practice in terms of eliciting full and accurate information from children. Indeed, the heavy reliance on closed, leading and complex questions, along with other common practices, casts doubt on the forensic safety of cross-examination, calling into question its fairness for children. The implications of these results for policy and practice are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1990, New Zealand became the first common law country to introduce a comprehensive legislative package of reforms for child witnesses, including provision for children to testify via alternative modes, namely, admitting video-recorded forensic interviews as the child's evidence-in-chief and testifying at trial via closed-circuit television (CCTV) or screened from the accused. Since the 1990s, there has been no empirical research examining child witnesses' access to these modes in New Zealand courts. The purpose of this article is to fill that gap by examining children's access to alternative modes of giving evidence and determining how many applications are contested by the defence. Attention then turns to the issues surrounding the impact of alternative modes on perceptions of children's testimony, before considering whether New Zealand might introduce a statutory presumption in favour of CCTV and pre-recorded testimony in the interests of enhancing children's ability to provide best evidence and improving efficiency in trial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a list of books received during May-June 2006, including "Japanese Diasporas," by Nobuko Adachi, "A Postcolonial People: South Asians in Britain," by N. Ali, V.S. Kalra, and Siddiq Hasan Sayyid, "Fear of Small Numbers: an Essay on the Geography of Anger," by Arjun Appadurai, "The Tropics and the travelling Gaze: Landscape, Science and empire in India," by David Arnold, and "Achieving blackness: Race, Black Nationalism and Afrocentrism in the Twentieth Century," by Algernon Austin.

Identifies major issues that have limited the impact of critical realism to social science analysis. Lack of engagement with ongoing social analyses; Poor public relations; Considerable importance of the philosophical approach to providing a framework for the development of useful social science analyses.

Poverty is usually measured on a basis that is either subjective (respondent's perceptions) or objective (relating to some externally set standard). This article draws on an ‘experiential’ measure of poverty in which respondents with children report on whether or not they have had sufficient money to feed their children. Data from South Africa's 1994 October Household Survey showed that this and other measures revealed similar levels of poverty. However, the picture drawn of the social distribution of poverty suggests a higher incidence amongst those in squatter settlements and a lower incidence in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]